001Okay, we can get started. This meeting of the Hopkins School Board is called to order at 7.05 p.m. I'm Chair Jen Bouchard, and I'd like to welcome all of our community members who are joining us via the synchronous YouTube live stream. And for our viewing audience, I'll just have my board colleagues confirm that you're on the call. Director Adams. Here. Director Ahmed. Here. Director Andreessen. Here. Director Kuhl. Here. Director Peterson. Here. And Director Kahn is unable to be with us this evening. Thank you. So our first agenda item is open agenda. And while we're meeting in a hybrid format, we are taking public comment from our community members via voicemail. And there are instructions in the board packet for how to submit a voicemail if you would like your comment to be heard on the
002public record. So we'll play the voicemail at the beginning of the meeting. And of course, you're always welcome to reach out to board members via email or leave a message for us in our district voicemails and we will get back to you. We absolutely value our community members input and we cannot implement Vision 2031 without you. We did not receive. any voicemails this evening, so I don't have anything to play for you at this time. Next, we'll move to our student board representatives reports, and we're so happy to have our student board representatives with us tonight, and I, should I pass the mic to student board representative coordinator Elliot Berman? Yeah, I'll take it. Sounds good. Well, thank you for having us here. I and Kimora are here tonight. And I'm just going to give
003a little rundown of everything that's happening in Hopkins schools this week. So technically, it was last week, but today feels like the beginning or yesterday felt like the beginning of a new semester for Hopkins High School. People are starting new classes. And actually students are now entering the building starting yesterday at 25% capacity. So yesterday at the high school and I know at the junior highs people, seventh graders and sophomores were able to enter. So it was really nice to see an advisory teacher's faces happier and just with students in the classroom and the students there. So it's a good feel. Everybody's a little normalcy or just a little more connection and community there. I'm jealous of it. I wish I was there with my, I have Ms. Ali as my advisory teacher and I
004wish I could be there with her. Sport-wise, winter sports are in the peak of their season. Athletes are hitting it hard. I know personally my swimming has increased a little bit and it's becoming a little bit more intense. So Parker, the junior rep who is supposed to be here tonight, is doing some, I think it's Nordic. They're having a meet and it's going hard for them. All-around athletes are happy to be back in the swing of things. Clubs, GU, Girls United is one of the most active clubs right now. They are planning a Galentine's Bag little operation for next week to kind of build community. So they put a... a Instagram post out there and was like, hey, like if you're needing a little like community this for the next week because Valentine's Day is
005coming up, just reach out, request about Galentine's bag and they'll get one to you. So that's a really nice thing to see happening in the school. So since Valentine's Day is next week in a normal school year, next week would be winter week, followed by the Sadie Hawkins dance. I know personally I'm going to be missing out on that a lot. That's the thing that I've attended the most over the last two years and was hoping for a third year. And it was the last dance before everything shut down. So definitely bringing back memories to the era right before. uh all the lockdowns happened and uh coven began a began became a big thing Senior-wise, seniors who plan attending post-secondary education are in that weird stage of wrapping up their like final, final college apps
006and are beginning to hear from colleges. I know I had to wrap up Madison and Michigan last night and have been hearing from some of my early apps. So that's exciting. Things are turning around. I think there is a new energy for students, whether it is... the new semester or seniors like seeing the end of high school but there's definitely new energy and a new vibe within the student body and it's always good to see so that's the student report thank you elliott and kimura you're here as well yeah i'm here it's good it's good to have you with us tonight thank you for being here all right next i will pass it over to dr mary perry reed for the superintendent's report Thank you, Chair Bouchard. It's great to hear what our students share.
