001Okay, we can get started. This meeting of the Hopkins School Board is called to order at 7.02 p.m. I'm Chair Jen Bouchard, and I'd like to welcome all of our community members who are joining us via the YouTube live stream. And I would like my board colleagues to just confirm that you're here in the call for the benefit of our public. So, Director Adams. Here. Director Ahmed. Here. Vice Chair Andrewsson. Here. Director Kahn. Here. Director Kuhl. Here. Director Peterson. Here. Excellent. Thank you. So our first agenda item is open agenda. Normally during this time, we would take public comment. We have two options for submitting public comment. You can either leave a voicemail and then have that voicemail played publicly at the next meeting. Information on how to do that is available in each board
002packet, or you can come to our meeting in person. and submit public comment during that time. We have received no voicemails for public comment this evening and we don't have anyone in our in-person audience this evening. It's a little bit lonely. I'm so sorry. We have two fabulous staff members in our in-person public this evening. I did not mean to offend, certainly within the first two minutes of the meeting. I apologize. So we don't have any public comments tonight unless our two fabulous audience members were planning to make one. So with that, we will move on to our reports. And we'll start with our student board representatives report. And I'll turn it over to our cohort coordinator, Elliot Berman. Do I sound like it? You do. I mean, it's kind of cool. But if you
003have options, we could explore those. I will try to fix it and pass it on to you more later. All right. Kimora, welcome. Hi, I'm Kimora, everyone. So I'm going to start off with academics. Tomorrow marks the first AP test of the season, which is exciting. I have my AP test on Thursday. So this week is also midterms, meaning this Thursday is term four conferences. And the end of the year is just right around the corner. We have 18 school days left, which is exciting as well. Wonderful. Thank you. So happy you're here. Any board member questions or comments for Kimora? How many days left do we have? 18 days. Oh my gosh. Time feels very strange this year. I don't know if you're experiencing that as well, but 18 days. Wow. We are really
004nearing the end here. Thank you, Kimora. Elliot, you sound much better now. Yes, I attempted to fix it, but just took them out entirely. Yes, we have 18 school days left. It is exciting. Other things that are going on in the high school, the Royals varsity baseball team is six and five this season. and they have a game tomorrow at 4 30 p.m against Buffalo who they they lost to by one run earlier this year so it's it's looking to be a good game. NHS National Honor Society participated in a spring cleanup event on Saturday May 1st hosted by the senior community services members were out about and around the community picking up trash to make our surroundings a little nicer as the days get longer, weather gets warmer and people can be outside. Yesterday,
005Monday, May 3rd, was Decision Day at Hopkins High School. Seniors gathered and distanced at the high school yesterday to take pictures with each other in their college gear or just to celebrate what they're doing next year after they graduate. And prom tickets are on sale through the end of the week. Seniors need to go buy them by Friday. That is the last day you can buy them. As well as seniors need to order caps and gowns and select their graduation time. There will be two graduations, one at 10 a.m. and one at 1 p.m. And seniors need to go grab all their stuff and get ready because it is coming up quick and fast. And it's... It's scary, but we're here. We're at this moment after the year it's been. So thank you. Thank you,
006Elliot. Any questions or comments for Elliot? Yes, Chair Bouchard. Yes, Director Adams. I'd like to know what Elliot's plans are, what decision he made regarding his goals for next year. Currently, right now, I am headed to the University of Minnesota. but I am considering actually going over across the pond to a UK school. I came across this service called Across the Pond, actually. It is a free... a service that they try to get United States students to go over to England and enroll in UK universities. So it's free application fees, free everything. So I really recommend if people are kind of still don't know what they want to do, juniors now, rising seniors, go check that out, go use the service. They give you an advisor and everything. And it's a really cool experience to
007do. So University of Minnesota now, but might be switching it. In your across the pond search, are you looking for a school that's got a swimming team? Not across the pond, but at the U, I'd probably walk on the team and hopefully swim through my college years. Great. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you so much for being here, student board reps. Next, we'll move to our superintendent's report with Dr. Mary Perry-Reed. Thank you so much, Chair Bouchard, and congratulations, Elliot, on your college selection, but also your other choice there. It's really great to have multiple choices. I'm going to share my screen, and so please let me know. Oops, I'm pressing the wrong thing here. Can you see the screen okay? Okay, well, I just wanted to share with our community and board members that earlier
008today, today was a very exciting day because from 1230 to 130, we welcomed distinguished guests to Hopkins Public Schools. So Governor Waltz, Lieutenant Governor Flanagan, and Commissioner Heather Mueller joined us on the Alice Smith campus. Many thanks to Eduardo Navidad, proud principal, for hosting, as well as Jolene Goldati and her team for coordinating. We also had Early Learning Director Sarah Chauvin to signal the importance of early learning and a focus on preschool. Vice Chair Andreessen was also present, as well as were many teachers and scholars. The journalists from the major news networks were also there. So it was a really great event. And our scholars were really, really excited to rub shoulders with and play kickball with their governor. He had lots of fun on that playground. This is Teacher Appreciation Week, as our junior
009high principals noted in their comments earlier during the board workshop. And in Hopkins, we really do love our teachers. We are indebted to our Hopkins educators, as it's been a very challenging school year. They have definitely gone above and beyond the call of duty in supporting our scholars. socio-emotionally as well as academically and in many other ways. In the survey that we recently sent to families, and caregivers, one parent shared, engaged teachers have made all the difference for my kids. So thanks to all of our teachers. Please help me recognize Lane Bell. She is a teacher at Hopkins High School in the Hopkins Achievement Program and is one of nine finalists for the 2021 Minnesota Teacher of the Year. Ms. Bell uses the core value of love to connect with and impact her scholars' lives.
