August 21st, 2020 Meeting of the Hopkins School Board

001Okay it's just after five and we have a lot to talk about. We have a quorum of the board and so I think we should get started. This special meeting of the Hopkins School Board is called to order at 5 p.m. I'd like to welcome all of our community members who are joining us via the YouTube live stream. It's good to have you with us and be in virtual community with you this evening. I'd like to just confirm for you who of our board is in the call this evening. So board members, when I call your name, just confirm that you're here in the Google Meet. Director Adams. Here. Director Ahmed. Director Andreessen. Here. Director Kahn. Here. Director Latondras. Here. And Director Peterson. Here. And I'm Chair Jen Bouchard. Thank you. Next, I would look

002for a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. The motion is there a second? I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Then we can go to Clerk Andreessen for the roll call vote. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. Director Adams? Aye. Director Ahmed? Aye. Director Andreessen? Aye. Director Kahn? Aye. Director Latondris? Aye. I am. Director Peterson? Aye. And Chair Bouchard? Aye. Thank you, Clerk Andreessen. We have six ayes, zero nays. Motion carries. So during my board chair report tonight, I have the responsibility and privilege of giving our community a summary of Dr. Mary Peary Reed's year-end review that the board conducted on June 2nd, 2020. We met in executive session after our meeting that evening. And according to open meeting law, we need to provide you, our community, a summary of that conversation at the

003next. public meeting, which is tonight. So on June 2nd, our discussion centered on Dr. Mary Perry-Reed's goals, which are approved by the board on an annual basis. These goals fall under six leadership competencies that are used by all district leaders, including the school board, to create systemic alignment with Vision 2031, as well as a shared understanding and framework for supporting each other in our development as Hopkins leaders. These are culture leadership, empathy leadership, equity leadership, innovation leadership, learning leadership, and operational leadership. Dr. Muri Puri-Reed's goals focus on creating a flattened organizational structure that encourages collaboration, innovation, and support. Building the capacity of Hopkins leaders and staff in their empathy, anti-racist, and equity mindsets. Shaping classroom culture and adult behaviors to eradicate educational disparities. Creating high-quality learning experiences with a focus on multilingualism. And building a

004learning framework, lab operating system, and time-bound roadmap for operationalizing Vision 2031. Not only did Dr. Mary Perry-Reed take specific actions in alignment with these goals prior to March, she has continued to intentionally move toward them while leading our system through the transformation of our core functions during a global pandemic. Board members commented on Dr. Mary Perry-Reed's consistent communication, responsiveness to community and board member concerns, willingness to try community-generated ideas that align with Vision 23rd, unparalleled work ethic, commitment to honoring student voice, and keeping student needs at the center of every decision. The board's committed to continuing to work in partnership with Dr. Mary Puri-Reed and all of our community members to collectively navigate the challenges and opportunities over the course of this coming year. Before we move into our new business segment, given this unique

005time, I wanted to take a moment to recognize the complexity of the situation that we're in, as well as make some procedural clarifications. So since we, as a community, entered into distance learning in March, Our board has heard via email, phone calls, and in socially distanced in-person conversations from hundreds of our community members. And it's safe to say that this communication has increased exponentially over the past month as we approach the beginning of another school year. We are so grateful for your voices. As board chair, it's both my privilege and responsibility to respond to every email the board receives to assure community members that it has indeed been received and read. Although you are only getting a response from me, rest assured that my board colleagues are also reading every email carefully. Because we understand

006how privilege and power work in our community, which is a microcosm of our country. We've also been actively seeking out the voices and perspectives that have historically not been heard or taken into account by decision makers in Hopkins schools. Through all of these interactions, it's certainly been reinforced for me that the concerns, desires, needs, and ideas of our community members are as diverse as our Hopkins schools community itself. To give you a feel for this diversity of thought, here are some of our community members observations in their own words. These are used with permission and I'll be reading them anonymously. From a teacher. When we tell you that we are afraid, we are also telling you that we are afraid for our students. When we tell you that it isn't a good idea to be

007in person at school right now, we are not turning our back on our profession or our calling. We are sharing our professional judgment and legitimate fears. We are asking for guidance and forward thinking toward an alternate solution that has the power to be transformative. From an elementary student. Distance learning didn't work for me. It was hard for me to talk with my teachers and get my work done. I would wear a mask and do social distance if it means that I can come to school. From a teacher, while fellow colleagues may be writing to you about concerns about coming back, I am not. I can't wait to get back to work. I miss my students, my coworkers, and I am ready. From a parent, I don't speak English well. Distance learning was confusing and my

008kid did not learn. Can he please come to school to meet his teacher? From a teacher, the longer we perseverate on the details of getting back into school, the more time and energy we are wasting that could be dedicated to developing online learning. The Royal Distance Learning Academy allows Hopkins the opportunity to provide students with a non-traditional learning experience that cultivates many attributes of Vision 2031. For this experience to be rigorous, anti-racist, and personalized, it would require a team of teachers whose skill sets and passion for education mirror the aforementioned requirements. We acknowledge the perceived obstacle distance learning poses. However, we see the Royal Distance Learning Academy as an opportunity for teachers to utilize their digital literacy skills to advance teaching and learning in meaningful ways that otherwise cannot be reached in a traditional classroom.

009From a paraprofessional. I approve of the lengthened full school day and in-person hours with kindergarten students. This whole time is a new situation and the leaders are making adjustments the best they can as they learn the needs. It makes more sense for parents and it's better for the kids to be in-person full day rather than more distance time relationally with the teacher and peers and academically. From a secondary student. I think the idea of Hopkins Strong Start is good. It will give us all time to figure out how we are going to make this year work. From a kids and co-employee, in-person programming during COVID can be done. Smaller groups were easier to manage. I know there's a lot of fear about going back to school. Don't give up before you are fully informed. From

010a parent, this current situation is being met with lots of emotions, concerns, and uncertainty. There will not be one right solution, and some people will be unhappy with whatever you decide. However, the unanswered questions are creating a feeling of panic among parents and teachers. We are not our neighboring districts. We are not a private school with unlimited funding. But we are a school with innovative staff, dedicated teachers, and impassioned parents. Use this to your advantage and create a transparent plan that can create structure and clarity in a world that sometimes feels like it is spinning out of control. We as a board have also heard from some community members with questions about why the Hopkins School Board has continued to meet virtually while the district moves forward offering families both hybrid and distance learning options.

