001okay we can get started this meeting of the hopkins school board is called to order at 7 p.m we'd like to welcome all of our community members joining us via youtube and i will list all of my board colleagues names and board colleagues if you could just confirm that you are in the meeting that would be wonderful director adams here director ahmed director andreessen here Director Ahmed is here. Director Codd? Here. Director Letondris? Here. Director Peterson? Here. And I'm Chair Jen Bouchard. So our first agenda item is open agenda. This is when we typically take public comment. There were no public comments submitted via the public comment voicemail this evening. So we can move into our reports. And I'll turn it over to Elliot Berman for our student board representative's report. Student board representative Berman.
002Elliot sent me a text. He said that he's not going to be in the meeting right now. And he told me that I'll be taking charge for now because he didn't give me a reason. He just sent me it, but he's not in the meeting right now. Sometimes life is like that, right, Raines? We're glad you're here. Thank you. Yeah. So as usual, we'll start with the sophomore representative and then the junior one, and then I'll give my report. Hi, I'm Aiden. I feel that since the beginning of the school year most of the students are understanding Canvas better and how to use it and are getting more comfortable with it. But the locations of homework, assignments, lesson plans, and classwork are confusing since each teacher uses the folders like modules, pages, assignments, and announcements
003differently. And they just all have their own ways of organizing it. And it's very confusing to students to know where to look for their assignments. So I feel that if there was a more structured way to organize the folders in Canvas, it could be easier for students to navigate for each class. And the ways that teachers are teaching students and students are learning is kind of confusing because some teachers are teaching in class, but when it comes, but students necessarily don't really concentrate, I feel like sometimes. And so when it comes to homework, they don't really get it. Also, some teachers have Google Meets as the check-ins and then they have their lessons. lessons and videos for homework and that's a lot of workload for the students especially if all their classes are doing the
004exact same thing and I know a lot of people who are staying past up way past midnight to get their work done and then waking up early in the morning to do it again right before school starts and then that whole process starts again but also people have extracurriculars and sports to manage too so I feel like they're all getting more stressed. and teachers are being more lenient on late work so that does help with the stress so we don't all have to get it done like before the next day we could take a couple days to finish it and that really helps okay so I'm the junior representative and my name is Imani And yesterday we had some issues with Canvas and it wasn't really a fun school day for teachers and students. Since
005even some of my teachers and my friends' teachers didn't make it to their Google Meets or a lot of assignments were access denied even though teachers said they were published. But other than that, since Canvas is working now, Personally, I've gotten used to Canvas and many of my friends have. I would like to also agree with Aiden with the organization of Canvas is not the best. Imani, you froze on my screen. Is Imani frozen for anyone else? Okay. Imani, do you think you could try logging off and logging back on? Because what you're saying is really important and we want to make sure we hear all of it. It looks like Imani's back. Okay, sorry. I had to do it on my phone because my Chromebook. Okay. Sorry. Did anyone hear anything I said? I
006think maybe if you could start from the beginning, that would be great. We just want to make sure we didn't miss anything because everything you're saying is really important. Okay, sure. Okay, so as I said, Canvas and a lot of other things that come with Canvas yesterday weren't really working, as we know, so it wasn't really a fun school day for everyone. But other than that, many people, including me and my friends, have gotten used to Canvas. As Aiden had said with the organization, it's still a problem. Depending on the class you're in, some teachers organize differently. So yeah, but it's something that we've gotten used to. And some teachers actually in my classes have done surveys on if they should have longer classes or shorter classes, which has been really helpful because, for example,
007in my French class, most people wanted a longer class because since it's a language class, I mean, having a longer class with more to learn in that class would be really helpful. But majority of my other classes are still short where teachers either just take attendance and let us go and do our own work. And other than that, that's all I have to say. Thank you. Awesome. Thanks, Imani. I'll move on to my report as the senior representative. I'd like to speak a little bit. I think that everything you guys said was really some and specifically I'd like to highlight what you mentioned about being really personal and specific with this community engagement plan. I think that's going to be super crucial because as somebody who was not always on the student on the school
008board, I know what it's like to be not involved in honestly. for my sophomore and junior year, the school board kind of seemed like this vague entity that we knew was doing stuff, but we didn't know what it was doing or even really what it was. And it's still true amongst my friends. They don't really know what the school board does. And I think that especially when we are contacting them, I think it's great that we're going to be giving specific calls and specific emails because I've definitely been in the situation where we have a school-wide announcement that there's some meeting, but there's always tons and tons of meetings and there's always surveys and things that are always crowding our emails. And especially seniors, we're getting so many emails from every single college asking for
