September 1st meeting of the Hopkins School Board

001This meeting of the Hopkins School Board is called to order at 7 p.m. I'd like to welcome all of our community members who are joining us via the YouTube live stream. It's a privilege to be in virtual community with you this evening. And before we get started, I'd just like to confirm for you who of my board colleagues are on the call this evening. Director Adams. Here. Director Ahmed. Here. Director Andreessen. Here. Director Khan. Here. Director LaTondras. Here. Director Peterson. Here. And I'm Chair Jen Bouchard. Our first agenda item is open agenda. So in addition to the hundreds of emails the board has received over the past week, we're also grateful to have received four submissions for public comment this evening. The Hopkins School Board believes that implementing Vision 2031 takes all of us working

002together as a community. As we continue this collective work, it's important for us to hear from our community members. And one way to address the board is during open agenda at each meeting. On March 20th, 2020, the Hopkins School Board voted to hold meetings in a teleconference format for the duration of the peacetime state of emergency as a result of COVID-19. These meetings are simultaneously streamed online and recorded for later viewing. Due to this shift in meeting format, the Board has adapted our process for hearing public comment. These four individuals submitted their comments using our public comment form, which can be found in the Board packet for each meeting, and I will read them into the record now. The first comment is from Kari Kyllo. What does it mean to be a school resource officer

003in the Hopkins School District? It means you have specific and exclusive training in several areas including dealing with autism, crisis management, cultural awareness, verbal de-escalation techniques, identifying your own implicit bias, conflict management, as well as diversity, inclusion, and equity training and specific training in adolescent mental health. It means you interact and work with students starting in elementary school, learning their names, learning about their families and what they like to do in their free time. It means you have a high level of relaxed, non-confrontational community policing contacts with these students, which affords the opportunity to form relationships with them. These fostered relationships build community and encourage communication, offering the possibility to comfortably stop and chat with the officer, call them by their name when outside of school. It means the officers become someone with a human

004face to them, someone that they know personally, that may be a comfort to them if and when they or their family may be in crisis outside of the school day. Before you make the decision to remove SROs from the Hopkins School District, be sure you understand what our SROs are to students, staff, and parents. They are not there to be enforcement. They are there to assist in keeping the school running smoothly and safety. paraprofessionals and teachers should be focusing on the job they chose to perform and are trained to do. They should not be taking valuable time out of their day to fill the role of the school resource officer. The pressure to jump on the bandwagon of other school districts eliminating their SRO programs is immense, but have those districts had the many positive

005student SRO relationships built that Hopkins has seen? Have those districts seen the benefits of the program Hopkins has seen? I would guess they have not. Our district has seen difficult times in the past and has come out on top. Let's not make a mistake that we cannot reverse. If you eliminate the SRO program it will never return. Hopkins resident, taxpayer, and mom to four Hopkins district students. The next comment is from Paul McCullough. I am a current resident and retired police officer, worked in Bloomington. During my career, I spent three years as an officer working at Kennedy High School. After my retirement, I did five years of consulting work with Hopkins schools in the area of emergency preparedness, safety drills, and training of each school's crisis team using the incident command model. During this time,

006I met officers from Hopkins, Minnetonka, and Golden Valley. I always describe my job, Pardon me. I always described my job as being a police officer, not a law enforcement officer. That part of the job was only a small part and is the opposite of what is desired. I know working at the schools that it is a team effort with the administrative staff. I never felt like I acted alone. I developed a professional and personal relationship with the staff. We focused on keeping the schools safe and look to prevent problems or issues. In my view, there are three main reasons for policing. One, respond to life safety emergencies, situations to provide life safety actions. Two, respond to serious crime issues and take actions as needed. If a felony event occurred and the referral to court was

007needed, supporting victims and witnesses. Rarely, rarely is force used. It all depended on the person's cooperation and compliance to keep everyone safe. Police officers receive lots of de-escalation and use of force training to minimize the need to use it. What can police agencies and officers do to reduce the need to number one and number two? You will hear the term community policing. School resource officers are a great example of this. They meet with students in non-crises and non-enforcement setting every day. They build trust, relationships, and respect both ways. If we want to have these positive outcomes happen in our Hopkins Schools community, what better way than with the police in our schools? Of course, you can find examples of individual incidents in which officers acted in a way that resulted in discipline, lawsuits, and criminal

008charges. These are plain wrong and officers should be held accountable. These are the exception to the day-to-day positive work our officers are involved in. Officers, like all of us, can fall into prejudging incidents before they check out the detail and meet people as individuals. Officers receive training on bias awareness and prevention. I hope that you could meet the individual officers who work with our schools. I'm not sure of who the Hopkins High School officer is, but Officer Thomas in Hopkins was great. I have nothing but positive comments on the Minnetonka and Golden Valley officers I met. Nothing could be more positive than to have students who feel a threat from the police meet with these fine officers of these three cities. Community policing and connections all the way. Working with Hopkins schools in a professional

009and personal way. keep police in our schools. The third comment is from Andrew Wright. I am a graduate of Hopkins High School who has recently moved back to the area so that my children may matriculate into Hopkins schools. In the immediate after the death of George Floyd, I was extremely grateful for the statement this board made, including specifically the commitment to tangible work to dismantle systemic racism. It confirmed my confidence that even as our children will attend school in the more affluent and historically white western suburbs, they will be a part of a district marked by a deep structural commitment to dismantling systemic racism. That commitment and work, I believe, is not only critical for their education and development into lifelong advocates for racial justice throughout their lives. It is also a critical element of

010their and their classmates' safety in the everyday present. Part of this anti-racist commitment, I believe, is acknowledging, recognizing, and acting on the painful reality that police in our schools, SROs, do not make our students safer. While we all struggle with the disorienting realities of violence in American schools, including not least the horrific threat of mass shootings or other indiscriminate violence that may impact our children, police in schools not only have limited effect on preventing such violence, their presence in schools carry with it other kinds of impediments to school safety that actually escalate other forms of violence rather than mitigate it. Not least, the presence of police profoundly impacts the student experience and perception of belonging, a principal element for cultivating student safety for all. Given the fraught history of police in schools, I hold a

011deep concern about the problem of the school to prison pipeline within Hopkins schools. Young people, especially young people of color, should not have their first or any encounter with the criminal justice system, itself known for its profound racial disparities in arrest, sentencing, and incarceration, with police who have been given access to their school. School is the very place young people need to nurture their future, not fear arrest or incarceration. Even one encounter with an SRO that leads to a student's entanglement with the criminal justice system for that student marks a failure of Hopkins School's mission and purpose. We can do better. There are proven and more effective ways of dealing with school safety that employ a trauma-informed, culturally competent, and restorative lens. Practices of school safety that make our schools a truly safe and nurturing

012place for all students. This is undoubtedly a difficult decision, and the alternative viewpoints come from an understandable fear. However, the things that make for true school safety are clear. I urge you to put the genuine safety of all students first and vote to end the contract with the Minnetonka Police and Hopkins Schools. Our final comment is from Jared Nodal. And sir, I hope I pronounced your last name correctly. Good evening. I am writing as a career educator and parent of a Hopkins High School sophomore and North Junior High seventh and eighth graders. I felt compelled to express my concern regarding the removal of school resource officers, SROs, from our schools. It is my perspective that this removal appears hasty and lacks transparent community involvement in the decision-making process. In addition, it seems to lack a

013clear plan for how Hopkins schools would maintain safe and secure school buildings in the future. Without a clear plan of action, I fear that needs that have been historically handled by SROs may be neglected or simply handled inadequately by individuals who are overwhelmed with other job responsibilities or who may be under-trained. I also recognize that recent events have highlighted racial inequities in our criminal justice system, and I empathize with students who may feel unsafe in the presence of law enforcement. However, separation is never the solution to building trust and understanding. I have seen the positive impact that well-trained SROs can make in a diverse school community. Like it or not, law enforcement is present in every community. I would ask that Hopkins Public Schools take the role of advocate to bridge positive relationships between law

014enforcement and the community it serves. Good SROs are passionate about the school communities in which they serve and are trained to specifically serve in such a capacity. Such a relationship can help ensure that students will have a positive personal experience with law enforcement. Ultimately, creating opportunities for positive experiences will do more to promote healing and understanding than any kind of separation will. It is my hope that all members pause and continue the value of further input from parents, staff, and school leaders before moving forward with a quick decision that may negatively impact all members of our community. Thank you. And that concludes our open agenda. So with that, we'll move on to our reports. And I'd like to turn it over to our student board representative cohort coordinator, Mr. Elliot Berman. Well, thank you, Chair

015Bouchard. I really appreciate that. Well, hello, everybody. And welcome back, I guess, for the first official time while school is in session. As you guys know, today was the first students were back on camera and with their advisors this morning, learning Canvas, getting to know who was in their advisory, usually 15 to 16 students in each advisory. And just learning about how somewhat the school year is going to look, what we should expect and what always to fall back on, I guess was the best thing. We're always going to fall back on Canvas. no matter what for just purely learning wise. And that's our support system. So that's some consistent consistency that we'll have as students that we know things will be run through Canvas. And we don't have to worry about paperwork coming in,

016going in to get paperwork or this weird where are we going to get our information from, where are we going to get our assignments from, what's going to be going on. So it's very nice today to have that. This is where it's going to take place and this is how you use it. And a lot of students I got were it's not 100% what I want, but I'm glad it's there so I know where things are. On top of that, With advisory today being the first day of advisory Teachers learning kind of what to do there were incidents of something called zoom bombing Which is kind of common throughout Both colleges and high schools throughout the country. These are incidences where non school members or just not members of none of this community Make their

017way into these private sessions and disrupt the the learning that's taking place or the conversation that's taking place. According to what I know, three instances of those appear today in the high school. Some of them negatively impacted a class severely. And this is something that wasn't expected, especially on our first day. However, it is a experience that we've had and we'll learn from and how to prevent further interruptions in our learning schedule. As a learning point, it wasn't the best thing to happen. But from here we will learn specifically what happened is there was some death threats made by non-students and students we do not know who of. So that was a very serious incident that I am told we are looking into that in fact that it affected some students very negatively. Along with

018that, students over the summer have been getting involved in all sorts of things that we've seen across the political spectrum, across the community spectrum, people getting involved in different groups. I know personally a lot of students right now, grades 11, 12, 10th grade, getting ready to be election judges for this upcoming November 3rd election, which is very interesting to see. they are rallying their peers to see if they can actually control a whole election facility, making sure that the majority of usual election judges, usually older white citizens, do not have to be present because they... they are one of the more larger majorities that are susceptible to COVID-19 impacting them negatively. So a lot of students are stepping up and trying to take over that role. And that's a really good thing to see. We

019like seeing our students involved. We like seeing our students knowledgeable and being present at the table and in the conversation. with that to address somewhat of those first comments that we heard. I issued those people to go back and to watch the previous workshop that we had where we first presented our SRO review and what we said and what we studied. The first two people from what I recall just shortly moments ago said that that officers received de-escalation training and racial training. We confirmed this with the chief of police. Our SRO officer received no de-escalation or racial training to our knowledge to what he told us. It's not my place to comment on specific instances that he had with other people. And I do agree that there are some positive SROs in the system. But

020what we've seen specifically in this last two weeks, the officer who shot Jacob Blake was an SRO. And it's not all, they're not all good. And that is not expected to all of them to be good right now. But I was taken back by those comments that were had. We, me and other students did a thorough review. We did our best to stay as center as possible and to gather as much information from both sides. and to hear those comments made about our SR review, not to take it personally, but those things were addressed. We did look into them and we reported on them in that workshop. So I do encourage those community members to go back, to listen to what we said, to look at the data that we gathered and made public, and

021to take in consideration Especially that last line made by that last commenter that this may affect the whole community poorly this may affect a Majority of students who've been negatively impacted throughout their years of high school positively very positively in ways that they are not scared to attend our high school anymore, in ways they are okay walking through the hallways, not being feared of being looked at, not being feared of maybe being stopped and asked questions, or just not being watched. Some people will benefit greatly from this. And to say this is not a reversible decision or to say that we are completely disarming our relationship with the Minnetonka Police Department is wrong. We do, we've acknowledged that we do need a relationship with them. We know that we need to work in partnership with

022them throughout the year, throughout what we have. This is our society, this is realistic. We don't need enforcement in our schools. but we do need a partnership. We're not saying that they're horrible people. We're not saying that that's that. We're saying that they do not need to be there while we're learning, but they need to be there to help us when we need it. Thank you. Thank you, Elliot. I'll turn it over to Dr. Mary Perry-Reed for the superintendent's report. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. And Elliot, I just want to let you know that... We appreciate your voice and your perspective and thank you for speaking your truth. I don't know if any of the scholars who experienced trauma or harm today are listening or if their friends are listening, but I want to apologize. for

023these students, these scholars having to experience such a negative thing during a learning time. And I know that our high school leaders and staff are working hard to determine what happened and how it happened and what we can put in place to... protect our students. I just want to speak to you personally, Elliot, and if you could please forward that to your friends. I would like to transition to the superintendent's report and it's going to be exciting. I know we have many serious issues to contemplate as a community this evening, but we also have really exciting things to do such as introduce our new principals and our new school leaders and so I'm going to actually share my screen. What we're going to do is I just have a very brief slide deck because I