011We hear you. And we want to assure you that we are exploring models for future board meetings that, in the midst of a pandemic, better balance our responsibility to accommodate real-time community input with our responsibility to ensure meetings remain accessible to all members of our community. In the future, this may include models for full in-person or hybrid board meetings based on both current public health data and our ability to adapt our spaces and technology to implement those models. I think we can all agree that public education institutions and the communities we serve have been thrust into a very complex situation. We're all aware of the fact that public education doesn't exist in a void and that our district is part of a larger political context. Here in Hopkins, we're compelled to provide an equitable, high-quality

012educational experience to all of our students. At the same time, we have not been given adequate federal and state funding to weather this storm financially. The fact that dozens of our staff members volunteered their time to help develop three different educational models as mandated by the state for the 2021 school year is proof of not only their dedication, and for those of you watching tonight who are on those teams, your dedication to our Hopkins Schools community. But it's also proof of the fact that public education institutions have been asked to do much more with much less than any other public or private organization in the country. Let's be clear. If our schools were fully funded at the level that they should be and had been for years, these staff members would have been compensated for

013this additional COVID-related work. I said it at our last workshop, and I will say it again. Now is the time to make public education funding an election year priority at every level of government. We all know that our district is part of a larger public health context. The decisions all of us as individuals make on a daily basis, including mask wearing, maintaining social distance, avoiding large in-person gatherings, and hand washing and sanitation practices directly impact our children's education. We are also acutely aware of the fact that we are navigating a dual pandemic of COVID-19 and systemic racism, and that these two public health crises are inextricably interlinked. These are our current circumstances as a community and it's up to all of us to come together in honesty and shared purpose to provide the best possible

014learning experiences for our students this year. Our role as your school board representatives is to continue to work in partnership with our community and district leaders to use the tools at our disposal, namely policy and budget, to support a safe, enriching year for every one of our students and staff members. And with that, I'll turn it over to Dr. Mary Perry-Reed. Thank you very much, Chair Bouchard, and good evening board members, colleagues, staff, community members, families, students. I'm really thankful for this opportunity this evening to spend time with our school board and with all of you. As Chair Bouchard shared, we have heard from hundreds of you. We have students who are courageously speaking their truth, some desperately wanting to return to school, others explaining why distance learning works better for them. Many emails from

015parents yearning for some version of in-person learning because their children need that face-to-face time or that peer socialization. Other emails from parents are thoughtfully detailing why distance learning for all would be best. Many of these messages have articulated a fear that we all share about COVID's dangerous impact. In all the emails we have received from Hopkins teachers and staff, it is clear that our Hopkins educators and Hopkins staff care deeply about the students that we serve, and they care about our students' learning. These teachers and staff also simultaneously wonder what would be best for everyone's wellness. So for all of us, how we do school has become a highly emotional topic and understandably so because preservation of our health is something that we all pursue to keep our lives. Some of our teachers and paraprofessionals

016have personal health conditions, family circumstances, or other dire scenarios that truly warrant a distance learning assignment. I am thankful to Dr. Lightfoot, Brady, Flies, and other staff in our Human Resources Department who are spending day and night combing through leave requests and distance learning requests, taking personal calls from employees, and working thoughtfully to determine the potential match between requests and assignments. I am also thankful to our principals, to our Innovation Design and Learning Department, to our Director of Principal Leadership, to our Director of Specialized Services and all other instructionally facing staff and leaders who are sifting through family distance learning requests, family requests for hybrid learning in order to make sure that we personalize each assignment as best as we can. I want our community to know how much we have focused on health and

017safety as we take on the incredible responsibility of building pathogen-resistant environments. Our lead nurse and COVID coordinator, Mary Jo Martin. Along with our supervisor of buildings and grounds, Kevin Newman, Jeff Goldie, who works with safety and other staff, have worked diligently, hours and hours, to be informed and to help us be informed of all of the guidelines and protocols coming from the Minnesota Department of Health and the Minnesota Department of Education. We have procured masks. for students and for staff. We have procured face shields. We have drafted screening protocols. We are working on protocols for bus safety, pickup and drop off, whether and how students will travel in our hallways or other common spaces, how to train students on mask wearing, social distancing, hand washing, personal space sanitizing. We are developing high standards. for classroom

018and facility cleaning. The level of detail that has been paid attention to throughout all of these health and safety task force meetings is extensive and we will use next week and our days and weeks during Hopkins Strong Start to prepare staff, to train staff and students, and to educate our families. The difficult concept that I want to carefully communicate is that while we are researching what we know, preparing for what may not be known, and listening to the myriad of perspectives and beliefs emanating from all corners of our vast community, what we are not able to do is devise a plan that makes everyone happy. In the context of COVID, there is no perfect plan. However, in lieu of perfection, We are trying to be thoughtful. We have made mistakes along the way, but we

019are in deep reflection on a regular basis, identifying what we can do to more effectively communicate and update staff, what we can do to improve our planning, our discussion, and our decision-making processes. At this time, I'm going to begin sharing the slide deck that we will all abide by this evening, and we continue to look forward to your engagement. Our purpose and intended outcomes for this special board meeting is to provide our school board and community with a summary of the current landscape in Hopkins regarding our hybrid and distance safe learning plans. We will answer board members' questions to the best of our current knowledge and ability and promise follow-through on any questions we are unable to answer. We will also identify the work ahead. This is the sequence of presenters for this evening. We

020will hear from our interim director of innovation design and learning. She will review details from our distance learning and hybrid models. We will hear from our director of specialized services. more information about how we are supporting students who have individualized education plans 504s and other unique needs we will hear from our assistant superintendent who is also in charge of human resources he will provide detailed information around staff and family requests as we continue to engage in these matching assignments and experiences we will also hear from our director of community engagement alex fisher who will talk about child Care and our Director of Business Services, Toriro Chapenduka, to present some budget pieces to our board members and community. I do want to, this is a slide that we introduced at our previous session on August 6th.

021We are using multiple indicators to inform both the design as well as the decision-making aspects of our processes. Starting with county level health metrics, there was just an update yesterday. Thankfully, the COVID cases declined slightly over the last 14 days. We are also in constant review of our HVAC upgrades and district installed pathogen mitigation measures. We are constantly surveying parents, students. caregivers and staff and using those results to inform our thinking, to inform our decision making. We are in consultation with our teacher union, Hopkins Education Association, as well as our paraprofessional union and other bargaining units. We are trying to be as responsive as possible to individual emails from parents, students, teachers, other staff. and right now engaging in the process of the matching assignments. Again, this is the decision-making process that was articulated by

022the Minnesota Department of Education, again, starting with every district reviewing health data at the county level, looking at city health data. If that is available to inform where on the distance to hybrid to in-person scaffold each district might fall. We are then to work with our incident command team. That's our team that meets every Thursday. We have called it our return to school operations team to identify everything that would have to be operationalized for that safe learning plan to be implemented. And of course the plan, the decision making process. And you'll see in step five, step five requires continual monitoring of health data, staffing data, and everything else that we would use to inform how we are serving our community and staff. I did reference that the last 14 days of data was just released