007And Elliot, I think we'd like to know what your early college apps, how they responded, but we can do that offline if you'd like. I'm excited to hear that. I am going to share my screen here of just a few slides. And also a warm welcome to new director Kuhl. We had an opportunity to get to know each other at a check-in meeting, and it's really wonderful to have you with us, John. So as Elliot shared, it's a very exciting week for our secondary scholars, secondary educators and leaders. We have our 7th graders and 10th graders returning to buildings this week, one day a week, and we hope that we can increase that moving forward. um they'll be coming to school monday through thursday and then friday continues to be the um an asynchronous distance
008learning experience here's a slide to just remind board members and community members what our return to dates were so we we welcomed back our earliest our youngest scholars two weeks ago and um and then next week we will welcome back our eighth ninth 10th, 8th, 9th, 11th, and 12th graders. So yes, this is an exciting time for our students. I also want to provide a vaccination update. And so I wanted to ensure that our board and community members listening understand our attempts to get our school staff vaccinated. Like other districts, we've been working at the direction of the state. So at first there was a prioritization process and we've been following prioritization guidelines provided by the state to prioritize and identify first 20 educators and then most recently approximately 429 appointment slots that we received
009from the state. So we have a dedicated HR team as well as a COVID case management team that has put quite a bit of time into the prioritization process reviewing various factors that described our in-person staff including age, occupational role, and whether or not they or the students they served had the ability to mitigate properly. Also whether staff have contracted COVID in the last 90 days as those of us who have had COVID are not currently eligible for for the vaccination. And so after inviting more than 400 staff members this past round to register for a vaccination opportunity We quickly sent out a survey one or two days later because we saw that many educators across the state were experiencing being wait listed. And so as you can see on the slide, and we'll send
010out the survey again, but of those who were able to follow the link provided by the state only a handful had received that first dose by the time they responded to our survey 104 indicated that they were scheduled to receive the dose sometime between last Thursday and this Monday which was yesterday and still we had more than 100 on the wait list we had 22 decline the vaccination and then quite a significant number of staff who didn't respond to the survey. So we'll send the survey out again because we do want to keep tabs on the number of our educators being vaccinated. We we don't necessarily need to know who because whether you accept the vaccination opportunity or not is a private decision but we want to make sure that that we we can just
011stay in touch with with our overall data and then you can see that about 64 of our staff including nurses health paras saliva test coordinators received the first dose and just moving on to an enrollment update last board meeting We had a couple of board members ask for information about enrollment. So this is the first part of maybe a two or three part series. This is also some information that we shared with our staff. because we have talked with many of these families. As you can see on the slide, the Association of Metropolitan School Districts conducted a survey around October 1st to have districts respond by indicating what their enrollment decline looked like at that time and then we did engage in a calling campaign with those families and we'll we're still reviewing that data
012and trying to put together thoughtful trends for you so we'll present that next time but it's not just Hopkins that is has experienced an enrollment decline Director Chapenduka I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's
013a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. I think that's a great point. And so we have found out that our families did make other educational decisions because of COVID, including delaying kindergarten, selecting schools, for example, private schools that offered in-person opportunities, as well as electing into home or micro-schooling opportunities. And so... We will continue providing enrollment updates to you, especially we were recently excited to see that we've had a boost in our enrollment, not only new families. moving in and and enrolling or enrolling in our schools right now mid-year also um
014some indication that that um we are making good progress against our projections for next year so that is a great thing and then i also just want to leave you with some thoughts around how we will be inviting our staff to engage in reimagining exercises. So as I said earlier, it's our moral duty to leverage this unique time in education and to do so by reimagining our schools from the ground up and also to distill what we've learned about teaching and learning in the midst of a pandemic. So we will be sending another email or video to our staff next Tuesday. to invite our staff to engage in a collective in collective reimagining efforts similar to the strategic task forces we facilitated back in the fall of 2018. And so here are some really important