009us to apply. calling their families, contacting their families is going to be, I think that's a great idea because the more personal we get, the better, especially when it's online, having that personal connection is even harder. And some specific things that that might help with is issues that have been raised to me are kind of nonchalant. People bring them up, but they... don't really act like they expect any change to come from them. And I think there's kind of this culture that, oh, I have this complaint about this way that the school is doing this. And then somebody else would, oh, I have the same thing, but nobody really brings their ideas forward. And I think that having these meetings would be really awesome because people have talked about possibly starting school earlier because they
010think that the hours in the morning, they're not really using them a lot of the time. Kids are just staying up later and sleeping in longer. And so I've had multiple people bring that up to me and I've had people ask for lunch breaks, but every time they ask as if they don't really expect change to come. So I think if we have these community meetings, students will see them as an opportunity to actually have their voice bring change, which just isn't the culture we have across the student body. Even though we have really engaged students, not all of them think that their voice is being heard. So I think that's great that we're moving forward with that plan. As for student mental health, I think people are really settling in to distance learning. We
011worked out a lot of kinks and the district, the biggest thing is that they're putting in a lot of work. And I think the students noticed that they really appreciate the attitude everyone has and all the persistence that their teachers and their faculty have. And as COVID gets worse and as daylight savings comes on, I notice a lot more people are just finding it harder to focus when we're inside all day and the winter comes and it gets dark at 5 p.m. all of these things are crashing in on us. Then we have college applications. All of the stress is not necessarily going away. But the bright side of that is I've heard really great reports about teachers always being super available and staying connected. So it's important that we acknowledge that mental health for
012students is not getting easier, but it's also good that the teachers are very mindful of this. The last thing I suppose I would speak about is I recently had a conversation with Ms. Ballard about returning to school. I've kind of collected an array of opinions about this. I think most of them have agreed that Hopkins has made the right choice to stay online despite the pressure from other school districts. I think a lot of people don't think it's worth the risk to be going into school, especially as Minnesota becomes one of the more dangerous states. That being said, I do think it could be beneficial if properly implemented. I just don't, I think we did a good job of not rushing into the hybrid model. I would be concerned about if we attended school. I
013know there would be students who would want to leave to see people they haven't seen in a long time. People were going to crave that social interaction. And Ms. Ballard was talking about small pods in separate classrooms. And I am concerned about students leaving their pod, visiting other pods, and it's really hard to contact trace. And so I think having paras in the hall to monitor that would be beneficial. But above all, I think that if we were to move to a hybrid program, it would have to be very stern. And I think we would really have to educate the consequences of the action. I think it's the best method for preventing kind of a COVID disaster if we were to go back to school. And I think if we approach it with a serious
014manner and proper supervision, I think we'll be able to contain that and reap the benefits without being hit too hard with a possible outbreak at school. Otherwise, school has been moving pretty steadily for people. I think the weeks have been kind of flying by and everyone seems to be on track and moving forward pretty steadily. So that's all I have to say. Thank you so much Aiden, Imani, and Reigns, our student board representatives. It's so important to have your voices at the table and sharing your experiences with us. Board members, do you have any questions for our student board reps? We appreciate your participation in our the conversation that took place during the workshop around the community engagement work that we're going to be doing and part of that work will be in collaboration with
015our student board reps and so Reigns it was really great to hear your reactions to that conversation. It's helpful as we continue to to refine our approach there so thank you. Next we'll move to our superintendent's report Dr. Muri Piri-Reed. Thank you so much, Chair Bouchard. And I, too, really value hearing from our student scholars. Their insights are incredibly detailed and helpful. And I think it's just one of the favorite parts about the board meeting. So thank you, students. I'm going to share my screen with our board members and community for my report here. Can you see the screen okay? It's still, yes, now we can see it. Thank you. Okay, perfect. So the start of school was obviously quite tumultuous and hard on a lot of levels, but we have found many things to
016celebrate here in Hopkins Public Schools. Our preschool staff welcomed over 270. preschool students for both in-person and distance learning. Our ECFE program connected with over 200 families in our community since the start of the school year. In October, we opened an additional kaleidoscope class because of a wait list. And in December, we will open three additional stepping stones classrooms at Harley. So it's been a really busy year in preschool. In addition to the successful launch of our Spanish immersion preschool, classroom at Eisenhower. We're really thankful for the last 10 weeks of community building and providing support to our early childhood and preschool families. We have made the difficult decision to pivot to distance learning for all kaleidoscope and early childhood special education classrooms. Early Childhood was awarded two exciting and meaningful HEF grants. The first