023yesterday. So we went from at our August 6th school board session, we noticed that the number of cases had... slightly increased and now we are noticing a slight decrease. Again, this data comes out every 14 days and we will use it as a significant data point as we continue moving forward. So before I turn it over to our Director of Innovation, Design and Learning, she will be describing in as much detail what our Safe Learning Plans will offer. This learning plan begins with distance learning beginning on August 31st and extending through the first day of a hybrid phased in to person learning that has been articulated for that first day being articulated for specific grade levels. We are calling this extended distance learning time our Hopkins Strong Start and Anne Erdl will explain more what

024that means. The plan that we are presenting to our school board and to all of you tonight does intend to bring in elementary students sooner than secondary. One promise that we made to our community is that we will be prepared to pivot to a different model or a version of a different model depending on what health and staffing data presents in real time throughout the school year. We will work with our community and with our school board on a regular basis to try and my desire is to eliminate any future surprises, but we have we have some work to do to inform all of our stakeholders in real time at the proper time but the goal is to eliminate if not mitigate surprises we are asking this evening for support from our school board on

025the safe learning plan that will be presented and again is informed by the most recent health and staffing data available so at this I am going to mute and introduce our Interim Director of Innovation, Design, and Learning, Anne Earle. Anne? Thank you, Dr. Mary Perry-Reed. I also want to welcome Principals French and Ballard. They will be co-presenting with me, and I'm very excited that we have been able to partner. in planning for both our distance learning and hybrid plans. And so you'll have the opportunity to hear from all of us this evening as well. Go ahead to the next slide, please. So just to review... One of the things that we heard loudly and clearly from our staff and from our caregivers and families was that everybody is aware that this year is like no

026other in terms of how we come back together as a school community. And we knew that we needed to create a space in our calendar for both families, teachers and students to learn a new way of being in school, whether that way is a distance learning model or a hybrid model. And that is where the idea for Hopkins Strong Start was born, really our task forces in conjunction after looking through all of our survey data. realized that the needs this year in terms of building relationships and onboarding with these new ways of learning was more prevalent probably than ever before. Since the last time we have described the strong start, we have been able to provide some further detail about what that might look like at each of the grade bands. And so if you

027can go to the next slide, I have a few samples to show you what those, what a week of Hopkins Strong Start might look like. They are differentiated, of course, by grade. This is the kindergarten and first grade sample. Strong Start week one and it's important to note that this is a sample and so but these are the types of activities that our students and families can expect to be happening during the Strong Start. You'll notice that we, our teachers and families were very clear that they wanted an opportunity right away whether they have chosen distance learning or whether they have chosen the hybrid model that we need to create an opportunity right away in the year to really get to know the students and so you'll see parent conferences as being a part of

028both of those weeks at the elementary level. Strong Start includes that seventh and tenth grade orientation because again as students are transitioning to a whole new school they deserve some extra attention for that transition and you'll see that the secondary has both the technical onboarding kinds of activities like how to use Canvas and what digital citizenship might look like. but also some of the more... social emotional pieces like an identity web, a strengths inventory so students can start to identify who they are as learners in this model and what supports that they might need so that we can help them identify those needs so that they can really start to become advocates for themselves as well as be able to introduce themselves to their new teachers. You can go ahead to the next slide, please.

029Hey Anne, I'm sorry to interrupt your presentation. My computer is being slow. Would you like me to stop sharing and would you like to share from your end so that you can control the slides? Sure, I can do that. Okay, thank you. Okay, can everybody see my screen? Yes. Okay, thank you. So the Royal Distance Learning Academy is our online e-learning option. And I'm going to give some additional details around what that looks like and then break down a little bit more specifically for our elementary and secondary versions. Overall, students will have significantly increased synchronous and live interactions with their teachers and peers. Learning will be consistent with a structured daily schedule as well as offline learning requirements such as reading time, working on artwork or design projects, brainstorming outline and drafting writing. rehearsing, practicing,

030and recording performances as well as exploring topics of personal interest. Distance learning students will certainly be able to make virtual appointments with school staff and that includes teaching staff, support staff, counselors, etc. Just to recap, we learned significant We've learned significantly from our experiences last spring and took survey data that we received both from our families and community and our teachers in order to make improvements. The Royal Distance Learning Academy will provide flexibility and high levels of learning in any location. Synchronous learning and teacher contact will be consistent and predictable. and the daily schedule will be consistent. There will be a required start time. Classes will meet on a specific schedule with some individual flexibility in terms of work time. The Minnesota Department of Education requires a six and a half hour learning day. That

031learning day will include teacher-guided learning activities, but also work time as well to complete those tasks. Our learning management system last year was a variety of different systems. This year, teachers will use Canvas. Similar to last year, elementary and junior high students will have a district provided iPad. High school students will have a district issued Chromebook and hotspots can be made available to those who need them. This is an example of an elementary day in the Royal Distance Learning Academy. You'll notice that there is a mixture of synchronous learning time as well as asynchronous learning time. Asynchronous learning time may include off-screen learning activities. One of the concerns that we heard from our community was around the amount of screen time. And so our teachers will intentionally build in opportunities for students to have practice

032time and learning time that don't involve screens. Additionally, asynchronous time might also include specialist lessons in the afternoon. as well as other enrichment and intervention opportunities. Our grade 7 through 12 Royal Distance Learning Academy follows a block schedule as well as that additional asynchronous learning time. We know that many of our secondary students have responsibilities with their families as well as jobs and so This schedule is designed to provide some flexibility for students to be able to meet those requirements. They may do their asynchronous time before their first block or in the afternoon and teachers will be available to work with them during that asynchronous learning time as needed. Principals French or Ballard, do you have anything to add about either of the schedules for elementary or secondary Royal Distance Learning Academy before I move

033on to hybrid? I would add that we are making sure that we're including opportunities for students in the Royal Distance Learning Academy that students in the hybrid model are experiencing. So we're looking at how can social-emotional learning lessons be provided, experiences with music, band, orchestra, art, Spanish. I added music. So we want to make sure that students who are in the Royal Distance Learning Academy have access to an opportunities that they would have during a regular school year or that their peers in the hybrid model will be having. Thank you so much, Principal French. I would add that the model also allows for our scholars to be able to engage with teachers in a private manner based on some of the feedback we received from distance learning during the last quarter of last school year

034was that our scholars wanted our teachers to be able to be available to have private conversations to support them in some of their learning. In addition, it allows for teachers to have guided groups based on the needs of the scholars from the synchronous learning activities. So as our teachers are engaging in those synchronous learning activities and they're identifying needs, the schedule allows for our teachers to be able to engage with students based on the needs and the ways that they are engaging with the content. Thank you so much, Principal Ballard. We are now going to describe our hybrid model. I'll start with grades kinder through six. So the hybrid model will begin in Hopkins Strong Start. The in-person school day will be six and a half hours. Students will attend their home school and have