015topics you see identified on the slide and we were encouraged to hear an update from our interim director. of Innovation Design and Learning, Anne Erdl, who had recently invited all staff to think about joining the Hopkins Instructional Leadership Team. And she said that 73 staff members have replied indicating interest. So that tells me that our staff in Hopkins are eager to engage in reimagining exercises and are engaged to work as a collective. to imagine a new reality for our scholars and for our families. And so with that, I will take questions. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Dr. Mary Perry-Reed. Any questions or comments from my board colleagues? Okay. Sounds good. Thank you very much. So next I would look for a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. I have a motion. Is
016there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to Clerk Peterson for the roll call vote. And because Director Kuhl has not officially taken his office, he will not include him in this roll call vote, but very soon. Thank you. All right. That's Clark Peterson to you, Chair Bouchard. Director Adams. Aye. Director Ahmed. aye director andreason aye director khan oh right sorry director peterson that's me i chair bouchard i thank you clerk peterson we have five eyes zero nays motion carries next i would look for a motion to approve the consent calendar so uh chair bouchard i don't know if it's been amended or not but On the minutes for the regular meeting on January 19th, there was an error in the committee
017assignments. Can you tell me what the error was? Director Andreessen pointed it out to me the other day. For the Delegate Association of Metropolitan School Districts, I don't have it in front of me, but my name is supposed to be on there. It's not. And I think, uh, director and reasons name was on there and should be removed. Is that correct? That is correct. Okay. Okay. Um, so do you, should we do that now? Or do you want me to, we can update the committee assignments and then just do another approval at our next meeting. Is that. That's fine. Whatever is the most efficient way to handle it. Okay. I apologize for the oversight. So I look, wait, do I have a motion to approve the consent calendar? I'm gonna look for one again, cause
018I'm not sure. I would look for a motion to approve the consent calendar. So moved. I have a motion and a second to approve the consent calendar. Any further discussion? Seeing none, Clerk Peterson. Director Adams. Aye. Director Ahmed. Aye. Director Andreessen. Aye. Director Peterson, aye. And Chair Bouchard. Aye. Thank you, Clerk Peterson. We have five ayes, zero nays. Motion carries. Next, we'll move to the Treasurer's Report with Treasurer Adams. All right. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. Expenses of note this time around include about $15,000 for a new STEM online curriculum for sixth graders, which looks very interesting. You know with our distance learning taking place there's expenses related to the online environment including $784 to repair 16 iPads 105,000 to upgrade our fiber fiber optic network and that's on top of the stem online curriculum And
019then I noted that we paid $6,525 to North Hennepin Community College for tuition for PSEO students, saving our parents $6,525 in tuition. We paid $87,000 for a bus depot roofing project. And because we are continuing to feed people and feed our students actually more than ever. There was $17,000 for milk for the meals that we're issuing to parents and students. In our continuing quest to improve the air quality in our buildings, $17,600 for district ionization, and then $33,700 for parking lot improvements at Meadowbrook. And I haven't been over there to see what they are, but... The parking lot has been an issue over there for quite a while, and we've been working on improving the traffic flow through there. So hopefully that addresses it. So anyway, with that, I move that we approve total disbursements
020in the amount of $3,282,367.71 for the period of January 12, 2021 through January 25, 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? Seeing none, Clerk Peterson. Director Adams. Aye. Director Ahmed. Aye. Director Andreessen. Aye. Director Peterson. Aye. And Chair Bouchard. Hi, thank you clerk Peterson. We have five eyes zero nays Motion carries and next we'll move into new business and we have a very exciting First agenda item under new business tonight. We are welcoming our new board colleague John cool to the table to our hybrid table this evening to take the oath of office so John I wanted to make it Nice for you. So I wrote up a little welcome. So we'll do
021that first and then we'll do the oath. So John, we welcome you to the table tonight to take the oath of office. Your expansive connections within our Hopkins Schools community, international business background, and deep commitment to anti-racism, equity, and inclusion. make you well positioned to step into school board leadership during this very unique time in our district's history. It's an incredible honor to be elected or appointed to guide the education of our community scholars. As you recite the oath of office, you assume a tremendous responsibility as a director of our school district with the duties empowered by the Minnesota legislature. This power puts the school board in the position of being both morally and legally responsible for the equitable, high-quality education of every scholar in Hopkins schools. In carrying out this responsibility, you will be
022asked to provide vision, structure, accountability, and advocacy. While creating vision 2031 the board and our district leadership team worked in partnership with our community to envision the future of education and formulate the goals define the outcomes and set the course for Hopkins public schools As we continue to implement this vision, our board strives to align our policy and budget decisions with the core tenets of Vision 2031 to ensure all students have the opportunity to thrive through a sound organizational framework. Because as a board we are accountable to the community, we must ensure a continuous assessment of all of the conditions affecting the education of our scholars. As board members, we also serve as education's key advocates on behalf of our scholars and the community to advance the vision for our public schools. In doing so,