010So congratulations to Ms. Bell, and we look forward to hopefully her winning the Teacher of the Year Award. I wanted to share with our board members and community members that we did recently send a very comprehensive survey to our families, to our staff, and today to our 6th through 12th grade scholars. The survey asks respondents to rate the quality of their experiences this year. to help us understand what they've learned about themselves and their learning during this pandemic year and also what they're hoping for for next year. So to date, we have 352 responses from staff, which is a really great response rate, and more than 560 responses from families. We are planning to use responses to further inform our planning for next year. And you know that there's been lots of talk about summer
011programming, so we are underway with our planning. We know that high-quality summer enrichment opportunities can provide learning continuity for our pre-K through age 21 scholars, as well as help mitigate summer learning loss and even accelerate scholar learning. We're hoping to expand and broaden our programming this summer to tap into students' strengths. to develop positive, to help students develop positive relationships with adults and their peers, and also to help our scholars increase their academic confidence. in their thinking and in their leadership. So this slide, you'll see a myriad of programs and opportunities that we're planning for our scholars. The Innovation, Design and Learning Department recently hired Paris Timmons, a teacher from North Junior High to assume the role of Summer Learning Coordinator. And we're really excited about her being in that role. and also about the
012recommendations that we received from the Reimagine Summer Learning Task Force that will be used to inform our programming. So all of this has been really positive news, hopefully, including, and I know we do have a number of individuals and scholars who are out on quarantine. However, the number of positive cases per 10,000 people tested in Hennepin County is now back on the decline. And we want to... express continued appreciation for our COVID management team that meets every morning to check in on positive cases or engage with MDH phone calls, talk with school leaders, also continued appreciation for our school leaders who have become very good at managing all of the detail involved in pivoting to distance learning when there is a cohort or a class that needs to go into quarantine. During this pandemic year,
013our nurses, of course, have played an instrumental role in supporting our staff, our families, our scholars, and we're very grateful to them for their service. So that is the report at this time, and I'm happy to take questions. Thank you. Any questions or comments for Dr. Mary Perry-Reed? Well, so many exciting updates packed into your overall update there. Congratulations to Lane Bell. so fabulous to be recognized for the particular type of work that Lane is doing within our system. So really appreciate that. And I wish I could have joined you at the event at Alice Smith today and the pictures look so wonderful and really grateful to our governor and Lieutenant Governor and Commissioner Mueller for. paying hopkins a visit today and expressing appreciation for our fabulous teachers so with that i would look for
014a motion to approve the agenda still move i have a motion is there a second second i have a motion and a second to approve the agenda any discussion seeing none clerk peterson all right director adams aye director ahmed aye Director Andreessen? Aye. Director Kahn? Aye. Director Kuhl? Aye. Director Peterson? Aye. And Chair Bouchard? Aye. Thank you, Clerk Peterson. We have seven ayes, zero nays. Motion carries. Next, I would look for a motion to approve the consent calendar. So moved. I have a motion. Second? Second. I have a motion and a second to approve the consent calendar. Any discussion? Chair Bouchard? Clerk Andreessen. Oh my gosh. I don't know about it. I would like to pull the gender inclusion policy from the consent calendar so that we can discuss some changes that were that was
015suggested during a community engagement session that we had with our community stakeholders. So we would pull it from consent and then add it to our first agenda item under new business. Is that correct? That is correct. Okay. In order to pull an item from consent, we do not need a board approval to pull the item. But what I would look for is a revised motion that we approve the consent calendar. with the exception of the gender and virgin policies. I so move. I have a motion and a second. Second. I have a motion and a second to approve the 10-6 calendar with the exclusion of the gender and virgin policies which will be moved into business. Any discussion? Seeing none, Clerk Peterson. Thank you. Director Adams? Aye. Director Ahmed? Aye. Director Andresen? Aye. Director Kahn?
016Aye. Director Kuhl? Aye. Director Peterson? Aye. And Chair Bouchard? Aye. Thank you, Clerk Peterson. We have seven ayes, zero nays. Motion carries. Next, we'll move to the Treasurer's Report. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. The expenses for April included $4,318.95 for repairs to 79 student iPads and one staff MacBook. You know who you are. $8,800 for produce for COVID food program. Nearly $13,000 for milk for the COVID food program. And $27,000 for other groceries for the COVID food program. And I want to thank the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Minnesota Department of Education for allowing us to feed our scholars and families during the pandemic. In the Hopkins School District, we have served over 1 million free meals during the pandemic shutdown. And the USDA and Department of Education have extended the program through the 2021
017and 22 school year. And it's our hope that at some point in the future, This might be a permanent program and that no student anywhere, anytime, anyhow would have to pay for a school lunch. Among other expenses, we have $54,000 for ventilation upgrades at the high school. Paid our annual $10,000 for the annual fire alarm testing in all schools. $5,100 for roof leaks at various schools. As normally happens during the spring after the thaw or during the thaw, leaks start to show up in building roofs. So we've fixed those. And $10,350 for spring tuition to North Hennepin Community College. And you are welcome parents of district students who attend public or post-secondary education at North Hennepin. And I would also like to recognize, you know, I go through the expenses every month. And one of
018the things that I've noticed and continue to notice is how much of our district spending takes place within our district. Companies like Bowers Monoco, Spielman's BP, the cities of Minnetonka, Hopkins, Golden Valley, to which we pay rent sometimes. Like in the case of the Minnetonka Ice Arena, we pay rent to the city of Minnetonka. And we pay rent to the city of Hopkins for the use of the Hopkins Pavilion. So we keep a lot of what we raise and spend within our district. So with that, I would like to approve total disbursements in the amount of $926,426.38 for the period April 13, 2021 through April 26, 2021. I have a motion to approve the Treasurer's Report. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second to approve the Treasurer's Report. Any discussion?
019Seeing none, Clerk Peterson. Director Adams. Aye. Director Ahmed. Director Andreessen. Aye. Director Kahn. Aye. Director Kuhl. Aye. Director Peterson. Aye. And Chair Bouchard. Aye. Thank you, Clerk Peterson. We have six ayes, zero nays. Motion carries. Next, we'll move to new business, and we'll start with our policies. I'll turn it over to Vice Chair Andreessen. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. The school board as well as administration did a community engagement session that was held on Thursday, April 29th, where we heard from community stakeholders about our new gender inclusion policy. We wanted to bring those proposed changes to the board so that we can feel confident in our passing of this policy. Community stakeholders had great feedback and suggestions. One was to take a closer look at the definitions that were provided within the policy. We have revised
020those based on scholar feedback. Those revisions were also reviewed by three groups of students, including our student advisory group. We also received more feedback that Assistant Superintendent Nick Lightfoot will detail for you now. thank you vice chair and recent um there were some specific uh points that we felt would be important through the course of our community discussion to bring forward to the board for additional consideration specifically there were two items mentioned the first was in the section regarding gender transition at school and specifically the community comments identified that there would be added benefit and value to that section by identifying language which would include that school staff will not control the timelines or manner of transition for transgender and non-binary students. And as such, in our discussion with the community, we felt that that
021would be a valuable addition to that section. And so we bring that forward for board consideration this evening as one modification to the policy in second read. In addition. There was also a proposed modification to Section 8 under the present policy. In the second paragraph, it reads, in a situation where students are segregated by gender, students have the right to participate in any such activities or conform to any such rule, policy, or practice in a manner that aligns with their gender identity consistently asserted at school. The community feedback was that it should end at gender identity and that the added language of consistently asserted at school added confusion and did not provide clarity. So taking that feedback into account, what we would look at this evening is a modification of the policy in second read
022to bring in front of the board those two proposed modifications to what was presently presented for the board. So at this time, open to any additional questions or comments, concerns as it would relate to our gender inclusion policy proposal. You know, I think this is the perfect example of why community engagement is so important, right? That the policy that we reviewed last week was incredibly solid. And we had, you know, a few suggestions here and there at the board table. And this additional input that we got from our community between then and now has yielded these two really excellent and powerful changes to the policy. And so I thank you for pulling it off consent tonight so that we had a chance to really focus in on those. And I think that they're both excellent.