024wanted to show photographs of our new leaders as well as talk about some of their professional background and where they're coming from. And then I'm going to ask our Director of Principal Leadership, Stephanie Herrera, to introduce herself and then she's going to introduce our new leaders and give them each about 60 seconds. to just put their voice into the space and introduce themselves to our amazing Hopkins community. So give me a moment while I share my screen, please. That's not what I wanted to do. Can you see the screen okay? Yes, we can. Thank you. Oh, thank you, Chair Bouchard. Okay, so first of all, Yes, I am smart and brave and I can do anything. But really, this quote, I wanted to share it with you because as I was putting together these slides

025this afternoon, I was upstairs on the second floor in this Eisenhower Community Center and across the hall, this group of children who were here for child care. I believe they are children of our frontline workers and our community. They were... engaging in these self-affirmations as a group. And so the instructor was calling out, I am smart. I am brave. I can do anything. And they would repeat after her in unison. And she led them through this. these affirmations probably three or four times. And of course, by that third or fourth time, I was chanting right along. And so I just think it is, it's really great when we can give our students opportunities to feel good about themselves and to realize that, yes, you are smart, you are brave, and you can do anything. And

026I want so much for each and every one of our scholars. throughout our system to believe that each and every day. I just wanted to start with that fun tidbit. And so what I'd like to do is introduce our new school leaders. It was very unusual that we had three vacancies for head principalships, but we did have a leader who retired, our leader from Meadowbrook retired, and she was a really great person. We had a leader from Alice Smith who was promoted to a teaching and learning role in Edina, and then we had a leader from our high school who was recruited to a neighboring district. We had an opportunity to seek some amazing individuals from the metro space and we are thrilled with the leaders that we were able to hire here in Hopkins

027and we thank these school leaders for choosing Hopkins because we know that there are many places where they can go. I'm a couple of things here in Hopkins because teaching and learning is our most important function. Then I, as the superintendent, and I know that this resonates with our district department leaders, with the cabinet leaders, with our school board and, you know, with other folks in our community, because teaching and learning is our most important critical function, then how we support teachers who. educate our students is a really important role and so we believe here in Hopkins that school leaders are a key ingredient to school effectiveness and you will not find a great school in this country that doesn't also have a great school leader and so because of the Leaders we we we

028facilitate a very robust and intentional selection process with multiple stakeholder interviews and you know we really we really vet these candidates so that we can select the absolute best candidates. So I'm very pleased to introduce to our community our new Hopkins High School principal Crystal Ballard. You'll be able to hear from her. in just a few moments. She has been an assistant principal at Osseo Senior High and also in Minneapolis Public Schools. She has also steeped in AVID instruction. She's been an AVID teacher at Van Buren University. individualized determination. We have AVID in our district. We have AVID school-wide at Alice Smith and we also have AVID at our junior highs and high school. Principal Ballard has also served as an AVID coordinator which is a big deal and then she comes with multiple teaching

029licenses including including a license as a K-12 special education teacher. So very happy to have Principal Ballard leading us at the high school and partnering with her associate, Principal Kelly Tennyson. I'm also pleased to introduce to our community our new North Junior High Principal, Mr. Julius Aromasulli. And Mr. Aromasalli worked with Principal Ballard at Osseo Senior High, which is very ironic. They must train their people well. So Principal Aromasalli comes to us from the Osseo District, where he served as an assistant principal at a couple of their high schools, and he's also served as a dean of students at a community. of Peace School in St. Paul. We're very happy to have Principal Aromasalvi with us here in Hopkins. We also are pleased to introduce to you our new Alice Smith leader Eduardo Navidad. Principal

030Navidad has served as an elementary principal in a neighboring district of Waconia. He's also served as an assistant principal at a high school in Mankato. So he has that K-12 experience. He was the director of continuous improvement and accountability for Eden Prairie just next door. comes to Minnesota from Colorado. So he served as an assistant principal and also as a teacher in Colorado and also Wisconsin. So we're extremely pleased to have Principal Navidad leading our staff and students at Alice Smith. And next, I'm elated to introduce to our community our new Meadowbrook principal, Natalie Sawatsky. Natalie served as the assistant principal at Meadowbrook prior to us selecting her for the principalship. She also served as a school counselor at Meadowbrook. So she knows that community very well. And we were really pleased that she was...

031focused on securing that principal position. She is a really perfect fit for that with her counseling background and her passion for those elementary kiddos. We also, and my slides are turning very slowly here, I apologize. We are also pleased to introduce to you a new assistant principal at North Junior High. So Ms. Hinda Abdi comes to us from Minneapolis Public Schools. She comes with extremely strong recommendations. She's served as a... positive schoolwide engagement team, district facilitator. She was in the aspiring assistant principal cohort, which is a big deal in Minneapolis. She's been a district equity and school improvement plan leader for Minneapolis, and she was an elementary classroom teacher for some time. So we are elated to have. Assistant Principal Hinda Abdi at North Junior High, partnering with our Associate Principal Mr. James Ware and

032also with our new Principal Julius Aromaseli. I'd also like to introduce to our community and he's not new to our community but our new Meadowbrook Assistant Principal Trenton Lawson. Trenton transitioned from our high school. He had been an assistant principal at our high school and is now going to partner with Natalie Sawatzky at Meadowbrook. Mr. Lawson has a social work background and really has been looking for an opportunity to transition his focus to our younger learners. So he's really excited about being at Meadowbrook and... That school is thrilled to have him. Previous to Hopkins, he was a dean of students at Columbia Heights High School, and he also served as a social worker in St. Paul Public Schools, a place where I once worked. So let's see what our next slide offers us. At this

033time... I would like to introduce our director of principal leadership, Stephanie Herrera, and she'll just say a couple words and then she'll introduce our principal so they can speak to you directly. But I want to tell you that Hopkins having a director of principal leadership is a really unique situation. In most other districts of our size, the principals might report to the superintendent or an assistant superintendent. Dr. Lightfoot and I do work closely with Stephanie and with the principals, but we believe that the role of school leader is so important that we need to position a person who is building the capacity of our school leaders to be the amazing principals that we need for our students and for our staff. So Director Herrera engages in coaching, personalized coaching, leadership development. she identifies the barriers

034that exist here at the district office so that we can streamline our our infrastructure and our spaces so to make it easier for principals to navigate because principals have a tough job of leading schools and if they also have to you know figure out how to navigate the bureaucracy or the complexity of the district office then you know that's some pretty unnecessary getting in the way of of important people in our system so miss herrera helps identify what are the spaces in our district office that need to be made more efficient or effective. And then she will be working to build a data team so that as a group of leaders, we can be much more in our instructional decisions, discussions and decision making. So at this time, I am going to ask Director Herrera

035if you'd like to just say a couple words and then introduce our school leaders to speak directly with our audience. And again we're really excited to have these fantastic people joining us here in Hopkins. It's truly, it's really remarkable for lots of different reasons. Stephanie? Thank you, Dr. Mira Perry-Reed, and good evening, Chair Bouchard and members of the board. Smart, brave, and can do anything. That's great framing, Dr. Mira Perry-Reed, because I think that excellently describes our leaders. And I am super honored and excited to introduce the new school leaders that we have here in Hopkins. Especially, you know, during these Bucca times, research tells us that we really need leaders who are agile and who are also very courageous. And given the dual pandemic that all of us as leaders are navigating, there's no

036time like now when leadership really does matter. And so our new leaders, I'm very impressed by all of them and leadership is truly a calling for them and they indeed embody both agility and courage. So I'd like to introduce our leaders to you in this virtual space and ask that they just briefly give an introduction of themselves as well. So we'll go ahead and start with our first courageous leader, the principal of Hopkins High School, Ms. Crystal Ballard. Good evening, Superintendent, Chair Bouchard, members of the board and members of our community. I am so excited to serve as principal of Hopkins High School. One of the things, one of the many things actually that attracted me to the school district was the alignment of the work as it relates to anti-racism between the school board

037and the superintendent. I've had an opportunity to engage with our scholars through Google Meets, with our families through Google Meets. And I am just so impressed with the level of commitment to being collaborative and doing the best that we can to serve our scholars. So, thank you for this opportunity to introduce myself. And again, I'm excited to be here to help in the big goal of making Hopkins schools great to world class. Thank you. Thank you, Principal Ballard. The principal of Hopkins North Junior High, Mr. Julius Aromaselli. Thank you, Ms. Herrera. Hello, Superintendent, Sheriff Bouchard and community. It is a pleasure to be with you all this evening and to see all the lovely faces. It has been a whirlwind just joining this community in the last few weeks, but honestly, there's no place I'd

038rather be and working with the amazing team, teachers, and as I slowly meet the families and community members, it solidifies. this choice and why it was such a great choice to come here. And the quote I hang my hat on as we do this work right now is the quote that says, we are the ones we have been waiting for. And I believe that now more than ever. And I am so excited to be here with you all. Thank you. Thank you, Principal Romoselli. The principal of Alice Smith Elementary, Mr. Eduardo Navidad. Good evening, Madam Chair Bouchard, Superintendent Mary Piri-Reed, and STEAM members of the board and members of our community. As I stand here, I'm just honored to join the Hopkins School District family. As I begin my ninth year as either a building

039or a district administrator, I'm just finally, I'm humbled to say that I finally found the district. that is courageously leading to meet the needs of all of our scholars and putting into actions really those steps that are going to make our schools an anti-racist community where all students like myself who was not born in this country and brings richness that are beyond boundaries, where we can feel valued. and we can feel safe. You know, I really look forward to bringing my talents, my lived experiences as I lead an amazing team of leaders to make Vision 2031, you know, a reality for our scholars. Thank you so much for this opportunity, and I look forward to continue our work together. Thank you, Principal Navidad. The principal of Meadowbrook Elementary, Mrs. Natalie Sawatzky. Thank you, Director Herrera

040and Board, Dr. Mary Perry-Reed. So when you were talking about your affirmations, the thing I was thinking about today was I was wanting a T-shirt that said, I'm a new principal during a pandemic. What's your superpower? Because I'm definitely feeling the agility and the courageousness. that this is taking to start something new amid these conditions. But I, above all of that, I also feel extremely humbled to be joining the leadership team among these amazing new leaders. Also to know that I... What you see in me is what you see in all of our leaders and that's hope and trust that we can together go from great to world class and we can create an anti-racist system because that is the work that has kept me in Hopkins and kept me committed to Hopkins. So I'm

041ready and I have my superpower. Thank you, Principal Sawatsky. The assistant principal of Hopkins North Junior High, Ms. Hinda Abdi. Thank you, Dr. Herrera. Good evening, everyone. I'm Hinda Abdi. I'm very excited to join this community. The reason why I joined this community, my cousin, who is dearly a sister to me, went through the Hobson school system. She's such an inspiration to me, even though she's younger than me. She's doing really great big things. And to this day, a majority of the teachers that have her are at North Junior High. And so just hearing how teachers inspired her and how it had moved her made me want to apply here and be part of this, as well as seeing a school board working directly with the superintendent to be an anti-racist organization. I'm very humbled

042to join this community. A lot of the community has been super helpful and super welcoming, and I'm excited to work here. Thank you. Thank you, Assistant Principal Abdi. And the Assistant Principal of Meadowbrook Elementary, Mr. Trenton Lawson. Mr. Lawson, are you here? I am here. Sorry about that. I was muted. I apologize for that. So I'd like to say thank you guys for having me here today. Thank you, Director Herrera. Thank you, Board. Thank you. Chair Huchard, I would just like to say that I'm really excited for this opportunity to work at Meadowbrook Elementary School. I've worked at the high school for the past eight years and that was exciting. I've also had experience at the elementary school level in St. Paul Public Schools and I loved it. I'm really excited to be working next

043to Natalie. I think we're going to make a great team this year. I think Natalie has all the skills necessary to be a great leader and I'm excited to work with her and learn from her. That transition from high school to elementary school is going to be a smooth one for me. I saw the little kids for the first day yesterday and that got me excited. So I'm happy to be back where I started. Director Herrera, can I just interject something? I just want to say that I know the learning will be mutual. There's a lot that I am learning from Trenton also. So definitely happy to be in such a great partnership. Well, thank you, Assistant Principal Lawson. And with that, that's our amazing leadership team. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to

044introduce all of them more formally tonight. And I'll turn it back over to Dr. Mary Perry-Reed. Thank you, Director Herrera. And thank you, all school leaders, for taking a moment to be with us and to introduce your fantastic selves. Again, thank you for choosing Hopkins. You know we are Hopkins strong and we're going to be even stronger with you here. So thanks to our board members for providing space for our school leaders to be recognized. We appreciate it. Well, it's humbling to be in a virtual community this evening with such phenomenal leaders. And we're so thrilled that you took time out of your schedule to be with us tonight because it is officially the second day of school. And I know you have many other things that you probably need to be attending to. So

045we feel really privileged that you joined us this evening and we can't wait to continue to work in partnership with you. Thank you. So with that, I would look for a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. Second. I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda. 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. I'll second. Fabulous. I have a motion and a second to approve the consent calendar. Clerk Andreessen? Thank you, Chair Bouchard. Director Adams? Aye. Director Ahmed?