035the same classroom teacher. Specialist classes will be delivered during the day on site. And Kids & Company will provide fee-based before and after school care at all schools as space and staff are available beginning on August 31st for grades 1 through 6 and September 1st for kindergarten. Now we'll look specifically at the kindergarten through grade 1 model. Our kindergartners and first graders will be in person Monday through Friday, excuse me, Monday through Thursday, and their first day of in-person school is September 9th. Friday is an asynchronous distance learning day, and we will use the teacher and companion classroom model. So what is a companion classroom model? The companion classroom model allows for us to have smaller groups of students in schools in separate spaces. Students will spend approximately half of their day with one cohort

036of students and their teacher receiving instruction on a variety of subjects. And then the second part of their day in their companion classroom with the same cohort of students doing activities such as independent reading, vocabulary practice, social emotional lessons, and specialist lessons. The companion classroom will provide that application and practice time. that is part of any typical elementary school day. These companion classrooms will be taught by paraprofessionals in close partnership with their teacher. This is an in-person sample day. Students will have breakfast in their classroom with their cohort. Learning Block 1 will include literacy and math concepts as well as social studies and science. lunch, learning block two, the students will switch and then follow the, do some of those application activities that I was describing, as well as specials and outdoor learning and physical

037movement times occurring throughout the day. And I think maybe one thing to point out because you mentioned specialists and this would apply from kindergarten through grade six to limit the amount of contact in a typical school year our students would see their specialists, different specialists in a day, B.Ed., Music, Spanish, Art. We're limiting the contact in that we will be organizing and scheduling specialists in a four to six week time frame that will serve a specific grade level. So it's possible that kindergarteners could start out with Phi Ed for four to six weeks. So that Phi Ed teacher is just interacting with a smaller number of grade levels and a smaller number of classrooms. Thank you so much, Principal French, for pointing that out. The distance learning day for kinder and first grade is Friday.

038This would be an asynchronous learning day, either at home or in a care space. Students will engage in lessons and activities provided by school professionals, including reinforcement activities and projects done offline. again to support that screen time balance. As resources allow, we may be able to offer more structured or synchronous learning activities on Fridays. And Kids & Company will provide full day care for this day at Hopkins High School. Parents must provide transportation and Tier 1 families will have priority registration. I'll now talk about the model, the hybrid model for grades two through six. Grades two through six will be in school two days per week beginning the week of September 14th. We are following an AABB model which means students will attend Monday, Tuesday if they are in the AA group or Wednesday, Thursday

039if they're in the BB group. And similar to our kindergarten and first graders, students will participate in specials in the manner in which Principal French detailed for you. Kids and Company may provide fee-based before and after school child care on-site if space is available after our Tier 1 and our K1 families register. This is what a sample day in person may look like, similar to our kindergarten and first grade model. And this is an example of what the distance learning component of the hybrid model would look like. Again, at home or in a care space that flexible asynchronous learning, but students will continue to engage in lessons and activities as provided by the school professionals. Learning reinforcement activities will include projects done offline and tier one families. in child care will receive distance learning support

040well in that care space. This is another look at what that sample day might look like for a distance learning. Some small group direct instruction for students who need additional academic language or social emotional support as well as enrichment. Learning block two asynchronous lessons include some independent reading as well as support lessons based on learning blocks one or two. Principal French, do you have anything to add? Maybe the last thing I would highlight, which is exciting to me and others, is the ability to use outside spaces for learning. I had three of my staff members this week at Gatewood checking out our grounds, they were identifying outdoor classrooms. They were removing brush and they were thinking how can we create some spaces where we can take students out for breaks, but also we can make

041available for outdoor learning. And I know that's happening at our other elementary school sites. Thank you so much. There have been recently some changes to the elementary hybrid model since we last presented it to the community and to the board that I wanted to highlight. Initially, our task force did recommend a K-3 in-person, five days a week schedule because they felt very strongly about prioritizing our youngest learners. Currently, we have our kindergarten and first graders in person four days a week, and the reason for that change really was budget and space constraints for those companion classrooms. The task force initially also recommended an AA0BB model for the hybrid, but what we learned was that instead of having that zero day happen in the middle, Friday was a preference for our families and our buildings and

042grounds team assured us that the cleaning did not need to occur for the entire day. That cleaning can happen more frequently. So we were able to meet that request. Another recommendation was a 4.5 hour day for elementary. Our current model has a six and a half hour day for elementary. The reason for that change was feedback from our parents as well as staffing constraints for child care for the extra time. And another task force recommendation was elementary specialists teaching distance lesson only. Our current model does have distance learning specials in our Royal Distance Learning Academy. However, students who are attending in-person learning experiences will have specials as part of their school day. And that was a response to the feedback we got from caregivers who did not feel that distance learning experiences were favorable in

043a distance learning environment. I'm now going to move on to talking about the hybrid model at grades 7 through 12. All secondary learners will participate in distance learning for the first two to four weeks. Our 7th and 10th graders will begin August 31st in the hybrid model, and our 8th and 9th and 11th and 12th graders will begin September 1st. This is, again, the proposed daily student schedule, and you'll notice that it mirrors the schedule of the Royal Distance Learning Academy. The hybrid model sample day includes one of the following models. All of them have advisory. There is the pod model, which has students in a cohort group of the same students during in-person learning, accessing their class content via Canvas. And then our 25 to 50% capacity models, which have students transitioning to four

044classes, depending on the capacity of the building. I'm going to talk a little bit more about what that phased-in approach looks like. Students will begin in distance learning and transition to a support model. having higher needs in terms of distance learning or perhaps are not being successful at distance learning coming to the building. That's followed by the pod bottle in which students come to the building in small cohorts and are with a teacher or learning coach throughout the day and that teacher or learning coach is supporting them in doing their work on Canvas. Phases four and five are similar in that 25 and 50 percent of the students come to the building and follow a schedule according to their blocks. So they would transition between classes though continuously the content is available on Canvas. The

045way that we will know how and when we are able to transition among those models at the secondary is dependent on a variety of criteria. Health data, admin and counseling staff availability, instructional staff availability, clerical, custodial, and nutritional staff availability, transportation, and building capacity. Principal Ballard, do you have anything you would like to add about the secondary hybrid model? I would like to add, in addition to the first phase of the model, including those scholars who are not successful in distance learning during last school year, it may also include our scholars who are eligible for free and reduced lunch and also those who are eligible for special education services. Thank you so much for that detail. I appreciate it. I am going to stop sharing unless Director Contreras, would you like me to continue sharing