023Any other board member comments or questions on the gender inclusion policy? Okay, back to you, Vice Chair Andreessen. Thank you chair Bouchard. I also wanted to thank my board colleague Katie Peterson and Laura Jensen and Director Lightfoot for running the engagement session and collecting really great feedback from all of our community stakeholders another point that was made clear during that engagement session and from our community stakeholders is the need to continually review this policy and to be mindful as a board that the implement how the implementation is going across the district in particular there is a need to focus on staff training and professional development across all of our sites and grade levels With that I would move that we pass the gender inclusion policy with the aforementioned changes Second I have a motion to
024approve the gender inclusion policy This would be in second reading with the aforementioned changes. Is there any discussion? Seeing none clerk Peterson Thank You chair Bouchard director Adams. Hi director Ahmed aye vice chair andreason aye director khan hi director cool hi director peterson aye and chair bouchard i thank you clerk peterson we have seven eyes zero nays motion carries and i'll turn it back to you vice chair andreason thank you chair bouchard The work of the monitoring committee has continued to move forward as we're looking at other policies that we will bring before the board. table this evening. Just to give some historical reference around the work that we've done around these policies is we take them and bring them to committees that the board chairs for them to review and to give us feedback
025as an initial pass-through and then we discuss any necessary changes as a monitoring committee before we bring them to you as a full board for consideration and i turned the table over to assistant superintendent lightfoot to give us more details on the policies before us tonight Thank you, Vice Chair Andreessen. The policy that we have to review this evening is the Bullying Prohibition Policy 514. As part of our work, as was mentioned, we have been looking at a couple aspects of the policy. One of those is specifically the work of how we look at what might be occurring within our system that we aren't aware of through whether those be tip lines or other kinds of electronic tools that may allow us to do this work in more detail. And we are continually doing that
026work in collaboration with looking at what our present systems provide, as well as if there are any advancements to what might be possible for us to look toward, specifically as it relates to anonymous complaint opportunities. spaces in which individuals can give us additional information that they feel would be helpful for us to have as well as our ability to look at and be mindful of what language might be occurring in our electronic spaces as well as what might be happening into addition what we already know so we're in process with that discussion that really came from a lot of the work of the review of the policy And also as part of the review, we brought it before student groups. And the feedback that we got from student groups was not that there was a
027recommended change for any component of the policy. It was more the request for education. And as our scholars, our young people are in the space of social media and trying to navigate the line that even adults struggle to draw between what is that space of the school aspect of who I am as an individual? And what does that look like in the private spaces that I am or the spaces beyond the school? And what does that mean in context of cyberbullying? what does that mean about impact for the school and what happens in what space and what we heard clearly from our secondary scholars is the request to have deeper understanding and dialogue about what that actually is i think part of navigating is people generally trying to get a better context of where that
028line gets drawn and as well what it means to be a digital citizen even beyond the space in the school. So we heard that clearly, and that really is not a specific element of policy, but it is a feedback component that we wanted to make sure that the board heard as part of our diligence, but there was not any specific request to change language. It was more about the request to educate so that the policy could have broader influence and understanding. So with that, there are not any reviewed changes that we would recommend, but just wanted to make sure that the board was completely aware of the dialogue that occurred around the policy and is still occurring. This also is an annual review policy, so we'll continually bring it forward on an annual basis to
029update you with the work. Thank you. I remember the first time I reviewed this policy, actually as a parent, before joining the school board, I was just impressed by how robust it was. And so it's interesting to hear this feedback from the secondary students around the education component, because we all know that it's important to have excellent, equitable, anti-racist policies in place. But we know that in order for those policies to be lived out on a daily basis, that everybody needs to understand, you know, the expectations that the policy puts forth. And so this education part is really compelling. And I'm wondering... how or if this intersects with some of the work that's being done around the student handbook. So we heard the recommendations from our equity and inclusion task force last week around the
030handbook. And I know that there have been some ongoing discussions around this too. And so just wondering if there are any connections to draw there. Certainly I can speak to that and then Vice Chair Andreessen any updates from you as well that is on our agenda has been part of our conversation and now what we're looking toward is how we operationalize those. I think what we also learned from our work with the gender inclusion policy is how we make the policies more accessible and in language that is directly on point with what our scholars feel communicates the message more broadly to them than sometimes the language of policy actually does. So we know that that's ongoing. I think right now our work is to operationalize that and update those handbooks specifically with what information is
031needed and required other than just taking pages of policy, pasting them in a place and then kind of meeting the terms, but definitely not the spirit of what the language is intended to do. So that's what I'd offer as an opening and Vice Chair Andreessen, anything else that might be of added value as well? Yes, thank you. I think that we are definitely having scholars create those handbooks. And so there will be a lot of revision, and ways that we can see that policies intersect with that work. And it's something that we are definitely keeping at the front of our mind as we work through policies. One of the things that I know has been really important when we did bring this policy to our special education advisory council as well, knowing that oftentimes that
032group of students experiences this in a very different way than, say, a neurotypical student might. So the feedback that we got from them are just the ways in which this manifests in places that you wouldn't necessarily think to have written into policy. So a lot of it is that implementation, that in practice piece, and that's where we can really, I think... work around in the handbook so that it's accessible to students, they know what it means, they know what actions they can take as scholars within our system to protect themselves, to protect others. I think that it's really important that we almost translate these policies for our community and in particular for our scholars to know what options are available to them. So yes, definitely it's something that we're working on and keeping at the
033forefront of our mind as we do these revisions. Really exciting and important work. Thank you for all that context. Any other board member questions or comments on policy 514? Chair Burchard? Yes, Director Kuhl. Thank you. So during our discussion, one of the things that was brought up as far as the handbook goes is also some ideation around how do we have more assurances or more opportunities for scholars to be able to review and maybe even mandate to a certain extent that they review the handbook because There are a lot of students that may not actually review it. And so that is one of the things that was talked about. And hopefully that discussion will continue. Is there a parent caregiver element there too? I mean, not that we can mandate parents and caregivers to read
034a handbook, but, you know, a way to bring them into that process, I guess, is what I'm thinking about. Well, I know as a parent and caregiver of two scholars, that was always part of, at the elementary level, our... initiation and orientation into a new year, we would have to review the handbook and sign off along with our student. So there are ways, I think, that different sites make sure that caregivers and parents are aware of the handbook. Maybe... Well, I don't think it's a maybe. I think that we could do a better job in promoting and getting the word out about what is in there and to make it much more accessible. I think this idea of more of like a multimodal handbook that the students recommended is really unique and would make the
035information just so much more relevant and accessible. So I really like the direction that we're moving on this. Oh, thank you. Any further discussion? Okay. With that, I would look for a motion that the board approve policy 514 in first reading and that the board directs the administration to prepare the policies for approval in second reading at the next meeting as part of the consent calendar. I so move. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second to approve policy 514 in first reading. Any further discussion? Seeing none, Clerk Peterson. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. Director Adams? Aye. Director Ahmed? Aye. Director Andreessen? Aye. Director Kahn? Aye. Director Kuhl? Aye. Director Peterson? Aye. And Chair Bouchard? Aye. Thank you, Clerk Peterson. We have seven ayes, zero nays. Motion carries.