023we strive to work collaboratively and lead the district toward fulfilling Vision 2031, fostering excellence for every scholar in the areas of academic skills and knowledge, civic life, and personal development. We are so grateful that you are willing to join us in this collective work. So John, next I would ask you to raise your right hand. repeat after me I John cool I John cool swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and of this state swear I will uphold the Constitution of the United States and this state and that I will discharge faithfully the duties and I will faithfully discharge the duties Of the office of school board member of independent school district 270. You're going to need to repeat that one for me. I'll break that one down. Yeah. Of the
024office of school board member. Of the office of school board member. Of independent school district 270. Of independent school district 270. To the best of my judgment and ability. To the best of my judgment and ability. Congratulations, Director Coole. Welcome. Thank you. Hello to your family and friends who have tuned in this evening as well. I know of several community members who are planning to tune in to witness this historic occasion. Congratulations. Thank you all. Absolutely. Great. That was exciting. What an honor. I've never- I've administered an oath before. So that was a real honor for me as well. Oh, thanks. We'll move to our secondary learning models update and I will turn it over to Dr. Mary Perry-Reed. Thank you, Chair Bichard. And another warm welcome to you, Director Kuhl. So I am going
025to invite our interim director of innovation design and learning to the virtual board table and We thought that with this particular pivot to returning our secondary scholars for in-person learning Because they have been in distance learning since September we thought that it was appropriate for our board members in our community to receive an update on what that's been like and the services that we're hoping to provide our scholars during this during their in-person time with our recent survey to families approximately 30 percent of sec of families of secondary scholars did elect to remain in distance learning so that means we're returning about 70 percent and that that percent does vary a little bit between the three secondary schools but that's that's a lot of students and we have had the challenge and also responsibility to
026figure out how to support our educators who needed to determine how they would facilitate high quality learning to a handful of in-person students and the remaining students in distance learning. So logistically and with technology, it can be challenging, but this is definitely system work that requires a team effort and we have lots of thinkers and leaders helping to determine what this will look like and also grateful to our IDL team who has been in the thick of it. So with that, I'll turn it over to our interim director of IDL, Anne Erdl. Thank you, Dr. Mary Perry-Reed. Good evening, board members. A special welcome, Director Kuhl. It's nice to meet you virtually. I'm going to share my screen. And if somebody could just give me a verbal, looks good as soon as it's up and
027running. Looks good, Anne. Perfect. Thank you. As I like to do, I wanted to just start out with the Hopkins Promise. Tonight I'm not going to read it out loud because I have something else that I would like to read out loud instead. So I'm just going to pause here for a moment and let us ground ourselves again in our Hopkins promise. The words I would like to read out loud to you are from poet Amanda Gorman, who spoke so beautifully at the inauguration of President Biden. And this is, of course, not her entire poem, but I thought this excerpt really speaks to where we are at this place in time and also the work that we are doing in Hopkins. So I'm going to try to read it. I certainly won't deliver it as
028beautifully as she did. She said we will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation Because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation Our blunders become their burdens But one thing is certain if we merge mercy with might and might with right then love becomes our legacy and change our children's birthright and her whole poem was beautiful, but this excerpt really spoke to me because in terms of thinking about what education has looked like in the pandemic. I can't think of anything that frankly was more intimidating to our system as a whole. But as we think about her line merging might with right. It helps to remember that when we focus our collective strength on moving forward to Vision 2031, then the inheritance of the next generation will
029be a different educational experience. So I know that my task is to talk about secondary. However, I could not resist sharing some information with you from our littlest learners. So if you are unfamiliar with the FFVP program, it stands for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables. And it's actually a federal grant that provides an extra serving of fruits and vegetables to three times a week to students at particular schools. Well, I learned about it because I happen to be on the email list at Eisenhower Elementary. And so Erica Olson sent an email to all of the teachers at Eisenhower Elementary. And she said, the FFVP this week are Starfruit and Parsnips. And so I was like, what is this? So I got some more information from Erica and from Barb. Basically, the program gives students a real