046my screen? Yes, could you please? Sure, absolutely. Thank you. So I will start with the special education services model. And I do want to just mention that you know, services are in very, very individualized, but here's the framing that we have. So for students that are elementary, in FET studying one, they could get up to two days of service in person. So again, this is the hybrid model for students on IEPs. For students in FET studying... three or i'm sorry two they could get up to three days of service time in person um including the two days of them being with their cohort and then that flex day on friday um we're thinking a half day um could be for some in person and then for our students that are in fed3 in our center-based

047classrooms they will receive four days of in-person service for the hybrid model And then for secondary, for both Fed setting one and federal setting two, students could get up to two days of service in person. And then our Fed setting threes and fours will both receive four days of in-person. And again, we are trying to make sure that our students with the highest needs get that. time that direct time with teachers per feedback that we have received and then there's a rubric that we have that we're kind of using to determine there's so many IEPs that range from 15 minutes on up to three hours of service between Fed setting one and two. And so we're just trying to use kind of a guide to help us determine who fits what along with the parents

048when we have IEP meetings. So each student, we have to go through their individual IEP plan with the parent and members to see what's gonna make the most sense for that student individually. And then can you advance to the next screen? Thank you. So then distance learning for students on IEPs will include both synchronous and asynchronous sessions. The frequency will use the guide from kind of how we're using the guide for in-person learning as well. Related service providers will provide services for all learners that have those needs on their IEP. We will have paraprofessional support for both models. Social work services will be delivered primarily in person. As we know that the social needs, there's only so much you can do distance for social needs. And so we will meet the needs of students both

049in person and in distance learning, but primarily in person for those students that are opting for hybrid. And then we are also, because MDE is a hybrid, has informed us that we need to change every single IEP. We are using the soft start of the school year for staff to kind of have that time to work on those amendments per the MDE requirements. And then we also have a backlog. I know many staff are worried about the backlog that we had from last March on because we weren't able to do some protocols in person so we also will be giving some time for evaluations to be completed as well as looking at hybrid options for new protocols that we haven't used in the past so that we can get caught up on those things. But

050I want staff to not feel pressured because as we're moving into new learning paradigms, I don't want the due process and compliance to make staff feel anxious. And so we are trying to accommodate and meet the needs of staff and complete the due process that we need to do. Chair Bouchard, I'm looking at the time. I'd like to first thank our directors, Ann Erdl and Fonda Contreras, for presenting, not only presenting, but truly leading these monumental tasks of designing these content and personalized support delivery systems, along with all of the many staff they have worked with. I am looking at the time, Chair Bouchard. and we have lots more information to present to our board members and community members shall we keep proceeding please this is an incredibly important conversation and yes please proceed okay

051absolutely thank you and um dr lightfoot i believe you are up next would you like to present your slides or would you like me to dr lightfoot i am truly comfortable either way what would work best for you What would work best for you, Mr. Presenter? Absolutely. I'm happy to present. Are people seeing my screen now? Not yet. Are we good now? Okay, let's try this. How are we now? Yes, sir. All right. Then I'll start walking through some of the information we have related to staffing and family requests. And before we begin with the data, just an incredible note of thanks and appreciation for all of the work that goes into collecting information and structuring it. and more importantly, the time it takes for staff, for students, for families and caregivers to be able

052to respond to the requests that we need in order to help make sure that we can not only design, but also make sure that we can implement and run the programs. So an incredible note of thanks and a special thanks to all of those that we've had to grab additional information from based on some initial responses. and an incredible note of thanks to all of those who have been giving that additional time to make sure that we can do the follow-up to make sure we're using the best information that we have. So with that, I'll begin with a general overview, and the general overview is how we've looked at staffing and family requests. I'll walk through a series of slides here to give you the landscape that we're working with with information. So I want

053to make sure that we can just go through all of this and highlight some of these pieces of information. And then if there are specific questions, some of those might be answered in some additional slides. So I'll try to walk through this and then see how we can be helpful with anything later on toward the requests. So first of all, we began looking at the information that came in from staff when we looked at the compilation of those that might like to apply for distance learning, the inventories that we took related to what staff said might be preferences or needs, and then as well going through the information that was presented to us for any accommodation requests that were necessary under the Americans with Disabilities Act. as well as any child care needs or health

054care needs that were under the Families First Coronavirus Recovery Act. So we started to look at the tiers of information that we needed to look at so that we could look at how we were going to organize those requests and use this organization to help us with staffing. What we created was a six-tier system that looked at Tier 1 being a system of medical need where individuals had identified that their conditions really placed them at being risk with COVID in the CDC high-risk categories. And then we looked at Tier 2 where there was a medical need that was identified in the might be at risk or moderate categories for the CDC levels. At Tier 3, we also looked at the childcare needs that individuals had who were caring for children. in their homes who had

055high risk needs or moderate risk needs as identified through their medical conditions. Tier four, we looked at additional family members and individuals who would be providing care for those members of their families. Tier five was for childcare conflicts that might develop and the childcare needs that people expressed based on their own students distance learning programming. and what that would look like for them as a family and how we might be able to consider what that component might be for us. And Tier 6 were those individuals who said, while I may not have categories of health and or child care needs right now that might qualify, what I would like is maybe a preference for this if those options might be available. So we took all of that information and broke it out into tiers to

056really begin to understand what we were working with and how we would be best charged at working with it to match what we had coming in for family requests for distance learning and that programming in the Royal Distance Learning Academy and those that were choosing hybrid. So I think a couple things that are important here is we take a look at the staff applications. When you start to take a look at the staff applications, you'll see the total staff count. And in addition, what you will see is you will see the distance learning applications. So you can see the percentage of staff that responded as a percentage to the whole. We've broken those out in elementary and secondary based on programming needs. We also broke those out into special services and paraprofessional needs, which I'll

057show you all in a little bit. We did that so that we could look at the areas of programming and look at the needs requested and begin our mapping process. What positions did we have that were in distance learning based on ratios and numbers? What did we have that was available in hybrid? How did we look at those tiers coming in with tier one being a prioritization for us knowing that we had that accommodation request? How would we look at that? And how could we get through the requests and map those with what our staff requests were and what our family requests were? So as I identify here you'll see the percentages of secondary certified staff the applications and elementary certified staff the applications. You'll also see our paraprofessional elementary and secondary. Knowing that our

058paraprofessionals will be providing essential services in our instructional capacities as we look at building programming, as we look at building operational needs. We also want to look at what distance learning opportunities we have available for them. As we look at our MTSS program, our tiers of support, how we will continue those levels of service and what that will look like as part of our mapping process also. As I also identified, we did break this out into special services. So you can take a look at the special services categories and the percentages of individuals, knowing full well that what we will look at and may need is some fluidity in all of this planning. Because as we look at the matching and as we look at the needs, we will have individuals who will be looking