036Next, we'll move to our Community Education Program Report, and I'll turn it over to Dr. Mary Perry-Reed. Thank you so much, Chair Bouchard. I really appreciate this opportunity to pay attention to our Community Education Department by way of each of us listening to this important report that our community education leaders will provide. This year of the dual pandemics has been difficult on all districts and all district departments, and yet our community education staff, including our early learning and kids and co-teachers, provided child care and preschool throughout the challenges brought on by COVID. Some of our community education staff even experienced job reductions due to a budget that was dramatically impacted by decreased revenue. Also, for our context this evening, the role that community education plays in a school district. is vital to the very life
037and essence of a district. We care about facilitating lifelong learning for all ages, as well as engaging previously marginalized members of our diverse community. And we know that the partnerships we build, whether it's through facility rentals or yielding mental health supports for staff scholars or even generating resources for our ABE scholars, is really critical to the engine. that community education is and should be. So at this point, I would like to welcome our Director of Community Education, Alex Fisher, and also his team, the other community education leaders, Sarah Chauvin, Lisa Walker, Dre Jefferson, Chelsea Ritland, and Holly Magdans. I hope I didn't leave anyone out. If so, Mr. Fisher can correct me. But I welcome all of these leaders to the board table this evening, and thanks so much. for the report that you'll provide
038for us thank you so much dr mary perry reid i really appreciate your your kind words and uh good evening chair bouchard and respected members of the board and community members uh we're happy to be with you this evening uh you'll hear from our community education coordinators later in the presentation I'm very pleased that they could join us tonight. As Dr. Mary Puri-Reed mentioned, it has been a challenging year for community ed programs across the state of Minnesota. And Hopkins is no different there. We have experienced a number of roadblocks that we've had to overcome. Some of these include people wanting or in some cases needing to stay home, which has affected our enrollment in our school-age care programs and enrichment classes. and indoor gathering restrictions have impacted facility rentals. Through it all, community education
039staff has shown resilience in the face of adversity. We courageously provided emergency childcare to the children of emergency medical workers and critical sector workers. We made a commitment to offer safe, fun, and educational classes and activities that followed all health and safety protocols. We quickly adapted our kids and company service models and the contracts in kids and company to meet the needs of our schools and our families. We survived five of those pivots. Our instructors adjusted their enrichment classes, moving successfully from in-person to online. Community Ed has made an effort to center the voices of Hopkins scholars, to align ourselves with Vision 2031, and to equip scholars with the grad traits they'll need to be community leaders. An example of this is Royal Connections. Royal Connections instructors are Hopkins High School scholars who lead community
040ed enrichment classes. Many of them also serve as K-6 teaching assistants in our elementary classrooms. And a large number of them are serving as K-12 tutors. We do see the light at the end of the tunnel and have reason for optimism. Summer registrations are increasing. We have more now than at the same point last year in both Kids & Company and Camp Royal. Facility rentals are coming back in a big way, almost to full strength. We are working with scholars, community ed staff, parents, and community partners to create a community engagement framework that will provide structure, best practices, and serve as a reference document for how we go about engaging our community. Our early learning staff members are collaborating to build one cohesive preschool called simply Hopkins Preschool instead of having two separate programs, Stepping
041Stones and Kaleidoscope. And we are growing the Hopkins Alumni Network, which allows our alumni and high school seniors to be connected globally in a way that has never happened before. The Hopkins Alumni Network platform provides access to mentors, jobs, internships, and college planning advice. Now I'd like to hand it over to our community education coordinators to briefly share some highlights. Up first is Sarah Chauvin, Assistant Director of Early Learning. Sarah. Thank you, Alex. It is a pleasure to be with you tonight to tell the story of the early childhood school year. I want to start back in August. Our early childhood screening team was one of the first in the West Metro districts to begin virtual screening. From that point in August, mid-August, we've been successfully screening for families of children who've got three to
042five-year-olds mandated by Minnesota for this entire year. At this point, we are now able to do both virtual and if the screener or family feels an in-person screen is necessary, we can also move to that. Our ECFE, Early Childhood Family Education program, during the course of this year has transformed themselves. They moved from a traditional semester program to a trimester program. They did that in order to meet the ever-changing needs of families during the course of this year. And as we watched the ebb and flow of needs, they've dynamically shifted over the course of this year to provide programming that is spot on and exactly what is needed at the time it is requested. In this way, they've been able to add registrations over the course of this year. and remain robust. Our early childhood
043family education programming, we like to say, serves from diapers to third grade. Last year, at the beginning of the pandemic, we began the diaper bank program. This year, over the course of this school year, we have been able to distribute 2,300 diapers so far. And for those of us who have moved away from that, parenting of very young children. That's a really good reminder of how many diapers each young child goes through. We've moved into some elementary sites. Parents were looking for more support as we shifted to distance learning. We were able to provide a parent educator to facilitate support groups virtually for parents at select elementary sites from pre-k to third grade. And even now as I look at some of the elementary newsletters, I can see in the newsletters our little block of
044videos for parenting tips and invitations to continue to be part of those groups. As we look to this next summer, we've partnered with Resource West, SCIP, which is Schools and Communities in Partnership, and the Stepping Stones and Kids & Co. programs to create a scholarship. Knowing that summer programming needs to be more accessible, we've created a scholarship of $20,000 to start for Stepping Stones summer programming as well as Kids & Co. summer programming. We've been able to allocate over $15,000 in scholarships so far for families anticipating summer program needs. You can switch, Alex. Thank you. I'd like to talk briefly about four different ways that we are working to have stronger collaborations, both within our early childhood programming as well as across the district. Our early childhood special education programming is under the umbrella of
045early childhood. We have maintained and built inclusive classrooms in both our preschools and our ECFE programs. I think one advantage of the assistant director position for early childhood is that when there are issues or questions that arise for early childhood in any one of our programs, we're able to work directly across programs and collaborate with staff to problem solve and address issues as they come up, which reduces that feeling of silos between programs. We've also had this opportunity this year working with the EL coordinator. to have an EL coach who is an expert in early childhood working to directly coach some of the preschool teachers on strategies on whole classroom strategies as well as individualized goals for students who have dual languages in their home. We've been able to access a Hopkins Education Foundation grant
046entitled Anti-Racist and Authentically Inclusive Early Childhood. This pilot program has pulled 15 staff across all of our educational programs. We come together throughout the school year, so the year-long program, to have professional development. We're learning about anti-racist strategies and we're supporting each other in our own personal growth, as well as actions that we can and will take to disrupt the system that we currently have and create more anti-racist teaching, curriculum, and classrooms. Alex did mention that we are moving to a one preschool plan. We started this year's planning with a parent survey at the beginning of the year to gather information about what is most needed. We then took that data and had our teachers and our staff envision what we could do to meet parenting needs. Over the course of the next year, we
047will continue to have parent focus groups and staff town halls to shape our one preschool program. so that ultimately our families will be able to access the kind of care that they need at the location that they need it, whether it be half day, full day, or somewhere in between. I'd like to shift to Lisa Walker, my colleague in out-of-school time. Good evening, Hopkins leaders. I'm going to tell you a little bit of the story of out-of-school time programming this year. Our Kids and Company Child Care Program, when the world shut down in March, served our emergency workers. We had 48 scholars that we served from March to June, and I think you all heard the story of the impact that had on our program. But we have hope, so we've talked through that. We
048served 389 scholars through five pivots this school year. we are currently providing mandated free child care for emergency workers now that we've gone into this final phase i do believe emergency care is at this moment not open and we have our we're back to um what we could would call norm our new normal i guess um and as sarah referred to we have a partnership with resource west that is quite amazing and we're using that funding to help our hopkins Scholars and families access quality care for this summer, which has been a huge success. And I think it is the meaning of many partnerships with that nonprofit to do great work for Hopkins families. Next, Alex. Our youth enrichment classes, we really had to reinvent ourselves through COVID with youth enrichment. We're really, really proud
049of our Royal Connections program and all the youth Hopkins scholars that we've hired. We've offered over 70 enrichment classes from our Hopkins High School scholars. Our commitment to health and safety, following the CDC and MDH guidelines that are ever-changing and keeping up on that. work to make sure that all of our offerings, whether it's childcare enrichment for youth, enrichment for adults, we're following all those guidelines and being very safe. Our virtual options for youth, we had 20 plus online opportunities for youth K-up. Some examples would be home activity sewing kits, virtual chess classes, driver's ed, parent tool kits that we offered through My Health, very successful online options that kept community had going during the complete shutdown. We also offered lots of family enrichment, lots of kits that could be done at home. And one
050of the really great opportunities was virtual cooking classes that were really well received. We have amazing hope right now. We feel our families are starting to feel safe. They're starting to return. Our enrollment for summer is giving us giving us hope definitely. Camp Royal registration, kids and company registration, our youth track camp that we've done historically, they had to be canceled last year, that we register over 200 kids is almost full. So it gives, that's a great way to look at the world that we're living in right now. And we also, at this very moment in time, we have 130 students who have used 14,795 in scholarships so that we could keep people, families and youth still enjoying enrichment in whatever way they are comfortable with. Our adult enrichment. So we adapted to our community.