017grant will allow Early Childhood to build a foundation for the anti-racism work that staff are dedicated to pursuing in their classrooms. And the second grant will provide distance learning kits to our students who are enrolled in Early Childhood special education classes. So we're really grateful for this support. At the secondary, or excuse me, at the elementary level, we also have many things to celebrate. Our in-person model for kindergarten and first grade and our hybrid model for grades two through six on most counts have been wildly successful since September 8th. On an average school day, not including Fridays, we have welcomed and educated approximately 1,675 kindergarten through sixth grade students that were attending the in-person component of the hybrid experience. In asking our elementary leaders what they would highlight from the last three and a half
018months of schooling in the middle of... this global pandemic here's what they shared they were extremely impressed with elementary scholars wearing masks and adopting mitigation measures really really quickly teachers shared that they've never laughed so hard with their kids when outside for recess on the playground and you know that that outdoor that those outdoor experiences and opportunities were so important for our teachers and students. We learned that parent-teacher conferences on Google Meets or via phone calls eliminated barriers for many of our families. And again, principals saw the benefits to outdoor learning and how outdoor learning can drive curiosity. Principals were really proud to be able to keep their scholars and staff safe, especially up until just last week, which was the first time one of our elementary schools had... had to quarantine students. We have,
019I'll share later in the update, we have had students and staff with positive cases or close contacts but we are, we have felt very good up until this point when the numbers had have really been climbing. We've been feeling very good about staff and students following those mitigation measures. In terms of the secondary schools, the vast majority of our 7th through 12th grade scholars, as our student board reps indicated, have been in distance learning since the start of the school year. While we are continually striving to meet the needs of students who are not doing well, there is much to celebrate. For example, at North, two first-year staff of color founded a black student union. North hosted virtual circles for scholars to come together to discuss issues impacting them in their community. North is also
020delivering weekly social-emotional learning curriculum during advisory. For example, this week they talked about kindness and how to spread kindness during these difficult times. At West, students in Ms. Adams' Spanish class completed their summative assessments by engaging in a two-minute conversation, totally in Spanish. Students in Ms. Gibson's pre-engineering class built miniature bridges after studying bridge models and collapses around the world. And finally, students in Ms. Toffam's P.E. in Health studied the adolescent brain, and one of the students even used his learning to create a Lego model of a neuron complete with modeling the synapses that occur between the neurons. At our high school, lots of learning happening virtually. Mr. Sammler's AP Environmental class. conducted a virtual lab to identify aquatic macroinvertebrates that typically inhabit the Minnehaha Creek. Tenth grade English scholars recently read A Raisin in
021the Sun and engaged in deep character analysis. And twelfth grade AP Lit scholars are beginning to read Sula. And it's great to note that both of these texts are culturally responsive material. So as we have communicated with our staff, students, and families, we are pivoting to distance learning system-wide. And there are some dates for your review on the screen. So this Thursday, November 19, will be the last day of in-person school for our elementary students on Monday and Tuesday. Our elementary students will engage in asynchronous learning with choice boards. We'll begin synchronous distance learning for elementary students on Monday, November 30. And during distance learning, our elementary and secondary leaders and staff are identifying elementary and secondary students who have unique learning needs and will benefit from in-person support during this time. We are working
022really diligently to make sure the groups are very small and to make sure the pods don't mix, to make sure that staff are being and feeling supported during this process as we know that we need to look out for everyone's health and follow mitigation measures very closely. I wanted to share that our secondary schools are beginning to support some students during these in-person experiences. At the high school today, there were scholars who were asked, how was your experience here today? One scholar replied, way better than home. Another scholar replied, feels similar to being at home and learning. A third replied, I got a lot of work done. It was helpful. And a fourth, it's good because I have a comfortable space to work while I'm at school. And so these in-person experiences are really, really
023critical for a small subset of our students, and we're working hard to facilitate that for our scholars. I wanted to share with our board members as well as community the flowcharts that families and staff use if they have a concern whether they are experiencing symptoms or they have a question about whether or not to send their child to school or they they themselves have tested positive or or have been in close contact with someone testing positive these flow charts have been available for a long time on our webpage and are being used very frequently. Also just a glimpse at our data dashboard and so I think it's widespread knowledge now that the number of positive cases per 10,000 tested are really climbing throughout our entire community, throughout the entire state and you know the Midwest,