046Aye. Director Anderson aye Director Kahn aye Director LaTondras aye Director Peterson aye and Chair Bouchard aye that's seven aye zero nays motion carries thank you next we'll move to the treasurer's report Treasurer Adams all right thank you Chair Bouchard Got a lot of expenses on this report going back to June 2nd, our last meeting. But expenses of note include many refunds. Refunds for canceled transportation to private schools. I knew we did transportation to numerous private schools. I didn't know we had this many, but just about every... parochial school in the western suburbs is listed. Numerous refunds for canceled daycare, which we've heard about before. Refunds for unused student parking permits, refunds for unused school lunches, refunds for the canceled band trip, and then on the expense side, $77,000 for the first year license for Canvas.

047and 300,000 for new furniture at both of the junior highs. And then thousands of dollars for food, for free food for the students due to the COVID crisis. So quite a few expenses. And in fact, I will make a motion that we approve total disbursements of 16 million. $336,645.19 for the period of May 27, 2020 to August 24, 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? 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, we'll move to unfinished business. And I would like to explain that we're returning

048to this item because I made a procedural error. at our organizational meeting on August 21st. It was in no way Director Chapenduka's error. It was my error. So we're going to return to these two items this evening for clarification. And with that, I'll turn it over to Director Chapenduka. Thank you, Chair Butchart. Again, good evening, Superintendent Dr. Rod Amiripirid and respective board members in the community. So I hope this technical glitch will fix it tonight. So our first order is on a resolution to designate depositories for school funds. And I know at our last board meeting, I actually kind of explained how we use the different financial institutions we actually partner with. So we have a partnership with U.S. Bank and the Minnesota School District Liquid Asset Fund, and they handle all our checking account

049depositories, our payroll, and our general and student activity funds account. All the mentioned accounts go through U.S. Bank, and our funding passes through. uh means love which is the minnesota school district liquid asset fund We also have partnerships with Walls Fab investments on some of our bond funds, with US Bank Corp, with PFM Public Financial Management, our PCAT system, with Prudent Advisors, UBS Financial Services Inc, CBIS for our OPEB Trust Funds, Fidelit for our 403B. retirements as well as MetLife. Our cash transfers are handled by U.S. Bank and MISLOV and our custodians U.S. Bank and MISLOV. So the request is for the board to actually go ahead and approve the use of these depositories for our school funds for the district. Thank you, Director Chapman-Duca. I look for a motion that the Board approve proposed

050depositories for the 2020-21 school year. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second to approve the proposed depositories for the 2020-21 school year. 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. And I'll pass it back to you, Director Chapinduka. Again, thank you, Chair Bouchard. The second order is, again, it's a procedural order, which actually is a request for the board to approve me as Director of Business Services and our controller, Mr. Jason Steadman, to be the authorized electronic transfer for this district between district and our investment and banking partners.

051uh this actually applies to in of our transfers our wire transfers uh in of the depositories we make in our investment accounts we open for the district on behalf of the of the board of education So I request the board to actually authorize me as the district director of business services and our controller to open and transact on behalf of the board with our business partners. Thank you director champion. Go with that. I would look for a motion that the board adopt the proposed resolution authorizing the use of electronic fund transfers and investments. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a 2nd. 2nd, thank you. I have a motion in a 2nd, that the board adopt the proposed resolution authorizing the use of electronic fund transfers and investments. Any discussion. See none, I'll move

052to clerk Andreessen. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. Director Adams? Aye. Director Ahmed? Director Andreessen? Aye. Director Kahn? Aye. Director Latondris? Aye. Director Peterson? Aye. And Chair Bouchard? Aye. Thank you, Clerk Andreessen. We have six ayes, zero nays. Sorry, I got disconnected. Aye. Thank you, Director Ahmed. We have seven ayes, zero nays. Motion carries. Next we'll move into new business and the first agenda item is our Student Resource Officer SRO contract review. So before I turn it over to Dr. Mary Perry-Reed, I would just like to make a statement. I was going to say make a brief statement, but it is not brief. Since June, our board has heard from nearly 1,200 community members, including students, alumni, staff, parents, caregivers, and community members via hundreds of emails, two community petitions, social media advocacy on Instagram, Twitter, and

053Facebook, and individual conversations with diverse stakeholders regarding the practice of having a school resource officer. or SRO stationed at Hopkins High School. It's important for all of us to recognize that this is not a new conversation. It's one that many of our community members, especially our students, have been having for quite some time. In fact, it was a topic that came up when I was campaigning to be elected to the Hopkins School Board in 2017. And during that time, I heard a diversity of viewpoints, similar to the diversity of viewpoints the board has heard over the course of this summer. The one thing that all of the community members we have heard from agree on is that we all want a safe learning environment for all students in our buildings. And it's my hope that

054our conversation tonight can continue to reveal and clarify the nuances regarding what safety means for different people in our Hopkins Schools community, the intersection of safety. and creating anti-racist learning environments, how to achieve true safety in our schools, and each of our roles in this work. In June, Dr. Mary Perry-Reed appointed a team of three Hopkins High School students and one recent 2020 graduate to lead a review of our current SRO contract with the Minnetonka Police. This review included engagement with a range of students and community stakeholders. One of the major components of our Vision 2031 strategic plan is centering student voice. This ongoing SRO conversation also aligns with an anti-racist resolution the Hopkins School Board passed unanimously on June 2nd, in which we resolve to listen to, believe, and empower our community members most

055impacted by systemic racism, empower our students to speak authentically about their experiences with racism, continue to dismantle systemic racism in our education system through both policy and daily practice. In fact, I was informed today that our Hopkins High School students in their advisory meetings today listened to this resolution and so our Hopkins High School student body is aware of this. The board heard our student review group's recommendation at our August 21st workshop and we're grateful to have them with us again this evening. It's important to know that in addition to the student-led review, board members have been conducting our own scholarly and implementation-based research on this important topic and engaging with Hopkins School's community members, our partners in city government, and our board colleagues in other districts. We are very grateful to our students who

056brought their research and recommendations before us on August 21st and again this evening. And we recognize the responsibility regarding any decision to formally redefine our relationship with local law enforcement falls on our shoulders as board members. So with that, I'd like to turn it over to Dr. Mary Puri-Reed. Thank you, Chair Bouchard, for your framing. I have a couple of supporting and additional points, and then I think we'll turn it over to board members for discussion. Is that the right protocol, Chair Bouchard? I would be fine with that. I'd like to check in with our students who led the review. Were there statements that you wanted to make before we moved into the board member discussion, or are you okay with entertaining board member questions right away? I'm sorry, Elliot, I can provide a couple

057of statements and then we turn it over to the students. I was just I'm sorry, I was just checking us on our process. You're good. We'll do that. That sounds great. Is that all right? Okay, perfect. Thank you all. Okay. You know, I've been doing a little bit of research, well, a lot bit of research, really, on the history of school resource officers in American schools and the research seems to indicate that school resource officers began being placed in schools in the early 1950s, which I thought was interesting. But the program didn't. gain prominence until the 1990s in response to various school shootings. According to the national data, SROs are found in approximately 35% of schools across America, regardless of level, elementary, middle school, high school, and also regardless of whether rural, suburban, city, or

058enrollment size. It looks like the first SRO was in a school in was placed in a school in Flint, Michigan. So I also read that there's a scarcity of research related to SRO programming and its impact on school safety. So I thought that was interesting and it made me appreciate even more the the student the students and the research that they conducted this past summer so that we. we would have information as well as multiple perspectives on the purpose and impact of SRO in our schools. I do want to acknowledge that we do have a very positive relationship with the Minnetonka Police Department, also with the city of Minnetonka. And simultaneously, as Chair Bouchard said, we want to... listen intently and intentionally to our students. We acknowledge that. that there are parents and students and

059many others viewing this conversation tonight and we're grateful for your engagement. We're grateful for your genuine interest in our students' safety. And I think it's important to note that we're not talking just about students' physical safety, but we're talking about the psychological, the mental, the socio-emotional safety that our students feel or do not feel on a daily basis based on the conditions within their school environment. So it's really important that we are willing to dive into the nuances of what it means to feel or to be safe. So yes, it is true that after, while Mr. Floyd's... murder may have been a specific factor that impacted our students drive to really explore this issue. Various school districts in our metropolitan space have long been exploring whether SROs belong in schools or not and whether they

060they actually promote student safety or have the opposite effect. So as Chair Bouchard said this is this is a conversation that's been happening for for a long time. So with that, I do want to let our students know that we are grateful for your time and for the approach that you took this past summer to engage in an unbiased review. I know you talked with multiple stakeholders who held many, many different perspectives on the purpose. you know people's preference for sros in schools and so we appreciate your time and appreciate your your engagement with us so i think with that we'll we'll turn it over to the students chair bouchard sounds good to me thank you thank you now you can take it away when you're ready um hello everyone it's nice to be in

061this virtual space with you again um at first I'd like to start off by telling our review committee that we did great work this summer. Our drive and advocacy to bring positive change and to protect the students of color body was great work. Our review committee completed a comprehensive review on the school research officer program at our schools. Students of color deserve to be protected and supported all around, but that isn't possible when police are in our schools profiling and harming our students of color. On August 23rd, Jacob Blake, a black man, was shot by a white police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin. That officer attempted to murder Mr. Blake and is a part-time SRO at Washington Middle School. No student in that specific school but schools out over don't deserve to educate being in an

062educative space when police are in our schools. This can happen anywhere. What happened to Jacob Blake can happen in our schools. It's important that as district leaders, We commit to a change and commit to making our schools police free. As a review committee, we want Hopkins schools to be a place where all children and youth feel welcome, safe, and valued. That isn't currently possible when police are in our schools. As we all know, police in schools are intensifying the school-to-prison pipeline, which creates a criminalizing and unsafe learning experience to students. When police are walking our halls, students are being re-traumatized, harmed, pushed out of school and into the juvenile and criminal justice system. As Hopkins schools being one of the largest diverse districts in the state, as district leaders you have a duty to protect

063our diverse student body and that can be accomplished by making our schools police free. I'd also like to mention that it was brought up the petition number of students and community members who signed that petition that was circulating online. I currently checked the number of those petitions and it went up from the last one that was announced, which is around 700 signatures and currently it's around 951 signatures. As a review committee, we recommend the district leaders to shift resources away from practices and staffing that criminalize students and to invest in positive approaches. That can be accomplished by employing staff trained to serve safe and positive school communities. such as hiring community intervention workers, peace builders, transformative and restorative justice coordinators, and bringing more mental health support into our schools. I'm personally counting and hoping that

064as board members, you make it your duty to protect students of color in our schools from criminalization. You will be making our school safer and more positive by voting to terminate. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mona. It's good to hear your voice. I'm glad you're with us tonight. Were there any other members of the review committee who wanted to speak before we move into our board member discussion? Okay, so board members, this is what I propose to keep our discussion organized. So we have a big recommendation in front of us. It has three parts to it. And so I would propose that we look for a motion in a second to open up the discussion. And then we take each piece of the recommendation point by point, have a discussion around that. So we

065would have a discussion around the first recommendation. close that out, move to the second recommendation. And a reminder to board members that you can make a subsidiary motion to change the language that's contained in each part of the recommendation as well. And so you would just get my attention and we'd go through the subsidiary motion process. So with that, I would look for a motion to end the regular presence of law enforcement in Hopkins schools, create safe schools through positive safety and discipline measures, and reallocate the funds that are currently going toward our SRO. Chair Bouchard, before we embark on that, I would like the students to present the data. that they gave to us at the last community or at the last workshop. I think a lot of members of the community were not

066present at that workshop and could benefit from seeing the data that was presented. Would that be possible? It would. I'd like to note also that that data is included in the board packet. So if community members are joining us, they can ask... I do not believe it then. What page is it? The student report. I have it right here, Chair Bouchard. It's on page 617, Steve. I also think you can go ahead and pull it up and share on screen. Yeah, I think it would be useful. Sure. Sure, that would be fine. One second. I'm not sure how many people scrolled through 617 pages. I will be presenting it now. Sorry, it's loading. No problem. Thank you, Elliot. As I pulled up, sorry. Okay. Chair Bouchard? Clerk Andreessen? I just wanted to ask a quick

067clarifying question on the subsidiary motion. If we want to make any changes to specific language in this, we can just ask to do that and then recommend the change? Right, yeah. That's how it works? Okay. Yep, it could be part of our discussion. So for example, if we're discussing the first point, which is on the regular presence of law enforcement in Hopkins schools, then revised language could be part of that discussion. And then we would do a motion in a second to approve that revised language. So that would be the subsidiary motion. Thank you. Yeah, we could do that for each point. Sure, no problem. Thanks. All right, back to you, Elliot. Yeah. Director Adams, would you like to see the results of the surveys? That's what you're asking for? Right. So I'll give a

068brief overview. Again, as of August 16th, our high school survey had 183 responses. A majority of those being white students, 89. These are current students? Yeah, these are all current students. The rising seniors, rising juniors, rising sophomores of them, now current seniors, current sophomores, current juniors, because this was taken during the summer months. So here the first question that we asked on a scale of one to five, one being not safe, five being very safe. How safe does a school resource officer make you feel? As you can see, a majority of students feeling not safe to somewhat unsafe. 46 students having no effect and then 30 in each category for somewhat safe and very safe. And here's those numbers broken down into the two major demographics that we had reply. White students saying 25% of