051We pivoted all of our instructors to an online format, all of us that were able to do that. Some of our highlights were offering LGBTQ classes through our LGBTQ support liaison, Laura Jensen. Those were very successful. Anti-racism series that we offered with Dr. George Dolan and Chancell Burgess from Gatewood. That was a series that went over really well, very well attended, great feedback. We also did a local government how to be involved with Hopkins Mayor Jason Gadd that had really good feedback too. We became a pickleball center at the community center. Who would have thought? So we reinvented ourselves through pickleball and it's brought in some great revenue and people who have never used. the Eisenhower Community Center and a building that's a beautiful building that we love to show off. We brought in many
052people who have never been into the building and they were able to play pickleball and we've gotten some amazing feedback from that opportunity that we were able to do that. Adult activity kits. We were mailing them all over the country, one to California. So our kits for adults to be able to stay interactive with each other have been a real success. And we hope to, we are going to be thinking differently about how we bring adults back into enrichment. We know some people will never come back. So, you know, the ongoing opportunity to work with our instructors and bring new instructors into our new norm is an exciting opportunity so that we can serve all of our Hopkins community. And with that, I'm going to hand it off to Chelsea Ritland, who's our coordinator of
053adult options. Thank you, Lisa. Good evening, everyone. I am Chelsea Rutland, coordinator of adult options and education for our adult education consortium that is Hopkins, St. Louis Park, and Minnetonka schools. And we crafted a new mission and vision statement this year that I thought I would share with all of you this evening. Our mission is preparing adults with the competency and confidence to achieve their dreams, effectively engage in their communities, and to inspire a lifetime of learning. And our vision is that we strive to create a learning environment that is welcoming, safe, and peaceful. We are committed to social justice and anti-racism. We aim to build a culture of high expectations for staff and learners. We seek to create a school where all learners are seen, heard, and thrive. And that and equity has certainly
054been at the forefront and our guidepost as we fully transition to an online adult basic education program last March to the present and we will continue to be a fully online program through this summer. And so a little bit about our participation and what that has looked like in this shift from in-person to online classes. We've had 602 learners, 474 of which have been Hopkins learners this past fiscal year from 64 different countries with 40 different languages represented. So our enrollment numbers due to the pandemic and the online learning have been down as is the statewide trend. We're 27% down than we were the year prior, but we're actually well above the state average. um and it's interesting that our attendance rates have gone up so our overall contact hours of students attending our classes
055is down 18 compared to the year prior and um i'll note as well that the class hours that we offered were cut by over 33 or above in order to adapt to an online learning format so that's actually really a strong overall contact hour and attendance rate so i think we can say that The students that are opting into our online learning are enjoying it and they're well attended. They're able to access quite easily. But we're still excluding some that are waiting for us to return to in-person by being online for those that would rather wait to opt into the in-person only classes. A little highlights of classes outside of our ESL and GED classes are our career classes. And I wanted to mention our Child Development Associate class that takes place at our Minnetonka
056site and is open to our Hopkins learners as well. That's the certificate that you need to work in a child care or in a career in early learning. And it's now articulated with Hopkins, or excuse me, with Hennepin Technical College for credits into their early learning track for those that want to continue their education in early learning at HTC. Our healthcare career pathway classes are all funded by our integrated English language and civics education grant that we're in a year two of a three-year cycle. We have an introduction to healthcare careers, a medical terminology class that's also articulated with HTC for those that want to continue on to the health unit coordinator program or other healthcare career pathways at HTC, and a nursing assistant preparation course. Our Understanding K-12 Education class is a very popular
057class for our adult learners who are also parents, many of whom are parents in the Hopkins Schools system, to learn about how to navigate the school system and become a partner in their child's education. That class also went fully online this year and has transitioned now into a career in paraprofessionals course. So many of those learners and those that also have a strong background in education from their home countries are learning more about how to become paraprofessionals in the Hopkins School Districts and in school districts in our communities in the West Metro. Our College and Career Counselor collaborates with all of those instructors and is able to assist students in those classes and in our entire program in their transition to college and help them in their career search. Our computer skills were also very
058challenging to transfer to an online format. You can imagine focusing on digital literacy skills and teaching basic computer skills over Google Meet and with learners that are just trying to master that for themselves is very challenging. And we have a fabulous AmeriCorps CTEP Community Technology Empowerment Program member who leads those classes and teach basics. It teaches basic computer skills, Google Docs and Drive, skills against scams, and holds other workshops around digital literacy. And Alex, you can go to the next slide. Part of what has made our online learning so successful is our... new learner orientation as well as our in-person technology help. So all new learners into our program first attend an in-person orientation and a big chunk of that is focusing on how to how to do Google Meet, how to be an online
059learner. So they're not only learning about our mission and our vision and who we are and our program expectations but really getting some practice and focusing on how to be an online learner. and that includes how to access our distance learning platforms that our teachers will assign for our students. That includes Canvas, which thanks to the Hopkins license, all teachers in our consortium now have a Canvas class for their online learning class that students really have shared feedback that they report they like that additional element to our classes that they They feel like a college level student now getting access to those Canvas classes. So that's been a really wonderful addition that the pandemic has pushed us towards that I think would have taken us a little bit longer to get there had we not
060been in a pandemic. And the in-person technology helps. So there's an ongoing drop-in for students to come in and receive one-on-one in-person technology help to help them continue when they're having challenges with online learning. We were also able to distribute 300 laptops through PCs for People in Hennepin County that learners were able to keep and take home. And we were one of the first ABE programs in March, in the early days, to start lending our Chromebooks to learners right away. And then we were able to acquire hotspots as well. So we also have a Chromebook and hotspot lending library. So our goal is that every learner has a device at home and Wi-Fi connection at home to connect with us if they want to take online classes. A couple notes about where we're headed towards
061the future. There's a new teacher verification model that MDE has approved for education programs to receive proxy hours. We can now count contact hours, which is a big part in how our program is funded for asynchronous learning. So we're taking that into account. We're doing some piloting with the teacher verification model and asynchronous learning over the summer in our June and July classes. And we're really deep into reimagining 21, 22 and beyond and how we will take with us elements of online learning that have been a great benefit. to digital literacy skills and to an increased access for students who otherwise weren't in our program, as we also think about returning to in-person to gain back some of those things that we're not able to do in an in-person ESL classroom. So we're using student
062voice and teacher input and staff reimagining to think about a hybrid model going into the future. And please visit our website at anytimeadultoptions.org to see more of the classes that we offer, college and career planning, our weekly jobs bulletin, and a lot of interesting student links to get a peek into how students in our adult education program are learning English and moving towards their goals to achieve their GED and move into different careers. And with that, I will hand it over to our facility district facility use coordinator, Dre Jefferson. Thank you, Chelsea. Good evening, everybody. Happy I can be here to share some information about our facility use program. And just a little background on what we do and how the pandemic has affected us. Our facility use program is not only the way that