024the entire country. In one of the cities that we serve the number of positive tests per 10,000 is at 77 and a half that's the lowest and then in another city that we serve that number is 99.5 with that Hennepin county wide number being close to 100. So it's really important data for all of us to know. And then finally if you follow that link on our website you'll see the localized health data and so you'll see on here We have identified the students and staff who have tested positive. We have identified the number of recovered cases. during the time frame that you see at the top of the screen there, October 20 to November 17. So approximately one month worth of data. And then the current number of staff and students who are unable
025to return to school due to being in a quarantine. So at this time I want to ask board members if they have any questions. Thank you, Dr. Mary Peary. Lots of information that reflects the... Countless hours of work that are happening throughout the district. You mentioned that some of our scholars will have an in person experience as these coven numbers continue to climb. I'm wondering how many. Approximately in each building and any other information that you can give us about identifying needs and kind of how that work is being organized and implemented. Absolutely. We've taken this issue very seriously, this idea that we do have students who will suffer during long-term distance learning and it may seem counterintuitive or too too much of a risk because we all are aware of the surge in COVID
026cases throughout our community and state. And at the same time, we do not want our students to languish or suffer while in distance learning. So we're trying to think carefully about what that balance looks like. So for example, at one of our junior highs at North, they have identified 16 students who were targeted to um who were scheduled to come in um yesterday and today and i believe eight of those students showed for our in quarantine because they're on the football team and i i you know i'm i'm not sure of exactly why the other four were not in school today but 16 is a very manageable number um And there are also very small numbers of students at the high school. The numbers vary school to school and for some of the schools we're
027still in the process of planning. what that in-person support will look like, which includes identifying students based on teacher recommendation, based on other observational data, learning data, talking to families. And then the work also involves talking with teachers and paras and really trying to identify more which paraprofessionals and teachers would want. to come in during this time and provide in-person support in a safe way. For example, I was at Gatewood yesterday and met a teacher who said, I absolutely want to come in and support our students who need it. And so we do, our teachers of course are in very different places and have very different personal conditions that they have to pay attention to and re. you know we want to respect where everyone is at while also determining how we might be able
028to support our most vulnerable students so um i don't we're not in a place where we have every total number of students per building yet but we can certainly get that to the board and i can also assure you that you know we're talking um less than 10 percent of total student populations per building but we're happy to get you those counts when they are all identified thank you very much other questions and comments for dr mary perry reed chair bouchard yes um i was just wondering um dr mary perry reed you mentioned that about staff so i was wondering how are we selecting the staff that are um providing these supports during this time or are they volunteering, selecting? Thanks. Sure. It's a really great question. Again, we're really trying to use an approach
029that allows staff to self-identify whether they would whether they feel compelled, feel comfortable coming in and working with a small group of students, whether it's one day a week or two days a week or four days a week. I think that there's some consensus that we would continue preserving a chunk of time on Fridays for collaboration and planning time because teaching in a distance learning environment or, you know, thinking planning for what targeted support might look like for small numbers of the in-person experience does require extra planning. So at most, I believe scholars would be coming in four days a week. There might be a few higher needs students with IEPs who might come in five days a week. I don't know those details yet, but we're really hoping to secure the staffing that we
030would need without forcing or requiring staff to come in if they're absolutely not comfortable. Thank you. Other board member questions or comments? Thank you Dr. Mary Perry-Reed. Thank you. Next I would look for a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. Second. I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda. Any discussion? Seeing none we'll move to Clerk Andreessen. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. Director Adams. Aye. Director Ahmed. Aye. Director Andreessen. Aye. Director Kahn. Aye. Director Latondris. Aye. Director Peterson. Aye. And Chair Bouchard. Aye. Thank you, Clerk Andreessen. We have seven ayes, zero nays. Motion carries. Next, I would look for a motion to approve the consent calendar. So moved. Second. I have a motion and a second to approve the consent calendar. Any discussion? Seeing none, Clerk Andreessen. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. Director