069them saying not safe. That's specifically 23. And the very safe was 15 students or 16.9%. with black African or African American students. 12 of them that replied in our survey said not safe, which is 33%. And only four saying they were very safe. Here is on a scale of one to five on how comfortable do you feel speaking out against the school resource officer in your school. Here, a majority of students had no comment, no effect on that. And then kind of evenly, somewhat evenly spread out, either feeling okay to speak out against the resource officer with a slight majority feeling more okay to speak out against the resource officer. Here on this page, we have some written responses. Would you like me to read these written responses again? No, that's fine. I just wanted

070to look at the data again. Okay, so I'll leave that up. Yeah. Did you survey any parents? We had private conversations with parents and opened our email addresses to them. But they weren't included in the survey? They were not included in the survey. How about staff? Staff was talking to you separately through Principal Ballard. They were given the option to reach out and have a conversation with us, talking to you. But they were not serving. They were not surveyed. Okay. I guess what concerns me is that we're talking about 1,500 students at the high school, roughly. I don't know how many hundred staff and probably 1,500 parents, at least. And 183 students are going to make the decision, essentially, for all of these interested parties. It doesn't... Doesn't seem comprehensive enough to me to draw

071a judgment at this point. I'd like to add that on chair. If you can speak to this. Did you get any emails from parents? Yeah. Yes, thank you, Mona. Yes, we received quite a few emails from parents and staff members. Some of those were addressed to me only, but the majority were addressed to the entire board. And I've gotten phone calls and emails directly also. And again, I guess the best thing to say to your point is that those who are truly affected by this, those who truly cared about how this affects them and their community members are the ones who participated. We gave the option to all to participate in our surveys. We did not close channels. We were very open, even while presenting at the workshop on the 21st to the somewhat I

072think 90 community members that were watching. We told them, come contact us, come reach out to us. We are here to continue to listen. This is not an ending conversation and it will not end tonight. This is continued. This is continued work. And we do not want to push away any one side. We are all going to be affected by what is happening. and we want to make sure that everybody is heard and what they have to say. Well, I've gotten a number of phone calls and emails from people who are not contacted, who are not aware of this until they read about it in the morning paper yesterday. So I can tell you there's quite a few concerned parents at least out there and also staff members. So who don't... aren't in favor of

073this idea. I'll just be quite honest with you. Chair Bouchard, may I say something? Yes, Director Kahn. As of 2019, I worked at the Hopkins High School. I worked for over five years. So I got to know a lot of the staff and I, you know, would go through the school and observed everybody. You know, and what I did particularly note was that the SRO's presence at the high school, you know, it was the kind where he would speak to the administrators and not to staff. You know, when everyone gathers for lunch, he never spoke to us. You know, he... When I observed students in the hall, the SRO was never seen. I didn't observe the SRO to have any conversations with students. You know, he would be standing in the mall and you know

074how all the students gather around in that center area at the mall. You know, he didn't have a relationship with them. He mostly spoke to Tracy Meyer, who was kind of like his partner. And she did a lot of behavior. And most of the time, I worked at the media center as a media para specialist. And when we had issues with students, we only called the paras. I don't even remember one occasion within my five years there that we called on the SRO to help us with whatever behavior issue we were having. We called Tracy Meyer regularly and all the other paras, but not the SRO. And then another thing is that majority of the time, sorry, I was reading somewhere that in a letter that someone said, the SROs are the kind that reach

075out to everyone and they're an important part of the high school community. He was always very standoffish and he didn't participate in any interactions with students to my knowledge. I mean, he did a little bit, but it was, I mean, he didn't really have a relationship with them. He had relationships with the administrators, but not particularly with staff or students. And that's it. Thank you. Thank you. I was concerned about this when I saw the survey results and was concerned that well first of all I didn't think I thought we needed greater participation in order to make a decision but at any rate I called Al Nunes who's a parent at the high school and is a mentor to a lot of young black males there and started this group called Invictus. And I think

076if there's anyone who's in touch with the black male student population at the high school, it's probably Al. So I called him and I said, you know, Al, what's the story? Has this guy been abusive? Has he been openly hostile to black students? He says, absolutely not. And he said, Jim's a great guy. And he talked about several instances in the last year. where Jim intervened. One was an incident where a car full of students from another school from a neighboring school district came up to the high school with the intent to cause trouble. And he said that Jim alerted the department. They responded with squad cars and intercepted them in the parking lot before anything could happen. within the high school. And he said there's been numerous other times where he intervened in the

077case of a medical emergency that a student was having with his medical training that he would intervene and assisted the student. So he said that from his standpoint, he thinks it's absolutely necessary to have an SRO at the high school and that our current one. is doing a great job. So that's Al's opinion. And I asked him, can I quote you on that? He said, absolutely. So he has at least not seen any evidence that there's any racial discrimination going on. The report that was presented to us at the workshop indicated suspensions at the high school. To my knowledge, the SRO has no role in suspensions at the high school. And then there was also a column that said referred for arrest. I'm not exactly sure what that means and what role that the SRO

078played in that. Could someone of the students enlighten me on what the referred for arrest means and what the SRO's role was in that? Chair Bouchard, just a point of information or a point of order. I think we have not yet voted on the motion to actually have discussion on this and we've gotten a bit ahead of ourselves here. Is there discussion before the motion? Don't you before we vote? No, Robert's rules of order. requires that we have a motion on the table and that we discuss the motion. And so that was what I recommended so that we could discuss each of the three parts of the motion. And it seems like we're already discussing number one, but we don't have a motion on the table. I will move to have a discussion. So I

079would look for a motion to approve the recommendations, which are to end the regular presence of law enforcement at Hopkins schools, create safe schools through positive safety and discipline measures, and reallocate the funds. I so move. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. So now we can open up our discussion. And so the first recommendation is end the regular presence of law enforcement in Hopkins schools. And the recommendation is as follows. The board will authorize the superintendent to enter into negotiations with the city of Minnetonka to end the current SRO contract with the Minnetonka Police Department before the contract expiration date of December 31st, 2020, or to not renew the contract after it expires. So I would open the floor for a board member discussion on

080this one specific part of the recommendation. And to clarify, that is for the superintendent to enter into negotiations with the city of Minnetonka, correct? Correct. Thank you. Sure. Chair Bichard? Yes, Vice Chair Latondris. So I have a few comments tonight and then a specific note on this first recommendation. And I just want to start by saying how grateful I am to the city of Minnetonka for your longtime partnership with Hopkins Public Schools and that that is a partnership that will continue regardless of tonight's vote. Today, I had the opportunity to speak with both Mayor Brad Wearsom and Police Chief Borbun to express that gratitude and to seek their perspective on tonight's decision. And just not to date myself or the chief, but he and I actually realized that he was the SRO at the high

081school when I was a student at Hopkins High School. And I have to say that my experience was a positive one, top to bottom. I have no negative memories of that. I just think it's also important to realize that my experience is not every experience of police in our schools, and we have to take that seriously. And that is why we have put student voices at the center of helping guide us through this process. And I think so one of the things that came up in these conversations with the mayor and the chief of police is that ultimately we are all on the same team. We want what's best for our community. And we want to make decisions that prioritize the health, safety, and well-being of our students. I see us, though we're in different

082municipal bodies, local government bodies, we really are one body that play different roles. I just want to acknowledge that I think that's part of what makes tonight's decision so challenging. And we've heard so many voices from members of the community. I think all of us could pick individual anecdotal stories of an individual's perspective on X or Y. But as a board member, I have to sort of zoom out and take a bigger view. So there's a few things that I want to make clear to our public and to my esteemed board colleagues. Number one, this is not a vote on abolishing the police or taking a viewpoint on that in Hopkins Public Schools. I don't personally support that. I'd also say that it's not a referendum on the Minnetonka Police Department. I am very grateful

083for Chief Bormum's leadership, building better relationships with our whole community, including in and around our schools. But speaking personally, as I take the broader view. For me, tonight's vote is a vote about spending $100,000 and specifically the opportunity to spend $100,000 more on student mental health in a pandemic and a great time of uncertainty in our community. And for me, it's about looking our families in the eye and saying that we see you. We see the extreme challenges and anxiety that you're facing right now. And we want to meet this moment. I want to meet this moment with more resources to help your child. I think it's important to acknowledge as board members that COVID-19 has blown a sledgehammer right through the middle of our public budgets. And that even before the pandemic, our district

084had to make unbelievably painful decisions that our community will remember well. to cut 2.5 million to stabilize our budget. And I think it's our responsibility, especially for large ongoing recurring expenses, to take a long hard look at the decisions that we make with those dollars. So for me, this really comes down to opportunity costs. Right now we have an opportunity to increase investments in student mental health by $100,000 in a pandemic, in a context where everywhere else we're cutting. And I think that that's a balanced, fiscally responsible decision. And at this time, I think that... represents the best stewardship of our public dollars to support student health, safety, and well-being. So overall, that's why after consulting with so many members of our community and leaders, I plan to vote in support of the resolution to

085let our current contract expire and reinvest those dollars to support student mental health. The note that I just want to make specifically on this first point is in that spirit of partnership and longstanding relationship that I think goes back like 30 plus years. The subsidiary motion that I'd offer here is I would not like to see us terminate the contract immediately. I'd like to see our district fulfill our obligations under that contract of the city of Minnetonka, not leave them in a budget lurch and have us let that. contract expire at its natural end. So I would make a subsidiary motion to amend that language to hold up our end of the bargain on the contract through the end of its... Through the end of its current term, which doesn't necessarily mean that there doesn't

086have to be discussions between leadership in the city of minute talk about what that actually means for the presence of law enforcement in our schools. But just from a financial standpoint, honors the, the commitments that we've made in minute target has planned for. Director Adams. I believe the motion does say that to end it at the end of the contract apparently expires at the end of 2020. And the motion says that it allows the superintendent to enter into negotiations, well, to terminate the contract at the end to let it expire. But, you know, in the absence of anything else that's being proposed, I just don't think that's a responsible thing to do. Chair Bouchard, just as a point of clarification there, the subsidiary motion I'm proposing is right now the language basically leaves at the

087discretion of leadership whether or not to immediately terminate the contract or let it expire at its natural end. What I'm proposing is to amend that language to specifically say that we will honor that commitment through the end of the natural contract. I understand that. Thank you. Are you making a subsidiary motion? I am making a subsidiary motion. Could you? Sure. Could you state the motion again? Well, I need some specific language perhaps with recommendation from the chair, but I'd make a subsidiary motion to amend the language in the first point to strike the language around immediately term, possibly immediately terminating the contract. I'm not looking at the language right now, but keep the language about maintaining the contract through the end of its term. So. For example, the board will authorize the superintendent to enter

088into conversation with the Minnetonka police regarding the remainder of the SRO contract. Excuse me, I'm just wordsmithing real quick. Regarding the remainder of the SRO contract and allow the contract to expire on December 31st, 2020. Sure, if that's when the contract is currently set to expire. It is. So the board will authorize the superintendent to enter into conversation with Minnetonka police regarding the remainder of the SRO contract and to not renew the contract after it expires on December 31st, 2020. Is that language suitable for your motion? Sure, so I'd make a subsidiary motion to amend the current language to reflect the language that the chair just provided the board. So, I have a motion is there a 2nd, 2nd, I have a motion in a 2nd to amend the language to reflect that the board

089will authorize the superintendent to enter into conversation with the minute of police regarding the remainder of the contract and allow the contract. to expire and not renew it. Sorry, to expire on December 31st, 2020 and not renew the contract. Any discussion? Yeah, I have a question. So is this motion saying then that we are going to keep the contract as is until it runs out? So since I made the motion, I guess I could clarify my intent would be. There's there's two separate issues here. One is the financial terms of the contract the other is the presence of an SRO in our schools. To me my motion is about the financial side that are that are this that that we would honor the current contract we would not terminate the contract immediately we would honor

090the current contract financially and that our we would empower leadership to enter into negotiations with the city of Minnetonka and the Minnetonka Police Department to figure out what the, since it's expiring, what the intervening months look like. So I have a question then, and perhaps Dr. Mary Perry-Reed, you can answer this. One of the things that I have been wondering as we've been having these conversations is, While we are distance learning and our high school students in particular are still in that mode, what services is the SRO currently providing to our district that warrants $100,000 in payment? It's a good question Director Andreessen and I think we also have Principal Ballard with us this evening. My understanding is that one of the ways this contract manifests is by having the SRO physically present mostly on

091a daily basis at our high school and sometimes physically present at our junior highs and almost never present at our elementary schools. And as I'm reviewing this contract, it doesn't say the police officer, the school resource officer must be physically present every day in a school, right? So I do think that we have some flexibility with how how we would partner with our police chief and the department to determine what this could look like during distance learning and if and when students get phased in for hybrid. Because I don't think that we... have to have the individual physically stationed in the hallway in the high school. Now to more specifically answer your question. I do know that our high school leaders did try to engage with the SRO today following the incident that Elliot described

092in his student board rep update. The SRO, I think, was not available for whatever reason, and so there was a different police officer that was sent to... to the school to just sort of debrief how we might tackle the situation. But while students are distance learning, there is no SRO at the high school. And I don't know what that individual is doing for the three or four weeks of distance learning or if we extend distance learning beyond that. So that is a question we could specifically look into and get back to the board. But it's my understanding. this individual would report to the police department and maybe have a different assignment. Principal Ballard, do you have any additional insights into Director Andreessen's question? I believe that because this distance learning is new, it's hard to