063our district can connect with our community beyond the school walls and borders of the academic day. It's also our community can connect to each other. So we serve a lot of different aspects of the community, whether it be our opportunity partners program where they come in and do their staff training and development in Eisenhower Community Center where it was cut off by the pandemic to our community sports and recreation departments that use our facilities to bring children together to do the things that they love to do. So when we had to shut down back in March of 2020, obviously our department was affected in great fashion and it took a while for us to be able to even understand how we would move forward and continue to operate under the restrictions that were put in
064place to keep everyone safe. Since that time, we have found a way to safely execute and kind of how we measure the way that we're doing things is can we safely host big events and then trickle that down little by little to make everyone feel comfortable and safe coming back into our doors. And we've been able to do that and give our community confidence. We've held more than 10 athletic tournaments and events throughout the course of the last nine months and that continues to grow. we've seen an exponential increase in demand for our facilities based on word of mouth how we've been able to execute these events in a way that's accessible but also safe and we've had our performing arts sector which has been very strong in the past has found an increase over
0652020 even demand prior to covid and we're excited to have groups over the last three weeks leave the Minneapolis Convention Center and come to Hopkins for a safer, more secure event. So that's a huge success for us. It creates a lot of work for our staff, but we'd much rather be busy than bored as we were last summer. So that's really exciting. And beyond that, the pandemic allowed us to review and rethink some of the ways that we bring people into our doors. And we rewrote our facility use handbook and included much needed language that rewarded our community for being loyal to us. So we now give people an incentive to come back to us year after year and explore our spaces and continue to be exposed to all the great things about Hopkins and
066give them comfort not only to use our facilities, but bring their families into our districts. And with that rethinking and reimagining, it's really important and it has been for us to find ways to continue to connect to the community on a small scale when we can't host large events and give them a way to access our facilities when it's not a 3,000-person packed event center. It's more of a one-to-one or maybe five-to-one community setting. Our fitness center has long been a staple of the, I guess, the Minnetonka Recreation Program. And we want to take that to another level for our Hopkins students and families and anyone who is connected to Hopkins public schools. So we're starting to implement a program for sports and fitness training that is going to be accessible. Many of those programs
067throughout the metro area have priced out a lot of families. that want to take advantage of these services and we know how important sports and fitness is and just recreation to not only our physical but mental health and we've seen that very much in the last year so we want to create the hopkins fit forward program which gives students and parents and families an opportunity to access our facilities, get some specialized coaching from qualified professionals at a cost that's going to allow them to feel comfortable coming in and not harming their family to take advantage of those opportunities. Beyond that, As we work to become an anti-racist district and that reflect in everything that we do, we're asking some hard questions, even with our facilities. And one of those hard questions is about the Lindbergh
068Center facility. We've heard from some of our community members that that building name doesn't represent what our district should stand for. So we're going to ask that question, and we have asked that question. And we're in the process of determining whether or not the Lindbergh Center will continue to operate under that name. or move to a different title to make sure that it's more reflective on what we do and who we are. So I am extremely proud and I would like to recognize all of our frontline staff members, our building supervisors, our event planners, our custodians, and everyone who has been dramatically affected with their hours being cut and even their jobs being cut because we didn't have the ability to execute events. But they've been extremely resilient in coming back and allowing us to
069do what we do. And now we hope that we're on track to nearly reach what we were projected to reach as our 2020 revenue goals. With that, I'm going to turn it over to my colleague, Holly Magdans, our coordinator of community partnerships. Hi, thank you. Thank you, everyone. It's my pleasure to provide an update on our community partnerships work this past year, some highlights as well as some reimagining activities that are in place and where we're looking at going next year. So as Alex mentioned earlier, the Royal Connections is definitely a highlight of our... Community partnership work in our department this year. Royal Connections was birthed out of last spring and summer, where we saw an opportunity and need to hire Hopkins High School scholars to become trained and teach community education enrichment classes that
070was affordable, low cost, and on a sliding fee scale. We piloted last summer with great success. While it started small, we had 100% of our participants say that they would definitely sign up for another Royal Connections class for either themselves or their child. And with that, we were able to expand the Royal Connections program this past spring of 2021 to hire additional instructors through the Achievement and Integration Plan. We have hired teaching assistants, one-on-one tutors, and focusing primarily in June. We will have these instructors until the end of June. We will be doing a lot of enrichment this summer as well. And also, under the Thrill Connections umbrella, we have some specific task forces that are working with district leadership on various project goals one of them being our community education engagement framework and another
071being some around the district policy work and restorative culture another really exciting new partnership that we've blossomed this past year is with americorps under covid19 last summer serve minnesota had a pilot emergency response summer americorps program And Hopkins Community Ed applied and received one AmeriCorps volunteer, both paid volunteer, but paid through AmeriCorps. And they worked with us for 10 weeks with our summer connections program. It was a fantastic asset to our department and helped us get it through our really, really tough summer. This year, Serve Minnesota expanded its funding based on the increased need and unfortunate increasing disparities. that we've seen in the past year. And with that great expansion of their summer program, Hopkins Community had applied for it and was awarded 14 AmeriCorps summer workers that will be with us for 10 weeks
072this summer, 2021. Many are, we are hoping, we're in the process of getting matched and hiring, but we are hoping many will be Hopkins High School graduates. You have to be at least 18 and have a high school diploma or GED by the time the program starts, which is June 7th. So most of our graduating seniors are eligible. And then also we have a VISTA. which we're very excited about. VISTA is a division of AmeriCorps that specifically works on capacity building and nonprofits and school districts. And we were applied and were awarded to be a host site. And just today we confirmed our new placement. We'll be here for a full 12 months starting in August. And we couldn't be more thrilled. This VISTA will greatly help our community education department working, building up an
073infrastructure for volunteers, community partners. helping us with our marketing and communications. So we couldn't be more proud of that. We've already talked about Resource West, a great partner of ours. A new partnership this year has been we established a no-cost contract with Hazelden Betty Ford. and the Hopkins High School to contract with a student support specialist out of Hazelden that specifically works on a referral basis to help students and their families that have concerns around substance use. So that's a great asset to our district. I know the referrals have been actively coming through and a huge opportunity for us to better serve our scholars and families. I also think we'll go to the next slide. And again, just wrapping up, the whole reimagining, I know we've talked quite a bit about that throughout this presentation,