030life opportunity to try things that they maybe wouldn't try in their everyday life. I know my own children have actually never tried starfruit. And not only are our child nutrition people providing us these wonderful services and nutritious meals, but this is actually also an example of a real life hands-on learning experience where students get a chance to try something and then really to construct meaning around it. They're learning new vocabulary and making connections. Barb asked me to share that studies indicate that teaching nutrition education with food is more effective than in nutrition education science classes and that kitchens really can be a learning lab for children. So you'll notice some of the quotes there that came from some Gatewood's stepping stone preschoolers. The star fruit tastes like planets and I love it. The parsnips taste
031like carrots with garden dirt on them. I think those are pretty astute observations and I think I agree with that assessment of parsnips. Now so moving on to thinking about not just our secondary model but also what we have learned in the pandemic. One of the things that has spoken to me and to our department loudly and clearly is that there's no difference anymore between technology and curriculum. Those two things are hand in glove now. And so as we work toward operationalizing Vision 2031, we must continue to innovate our learning models and leverage our digital tools to reimagine the roles of teachers. We have a very special group of Hopkins staff who have been at the forefront at the ground level at taking calls and giving help day and night and those are our digital
032learning coaches. Our elementary and secondary digital learning coaches have really gone above and beyond during the pandemic supporting teachers. And I'm just going to show a couple of minutes. of a video that was created by our high school digital learning coaches so in an effort to help hopkins high school teachers prepare for what that uh blended environment might look like that dr barry period reed was referring to some students in person some students at home what is that going to look like when you have staff in your building who can show you what that might look like and some of the things that you should anticipate it may can make that transition a lot easier so if the video itself is about 12 minutes long i'm not going to show the whole thing but i
033just wanted you to get a sense of the the support that our staff are offering one another The purpose of this video is to show you how you can use your device in a hybrid classroom. This is one idea, or a couple ideas. It's not the only idea. Please fearlessly experiment and find out what works out best for you, your scholars, your classroom, and your curriculum. Watch this video. Talk about it with your departments and decide how you're going to use those hybrid prep days to practice this. So what we recommend is that you would have a couple of your staff members live in a classroom, a couple in a Google Meet, and just go through the process. Practice it during those hybrid prep days. Because we know that practice makes perfect sense. Sorry about
034that. I think I maybe didn't set that up properly, so you weren't able to. See the video. Let me try to get back to my slide We were able to see the first part of it in oh Then I clicked and something happened. Yeah, okay Are you gonna try to play the video again in I don't know if I am because I'm not sure how to amend that problem Okay Whatever you decide Iver if she does decide to play it again if she mutes During the video, then do we not hear the feedback? Is that the solution for that? That is correct and needs to just. You can play the video and I'll have a single audio source. Thank you. Okay, I will try it again and then somebody. Send me a message if it's
035not coming through properly. Hearing anything and then the video is not playing. You may be sharing a specific tab instead of a full screen. Oh, well, clearly some of us have a lot to learn and could use our own digital learning coach. What I would love to do, though, is share that video. If anybody would like to see it, I'm more than happy to send the link to it. Can you see my screen still? Yes. Thank you. So as Rhoda mentioned. We are systemically working toward Vision 2031. This is not work that can happen alone or in a silo. Over and over we've heard from our teachers that strong collaboration efforts on their part have benefited both them and our students. And so we're committed to not forgetting the lessons that we've learned about sharing
036the load with one another, mixing kids up in new ways, and that we are all better when we share a focus and a goal. And so I just wanted to put in a little bit of a plug. Dr. Mary Perry-Reed already alluded to the Hopkins Instructional Leadership Team. This is a cross-functional team of Hopkins staff who are willing and able and ready and excited to drive our system to Vision 2031. This team will vet and guide work related to learning across our e12 plus system and will be in direct relationship with principals and their building site teams and so we have had 73 hopkins staff sign up with interest and we invite our community, our board, and our students to join as well. So if you are interested, you can certainly email me or you