093predict in what ways we may use an SRO. I think in the school, in schools most often, We try and use them for consulting and that was the reason that we reached out to our school resource officer. This morning, just to get a better understanding of in what ways could they support. And helping us when thinking about the number of scholars that will be in the building when we get to particularly phase 4 and phase 5 of hybrid learning is a significant smaller number than if we would be in a regular school year. And I believe that with our supervisory paras also our instructional paras and the additional support that is in our school, we are able to manage and engage with our scholars and limit access or the need for SRO. Dr. Mary period

094kind of extending on director. Andresen's comments. Essentially, if we look at the contract as it stands today, we've been paying the Minnetonka Police Department. Basically, we paid them for presence in the high school January, February, and March. From March forward, we were distance learning, which was three months of school. for all intents and purposes, that annual contract of $113,000 will have been paid out for between six and eight months of no onsite presence. So I have to admit, that's a lot of money paid for no physical services rendered, in my opinion. And I struggle with the concept of paying out the end of the contract when, in actuality, services rendered by the police department would have been minimal for six months out of that contract already. Director Peterson, from a technical perspective, I would agree

095with you. However, I don't know if Assistant Principal Tennyson is in our meeting with us this evening. She could provide some insight about whether the SRO was... you know, called or deployed and, you know, in any fashion during those three months of distance learning. If it happened, I'm quite sure it happened, you know, just on a couple of occasions. But we could get that information for you. So you're absolutely correct. I mean, this, like I said before, how this manifests is the physical. SRO presence in our high school, usually daily when we are in-person learning and we're just not in that context right now. Chair Bouchard? Yes, Vice Chair Latondras. So Director Peterson, I hear your concerns on that and I actually identify with that with, you know, I think the thing I think about

096balancing that out with is This pandemic is unprecedented. We are with the city of Minnetonka, partners in local government, all in a position where we are having to pay out all sorts of contracts that have been significantly disrupted in terms of personnel in the midst of this pandemic. We do it in our district with our drivers. I know that was required by law, but my point is... Though the services might look different, the ways in which local government depends on those who have contractual obligations with them, particularly as it relates to revenue, I can certainly appreciate that as a school board member, and I would imagine our colleagues over at the City of Minnetonka are looking at their revenues the same way. And I'm just trying to imagine, just with a little empathy, and what

097it would be like to be in partnership with some other entity that we depend on for revenue, regardless of what the purpose of those services are or those services rendered. And to have that revenue disappear overnight rather than on a planned basis, say at the end of the natural cycle of a contract. I think the other point I'd make is it also would call into question, I don't think it's a good practice for an institution of our size to break contracts. I think it's a good practice for us to fulfill our contracts. It speaks to our credibility with other people we're signing contracts with that we fulfill our contractual obligations. I did want to share with board members that Principal Ballard is in communication with Assistant Principal Tennyson and we wanted to share that the

098SRO during distance learning was helped conduct wellness checks for our students and we can get data for you how frequently those visits occurred and also approximate total number of students. Thank you. That's important information to have. So we're still discussing the subsidiary motion, which is the language change to the first part of the recommendation. Any other board member comments or questions? So let's take just one additional. Gathering information via text fabulous. Yes. Multiple ways of gathering information regarding the wellness checks. There were very few conducted in total because sending the officer. May have been an. an unwelcome presence for some families or taken some families off guard but the SRO was very helpful in dropping off some letters to families and checking in with a few families to make sure they were okay. Thank you

099for that additional context. Any further discussion on the subsidiary motion? Could I add to that point if it's possible? Absolutely. Thank you. To speak on the wellness checks, I'd like to share my thoughts on that, but it's important that we aren't giving police officers the opportunity to do wellness checks on students. It's important that social workers, counselors have that opportunity to speak with students because at the end of the day, SROs aren't counselors and support staff. So, thank you. Thank you, Muna. Any other discussion on the subsidiary motion? So to clear up tonight. Oh, sorry, of course. Um, my thoughts on that as well. Um, personally, my thoughts on sending the police to students houses without their consent is violence. I think that everyone has different circumstances and different experiences. The police, you never know

100what will happen. There's been many instances where police have been called for wellness checks and they have shot the person. There's been many instances where outcome just wasn't positive. And I would like to look into that in my own time, but those are just my thoughts. Thank you very much, Arielle. Any other board member comments or questions about the subsidiary motion? So just to clarify, as we vote on the subsidiary motion, this is just a vote to change the language on the recommendation. We're not yet approving that recommendation. We're voting to change the language on just the first part of the recommendation. So let me read the language again. So the subsidiary motion, so we have the motion in the second, and it's the board will authorize the superintendent to enter into conversation with the

101Minnetonka police regarding expectations for the remainder of the SRO contract and to not renew the contract after it expires on December 31st, 2020. So, we'll go to clerk Andreessen for the roll call vote. Excuse me for clarification. We're just voting on the language, not on the actual motion. Correct we're just voting on the language change. All right, thank you. Any other discussion. Sure could you do you have a record of what the language was? Yes. And that would be helpful for me. Okay, so the language is in your packet? Yes. And so it's the board will authorize the superintendent to enter into negotiations with the city of Minnetonka to end the current SRO contract with the Minnetonka Police Department before the contract expiration date of December 31st, 2020, or to not renew the contract after

102it expires. So that's the original language. Thank you. Okay, any further discussion? So we'll take the roll call vote on the subsidiary motion to change the language. Clerk Andreessen. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. Director Adams. Aye. Director Ahmed. Aye. Director Andreessen. Nay. Director Kahn. Aye. Director Latondris. Aye. DIRECTOR HAMPSON. Director Peterson. NAY. And Chair Bouchard. AYE. So I heard five ayes, two nays, motion carries. I would propose, I promised the group a break around nine o'clock and this seems like a good time because I'm anticipating robust discussion to come. So I move that we take a 10 minute recess and reconvene at 9.01. Is there a second? I second. I have a motion and a second to take a recess and reconvene at 9.01. Any discussion? Clerk Andreessen. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. Director Adams. Aye. Director

103Ahmed. Aye. Director Andreessen. Aye. Director Kahn. Aye. Director Latondris. Aye. Director Peterson. Aye. And Chair Bouchard. Aye. Thank you, Clerk. And resend. Seven ayes, zero nays. Motion carries. I will see you all at 9.01. Okay. This meeting of the Hopkins School Board is reconvened at 9.01 p.m. Just to remind us where we're all at process wise, we are discussing the recommendation, the three part recommendation under agenda item A, which is the student resource, the resource officer SRO contract review. We just approved a subsidiary motion to change the language on the first recommendation. Before we leave the first recommendation, I just wanted to make a couple points of clarification to enter them into the public record. So I was grateful as well to have a conversation with Chief Orboom on August 28th. I had some questions

104for him regarding the training of Minnetonka police officers generally, and then the additional training. that SROs received. And if you look in your packet under this agenda item, there is a document that Chief Boerboom shared with me that details the training that all Minnetonka police officers receive. And then he clarified for me that after an officer is chosen to be an SRO, that officer receives additional training through the National School Resource Officers Organization, an SRO. So I wanted to make sure that that clarification was entered into the record. Another point as we engage in this discussion really about redefining our relationship with local law enforcement, as Elliot mentioned during the review, we will maintain a relationship with local law enforcement. What we're discussing tonight is a relationship that does not include daily police presence in

105our schools. And I just wanted to add some additional data points to that discussion. So in our recommendation from the students, we saw data broken down by race. And I think that's incredibly important. And a lot of the research that I've done regarding the national context, which of course informs the local context, right? We don't exist in a vacuum. We are all living through this moment together and it's important to understand the national context on SROs. So nationally the data also shows disproportionality regarding the experiences of LGBTQ plus students and students who access special services when it comes to negative interactions with SROs and police more generally. And so I just wanted to make sure that those data points were included in our discussion. And I do want to reinforce what Dr. Mary Puri-Reed said

106about mental health and the mental impact of having a police officer in schools on a daily basis. Just wanted to offer one final point and it can lead us into the second recommendation if my board colleagues don't have any other additional points to make on this first recommendation or the first part of the recommendation, but if you do, absolutely, we can continue to discuss it. But I was thinking through logistics. as I often do. And if there was ever time to make this transition, so to move from daily police presence in our schools to a different relationship with the Minnetonka police, it would be now. And I think Director Peterson made that point well, that we have been in distance learning for quite some time. Right now, we are in our Hopkins strong start, so

107that... represents a delayed start to in-person learning. When we begin in-person learning in the hybrid model, we will have fewer students in our buildings. And I mentioned this during the workshop, but it bears repeating that we really have an opportunity right now with our new leadership, especially at Hopkins High School and North Junior High, and our continued strong leadership at West Junior High, to come up with a model. for student safety, all of us working together, right? The board in our roles, administration in their roles, students and staff working together to come up with a new model. And I think this just provides us with a really unique opportunity to be able to do that. So that's all I wanted to say about the first point. Any other board member comments? Chair Bouchard? Yes, Director

108Adams. Are we going to be voting on the three resolutions individually or as a whole? As a whole. So we're discussing them all individually. We can make our subsidiary motions to change the language, etc. And then we'll vote on the recommendation as a whole. Okay, thank you. Of course. Any other conversation on the first item? Okay, so we'll move on to the second part of the recommendation, which is create safe schools through positive safety and discipline measures. The policy and monitoring committee of the Hopkins School Board shall review our discipline and safety policies and bring revised policies before the board that emphasize ways of maintaining positive safety without police presence, promoting restorative practices, and eradicating racial disparities. in district-wide disciplinary practices. I would imagine that our policy and monitoring committee has some thoughts about this

109part of the recommendation. Do we need to move to discuss? We don't because we already have a motion and a second on the table to be able to discuss the recommendation as a whole. So, Chair Bichard, the context that offer for the benefit of our public, and this is definitely a point of this conversation for some of your earlier points that we've been doing this work about reimagining our spaces for a very, very long time. The work of the Policy and Monitoring Committee in partnership and in consultation with our... school leadership, school leaders, educators has been looking specifically at our school discipline policies and trying to reimagine what those might look like to create more positive, safe spaces for all of our students, all of our educators and our community. And that is work that

110continues and is work that is front and center for the policy and monitoring committee. And I think that that's going to be. I know we have some community questions about both policy and practice of in the absence of a school resource officer, what will... public safety look like? What will student safety look like? And that's where a lot of that work is already well underway. You know, one reference point that I'd give to our community, and I'd be interested perhaps to have Director Adams fill in some additional context here, or perhaps a superintendent, is our neighboring district and our partner district, District 287. that deals with a lot of our students who are dealing with the most extreme mental health situations and behaviors that are not always pro-social behaviors has recently removed school resource officers

111from their school. And I'd refer to our public. There's actually a great roundup of some of the results of that. But again, I wanna refer. defer to some of my colleagues on this. There's a MinnPost article for the benefit of our public if they want to read a little bit more of this on June 25th of this year, titled No Police in Schools, This Minnesota District Committed to an Alternative Four Years Ago. And it talks a little bit about some of the results of that work. And I think it reinforces the point that Number one, there's an opportunity cost when you're spending money on police officers, what aren't you spending money on? And then it also raises the possibility of what's possible when you are reimagining what school safety looks like and reallocating those resources.