074but we never would have been in a position without the pandemic to be as far ahead as reimagining what our department looks like and where we're going than we have been in this past year. One area that we are reimagining is our SCIP, so our Schools and Community and Partnership Family Services Collaborative. I'm going to coordinate that SCIP collaborative. We've looked very different this year under COVID. All of the family service collaboratives have that I've talked to across Hennepin County, and that's okay. A lot of the work that SCIP does, we're doing behind the scenes and just in different ways, and we know SCIP will look different moving forward. So that's something we are working on as we come out of the challenges of COVID. Same with the Hopkins One Voice Coalition. We are looking
075at reimagining that as well. And yeah, I already mentioned the AmeriCorps VISTA and some of the new work around enrichment and the community education framework. Alex mentioned that as well. That is actively a process we're actively involved in. And then just finally to wrap up, all of our re-imagining work and our community partnerships, and I can say with confidence across the district or across our department and district, very much aligns with Vision 2031 and we have that Vision 2031 absolutely at the forefront as we think differently and innovatively and we're excited for the future. And with that, that's the conclusion of my remarks. Thank you. Well, thank you to the coordinators for helping me present and want to offer an opportunity for questions if there are any also understanding that we have taken up a
076considerable amount of time so I apologize for that but also happy to answer any questions if you have any any questions or comments from my board colleagues you know as I was listening to our suite of wonderful presenters this evening, I was reflecting on the report that you gave around this time last year that was very different, right? And I just remember, like, that we were all feeling this pain and this stress, you know, of what was going to come and how it was going to, how it was already impacting our community at that point. and how it was going to continue to. And so I was just feeling such a sense of joy and hopefulness listening to you tonight. And then also gratitude. You know, I think pivot is like the word of the
077year, right? That and unprecedented. And I think about all the pivoting that this team has done throughout the year. And in the midst of that pivoting, really identifying some specific unique opportunities. You know, and so many of those were highlighted this evening within each of your areas to continue to innovate and grow as a department. And so I just really appreciated hearing at that level of detail, you know, what's been. what's been happening. I met with the executive director of Resource West last week, and we talked a bit about the partnerships at various levels within community ed, and just really excited about that. You know, that's how we continue to serve all of our families well is through these partnerships and connections. So I'm grateful for this team's work in making that happen. Chair Bouchard.
078Yes, Director Adams. I would echo your comments. I had serious concerns last year about the ongoing viability of our community education and did what I could to find some additional funding from the state. I can't say I was very successful at that, unfortunately, but I'm glad to see that things are rebuilding back to the point where they were before the pandemic and that the forecast for financial viability looks a lot better. I was looking at the adult basic education numbers and a little surprised and concerned that there's only eight graduates this year. Chelsea, is there going to be a graduation ceremony? That's always one of the highlights of my year. Thank you for that question, Director Adams. Yes, we have now as of today, nine graduates. It's a smaller group this year, given our lower
079numbers overall. Although we do have around this time, quite a few more students graduate. So we may have even 15 is what we're kind of guesstimating at by the end of the year. So to answer your question, yes, we have now. we've we've thought a lot about that question and what's the best way to hold the ceremony with this size of graduates we definitely want to honor them and give them the opportunity to celebrate with school leaders and family and friends and cap and gown so we've now made the decision um just recently to hold the graduation ceremony outdoors in a semi casual format um at a park in st louis park on june 11th and so please um look for that invitation from me and my team to the board um and to dr
080mary perry reid as well forthcoming all right terrific thank you thank you any additional comments or questions from my board colleagues chair bouchard vice chair andreessen Thank you. I'm really excited as well to see this new report and all the innovative that's going on around community education. I had A quick question around funding for early childhood. Wondering if that is evening out or if we're getting a consistent and predictable revenue stream. And then just quick, a shout out to you, Holly Magnaz, the way that you really leveraged that one emergency AmeriCorps. um person over the summer i know it was a frantic rush to get that that application in and you know you really took that one resource and grew it into this amazing program in our district that is giving our scholars so much
081um i'm just so impressed thank you director andreason i can answer your question then about funding Thank you for the question. At this time, we are still waiting to hear final decisions from the legislators on both School Readiness Plus and our Pathways funding. We have applied for and been accepted. We've received, as per MDE, the Pathways scholarships that we generally would receive pending approval from legislative action. SRP, School Readiness Plus, which is the main bulk of our funding that would come, is also on hold and waiting. We are optimistic that it will come through, and we are planning for the year to move forward with that funding. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Wonderful. Well, thank you for spending your Tuesday evening with us. It's a pleasure to be in virtual community with you
082all this evening. So with that, we'll move on to our board member reports. Sure. Yes. Director Adams. I'll lead off here. Not a whole lot has happened since the last time we met a week ago, but. Last Thursday, I did have my letter to the editor in the Sun newspapers appear regarding school funding. I know there's a misconception among some of the general public and unfortunately even among some of our legislators that our COVID-19 funds will patch up any gaps in school funding this year. And there's some severe restrictions on the use of those funds. I wanted to make that clear to our public. So that was the topic of that letter. On Friday the 30th, I attended the MSBA chat and briefly attended the LAC meeting where we set a strategy for how to
083deal with our legislators going into the final days of what we hope to be the final days of the session. Although I did get something today from, I think it was the Association of Metropolitan School Districts that said be prepared for a June 18th conclusion of the legislative session. But I think I'll start a pool as to when it actually ends. Yesterday, at the request of MSBA, and MASBO, the Minnesota Association of School Business Officials, I testified in the conference committee in support of a state senate file 1098, which reduces the number of notifications required for school districts covered by collective bargaining agreements. About two to three years ago, I can't remember exactly when, the legislature passed something called the wage theft bill. which had some unintended consequences for school districts. Because we're covered by
084collective bargaining agreements already, which typically very specifically note when we are required to notify staff of lane changes, of rate change, wage changes, things of that nature, we're already subject to a lot of oversight. And any mistakes that we make and pay for our employees generally gets corrected very quickly because we hear about it very quickly. Layered on top of that, requirements of the wage theft law say that we have to do additional notifications. And in Hopkins, we've had to hire some part-time help to deal with the... unfunded mandate that the state imposed on us to do these notifications. So it was not the intent of the author of the bill, Senator Pratt from Prior Lake. And he's now introduced some language into the omnibus bill. It's a jobs omnibus bill that would reduce or
085relax the notifications for any organization covered by the collective bargaining agreement, which most school districts are. So I testified on that behalf. And I just would like to point out to the board and the viewing public at large that there was an op-ed piece in today's Star Tribune by Paula Cole, whom I know. She's a school board member in Richfield. and advocating for maintaining the current tiered licensure program for teachers in Minnesota. Right now, there's a four-tier system. There's some people who would like to do away with the first two tiers, which do not require teacher prep education. And anyone that's... concerned about teacher preparation or charges money for teacher preparation is opposing the current tiered licensure system. So they're trying to change the rules so that there's got to be more teacher preparation required.