059to serve students. and that may be in a different space than they were originally planning. We will look for some of these temporary assignments and temporary placements with the gratitude and grace of the flexibility that we're asking from our staff to know that while we have things that we need to accommodate While we may have a need right now, that need will change at some point in the future. The challenge for us is we don't know necessarily which direction. As you can see from the information around the guidance from Department of Health and Department of Education, and moving into different data sets from case rates might move us to further into distance for longer periods of time or may move us closer to in-person. We have to watch and be responsive for that. So we

060want to make sure that as we're looking at this staffing data, we're building in some of the fluidity and flexibility on a temporary basis. You can also see here the special services paraprofessional applications, and you'll start to see some of the general similarities in some of these ratios and looking at what these ratios are for staff in that range of that, you know, 15-20% to that 30-35% in the percentages of requests of the total population. So getting back there again, you can see the tiers into which these requests fell. So we began there again after we had the information from who requested, how they requested, and which tiers they were broken out to. And then we started to look at breaking that out again into classroom services, special services, paraprofessionals, where paraprofessionals would fall into

061these categories. And this then allowed us to walk into our mapping. We are in the space right now where we're mapping out classrooms. And we're mapping out those classrooms based on survey results. So when we look at the survey results, this has been the information that is driving how we can look at the need for programming and what that programming need is. This gives you an idea of what we were working with when we originally began our survey results. When we began our survey results, we were looking at response rates and hearing from families, and we continually needed to gather as much data as we can. We had about a 69% response, as you'll see in the elementary, and a 62% response. And these surveys really helped us identify who was identifying distance learning in

062the Royal Distance Learning Academy and who was identifying hybrid. So as you see with 30% not responding, I am completely appreciative of staff and all of those individuals that contributed to calling to making sure that we could do our reach outs to families who hadn't responded so that we could do our best to gather as much information as possible. Because with a larger response rate, we can make sure that we have matched the staffing needs as best we can. With response rates in the unknown area, we have typically worked to default to a hybrid placement so that we could make sure that we would have in-person services. And so that has been our modeling and has been our use of the data as we have it so far. As you can see from the responses

063that we have, you can see that the Royal Distance Learning Academy in the elementary was about a 30% response. What we had was a 70% response for hybrid, and you'll see in the distance learning academy a little larger for the secondary and a little bit smaller for the hybrid. So we took this information, we looked at where the staffing requests were. When we think about the numbers of elementary and secondary respondents, it was close to about 50% of our staff in each of those categories that truly responded by saying they would like us to consider some kind of distance learning opportunity for them in their assignment. So with a 30% response from our families and students regarding distance learning and a 50% response from our staff, we have that gap between being equally matched in

064each of these areas. So what we've tried to do is look back to that tiering structure to allow us to look at how we can accommodate those requests. As of now, when we look at this information and we start to see what this looks like with our tiering and what this looks like with our surveys, knowing full well that we still have individuals to place, we are in a space where we have accommodated all of our Tier 1, 2, 3, 4, and pretty much our Tier 5s. And I say pretty much because some of this information is fluid. As other staff members learn about their district plans or plans change, sometimes there's movement in and out of those tiers, and we do our best to have the interactive dialogue with those individuals as information changes

065to make sure that we can listen and try to see what we may be able to do and how we might be able to rearrange and map. And some of this is ongoing because, as you can identify from this, we still have some unknown information. that we're trying to be flexible with but understand that that flexibility will change over time. So for the most part we've really gone through as I mentioned tier one through tier five and we feel good about being in a space where we can look at those requests and start to match those and map those with the distance learning needs that we've had. Our principals have started those conversations and are continuing those conversations as we go further into the data and check the data and make sure that we're mapping

066accordingly. Our Tier 6, remember back to that Tier 6, are those individuals who had a preference, and we are trying to see what we can do with that Tier 6, but we are at this time not able to grant all of those Tier 6 requests just based on the responses that we have from our community about the desire for distance learning. And so we're trying to match that, as I stated, as best we can. As you can see here, the distance learning survey results based on those percentages in the elementary of what it looked like in K1, we broke that out. And you can see what it looks like at the elementary at two through six. So our community represents really the strong, I think, reflection of our youngest learners desiring that in-person presence. And

067we see that reflected in the survey results as well. So those are the survey results and with those survey results a lot of it is dependent on enrollment consideration. and as we think about that enrollment consideration i think there are a couple key points the board usually at this point in time asks about kindergarten numbers so i want to make sure i briefly highlight that for you and then as i mentioned briefly we'll talk a little bit about the fluctuations in distance learning and hybrid requests and assignment requests by and family requests so first with the kindergarten numbers when we look at our kindergarten numbers we are seeing kindergarten families um this year make some different decisions than we have in the past primarily that different decision that we are getting from families is an

068intentional um an intentional change in their plan from kindergarten as a service and an entry point in our district to not entering at kindergarten this year but looking either at a home option in kindergarten or a continuation of where their prior care may have been. as a four-year-old, a continuation of that service, and they expressed interest in looking at attending in grade one. So it's more as if that kindergarten year might not be in person and with us. And so we are seeing that number impact our kindergarten numbers a little bit off from where our projections were. And that has been a new phenomenon. We aren't seeing an increase in requests in open enrollment at kindergarten. But we are seeing families say we might wait a year for entry into formal schooling. And that is

069a new phenomenon for us that specifically parents have identified as being COVID related and a part of their planning and their own family considerations. The other enrollment consideration that I mentioned briefly in the slides is the fluctuation in distance learning and hybrid requests and what that looks like as it ebbs and flows throughout the year and our responsiveness to what that can be for whatever reasons people might be changing their minds and how we may be adaptive to that. That is another enrollment consideration as we think through how that might impact our staffing. based on any need and the need to be flexible at any point in time to be responsive to what that might look like. Distance learning assignments, and I think that's the other one, and family requests. I mentioned that in those

070last few slides about how we're trying to match that. And as we have approximately a little more than 500 to 600 responses still awaiting in the elementary, we need to be flexible enough to know that we still have to gather some information. We still have to hear from some families. And so we want to make sure that we continue with the calling and the gathering of information. as well as we can up to even the first few days so that we can get started, know what's happening, and maybe adjust as we can based on what we learn from those families that might not have responded yet as to what their actual intentions are. So that's the set of information we've been working with. Those are the brief parameters. I'll apologize for my rushing through a