112So I sort of called on both Director Adams, if you're willing to share, and Superintendent Mary Perry-Reed, but I'd be interested to get your additional insights on that. Sure, I'd be willing to share with that. That decision to take the police out of the 287 schools happened before I was on the board. So I don't know the entirety of the discussion. But the 287 schools are in multiple municipalities, I think in about six of them actually. And so every municipality had their own police force. supply an SRO to that particular school. And I did talk to Chief Beerbaum yesterday because he was involved in the discussions with 287 also, because one of their schools is in our district in the Opus area. And he said that he had, his officer who was the SRO at

113the time did not feel safe in that school. asked for an additional SRO to be assigned to the school. And that's the discussion that took place with Sandy Levandusky over at 287. And as a result, they decided it was gonna be too expensive for them to put another SRO in there. And so they elected to go without an SRO at that school. Subsequently, the decision, I guess, was made to do that at all schools. They were spending over a million dollars a year in SROs and considering the makeup of the student body, it was a lot of kids in real dire needs psychologically, physically, you know, all kinds. They decided that they would try a different model and put what they call student safety officers in each school. So it was more of a financial

114decision than it was driven by any evidence that they had that the SROs were abusing kids or showing bias or anything. So yeah, it was a financial decision. And so far, it has worked out pretty well. They have, however, had to call police departments in some of those jurisdictions. Just this last year, I think up at Ann Bremmer's school, which is up in Brooklyn Park, they had some severe incidents up there, which required multiple squad cars to be called to the school and fights be broken up and assaults on staff stopped and things like that. So it hasn't eliminated the need for police in the schools. Unfortunately, so just as a quick follow up question there, director Adams, but also just an observation. I think you made. 2 interesting points that stand out to me

1151 is. In some ways, this is a financial decision as well. There are opportunity costs associated with the dollars we spend on certain types of public safety versus where those dollars could be spent other where else there are other surrounding districts that make those calculations. The other piece is, I mean, you weren't there when the district made the decision, but you have sat on this board. In the meantime, have there been any serious considerations about calling SROs back, even in a context where there are some incidents where law enforcement has to be called in? No, because it'd be far more expensive than their safety officers. So, you know, they're in the same financial situation that we are. So I don't think they would elect to spend. I think the current budget for school safety officers

116is around. probably six, 700,000 to add the additionals that go up over a million just in the current economic environment would not be something that they'd even consider. And one final question for you just quickly. So has the decision to remove SROs harmed the relationship between District 287 and surrounding police departments such that when there is a serious concern for public safety or student safety, local police departments, what's the local police department response like in situations where they are called to respond? It's tentative. Let me put it like that. I can speak to the Ann Bremer situation in Brooklyn Park. As I said, there were multiple incidents there in the last year where they had to call the police and several squad cars showed up. And they were concerned because the police did not have

117constant ongoing relationships with the students there anymore. So the staff had to kind of intervene and try and point the officers in the right direction to the perpetrators. But I don't know how effective that was, honestly, if it saved lives or not saved lives or resulted in any additional arrests. I'm sure it did. So I can't speak to... if it resulted in a positive or negative relationship. I think it just resulted in kind of a non-relationship. Although Sandy has said that the Brooklyn Park Police Department is very aware of their situation there and the nature of their student body. And the current administration is understanding of that and responsive. Thanks for that. You never know what cop is going to show up. Sure. Thanks for that helpful insight. And it sounds like just like any

118other institution, public institution that's suffering a security incident, they still have relationship with law enforcement, though it's not as deeply embedded as it once was. The other question I have is for Superintendent Mary Perry-Reed. Do you know anything about specifically the practices that they've implemented there? And if there's anything we might learn from what they've done that would have implications for an SRO-free Hopkins? Thank you for your question Director LaTondris. I do and more at a higher level the the member superintendents the superintendents who have membership in District 287 have quarterly meetings with Superintendent Sandy and so we do receive updates from her during in-person or virtual meetings. So, and to also build on what Director Adams explained, but also to clarify a couple of things. The individuals that replaced the SROs, they're not called

119officers, they're called student safety coaches. They wanted to move away from that sort of officer language. They received training in crisis prevention and intervention. with heavy emphasis on de-escalation techniques. They are very, very big on relationship building. They get to know students. They check in with students when students get off buses, when students are entering buildings. They eat lunch with students. And so one of the, I guess you could call it a high leverage practice throughout. 287 schools is building the relationship first so that if something happens it's much easier to deescalate. And so Sandy has talked about those individuals being highly trained. They're highly visible. They're very proactive. They screen students. They spend time in hallways and classrooms. And at the first sign of struggle, they are there to start working with students in

120a personalized way. I think another thing to note is in addition to the the financial cost of having school resource officers Sandy did talk about the students that she serves already being heavily policed in their own communities and that these students frequently came to school with mental health and as a result of their mental health issues also had behavioral issues and were frequently you know called out and arrested by the school resource officers which just exacerbated their already dire personal circumstances and so in addition to the financial cost being a very equity driven leader superintendent sandy felt compelled that they had to move in a different direction to in order to put students and students safety and psychological safety first. So those would be a few of my comments reflecting what I've learned from her

121over the last couple of years. Yeah that's super helpful and I don't mean to monopolize the time I just have one quick follow-up question for you Superintendent Reed. In the event right now we have an SRO in our space pre-COVID. There's students in our spaces and you know the SRO is at North Junior High and a fight breaks out at the high school. How do we deal with incidents right now in the absence of an SRO? It seems like we don't have an SRO in every building. We have spaces that we've figured out how to govern in the absence of an SRO already. How do we, how does staff handle? those situations and how might that be enhanced if we had additional funding to implement the kind of policies and practices that you're just describing

122from our friends over at 287? So I think what's challenging about this is I'm not sure if Principal Ballard is still with us. So I would... I think it would be important to have Assistant Principal Tennyson to speak accurately to how physical incidents were managed. I do know that the goal was to not have the SRO involved unless it was absolutely necessary. And so when there is some kind of a verbal or physical altercation between students, whether at the high school or junior high, the goal is to have paraprofessionals, administration work with students to de-escalate and to get students calm. and separated because we we do know that students some students can be um can be in a very triggered space if they are also being managed by a police officer so we we do

123know that that that that doesn't all having an sro involved doesn't always have the impact or the result that that we're seeking so um When, oh, and here is Assistant Principal Tennyson. So she can speak to this more. The SRO really was in place. in the event of a very, very dangerous situation, you know, and, you know, we don't normally have those, but if there's a weapon, of course, we want a police officer present. For verbal or physical altercations between students, there are staff who are trained on how to de-escalate and separate students safely. Is there anything you'd want to add? Assistant principal Tennyson in terms of past practice, because principal Ballard obviously is is new to our system. Sure, I mean, I would say you good evening. Everybody. I'm jumping on, I'm sorry, I'm

124probably not super familiar with school board protocols, so I might be just doing a terrible job right now, but you're right. Dr. Mary Perry read that we administrators and our paraprofessionals have been trained in de-escalation, and so we are the primary people who intervene in physical situations. I would say the past practice is that our school resource officer has intervened. If he happens to be out in the mall when it's happening and we do not want our school resource officer to be the primary person to intervene and even if he did help us with some sort of physical situation, it's always passed off to administration right away. The students would be in my office or our other administrators offices. So that's, I think that's the only thing I would add. Thank you, Assistant Principal Tennyson.

125And as far as board protocol, I thought you did great. Thank you for jumping on in such short notice. We appreciate you being here. And really quick, the second part of my question there is how might we be able to enhance those current practices in a way that promotes student wellness and safety if we had more resources to spend on that? Well, first... Dr. Lightfoot has reminded me that we actually have all of the safety coach training materials that 287 used when they trained their student safety coaches. And so I believe what we imagine is partnering with our students, partnering with our staff and our families, and also with the Minnetonka Police Department to... to envision a culture of positive, I'll say police-free, but in a physical sense, right? A positive school culture where students

126feel psychologically, socially, emotionally, physically safe, and yet there are specific individuals who have the training to recognize when students may be triggered, maybe experiencing high levels of anxiety or, you know, are in conflict with their peers. So we could use the resources to train adults, to train students, to provide opportunities for students to learn deregulation. skills, self-regulation skills. You know, there's, I mean, I feel like the list is long for what we could use those dollars for, whether it's a specific person that has a very, very specific skill set or a group of adults and perhaps student leaders who work as a collective to pay attention to the individual and collective psyche of the school. And I'm not sure if Principal Ballard or Assistant Principal Tennyson have anything to add to that. If it's possible

127I'd like to answer that question and add that our recommendation um highlighted that answer so what our review committee brought to you as district leaders is the implementation of restorative justice practices as it was mentioned and what that does is that restorative justice practices help dissolve conflict and end conflict since restorative practices are based on building relationships so that's the way our district can utilize that. Thank you very much. Other board member comments or questions? Chair Bouchard? Yes. I have a question about how we pay for this SRO. Is it out of our general fund or is it out of the school safety dollars that we get from the state? Maybe Terrero knows the answer to that. Sure, Director Adams. It's out of our general fund. Okay. It's always out of the general fund. All

128right. So as I've been engaging with community members over the past week, many of them have expressed that they want to be involved in this process of redefining our relationship with the Minnetonka Police. They want to have input. As I mentioned in my opening comments, they are very invested in this notion of safety in our schools and a holistic approach to safety. And so what I'm hoping is, you know, thinking about the revised language that we approved with the subsidiary motion in the first part of the recommendation, that gives some time and flexibility. through December 31st, 2020 in terms of the SRO contract, authorizes our superintendent to enter into conversation with the Minnetonka police about what a redefined relationship might look like. We also have this second piece. that combines policy and practice, right? So

129the policy decisions that we would be making as a board, those would need to be informed by the practitioners, by our administrators, certainly by our students who are most impacted by these policies and by people in our community. And so I see a real possibility for community engagement. around this second piece as we're talking about redefinition. And we've already started to transition into the third piece of the recommendation, which is the reallocation of funds. So I guess I would ask at this point if there are any more comments or questions about the second part of the recommendation before we move into the third. Chair Bouchard? Yes. I had a community question that has come up that I'm also wondering as we went through part of this process have we incorporated the findings from the district-wide

130security risk assessment that was completed in 2019 as part of this discussion? So we did take a look into that assessment that was done on our school district. However, we were never made aware if it was able to be made public because of security concerns. So we were made aware of multiple recommendations. It was part of your assessment and your process, correct? It was part of our assessment, but we did not include it because we were not told nor denied if it was able to be shared during public comment for security reasons. So it's not in the recommendation currently. But it was factored into your recommendations. Right, right. Yeah, we took it into consideration. We discussed what it would look like in planting it into our school system and what their recommendations specifically were. I

131don't know if I'm allowed to discuss the specifics of it, but yes. Yeah, no need for specifics. Just wondering about that. And I think that also that would probably be a really good tool for us on the monitoring committee as we go through our process of policy work around this issue as well. Thank you, Elliot. Yep. I think also one thing to note about that safety audit or the security audit, Director Andreessen, is that there was a heavy focus on the physical and facility safety of our buildings, not necessarily students' perceived or psychological safety or their own sense of mental health. And we did discuss... the absence of that component while we were engaging in that audit. Thank you. Thank you. So let's move on to the third part of the recommendation, which is the

132reallocation of funds. So I'll read the recommendation. The administration will reallocate the funds currently paid to the Minnetonka Police Department for, sorry, phrasing. The administration will reallocate the funds currently paid to the Minnetonka Police Department for a school resource officer to mental health support in our schools and building a positive school climate. I think we did. start to get into this under the second recommendation, which is fine. But wondering if board members have any other thoughts about the reallocation of funds. Chair Bouchard. Yes. You know, I'd like to see a limit put on that. My concern is that we're going to end up with a far more expensive recommendation than we're currently experiencing with the SROs. $113,000 a year doesn't buy you much in the way of staff. And I can just envision where we're

133faced with a recommendation that we spend 300,000 for what we're essentially getting right now for 113. So I'd like to see, I don't know if I want to amend the proposal, but... Please keep in mind that I don't think we should in this current climate expand more than what we're currently expanding now for SRO at Dottie School. Thank you for that and the way I read the recommendation is it will be we will be taking the money that's currently going toward that contract and reallocating that amount but I'm open to making that language more specific in the recommendation through a subsidiary motion. I'll just like to add that we 100% agree with Mr. uh, director Adams. We, we do not plan to spend more. Then what is given in that contract? Um. That that's part

134of what we, we believe we do not want to spend more in this current pandemic with the lack of budget that we have. Good Thank you. Yeah. Chair, you know, the rate the way I. read the spirit and both the spirit and the letter of this part of the resolution is that we are as a board directing our administration to not simply reabsorb these funds into the general fund and that this resolution is purposely worded to make it clear that we want those funds not necessarily more funds but those funds administered to all the things listed there that have been discussed tonight. And for me, I know, I don't think the resolution would need to be amended for this, but I would certainly as a board member have an interest. And I would imagine our

135public would as well. I would want to see. Once a recommendation, a specific recommendation has been made on how to use those funds and how they will be intended to be used, that we get a board report on that or a workshop. And we get annual reports on all sorts of topics as a board. I would like to see for the next couple of years annually, a accounting of this, both for the board benefit and our public's benefit. We reallocated these resources. Well, we stopped doing this. We started doing this and this is what the results have been. This is what we're learning. This is what's going well. This is what's not going well. But I certainly would be interested in getting that kind of an annual report from our district leadership. I would agree

136with that. And I'd also like to offer further recommendation that we as a board, once we have the policy components together, so for our listening public who don't normally attend board meetings, first of all, welcome. We're so glad. that you're engaging with us tonight. But we typically bring policies before the board. I should say our policy and monitoring committee brings policies before the board in batches. So you'll see the next agenda item here will be policies that are coming before us in first reading. And then we have we make comments. Policies come before us in second reading and that we approve those policy changes. And I think that can be really it can seem really disjointed. Right. We see the through line as board members. because we are doing this work constantly. But I think

137for our community members, it can feel like a very disjointed process. And so what I would recommend we do as a board is schedule a workshop toward the end of the year when we've done the calendar year. I mean, when we've done some of this policy heavy lifting, when there's a plan for the reallocation of funds. when we've had our conversations with the Minnetonka police and we've redefined that relationship and bring it as a package before our community so that our community can truly understand the different pieces of the puzzle here and how they all fit together. Chair Bouchard? Yes. Hi, I was wondering if we might want to think about calling out specifically the recommendation for that was in the report that we got from the student review of restorative justice practices. If we

138want to specifically name that in the reallocation of funds or if just any other thoughts on that. I wonder also to Elliot or Muna, if you would have any thoughts on that. Do you want to speak about the dignity of schools or? I'm sorry I wasn't able to hear that. Could you repeat that if it's possible? Yes, I was just wondering if we wanted to add into the language of the reallocation of funds the. The the specific recommendation that you had practices. That came out of your report to the school board or maybe perhaps mental health and. if that covers it. Right. Yeah. Thank you. It does. Yeah. We'd like to have that be included in the official process of the reallocation of funds. And there's been included in our recommendation the huge source we

139use, which was dignity in schools. And they have a huge process of how that exactly looks into our schools and implementing restorative practices. in district wide schools all over. So I think it's vital that that's included so our schools can be safer positively. Then I would like to make a subsidiary motion that we include restorative practices in the third part of the reallocation of funds section. Point of information before we vote on the motion just to bring to the attention that language does actually currently exist in the in item three. Oh, it does. Okay, sorry, I didn't hear it. And I can't. Thanks. Chair Bouchard, maybe could you just read that third one just for the benefit of our public and the board so that we're all on the same page of what's reflected there.