037can click on the QR code and that will bring you directly to the sign up form. We really encourage wide-ranging participation. We're really excited about it and we expect to launch later this month. So with that, I will stop presenting and apologize again for my lack of technology prowess, but open to any questions. Thank you director Ertl always so great to have you at the table and, um, really have the opportunity to do a deeper dive into what's happening in our classrooms and. And how you are thinking about it structurally so, um, grateful for you and we'll open it up to my board colleagues for any questions or comments. Sure, sure. Yes. Uh, and. Can parents participate in this process? Have any signed up yet? Absolutely. Actually, I'm glad that you mentioned that. So we
038had last week, we had an ESAC meeting with, and that's our IDL community engagement group. And we did talk with them about the continuation of that group as a separate entity or whether it made sense. for all of those parents and community members to join this group. I think we landed on that yes, like both things are true. So ESAC I think will merge with our Hopkins Instructional Leadership Team and really any parent that is interested would be more than welcome to join. All right, good. Any other board member questions or comments for Director Ertl? Director Ertl, what have been some of the biggest successes or kind of moments that have stood out in the secondary education context, you know, kind of related to this integration of technology and delivery? You know that that's a
039wonderful question and I think that I have a couple of thoughts about that and I wonder if if any of our students have ideas about it too. To me I think that what has been interesting and kind of exciting to watch is that distance learning and the use of our technology tools has really promoted a model of teaching and learning that is radically different from teacher at the front of the room, students all engaging in class, you know, in their desks. And so I think that our teachers have become really adept at designing lessons in what we might call like a flipped model where They are doing some learning and independent work on their own and then coming together as a group for discussion. And I really am optimistic and hopeful that, you know, as
040our students return in person, what that teaching and learning can kind of continue so that the time that they're together, because it's limited right now, they're not in the building five days a week, the time that they are together. will be spent really working in a socially distanced way collaboratively and on projects to enhance their learning and so that is a direction that we definitely wanted to go less sort of teacher-centered learning and more student-centered learning and i think that you know this is probably not the way we would have chosen to get there but i do think that it's um the that the pandemic and all of the distance learning has accelerated um that pathway for us thank you that's really exciting sure for sure director cool So I just want to give my
041thanks. So I guess I'm lucky enough to work next to my daughter since I don't get to go to work, which is a good and a bad thing, I guess. But it's been very interesting for me to watch the improvement, for the lack of a better word, from the fall to now. When we've been able to watch one class, I've had the opportunity. to watch one class really from the beginning of the school year up until very recently. And it's been amazing that that digital growth that you've been pushing out there and that digital learning of digital learning has really helped a great deal. And I've seen it personally. And so for you and the entire team, I just want to say thank you because I think there's been remarkable improvements over a short period
042of time. Well, thank you so much for that. I know we, as I mentioned, our digital learning coaches, they've all been working just tirelessly to support their colleagues. And, you know, we've come a long way. Like you said, there were many of us who were pretty nervous about getting on a Google Meet. And now... what you know it's it's almost second nature and so I'm grateful to you for expressing your gratitude and and I will definitely make sure that we pass that good news along to to the people who deserve to hear it. Also, Anne, I think that video that you were going to show is a great video. So thank you, Ivor, for I don't know who put the video together, but Ivor shared it with Cabinet. And perhaps we can make sure our
043communications and marketing team can look at it and see if it's. the type of thing that we might post on our website or send out to all of our teachers because it really does highlight and celebrate the work of our digital learning coaches and the learning that our educators have engaged in as they've increased their skill set. Absolutely. And the last thing I would say about that is that this is just one of the many videos, help videos that they've made. And this was the high school one that our junior high DLCs have have created similar content and so have our elementary because they're really focused on meeting the needs of the staff, you know, kind of at those different levels. And so really, it's a little I maybe it's a little cheesy to say,
044but I think they really are heroes throughout this whole experience. Any other board member comments or questions for Director Ertl? Well, thank you so much. We appreciate you joining us tonight. Thank you so much. Good night, everybody. Thank you. Okay, so next we will move into our board member reports and who would like to start? director or chair bouchard could i jump absolutely director cool all right so i think this will be more of a thank you to everybody to start with um the onboarding that i have received from chair bouchard and the entire school board i've had an opportunity to speak to each of the directors and it's been an amazing opportunity for me to get my feet wet very quickly. I've also had the opportunity to speak with a lot of the leadership