086I am a licensed teacher and I have to say what I learned about teaching for the most part, did not come from teacher preparation classes. And I was discussing this with my wife today, who is also licensed. In fact, in some circles, they're considered to be a joke. In my case, what I got taught in teacher prep classes was about 10 years behind the times, so it was not really relevant to my teaching situation. Most of what I'd learned about teaching came from... mentors and advisors in actual field teaching situations. So I question the value of having everyone who's a Tier 1 or Tier 2 teacher to go through what is in many cases is an expensive teacher preparation program. And it unfortunately discriminates against people that do not have the means to do so.
087I know several teachers who came from other states who are fully qualified in other states who could not become teachers or elected not to become licensed in Minnesota because they would be forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars on teacher prep programs. I think that's a discriminatory practice and ought to be done away with. But there are certain parties in the legislature that would like to do away with the current licensure system. So at any rate, Paula's op-ed piece in today's Star Tribune, I think. fairly encapsulates the concerns about doing away with our current tiered licensure system. So that's my report. Thank you, Director Adams. Any other board member reports this evening? Chair Bouchard? You knew I was coming next. Well, first I would just like to say happy Teacher Appreciation Day to everyone.
088I was present at the Alice Smith gathering where Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan came, and I think that it was wonderful that that community was highlighted as well as the staff. I would just like to say that as a parent and a school board member, I think that one of the most important things we can do to show teachers that we appreciate them is to give them the resources they need to do their job and to call on the legislature to stop blocking the critical funding for families for summer learning and for early childhood. The Senate is refusing to approve the governor's 150 million summer learning proposal and I'm hoping that everyone can just make a couple calls, send a few emails to let everyone know that that is important and that we appreciate
089our staff. I also Did a LAC chat on Monday with Lori Pryor, who's one of our district representatives, and she is on the Education Conference Committee. They hadn't held any meetings yet, but it was good to get an update from her. We're going to stay in touch as the Senate and the House try to negotiate to an Education Omnibus bill that can be passed. It is really important for all of Hopkins families to continue to contact your legislator about education funding. Tell them why it's important to you and what your priorities are for your family. Oh, West Junior High had their student-led and IB-focused conferences, which was really interesting. And they coupled that with a school carnival complete with food trucks. and everyone got to socialize and connect in person outside. And I hear that
090the most popular part of that carnival was the dunk tank, where community members got to soak some of their teachers. It was a lot of fun and a great way to build community. And both principals. Nice. And Thursday is parent-teacher conferences at the high schools. So one last, if you have a graduating senior, a chance to connect with your teachers. And we got some news just a few weeks ago that our session centering student voice in school board work has been selected to be part of the Student-Centered Learning for Equity Conference. that is coming up on Wednesday, May 26th. I will be presenting along with Director Peterson and our student reps, Elliot and Linda. So if you have anything you want us to add to the presentation, be sure to include. Please let me or
091Katie know. We are looking forward to that. I think that we'll learn a lot. And then the Spring Fest annual fundraiser for Resource West is happening on May 20th at 7 p.m. Thank you very much. Congratulations on having your session. I think it is the collective work that so many of our scholars have been doing here in the district, accepted and really, really happy that Hopkins will be highlighted and included there. That's absolutely fantastic. Yeah, they're... And reason? Are you going to have to fly to San Francisco for that, or... No, it's fully virtual. Oh, that's too bad. Chair Burchard? Director, cool. Thank you. So I wanted to use my time tonight just to kind of provide an update. As we all know that we're starting to approach the start of the election season, especially
092for the school board, I wanted to provide an update on my future intentions. So since my appointment in December, I've had the opportunity to really immerse myself in the difficult financial and policy decisions that the Hopkins School Board has and will be addressing this year. Throughout, I have been impressed by the transparency, accessibility, and engagement in which the Hopkins family really has provided for all of the community. As I've looked beyond the school board, I have noticed how important these three concepts are, transparency, accessibility, and engagement. They really have become very important in my life. to such an extent that I've decided to make these concepts a much larger part of my life. With that in mind, I've made the tough decision not to pursue election for the school board going forward. I am making
093a change in my life based on just the amazing experiences that I've had with the Hopkins School Board's approach on engagement. So I will forever be an everyday supporter of Hopkins School and the district. And I really do look forward to the remaining time I have on the school board. And I just can't be thankful enough for the leadership that I've gotten from all of my board colleagues, Dr. Mary Perry-Reed, and all of the directors that work within the school district. It is such an impressive organization. And I can't tell you how much I've learned from all of you. Thank you. Thank you, Director Kuhl. Well, you'll stick around through December, we hope. Excellent. Great. Any other board member reports this evening? I will keep mine short and sweet because Vice Chair Andreessen did me
094a favor and covered some of what I was going to talk about. So just want to express my sincere gratitude to our teachers who have not only been involved, of course, in the day-to-day work of guiding our scholars through this year, but also... an integral part of the visioning and the planning for these changes that we've heard about at our past two workshops that we're looking forward to in the upcoming year. And so as an educator who is engaged in very similar work, just at a different organization, both the day-to-day and then thinking to the future, I just really, really value all of the contributions that you've made to our Hopkins Schools community this year and just hold you in such high esteem. And in the interest of transparency and updates, I will be seeking
095re-election to the Hopkins School Board this coming year. So with that, I would look for a motion to approve the incidental reports. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second to approve the incidental reports. Any discussion? Seeing none, Clerk Peterson. Aye. Director Kuhl. Aye. Director Peterson, aye, and Chair Bouchard. Aye. Thank you, Clerk Peterson. We have seven ayes, zero nays. Motion carries. And next, I would look for a motion to adjourn. So moved. I have a motion. Oh, wow. I have a motion and a second to adjourn. Any discussion? Doubtful. Clark Peterson. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. Director Adams. Aye. Director Ahmed. Aye. Director Andreessen. Aye. Director Kahn. Aye. Director Kuhl. Aye. Director Peterson. Me. I've wanted to say that all along. And Chair Bouchard. Me,
096myself, and I. We have seven ayes, zero nays. Motion carries. This meeting of the Hopkins School Board is adjourned at 8.43 p.m. Thank you all.