140Sure, I'll read it as written. So the administration will reallocate the funds currently paid to the Minnetonka Police Department for a school resource officer to mental health support in our schools and building a positive school climate. So Director Andreessen, what I'm hearing you say and Muna as well is us inserting a specific mention of restorative practices. Yes. So I guess I was looking at item two. Item two specifically calls out the restorative practice. So if we could add maybe and say building a positive school climate through restorative practice. Yeah, right at the end there. Or mental health support and restorative practice. So perhaps the administration will reallocate the funds currently paid to the Minnetonka Police Department for a school resource officer to mental health support in our schools and building a positive school climate through

141restorative practices. How about mental health support and restorative practices in our schools, wait, comma, no and, and then and building a positive school climate. Yeah. So to mental health support, comma, restorative practices in our schools, comma, and building a positive school climate. Yes. Look at that. I just added an Oxford comma. Just like that. I love it. I love it. All right. So, Director Ingresen, could you, well, I'll read the language. you can make the motion and then we'll, the subsidiary motion, that will work for a second, then we'll vote on the adapted language. So number three, reallocation of funds. So I would look for a motion to approve the updated language that I will read now. The administration will reallocate the funds currently paid to the Minnetonka Police Department for a school resource officer

142to mental health support in our schools. Excuse me. The administration will reallocate the funds currently paid to the Minnetonka Police Department for a school resource officer to mental health support, restorative practices in our schools, and building a positive school climate. I so move. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second to amend the language of the third. section of the recommendation as previously read. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to Clerk Andreessen for the roll call vote. Thank you, Chair Brouchard. Director Adams? Aye. Director Ahmed? Aye. Director Andreessen? Aye. Director Khan? Aye. Director LaTondris? Aye. Director Peterson aye and Chair Bouchard aye. Thank you Clerk Andreessen. I heard seven ayes, zero nays. A subsidiary motion to change the language in the third part of the recommendation carries.

143Any further discussion on the third part of the recommendation? Checking my notes to see if I had anything. I'd just like to underline that obviously all three parts of the recommendation work together and that the conversation around the specific conversation around the reallocation of funds will necessarily happen in concert with conversations around policy change and practice change. So thinking about if the board approves the entire recommendation tonight, that all of these elements are going to work together with one another. And we all have a role to play in that process to make sure that moving forward, we have a holistic plan. So with that, are we ready to vote on the overall recommendation? I have a quick question for you, Chair Bouchard. Chair Elliott. Does this include your follow-up workshop near the end of the

144calendar year, this motion, planning this follow-up workshop with the full plan about reallocation of funds or the update with the Minnetonka Police Department? So that language is not included specifically in the recommendation. I was proposing that as a point of process that I think it would be best practice for us as a board to hold a workshop of that sort because I as chair work closely with Dr. Mary Perry-Reed in setting the agenda. I would be happy to create an agenda that reflects that. Thank you. Thank you. Chair Bouchard. Yes, Director Adams. I would like to speak in opposition to this motion. I think it's based on scant or almost non-existent evidence. As I mentioned earlier, it didn't include staff. The survey did not include staff. It did not include parents. It relies on the

145opinions of 183 kids out of about 1600 at the high school and only about a third of whom feel strongly negatively about the SRO. So essentially about 30 to 50 kids are making this decision for the district. we got a lot of emails, I realized. Most of those did not identify if they were a student, if they were an alum, if they were a non-resident. We get these emails and it says who it's from, but they don't specify what the relation to the district is. So I can't really rely on that. And I've gotten plenty of feedback from parents and staff saying that they think of school without, they would feel less safe in a school without a school SRO than they would in a school with one. So I realized that some kids in

146the school feel intimidated or triggered by the appearance of a non-uniformed officer in their school. And I just don't think that... that's enough to rely on for this, to support this proposal. And a non-uniform officer is useful in many situations as El Nunez pointed out to me when I had a conversation yesterday. So I will be voting against this resolution. I would just, sorry Elliot, I would just kind of a similar just sort of sharing of my thoughts on the matter. I did a quite a bit of research. When this, I would almost call it a movement by Muna and Elliot and the other students started, I read a lot of educational articles, studies. I ingrained myself in the social media posts done by our students. And so I was able to not only garner

147and read a lot of the opinions in the, what is it, over a thousand signatures on the petitions. I feel that the survey, while maybe limited the majority of the information that I garnered both on the educational research done on the efficacy of NSRO as well as the thoughts and feelings of our students through social media and the petition and the emails we received as well as the alumni, for me provided a very clear picture of where the majority of our community stands, just personally. I would like to add to the conversation that this isn't about, not that this isn't about, but the specific detail of he is an un-uniformed officer. That person is carrying a gun in our school. His hand is constantly on his gun in the hallways when talking to other administrators,

148when walking around. That is very noticeable. It is very present. It is not something that you pass easily. Every time he walks by, you notice he has a gun, and it is not in any way discretionary, not kept under covers, not kept anything. To add to that, the school resource officer that we had had a Blue Lives Matter sticker on his door. And I don't know if you know the history about this Blue Lives Matter sticker. but it is in direct opposition to Black Lives Matter, in direct opposition. Not saying that whichever school resource officer that we have or had is against this group of students or this group of people generally, but to put or place someone like that with those intentions in our school, with such a diverse student body that we do

149have, in such an empathetic student body that we have, because we, me as a white student and a majority of white students have the ability to understand what our peers are going through on a day-to-day basis. What decision are we making as a school board? And this is not 100% about physical safety. This is the trauma that comes with not only school resource officers, but just generally guns in our schools. We're seeing a pistol every day if we walk in our door last year. This is more than just safety. This is trauma. This is mental illness. This is very heavy things that is causing lasting damages to a large part of our student body. And I hope you all seriously consider what this system we have in place is. What are we designing? What are

150we manufacturing in our students and our scholars' minds? Are they there to learn? Are they there to learn or are they there to be traumatized? I don't know. I don't know specifically. I know, Chris, you had a school resource officer growing up in your school, but I don't know how you felt with his gun there. But why do we have a gun in the presence of me? Why do I have a gun in the presence? Like, why? Like, why do I need it there? There's other measures we can take to ensure safety of students that always don't have to come with. It's traumatizing. This hurts. I hope you all seriously consider that. True, Bouchard. Just in response to Elliot's remark, when I asked the question at the workshop whether we should remove the armed uniformed

151officers from football games and basketball games and any other events, I was told that no, students were not traumatized by them. I don't know why. And they could request that the officer remove his gun. Maybe make that response, you know, a request to the police department. I think just eliminating the position altogether is not a reasonable response. I'd like to add that especially students of color, just the presence of police scare us. And personally for me, even if the police officer had a gun on him or didn't, if that changes were made, I'd still feel criminalized, profiled, and scared to learn in that environment. It's important that as district leaders, we understand that SROs are more likely to harm Black students. Thank you. I would also like to say that me as like a black

152male and growing up with police and everything, I never really felt protected by police officers. I feel like they're more of a threat to me. And also I... I go to Hopkins, I live in North Minneapolis. I go to Hopkins for a lot of things and everything like that. And it'd be very convenient for me to get my license and to, for commute, community sake and stuff like that, for practicing and my involvement in the community. But I have chosen not to get my license, not to drive because of how scared I am to get pulled over and whether or not I'm gonna be home, go home after that engagement with the cops. So thank you. Can I also speak to the perhaps misconstruing the, I will acknowledge about the officer being in plain clothes.

153I would say that to clarify for the members of the board and the members of the community that my personal experience with the student resource officer is that that they may wear street clothes, but that they are generally clearly identifiable as an officer because of the weapons that they carry. Thank you very much to all the students for the clarifications. I wanted to offer one additional clarification. As board chair, I have both the privilege and responsibility of responding personally to every email that comes to the entire board. And there have been many of these emails that identify the author as a current Hopkins student, as an alum, as a parent. And I think it's important to recognize that these voices are coming from our community. They're here tonight at our meeting. We have made, we

154passed a resolution. supporting our intent to center student voice and especially students who have been historically marginalized in our system, who our system, our Hopkins School system has failed. And I'm so grateful for the courage of our students who have brought their voice into this board space. You know, when we talk about culture and whiteness, local government is a very, very white space, culturally speaking, and also just racially speaking, looking at the makeup of our local governing bodies. And so I'd like to just recognize the strength and the courage and the risk that our students took. in coming forward to share their truth. And I'm talking about the students here tonight. I'm also talking about every single student who has reached out to me and said, I was scared to speak this truth before, but

155now I know I have to. And this is a decision that you as district leaders need to make for the safety of our students, all of our students. I think the conversation we've had tonight really reflects the holistic research that my board colleagues have done. In addition to the report that we received from the students, it was wonderful to get further insight into Dr. Mary Perry-Reed's thought process around some innovative alternatives to think about as we redefine this relationship with the Minnetonka Police. And deep gratitude to Principal Ballard, who is brand new to our system. And not only leading through COVID and the dual pandemic of COVID and systemic racism, but also entering into this conversation with us tonight. And of course, Assistant Principal Tennyson for jumping in. I'm grateful for the team effort this

156evening around this discussion. And I'm grateful again. to my partners in local government. I've spoken with our partners in local government. I've spoken with two Minnetonka City Council members and of course, as I mentioned earlier, Chief Vorboom about this. And those have been very productive conversations. As we chart a course together, that will truly serve our community as it is now, not as it once was. So those are my closing remarks. Chair Bouchard, I just offer the closing comment that is a very rare opportunity for a local governing body, particularly in the context of the budget decisions we have to make where we are cutting year after year after year. to have an opportunity to take a long, hard look at a recurring expense, not a one-time expense. These are the hardest dollars for us

157to come by and ask long, hard questions about what we do with those dollars and how those dollars can be used to best promote student wellness, safety, and health. And to me, this is not, as I said before, a any reflection in my mind. I trust the voices of our students, but it's not a reflection on our relationship with Minnetonka Police Department. It's not even a reflection on the idea that the presence of an SRO may have come with some benefits. It is a dollars and cents decision to give our leadership the resources they need to build a pro-social environment that promotes the safety and health and wellness of our students. And if I didn't think that we needed those dollars to make those changes, I'd be voting no today. But I'll vote yes, because

158I think we need those resources. Thank you, Vice Chair LaTondris. Any other board member comments? So procedurally, we still have the main motion on the table. There have been two subsidiary motions that we've passed. And so what I'd like to do is read the recommendation that incorporates the new language, look for a motion in a second, just to make sure that we're all on the same page with the new language, and then vote after that. So I would look for a motion to approve the recommendation as follows. Number one, excuse me, I have to find my notes. End the regular presence of law enforcement in Hopkins schools. The board will authorize the superintendent to enter into conversation with the Minnetonka police regarding expectations for the remainder of the SRO contract and to not renew the

159contract after it expires on December 31st, 2020. Create safe schools through positive safety and discipline measures. The Policy and Monitoring Committee of the Hopkins School Board shall review our discipline and safety policies and bring revised policies before the board that emphasize ways of maintaining positive safety without police presence, promoting restorative practices, and eradicating racial disparities in district-wide disciplinary practices. Three, the reallocation of funds. The administration will reallocate the funds currently paid to the Minnetonka Police Department for a school resource officer to mental health support, restorative practices in our schools, and building a positive school climate. A reminder that I'm looking for a motion. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Clerk Andreessen. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. Director Adams. No. Director Ahmed.