031Adams. Aye. Director Ahmed. Aye. Director Andreessen aye Director Kahn aye Director Latondras aye Director Peterson aye and Chair Bouchard aye thank you Clerk Andreessen we have seven ayes zero nays motion carries next we'll move to the treasurer's report with Treasurer Adams thank you Chair Bouchard uh as is customary The second meeting of the month we have the enrollment report and I can report that as of November 1st enrollment stood at 6,632 students. This is 13 students less than our October 1st headcount. We had six fewer students in K-6 and seven fewer students in 7-12. So it was pretty evenly distributed. On the expense side, as of October 31st, we were 33% into the fiscal year. And operating expenses were running at 22% of budget, same as they were at this time last year. Expenses of
032note include $744 for face masks with the Royal logo. And I meant to bring one for show and tell because all of us board members got one, as you recall. $1,179 for COVID signs for doors. So we are experiencing some additional expenses related to the pandemic. In addition, we spent $50,302 for substitute teachers for the months of September and October. And with our pivot to online learning, There's some additional expenses incurred there. $6,000 to Overdrive for a digital library. About $23,000 for an annual subscription to G Suite Software, the Google Suite. $8,500 for something called Dropout Detective, which I was curious about, so I looked it up, and it predicts who might be... at risk of dropping out of school and students who are not keeping up with their assignments. And then $5,900 for Versatrans
033bus routing software for the annual subscription. I'm sure that bus routing software is being heavily used this year because I'm sure we've had to reconfigure our routes for for the few number of kids that are attending schools in person. But with that, I move that we approve total disbursements of $2,053,674.91 for the period October 27, 2020 through November 9, 2020. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second to approve the Treasurer's Report. Any discussion? Seeing none clerk Andreessen Thank You chair Bouchard director Adams. Hi director Ahmed hi Director Andreessen I director con I Director LaTondra's I Director Peterson hi and chair Bouchard Aye. Thank you, Clerk Andreessen. We have seven ayes, zero nays. Motion carries. Next, we will move on to new business, and I will turn
034it over to Dr. Mary Puri-Reed. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. So I'd like to welcome Director Chapenduka to talk with us about our request for proposal for transportation service. Obviously, transportation and the quality of our transportation services is very important to everything that we do here. Getting kids to school is a very important ingredient. in this teaching and learning process and so I'd like Director Chapenduka to just walk us through why we are putting out an RFP and sort of what the process entails. Thank you Dr. Amiripere Red. Good evening Dr. Amiripere Red, Chair Bouchard, respective board members, staff in the community at large. I'm not really sure if Mr. Derek Agate is on the line. First of all, I wanted to pass my condolences to Mr. Derek Agate. He lost his mother last week and
035he has been with his family in the meantime. And this is mostly for informational purposes, just to let the board know that we'll be actually going out to solicit for offers. for transportation contract. So we'll be publishing a request for proposal for transportation services. The district last did a request for proposal about eight years ago and this is actually giving us an opportunity to one, look outside and see the transportation contractors out there. who can provide quality service for the district. We are very appreciative of what MTI has done for the district and MTI has been with the district for a long time and they are also allowable to be putting their proposal together with other contractors. And actually this gives us an opportunity to renegotiate considering that. our model of service has changed over
036the years, putting into perspective the current situation we have with COVID-19, with distance learning, with hybrid learning. Those are components we've never put into play in the past. So we are hoping that doing this to leverage the district to get competitive bidders out there to provide transportation services to the district and also create flexibility when it comes to situations which are usually outside of our control when it comes to operational services with transportation. Our transportation is very sensitive, just like what Director Adams said, you know, with routing, there's a lot of... components which have to be factored in when we are looking at routes and how those routes are efficiently serving our students. And any time there's a route change, that means dollars are coming out of our coffers. So one of the things we
037did starting this current year was to bring routing back. We used to contract out routing last year. and this year we brought shouting back for both our regular transportation as well as our special education so that we can create some of those efficiencies and flexibilities just knowing how tight our transportation budget is and how big and varied our needs are since we are operating in different cities within our boundaries. So those are things we are trying to be very intentional about as well as looking at our finite resources and how we can efficiently use those resources to benefit our students. With that, I will take any questions. Thank you. Thank you, Director Chapenduka. And as a reminder to my board colleagues, there's no action required on this item. And so any comments or questions you
038would like to make to Director Chapenduka? Sure, sure. Yes, Treasurer Adams. Yes, Truro, when does our current contract with MTI expire? How far out are we looking here? So, current contract with MTI expires on June 30th, 2021. Okay. So, it's expiring at the end of this current fiscal year. Okay. Thank you. Well, maybe you can tell us how many vendors do you plan to send this to? Potential. Yeah. So the process is that will actually publish this in the media. So, and. We also publish this on our website and we also call on any vendors we have. So the last time we did the RFP, we had six vendors who responded. So our goal was to actually reach out to all the vendors we know servicing some of the routes within our school district sisters.