045at the district and it's been very, very helpful. I am very much looking forward to working with all of you closer and closer and it's been just an absolute great experience for my first few weeks, really jumping in and feeling the support of everybody. So not the normal update but. thank you all for all of your support. Well we really appreciate that. It's certainly been a pleasure to get to know you better and just really appreciate your collaborative attitude and your willingness to jump in with both feet here. So thank you. Director Adams, do you have a report? Of course. I know you do. I always do. Well I had a number of personal development opportunities over the last two weeks because MSBA virtual annual conference took place. So I attended a number of the
046roundtables and workshops that were a part of that, as well as the keynote speakers. But I also had some other meetings that I think are of note. On January 20th, I I had a meeting with Josh Downham, who's the lobbyist for Minneapolis Public Schools. And one of the things that Josh is trying to do is to put together, I guess, a network of LACs across the state. And he kind of made it clear to me that when you're a paid lobbyist for education at the state, you're easily dismissed by legislators. because you're a hired gun. And the thing that he regrets is that Parents United, which was a lobbying group of parents that existed for many years, folded about, I think, five years ago. And he said they really were able to make an impact
047because when legislators are considering a topic and they're hearing from passionate parents, that really gets them to move. rather than hearing from a paid lobbyist. So he's trying to put together a network of legislative action coalitions around the state. He's kind of picking my brain for how we might do that. But he has some funding. He thinks he can get some funding from a foundation to create an online platform for LACs to communicate with each other. So that was very intriguing. The same day, Superintendent Mary Perry-Reed and I and Director Peterson met with the city mayors and managers for the municipalities that we serve. And that's always interesting and informative about plans that they have. But they really seem to appreciate the fact that we organize this. And it gives them a chance to... ping
048ideas off of each other as well as finding out what the school district's up to. On the 27th, which is I think last Wednesday, I attended the House Education Finance hearing. They're having hearings just about every week, one or two a week. And I'm just trying to get some feel for where people think our education finance may go this year. And of course that was the day before, I think that was the day, actually it was the day after the governor released his budget for, proposed budget for the coming year. And there were a number of superintendents around the state who testified at that education finance hearing. Everyone's having the same problem that we are, declining enrollment due to COVID and just, on unexpected expenses that go along with COVID. And then on the 28th,
049there was a press conference with MSBA, MASA, the Minnesota Association of School Administrators, and Governor Walz, and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan. And that was very interesting. It's so refreshing to have a governor that is really committed to education, and that's going to be a big part of his budget. And he's already released his preliminary budget. It was met with rather frosty reception from the Senate, but we'll work through that, I think. And then on Friday, I attended the MSBA chat. which is happening every Friday now with Denise Dietrich and Kim Lewis from MSBA, who are the lobbyists for MSBA at the Capitol. So just trying to get a feel from everybody where we're going to get funding for next year and what kind of funding we're going to receive. feeling based on all the things that
050I heard last week I'm feeling optimistic more optimistic than I had been previously when CFAC was meeting and because the governor is proposing a one percent increase next year in school funding on the general formula and then the following year a two and a half percent increase so as I said I got kind of a frosty reception from the Senate because it was coupled with tax increases, which they are staunchly opposed to. So we'll see. But it was more optimistic last week than I had previously expected. So that's my report. Thank you, Director Adams. Thanks for keeping your finger on the pulse and always updating us. Appreciate it. Other board member reports? Chair Bouchard? Yes, Director Peterson. Give me a little wave if my audio cuts out. Again, I've been having internet issues. But I'll
051give this a shot. Kind of like Director Kohl's update, mine's not necessarily as much my activities as much as it's just a little bit of a shout out. As a parent who recently pivoted her students from full distance to in-person learning, it was... Oh, my cat wants to talk to you guys too. Sorry. It was also done, which I don't think was planned, on what is notoriously Blue Monday, the most sad day of the year because you're the furthest from the holidays. You're in the doldrums of winter. And here it was, Blue Monday, and we sent our children back to school. Both of them have teachers who were previously teaching in distance learning. And I just wanted to take a minute to recognize across our district how many people had to pivot. and manage their