160Was that Director Andreessen? Aye. Director Khan. Aye. Director LaTondris. Aye. Director Peterson. Aye. Director Ahmed. Aye. And Chair Bouchard? Aye. I have six ayes, one nay. Motion carries. Next we'll move to the resolution authorizing bond presale and Director Chapenduka. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. So the next order is actually in relation to our bond sales. So what we've done this year is we are actually moving our timelines for our bond sale to actually this fall. The reason why we are doing that is to give enough time for our buildings and grounds, our general contractors. and our consultants, SiteLogic, to give them ample time for planning our next construction projects. So with me, I have Mr. Jeff Sealy, who is a... investment advisor with alice to help us go through one the pre-sale resolution which will pass

161through to the board as well as the pre-born cell presentation with that i'll give it to jeff and he can take it over and then we can come and maybe talk about the resolution All right, well, thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. And we're going to talk about bonds. So what we are doing is we're going to be issuing about $42 million worth of bonds. And it serves two purposes. One, you have a refunding in which you can save some money. And two, you have these projects that Riro mentioned through the LTFM program. And so we will be funding those projects with a portion of these bonds. And another reason we moved up to sale the bonds is so we could combine both these purposes into one and save you

162money. Because, of course, every time you issue bonds, you have to pay all the people who are setting it up, buying the bonds or the underwriters, the attorneys and advisors and so forth. So we combine into single. Issue so you have in your board packet a presale report and I'm just going to going to highlight some of the. Items on it so again, we're looking at refunding a number of maturities of your 2011 bonds, which were alternative silly bonds. You have an opportunity to save money. We're also funding the next couple years on your long term facility maintenance projects. So with the refunding, if we look at just the refunding, we're estimating that the savings are about $4.7 million. So this is a significant refunding for you, which is over 13% present value. That is

163very high, very good savings at this point. So on that particular part, We're going to go ahead and and of course those funds save your taxpayers dollars because they aren't reabsorbed by the school instead of savings directly to your taxpayers. So the bonds, the new bonds will be for a little over 16 year term. And principal on the bonds will be due February 1 of 2023 through 2028, and that's the refunding part. And then from 2035 to 2037, that is your LTFM projects. We will have a call date, which is a date in the future that we identify when we sell bonds, in which you can refinance or refund the bonds again, and that's February 1 of 2028. You will enroll in the state credit enhancement program. That is the program where the state will

164step in should there be any default. And what that does, it makes it a very low-risk investment for the purchasers of your bonds. In return, of course, low-risk investments usually have a lower interest rate. So you save money by participating in this program. There is no cost to it. It's a very good program. We will apply for a Moody's rating on it. You have a AA2 rating, a very good, solid rating right now. We would anticipate that would continue and. Of course, we're recommending this approach first because of the savings of the refundings and also because through the LTFM program, long-term facility maintenance, you can go ahead and issue these bonds with levy authority to generate the funds to make the payments on the bonds. So one of the things we do, if you recall,

165some of the board members who were here a couple years ago when we issued these. One of our goals is to maintain your current tax rate. So we have a very detailed long-range plan that we look at. So before I get to that, though, just on the timeline for issuing the bonds. So you're going to approve the authorizing resolution tonight. And then we will take bids on October 6th. You have a board meeting that evening. We will bring the results to you that evening, review them with you, and then you will adopt an award resolution, which awards the sale of the bonds to the best bid. And then we'll close on November 4th. Closing is when the money becomes available. And then on February 1, that's the call date on your old bonds. That's when

166we take part of the bond sale this time and pay off the old bonds. So taking a look at the specifics of this. So we've got about $28 million of this $42 million is for the refunding. The other roughly $15 million is for... the facility maintenance projects and we are going to maintain If you have that pre-sale report in front of you, if you look at page nine, I'm not sure if you have in front of you, but our long range plan looks at every two years issuing these facility maintenance bonds. So we have five of them we're looking at. This is the first of them. And we've done several in the past, as you may recall. And between managing your pay as you go levies, your existing bonds, your lease levy, any of your

167levies for capital improvements, this plan will maintain the existing tax rate of roughly 24.65. So you're adding these bonds. But we're adjusting some of the other things they have control over, like pay-as-you-go levies and so forth, to maintain that level. So even though you have levy authority for this $15 million for facility maintenance, it will not be increasing your overall levies for the capital improvements. And that's something that we find in the past has been very beneficial, and the board is obviously like. With that, you have the two parts. We're going to save you quite a bit of money and then you'll have the funds to start moving into that next phase, which I believe SiteLogic was there and explained that maybe a month ago or something to the board. Right now, we're in a

168period of very low interest rates. That's going to help us a lot. We're at about a 55 to 60-year low right now. I think the last time we sold bonds, we were in a 50 year low. We're even lower with interest rates than we were then. So the timing is very good for this. If anyone has any questions, I'd entertain them. Chair Bouchard. Yes, Director Adams. Another question. Jeff, how much did you say that we're gonna save in interest, approximately four million something? 4,700,000. Wow, almost 5 million. I think the last time we did this, it was like 1.6 that we saved. So this is significant. This one's significant. It is. Good. What have recent bond sales, what is their interest rates, Ben? We are, I've got this in here. We are anticipating, let me

169find it here. Less than 2%. Okay. Wow. 1.9 is what we're anticipating. Okay. And that's for 16 years. So as you know, the longer your bond is, the higher your interest rate. So that's the average interest rate over a 16-year period. Wow. All right. Great. Thank you. Okay, thank you, Jeff. So what we'll be actually requesting from the board is to approve the resolution authorizing approval of the sale of general obligations, alternative facilities, refunding and facilities maintenance bonds series 2020A to the tune of $42,350,000. Thank you very much, Director Chapman-Duca. Thank you, Mr. Seeley, first for hanging with us. It's late, much later than I'm sure you imagined being with us, so I appreciate that. And also, you are the bearer of good news for both this board and our taxpayers, and of course, appreciate

170that as well. So thank you. Any other board member questions for Director Chapman-Duca or Mr. Seeley? Chair Bouchard, I'd like to make a resolution. I move that the Board approves the resolution authorizing approval of the sale of general obligation, alternative facilities refunding and facilities maintenance bonds, series 2020A. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second to approve the resolution authorizing approval of the sale of general obligation alternative facilities, refunding and facilities maintenance bonds series 2020 a any further discussion? Seeing none clerk Andreessen. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. Director Adams. Yes, before I vote, I want to thank Jeff also for sticking around. I vote aye. Director Ahmed. Aye. Director Andreessen? Aye. Director Khan? Aye. Director LaTondress? Aye. Director Peterson? Aye. And Chair Bouchard? Aye. Thank you, Clerk Andreessen.

1717 ayes, 0 nays. Motion carries. Next, we'll move to policies in first reading with Dr. Lightfoot and Vice Chair LaTondress. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. I will welcome Dr. Lightfoot and my Policy and Monitoring Committee colleagues to the virtual table here. We're looking at policies in first reading, Policy 522 on student sex non-discrimination and Policy 808 on face coverings that would be otherwise known in the popular nomenclature these days as face masks. And that's what we'll be discussing. tonight. So Dr. Lightfoot, do you want to lead us through this conversation? Sure. Good evening, Superintendent, Dr. Mary Perry-Reed, Chair Bouchard, members of the board. I almost said good morning, but we're not there yet. But we're close. Close, pretty close. Good to be with you tonight on these two policies that we're looking at. A couple items

172here that I think are important to denote is that specifically these two policies come before you due to legislative changes. And as part of your protocol regarding policies, these do not require two reads because they are statute required and are immediate for us to make sure that we are in compliance with the statutory requirements. So specifically, I'll begin September 1st today. I'm sorry. Yes, I will begin today to talk a little bit about 522. Those numbers getting away at these hours of the evening. 522 is the policy related to Title IX, another number. But here's why that's important. Title IX regulations were amended through the Department of Education through its extensive work. And we did receive guidance from the Department of Education that required significant changes to make sure that we are in compliance with

173their guidance. As it relates to how we as a district and a recipient of federal funds process Title IX grievances, Title IX, as the policy identifies, really is about sex non-discrimination. And as such, there were specific changes that were made to how we have to process those, the specific individuals that need to be involved in the processing of that. and specific terminology and definitions that were part of the process to make the policy language reflect what we as a district have the opportunity to consider. So in consultation with the monitoring committee, what you have in front of you is the result of that work. I also want to draw specific attention to the assistance of Kimberly Rodriguez Foster, instructor at the high school working on her administrative license who was instrumental in her work throughout

174the course of the summer as part of her administrative licensure work to help pull all of this information together. I want to draw special attention to her work also. So with that, I think there are a couple things that are also important in the policy that are a little bit different than what you might otherwise see in policy. Specifically, we are required to make sure that we have our training materials linked to this policy so that individuals can see how we have been trained. as individuals who are identified in this policy. So you'll see that, which is something a little bit different than you might otherwise see in policy. So I'll draw attention to that as well. So with that, I think those are the major items to cover in policy 522 and am open

175for specific questions if there are items that I can go into further detail with or explain in any way that would be helpful to members of the board. Any board member questions? Chair Bouchard, Nick this is not a new policy right? Correct we have the present policy 522 these are the modifications that need to be made given the most recent guidance from the Department of Education. Okay I didn't see where the changes were. These are significant to the point that it is relatively new so all of it has been rewritten. Okay. The is the brand new policy. It is not in the format as you identify that you would see where one or two lines might be crossed out. Right, right. It's a whole new rewrite. Okay, thank you. Any other board member questions? I'm

176sorry. Yeah, so, Chair Bouchard, it should be pointed out, and maybe Dr. Lightfoot can speak to this, that on Policy 522, this is being driven by statute, our need to change this, but the changes made here, if our public is looking closely, move things in a direction where it is more challenging for... our students to bring legitimate cases of, you know, legitimate cases forward. And that is a product of national leadership in Washington that is driving these changes. And so. These are changes that we are required to make the policy and this is just a good education moment for our public that some of the changes we have to make are driven by value systems and priorities that our district may not actually share. And if we were to. write this ourselves, it might look

177quite different than this and in fact probably would. So it's just also a reminder to our public to pay attention to what our leaders in Washington, the kind of decisions they're making about this and that elections have consequences for school districts. Thank you for that important context. Other discussion on this particular policy? Okay, Dr. Lightfoot, I think we can move ahead to the next one. All right, as has been noted, 808 is, you won't find crossouts or changes or amendments here because this one is also new. This is face coverings. It is a replication of the Model MSBA Policy that is built off the Executive Orders that established the face covering requirements. All of that information is built into the policy itself. The specific language was reviewed by the monitoring committee and if there are

178specific questions regarding 808 face coverings we would be happy to address those at this time or go into any further detail as would be helpful to the board. Any board member questions or concerns on 808? As I mentioned at a previous meeting, or perhaps it was a workshop, I'm grateful to be putting this policy in place so that we have our own internal policy for if slash when. the state mask mandate and some of our individual city mask mandates which are now obviously superseded by the state mandate expire that we have this internal policy that governs our face covering slash mask practices in Hopkins. So thank you for your work on this. Chair Bouchard, I'd like to make a motion. Oh, great. I move that the board approve the two policies, policy 522 on student

179sex non-discrimination and policy 808 on face coverings in first reading. Further, that we direct the administration to prepare the policies for approval in second reading at the next meeting as part of the consent calendar. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. 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. Director LaTondris. Aye. Director Peterson. Aye. Director Kahn. And Chair Bouchard. Aye. Clerk Andreessen, could you call Director Kahn one more time? Director Kahn, I see you unmuting, but we still can't hear you. Uh-oh. Director Kahn? Okay, I see a mouthed I, so I'm going to say seven I's, zero nays, motion carries. Thank you very much. Next, we'll move to board member reports. Who

180has a board member report? I do, but at this late hour, I don't know if it's worth going through. But I did the summer I did attend several conferences online. Obviously the reimagined Minnesota conference, the American Federation of Teachers Conference, which is very interesting with Lin Manuel Miranda and Diane Ravitch presenting and also attended two out of the three summer sessions conducted by the Minnesota School Board Association. And the audit committee had its first meeting on the 28th. When was that? Monday. So that's my report. Busy as usual. Thank you, Director Adams. I have a report, and it comes with a visual. And I'm going to pull that up right now. Can you see it? It's supposed to be a really great picture. We can see it. We can? Okay, good. Thank you. So tonight

181I'd like to recognize a group of innovative and hardworking Hopkins students. Their parents have given me permission to share their photo with you and their names this evening. So I present to you the great Gatsby's Lego League team. Talia Siegel, Lucian Peer, Marin Peer, and Cooper Sorensen. Now you may remember them from their visit to the board table in January to present an innovative solution to hallway congestion at North Junior High. To anyone who heard their presentation that evening, it will come as no surprise that this group has continued to be very successful. They won the Innovation Award at the State LEGO League Championship and were nominated to submit their project for a Global Innovation Award Summit sponsored by FIRST and Disney. Their project made it all the way to the quarterfinals and was ranked

182as one of the top 35 out of 40,000 teams from 100 countries around the world. Talk about world class. You all make Hopkins so proud, great Gatsby's. Thank you so much. And we hope that we see you at the board table again soon. Tell me this picture was pre-COVID. Yes, yes, the picture was pre-COVID. All right, thank you. Yes, absolutely. And I've been excited to give this update for at least a couple of months because I found out from one of their parents about their success. And so I'm so happy that we're finally doing board member reports tonight. So thank you all. All right, any other board member reports? With that, we'll move to the incidental reports. I would look for a motion to accept the incidental reports. So move. I have a motion in

183a second. Clerk, oh, sorry. Any discussion? Clerk Andreessen. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. Director Adams. Aye. Director Ahmed. Aye. Director Andreessen. Aye. Director Kahn. Can you see thumbs up for I thumbs down for director? Hi. Director Peterson and chair. I thank you clerk Andreessen that 7 eyes 0 days motion carries and with that, I would look for a motion to adjourn. So moved second, I have a motion a 2nd, any discussion. Seeing none, Clerk Andreessen, one more time. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. Director Adams? Aye. Director Ahmed? Aye. Director Andreessen? Aye. Director Kahn? Director LaTondris? Aye. Director Peterson? Aye. And Chair Bouchard. Aye. Thank you, Clerk Andreessen. That's 7 ayes, 0 nays. Motion carries. This meeting of the Hopkins School Board is adjourned at 10.35 p.m. All right.