039We also have other professional organizations, MAPT, NAPT, National Association of Public Transport. We're going to coordinate with them so that we can publish this on their websites and resources too. We are publishing to a very nationwide, but mostly putting into consideration. companies with experience within minnesota all right thank you thank you i have a follow-up question to that so what does the approximate timeline look like for the for this process so our intention uh is to put the rfp in the media for two weeks And then the companies were proposing to actually bid for this or send in their proposals. And then we'll actually take those proposals. Our intention was at least by January after the holidays to be able to start. looking at the potential bidders. We have a rubric we use to determine
040based on the different criteria for what we need to see in our transportation contractor. And then we can start working with MTI as far as whether they are the final bidder or somebody else, the logistics of how we transition, knowing that July 1st will be using a new contract. Great. Thank you. Other board member questions or comments? Thank you very much, Director Chapman-Duca. That was very informative. Next, we'll move to our policy discussion, and I will turn it over to Vice Chair LaTondras. Thank you, Chair Bichard. I will welcome both my board colleagues on the Policy and Monitoring Committee to the virtual front of the table as well as Director Dr. Nick Lightfoot. Good evening. Good to be with you all. We have some specific policies that the monitoring committee has been working on. Policy
041515, which is our protection and privacy of pupil records. 524 and 859. We'll start this evening with policy 515. You will note that there is a specific change in 515. We have been doing some work as a monitoring committee of looking at and reviewing our annual policies of which these three are, meaning that we review them annually. And as part of our work, Director Andreessen raised some questions around how we're looking at data of students, specifically our directory information. And as you are aware, directory information is usually that information that is considered to be public and publicly available. With some additional consideration and discussion from the committee, we went back to some of the training materials that had been part of some recent conferences that I had been a part of, looked at the changes
042that have come from the federal government regarding FERPA, which is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, and were able to make some modifications to the directory information paragraph. that would allow the district to have greater control and use of the data and release of the data in a way that we feel would be beneficial for more families. especially as it pertains to releasing this information and to release it more specifically for those matters that pertain to school district related business functions or purposes when appropriate as part of the educational process rather than just a blanket release so that paragraph is included under the directory information We anticipate that might raise some questions and wanted to make sure that we drew that information out to the full board as part of the change that we
043would be recommending for policy 515. That's the specific policy that we have for discussion with a change this evening. Monitoring committee members, anything I missed in that? Anything else that you might like to add? Yeah, hey, thank you for that summary. You know, The main thing that we're trying to balance here with this change is number one, it is language that we are able to carry over from other examples. And what this allows us to balance is. You know, similar to some changes we've made in the past around student data that have allowed us to do things like youth homelessness intervention. We want this data to be available for uses that the district determines is important for educational purposes. So that's balancing it on the one hand, wanting to be able to make good use
044of this data. On the other hand, tightening up. the public's access to this data without explicit, unless there's an explicit educational component. So to prevent, for example, outside marketing agencies or something like that from coming in and requesting student data in order to market to our students. So this change sort of strikes that balance and tightens up who gets access to what and under what circumstances while still making the data. available for uh for educational uses. Chair Bouchard, I have a question. Yes, Director Adams. The packet that I got did not include this policy. It includes four different, four other policies. Did I get the wrong information? My packet says 210, 214, 414, and 456. There's no 515 in there. It appears in my packet page 97. Director Adams those were the policies in secondary
045that were part of the consent calendar ah okay thank you there we go all right all right thank you well as Vice Chair LaTondra said I think you really struck a great balance here and it's certainly a change that makes me feel more comfortable with this policy than I was before so I appreciate your work on that Any other board member questions about this policy? Excellent. I think we can continue. Great. Oh, there you are. That's me all the time. Policy 524 is the acceptable electronic use policy. There were no recommended changes to policy 524. Again, it is an annual review. So we would bring that before the board. If there are any specific questions, we would be happy to entertain questions. All right. Then our last policy of the evening is 859, which is
046the electronic data security measures. These policies were also reviewed by Director Nelson on the previous one and our controller for this policy. reviewed the policy itself to make sure that there would not be any specific changes recommended and there are no changes coming from our business services department nor the monitoring committee and would open any or entertain any questions that the monitoring committee might have or members of the board would have as well. I had deja vu reading these because I remember doing the annual review so it was nice to visit them again. Thank you for your work on these. So with that, I would look for a motion that the board approves policies 515, 524, and 859 in first reading. Further, the board directs the administration to prepare these policies for approval in second
047reading at the next meeting as part of the consent calendar. So moved. I have a motion. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, Clerk Andreessen. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. Director Adams. Aye. Director Ahmed. Aye. Director Andreessen. Aye. Director Kahn. Aye. Director Latondras. Aye. Director Peterson. Aye. And Chair Bouchard. Hi, thank you, Clerk Andreessen. We have seven ayes, zero nays, motion carries. So our next agenda item is to establish and implement a process for board member replacement. This is a discussion we had as a board at the workshop just before this meeting, and I'd like to summarize the discussion for our community now. So the reason we're having this discussion is that our Hopkins School Board Vice Chair Chris LaTondris was elected to the Hennepin County Board on November 3rd, 2020.