052own fears and expectations on a really tough day. And they've done a phenomenal job. I know, you know, my kids are thriving already and back in the swing of things. And I can feel much like Elliot mentioned in his report. I can feel the energy shifting amongst our students. And I'm thankful for our teachers and making that possible in our administration as well. So just a little. like update from a mom who's been on both sides. Thank you, Director Peterson. Any other board member reports? Chair Bouchard? Vice Chair Andreessen? Thank you. I just want to quickly also join Director Peterson in thanking our amazing educators and everything they're doing for our students. It is I think that we can all agree that this has been dragging on much longer than we thought. And it was
053really starting to affect students and just the idea of a never-ending Google Meet. to end out their years. I have two students who have chosen to continue in the never-ending Google Meet and so but I think that even they are experiencing just that shift of energy that that Elliot was was speaking about. There's just things are reinvigorated now. And so I appreciate so much all of our staff that support our students through this time. And it also impacts the family as well. So you are supporting not just the students in your class, but also the families at home with them. I would also like to warmly welcome Director Kuhl. Very excited to have you here and serving alongside us. I just wanted to remind our community about some upcoming events that will... that are connected
054to our schools, the Empty Bowls fundraiser is coming up with Resource West and ICA. And we are, of course, it's going to be very different this year than what we're used to in the past, but they are right now in the process of collecting community contributions of art. which are normally on display and something that our students would do in class. So they are looking. for our community members to continue to contribute that wonderful part of that event. You can find out more information about that online. And then there's also the Hopkins Education Foundation Royal Bash coming up. We all know how much the Hopkins Education Foundation impacts all of our students through innovative grants and really focusing on the the awesome fund focuses on student clubs which have become even more important during this
055time when that might be a student's only direct contact with their peers so hoping that everyone in our community can join in on those two events And then it also is Children's Mental Health Week. And our state organization is putting on a lot of free events and workshops and learning opportunities for community. Again, those can be accessed online. So thank you. Thank you, Vice Chair Andreessen. So I will end by, you know, at the risk of being too repetitive, you know, really thanking our staff across the district for just a really, I guess, continued heavy lift as we navigate the dual pandemics of COVID and then the really compounding effects of systemic racism in our community. And just specifically, you know, thinking about our educators, our support staff, nutrition workers, our bus drivers who really
056have had some challenges and they've risen to those challenges, you know, in terms of schedule changes and then just a lot of different routes to accommodate our hybrid secondary schedule that's now phasing in. So really wanted to make sure that I recognized our transportation staff and our bus drivers. Of course, our incredible custodial team, custodial workers, if you are watching this evening, I have witnessed shout outs to you on social media that you might not be aware are happening, but really some deep appreciation for your work to keep our students and staff safe. Certainly our building leaders, our technology team, and our district leadership team, all of whom have worked tirelessly to create these safe in-person learning experiences and then engaging distance learning experiences as well. So your work is seen and appreciated by so
057many people in our community. And then I just wanted to share a resource with our community members. You probably already know about it. But just in case, it's the Osterholm update that Dr. Mike Osterholm from the U of M does. And his latest episode from January 28th was really helpful for me. as I was navigating the tensions around the return to in-person learning. Certainly concerns that our staff members were having and are still having, concerns that parents and caregivers and some students as well were having about the safety of in-person learning and the way that he presents the data in that episode and his interpretation of it. just was really clarifying for me and helped. And then he also provides some really great information regarding the vaccination rollouts and kind of his interpretation of like
058the timing of that and how effective the vaccine will be. against these new strains and then just really, you know, warning us what's coming up with these strains and, you know, kind of mapping out different scenarios that all of us who interact with systems or lead systems should really be aware of. So I highly recommend it if you just Google the Osterholm. I always want to put an L, Osterholm, but it's not the Osterholm. update and it'll take you to the the u of m uh website where those episodes are housed so all right that's what i have so with that i would look for a motion to adjourn so moved i have a motion is there a second second i have a motion a second to adjourn any discussion see none clerk peterson Thank
059you, Chair Bouchard. Director Adams? Aye. Director Ahmed? Director Andreessen? Aye. Director Kuhl? Aye. Director Peterson? Aye. And Chair Bouchard? Aye. Thank you. And aye. Thank you, Partoon. Thank you, clerk Peterson. We have six eyes, zero nays motion carries this meeting of the Hopkins school board is adjourned at 810 PM. Thank you all. All right. Take care.