071lot of that information, trying to be respectful of the time that we have, and hopefully describing where we've been, where we are, and where we need to go into the future. Thank you so much, Dr. Lightfoot. I know that it has been a tremendous amount of work, and I'm thankful to you and your team and to all of the individuals and leaders who have helped with this very intricate and time-consuming process. I would like to ask Director Fisher if you would like to have me present my screen, or would you like to present? I know you only have two slides, so up to you. It might be easier if you present, Dr. Mary Perrier-Reed. Okay, I will do that now. And then Director Chapinduka will go straight to you for budget implications after we hear

072from Director Fisher. Does that work for you, Mr. Chapinduka? Yes, Dr. Mary Perrier-Reed. Okay, very good. Okay, thank you. So childcare is we will start off with Hopkins Strong Start as Director Ertl talked about. And during that Hopkins Strong Start period, all of childcare will be located in the elementary buildings. Registration is currently open and underway for that. In the elementary buildings, we will have space for children of Tier 1 workers. Those are the essential workers that MDE has deemed essential. So people like... education professionals and health care professionals, police officers, those are tier one workers. And so we'll have, and that care is free. So we'll have child care for tier one workers and we'll also have fee paying families in the same space. The time will be 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and

073that starts August 31st, the same day as Hopkins Strong Start starts. The staff will be kids and company staff, so the people in the space will be all of our kids and company staff. And then when hybrid starts for grades K-1, that's on the right-hand side of the slide, it will be a little bit different. K-1 will remain at the high school, sorry, will remain at the elementary building, so it'll stay there. Registration has not opened yet, so that's coming. The fee-based before and after care will be Monday through Thursday, so in a sense, K-1 will be there four days a week. They can have before care and after care. And then on Friday, that would be all day care. And again, that would be fee-based scholars mixed with Tier 1 scholars. They would all

074be in the same place. The time is the same, starting at 7 a.m. and closing at 6 p.m. And that starts September 9th for K-1. And that will also be led by kids and company staff. So if you could go to the next slide. Thank you. So once grades two through six hybrid learning starts, child care will actually move from the elementary buildings over to the high school. All grades two through six will go to high school, and it will be stationed there. Registration is not yet open for that. As I mentioned, it will be located at Hopkins High School. It's all daycare, Monday through Friday. It's fee based and there's also tier one essential workers there. So again, that will be mixed. Starts at 7 a.m. Closes at 6 p.m. Since this grades two

075through six, it'll start on September 14th. And just looking at parentheses, I'm not sure why it says that. I'll have to find out and get back to you. Kids and Company staff and K-12 paraprofessional staff will be staffing it. Part of the mandate for Tier 1 child care is that there is some help to help the students in child care work through the distance learning portion of their day. So we'll have paraprofessional, a paraprofessional or multiple paraprofessionals there helping students work through their distance learning. and they will be given, everyone will be given space and time to work on distance learning. If we do move to distance learning, so if numbers go up and we have to shift or pivot to a distance learning model, That's what this next part explains on the right hand

076side of the screen. It's also the same registration that we're using for Hopkins Strong Start. So those two programs model each other. The same program we'll use, child care program we'll use for Hopkins Strong Start is the same model we'll use when we shift to distance learning. So as parents are signing up for Hopkins Strong Start child care, they're also guaranteeing a spot in distance learning child care should we have to pivot and move to a distance learning model and again all of that child care would be at the elementary school buildings so that's really all i have on that and i'm happy to answer any questions that people might have if there are any otherwise we can shift to director chapaduka um director um sorry chair bouchard i have a question Sure, go ahead,

077Director Kahn. So I attended the Multicultural Advisory Committee a little while ago, and we are partnered with the Hopkins Police Force, and they were saying that you had to possibly rent out the Hopkins Activity Center for childcare. Is that correct, or are they wrong? No, that's correct. entered into a partnership with the city of hopkins to be able to use their building the hopkins activity center for the 2020-21 school year and so we are so grateful for the partnership that the city has offered to us it's really helpful right now we're looking at using that space in conjunction with metzled field across the street to do some outdoor learning and to do some learning inside of the hopkins activity center and the gym area there and a couple teachers at eisenhower elementary school are looking

078to use that space so at this point that's kind of how we're thinking we'll use that space okay thank you so much you're welcome sure bouchard i have a question yes director adams all right thank you uh alex um what's the rationale for having child care in the local schools as well as the high school. I can see that might cause some transportation issues for some parents that might have a kid at both locations. Yes, so that... It has to do with space. There's just not enough space to do child care at the elementary buildings. If we did everybody, we wouldn't be able to house everybody. So we had to be creative. And luckily, since the high school is doing distance learning, they had a whole wing available that we could use. And so it

079just became kind of a... a solution to a problem for us so we could we could hold grades two through six there while prioritizing k through one and uh k through one at the school buildings since they'll they'll be there the most often the most frequently and they'll also have before and after care there at the buildings um so in answer to your question it has mostly to do with space needs all right thank you sure director chap and duca i'll share my screen again okay Good evening Dr. Roda Miripere-Reed, Chair Bouchard, respective board members, staff members and the community. Well, last but not least, we'll be talking about the costing model. So after everything which has been presented, we took all the plans and the models and aggregated everything to come up with what

080we anticipate at this point in time is a preliminary costing for the hybrid and distance learning model. And the information I'm sharing right now is not the entire information on costing. There's a reason to that and I'll share with you in my next slide. So one of the areas we know we've been having challenges with is transportation. And I know when I presented at the last board meeting, considering the information we had at that point in time, we're looking at ballooning costs in additional transportation based on the model. What we ended up doing, based on those survey scenarios which were shared by Dr. Lightfoot, we were able to scrub together the transportation piece. And what we found out was based on the questions we shared with family members, we found out that only 30% of

081the survey responders wanted to use district transportation. So right now our costing model is based on us busing 30% of our students at the K-6 level. And we also played another scenario. If we start phasing in the secondary students, what that would look like from a transportation perspective. After doing all the calculations, we're able to determine that we'll need at least 30 buses to be able to bus the students with shown interest in using district transportation. With that said, factoring in special services, factoring in our contract obligations with our current contractor, we anticipate a cost saving of about a million dollars or a lot over that. But again, these are preliminary numbers. They are very fluid. There's a possibility that some of the family members, because a lot of the family members say they will

082be transporting their own children. So if we end up with a situation where a family member decides to use district transportation, that might actually tweak our transportation costs. but based on available information and factoring in the current environment we are in, we are anticipating a cost saving of about a million dollars. What we also did is we went ahead and tried to determine what it would cost when we start phasing in the secondary students. And one of the thought processes which was put on the table Was to change the bell time at the secondary level to a later time. What that does is it actually makes our transportation costs neutral. So it won't be any additional cost since we'll be using the same buses to transport those students. So at this point in time, that's