048So he will be the Hennepin County Commissioner for District 6 and his term on that board begins on January 5th, 2021. State law prohibits him from continuing to serve on the Hopkins School Board while serving on the Hennepin County Board. therefore vice chair latondra submitted a letter of resignation to both me and dr mary perry reed which will be effective december 9th 2020. just a reminder to our community that his term ends on december 31st 2021 and this seat along with my seat and director ahmed's seat will be up for election in november 2021 So the Hopkins School Board is required to fill Director LaTondris' seat for the remainder of the term. We have two legal options for doing this, an appointment process or a special election. The process is at the discretion of the
049board and we are following our Hopkins District Policy 250. that states vacancies caused by the resignation, death, et cetera, of a board member are filled by an appointment process conducted by the remaining board members. So we spent some time at the workshop before this meeting discussing what that process might look like. And we agreed upon the following timeline and process components. So between November 24th, 2020, and December 8th, 2020, the Hopkins School Board will solicit applications from interested candidates through Applitrack. Information about how to apply will be communicated through district channels, so through our website, email, social media, et cetera, and through the Sun-Sailor. We'll also integrate this into our community engagement work to make sure we are spreading the word about this appointment opportunity. Between December 9th and December 22nd, 2020, the board will
050conduct a series of special meetings to hold public interviews with the candidates. All candidates will be interviewed and these interviews will be streamed via YouTube. I should say all candidates who meet the legal requirements to be a school board member will be interviewed and these interviews will be streamed via YouTube. Application materials will be shared with the full board and our public in board packets for the special meetings during which we will be conducting the interviews. We decided that in terms of the structure for the interview that each candidate would have some time for an introduction at the beginning to introduce themselves to the board in the community. And then each candidate would receive the same set of questions so that there's continuity in the process. And then board members would be able to ask
051follow-up questions based on candidates answers to those that set of questions they receive in advance and the board would vote on a new board member on December 22nd 2020 and we've agreed that if there are more than two candidates ranked choice voting will be used to determine the board member who we will appoint and all of those votes will be public The board would then pass a resolution to confirm the new board member at that same meeting. State statute requires a 30-day waiting period before a new board member who is appointed can be confirmed. And the reason that this period exists in statute is to give the community a chance to respond if they do not agree with the choice that the board has made. And there's a petition process that is spelled out in
052statute that needs to be followed during that time. And so that's why that 30-day waiting period exists. If there is no petition that is submitted to the board, then as the current timeline is laid out, that new board member would be sworn in at the board's February 2nd meeting, February 2nd, 2021. Did I miss anything, team? So the recommendation that we're considering tonight Is that the board authorized me chair to establish and implement a process for board member replacement taking into consider consideration the board member input as discussed during the workshop proceeding tonight's meeting. So I would look for a motion to that effect. I still move. I have a motion. Is there a 2nd 2nd. I have a motion and a second to authorize Chair Bouchard to establish and implement a process for board
053member replacement. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, Clerk Andreessen. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. Director Adams. Aye. Aye. Director Ahmed. Aye. Director Andreessen. Aye. Director Kahn. Aye. Director Latondris. Aye. Director Peterson. Aye. And Chair Bouchard? Aye. Thank you, Clerk Andreessen. That's seven ayes, zero nays. Motion carries. Next we can move to Board Member Reports. Who'd like to start? I'll go. Wonderful. No one else has volunteered. Last, was it last week? No, two weeks ago, two Fridays ago, I attended the AMSD Board meeting. a virtual board meeting of course and the presentation was by two of the consultants that amsd uses to uh to lobby at the legislature and they just kind of gave us a preview of what they expect in the in the coming year um which is very speculative at this point um
054and then we also went over some possible planks uh that would be in the amsd platform And one thing that came out of that which was news to me was that some of the legislators are already introducing bills and Representative Jim Daphne from Minneapolis has already submitted a bill that would allow school districts to use the higher headcount of either 2019 or 2020. So that's to address the issue that we and a lot of school districts are experiencing in reduced headcount is parents, you know, take their kids home for homeschooling or send them to a private school or whatever means that they're using. So that would give school districts, public school districts, some relief at least on the headcount. November 11th, the Citizens Financial Advisory Committee, including Director Peterson, met. I had a 287 board
055meeting last Thursday night, and I'll just let you know that 287 is planning to go totally virtual as of December 2nd. So they're experiencing some of the same issues that we are, and probably more so. They had to totally shut down one of their schools because of an outbreak. So they decided to go to all virtual. And then November 16th, what was that? Yesterday. We had an audit committee meeting. Tomorrow, myself, the auditor, Director Peterson. The audit is not quite complete, but almost. So we'll be getting the results of that, I think, at the first board meeting in December. I'd just also like to bring to people's attention, you may have all received something that looks like this. This is your 2021 property tax statement. And I noticed that... at least on my house, the
056school district taxes are going down $100 per year compared to last year. Across the board, every taxing authority that I live in is taking a reduction this year. So I think that's good news for our constituents, good news for our property tax payers within the district. And one of the few highlights right now given our current climate. And I would just like to also acknowledge that COVID is real. My wife and I know numerous people now who have gotten the virus. And in fact, one of our close friends from high school died on Friday night in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin from the COVID virus. So take care out there, everyone. Thank you, Director Adams. I'm so sorry for your loss. Other board member reports. I have one. I have been engaging in some professional development around
057a bill that is making its way through the state legislature. It's an ethnic studies bill that would mandate ethnic studies education in public school districts in Minnesota. And so we've seen similar bills passed in states around the country. And I had a really interesting conversation with Sid Carlson White, who is a student at Yale who is doing some data collection around this bill for the authors of the bill. and connected Sid with our LAC to see if there is some opportunity there to have a community conversation. Sid's really interested in speaking with students, teachers, administrators, school board members, and community members at large, including parents and caregivers, to get our input on what we would like to see in such a bill. There's another learning opportunity around this coming up on November 23rd in the
058evening. Education for Liberation Minnesota is hosting an Ethnic Studies Policy to Classroom panel. of teachers and activists and it's moderated by Dr. Curtis Acosta. I know one of the panelists, Pang Yang, she's an educator in Osseo schools who developed a Hmong area studies program and we've done some advocacy work together in DC for policy and funding to support language education and intercultural education and she is an incredibly knowledgeable. educator in this area and very passionate and so if you have a chance to attend of course it's a virtual panel if you just go to the education for liberation minnesota website they have an rsvp link there and you can get the link for that I've also been listening to the podcast out of the School of Public Health at the U of M. It's called
059Health in All Matters. And the focus of this season that was launched on October 15th is racism as a public health crisis. Really examining social structures, including education, housing, the impact of COVID. and the relationship that all this has to policy making and so it's really been enlightening for me as somebody who works at air who functions in local government and in education to to learn more about about all of this from public health experts at the U of M. And, you know, as Director Adams said, we are all acutely aware of the public health situation right now and the fact that public health and public education are really interlinked. And we are in the midst. of the most challenging days of the COVID pandemic. And Lieutenant Governor Flanagan often says that children do not
060come in pieces and none of us do. And the social and political circumstances that we find ourselves in are really impacting our ability to educate all children well. And I'm speaking about the dual pandemic of COVID and systemic racism, the compounding impacts of systemic racism that we are experiencing in our community. So as a result of both these structural and personal circumstances, so many members of our community are struggling and suffering both physically and psychologically. And I'm also seeing so many members of our community responding with what I can only name as radical compassion and radical flexibility and ingenuity to meet this extreme moment. And I'm seeing it everywhere in our Hopkins Schools community, from our teachers to our students, to our leaders, to our staff, to our bus drivers, to our volunteers. to our
061partners in local government and non-profit. And we know that we cannot serve students to the best or the fullest of our ability without this community support. And right now that community support looks like taking this crisis moment seriously. and wearing a mask, maintaining social distance, and staying home whenever possible. So many lives depend on it and certainly our ability to educate children well in Hopkins schools depend on it. Any other board member reports before we move on? All right, with that, we'll move to the incidental reports. I would look for a motion to approve the incidental reports. And will we accept and approve the incidental reports? I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second to accept and approve the incidental reports. Any discussion? Seeing none, Clerk Andreessen.
062Thank you, Chair Bouchard. Director Adams? Aye. Director Ahmed? Aye. Director Andreessen? Aye. Director Kahn? Aye. Director LATONDRES aye Director Peterson aye and Chair Bouchard aye thank you Clerk Andreessen we have seven ayes zero nays motion carries and next I would look for a motion to adjourn I still move second I have a motion a second to adjourn any discussion seeing none Clerk Andreessen thank you Chair Bouchard Director Adams aye Director Ahmed? Aye. Director Andreessen? Aye. Director Kahn? Aye. Director Latondris? Aye. Director Peterson? Aye. And Chair Bouchard? Aye. Thank you, Clerk Andreessen. We have seven ayes, zero nays. Motion carries. This meeting of the Hopkins School Board is adjourned at 8.12 p.m. Thank you all. Thank you. Good night. Good night. Thank you, everyone.