083what I have for transportation. As we assess the situation and we get more feedback from families, we may come back with a different dollar amount. The other piece we looked at was enrollment. As I mentioned earlier on in the presentation by Dr. Lightfoot, based on the current information again, we are anticipating a declining enrollment of between 50 to about 100 students. the 100 students will be the worst case scenario. So if we put that into perspective, considering our budget and considering what we actually presented to the board way back in June, we anticipate that if we lose 50 students, our budget will be reduced by about $469,209. If we end up losing the worst case scenario, the maximum of 100 students, our budget will be reduced by $1,107,333. And then if you factor in the

084other components within the cost savings in transportation, you will see that some of those deficits will probably be neutralized. The other component we looked at from a costing perspective was the staffing. So what we did with the staffing, we pulled our current budget as it stands with our current staffing model based on what we're anticipating with our traditional school day. And what we determined was we don't really need any additional resources for teachers. And additional resources we'll need when we look at the hybrid model will be mostly for the support staff, so the pairs. So when you look at the elementary hybrid as presented and having all the secondaries and distance learning, we'll need additional resources to the tune of about $240,171. If we go to a hybrid model for both the elementary and the

085secondary who need additional resources to the tune of about $440,171, which is those additional paraprofessionals, some additional permanent substitutes who need to be helping out both the elementary and the secondary level. So in a nutshell, We are anticipating cost savings. We are also anticipating some increases in our staffing and some declining in our enrollment. But at the end, once everything is all added up, it will turn out to be a wash. Now, if you can go to the next slide. So the next slide, this is some good news. So we got information from the state that we'll be receiving additional funds. And that's why I didn't include some of the components, for example, with the health and safety with our cleaning of the buildings, because those costs will be able to be covered by additional

086funds we are receiving from the federal government. The funds will be receiving a coronavirus relief funds and those funds are actually broken down into three different components. One component is the operating cost which is calculated using our average daily membership and that amount is $1,151,292. The other component is the family education student support, which is also calculated using the average daily membership to the tune of $307,011. And the third component is the family education support for students, which is calculated using the free and reduced lunches under the title formulas. amounting to $508,079. So there's some flexibility in using these funds, but what the government has actually directed us is we have to use these funds and expand them between July 1, 2020 and December 30th. So the $1,966,382 we are receiving, we have to use

087these funds by December 30th or else we'll be losing those funds. The other component was that we can't use these funds for anything we have already included in our budget. So this is any supplementary needs for the COVID-19 which have not been factored into our current budget. And we also cannot supplant on these funds. So we have a tight space of time to be able to use these funds. And some of the priorities is directed for using the funds is daily cleaning supplies, disinfectant sprayers, screening supplies. including no touch thermometers, personal protective equipment, including face coverings, increased cost for transporting students at limited capacity, digital navigators which is training for educators, students or families on use of technology and digital literacy, technology devices and internet access, tutors and mentors to address learning loss, supporting all

088schools, small group and individual needs, translation services, school-age care for essential workers, and professional development focused on academic response to intervention , social-emotional learning, competence-based learning, diversity, equity and inclusion as well as anti-bias practices. So this Now these funds are in addition to the funds we actually shared with you at the last board meeting, which is the GEER funds and the ESSA funds. So we feel like these funds will be able to relieve the district in a long way and will take us at least to the next level. And we appreciate all the noise you have made about why we haven't been getting enough funding and finding somebody who does. And thank you for that. I will entertain any questions. Chair Bouchard? Yes, Director Adams. So I guess we're going to make a noise. Well,

089that's good news. The December 31st deadline concerns me. What are we supposed to do for the last five months out of the year? We can hire new support staff, but only through the end of the year, the end of the calendar year. And then we have to lay them off come January? Well, I would discourage even us using these funds for hiring any staff. These are one-time funds, so we can't probably use them for anything which will alter or tweak the structure of the organization. So we'll probably have to prioritize these funds for a lot of the operational costs. We've had a lot of information requests from the community about... our ventilations and some of the consent they have so we can probably use those funds on things we know at one time and are

090not recurring expenditures. Okay so it's probably going to go to capital expenditures it sounds like. A warehouse full of disinfectant or something. That's correct. Yeah, so some of the capital expenditures and some of the one-time health safety needs which we know will not be recurring into the next year. Okay, sorry to hear that, but at least it's some money. Thank you. Chair Bouchard, I have a few questions. Director Peters, I'm sorry to pause. I'm wondering if we could finish out the presentation and then open up for questions to all the presenters. Would that be all right? Yep. Thank you very much. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. We are at the end of our presentation. I'll share one more slide because I do... We do have an instructional and learning promise that we want to deliver to

091our community, and I do think it is very important to share with our community that our Our focus here in Hopkins is the highest quality teaching and learning. We are a teaching and learning organization. We recognize that all of the time, every day. And so our promise is to work our tails off to provide an engaging and rigorous education for all students, whether full-time distance learning in our Royal Distance Learning Academy, or participating during Hopkins Strong Start or being phased in for in-person components of our hybrid learning model. We truly are Hopkins Strong. We love our community. We love our students. We love our staff. We respect our staff and we want to remain a strong and connected community and we're also devoted to the specific improvements that we have to make regarding our discussion

092and communication processes regarding updating our community and staff and truly allowing every person who's a part of our community to feel like they're on our page we're on your page and we're all on the same page together so those improvements are very important to us and so at this time we are um we we are available to answer board members questions thank you director peterson thanks um i have a few um questions the first question is um i think probably aimed at dr lightfoot Can you help me understand the timelines behind when the surveys were given to staff and families that we were showing those results from? And if we've seen any shift in those, if they were done before significant changes? So I'm not sure I'm following the specific question director Peterson the survey

093information Are you talking about the family information? I'm just wondering like when teachers were requesting their positioning When were those requests put in? Yeah, those requests were put in. I'm not going to remember the exact date, but we closed those last week so that we could gather the information and then have been working from last week. And I think it's important that there are some. There are some different sets of information that are coming in. So for example, a disability request is an ongoing form that individuals can fill out. So that's not a specific time-bound survey. It's the same thing with the Family First Coronavirus Recovery Act information, that that's continually and ongoing. The information that we asked for our staff from the application was we could get a sense of interest and put those

094out there so that we could get more specific with our mapping. And as I stated, I believe that that was completed last week. And then we've been working with the information from last week so that we could then accommodate, gather as much as we could, and even up to and gathering information. um with some sets of individuals as much as of monday of this week okay the question specifically being around obviously the large uptick in um in emails and touch bases with the board that we received after the shift from a four and a half hour day to a six hour day into the specialist being in person um so i'm just trying to ensure that that those numbers are reflecting any changes that were made after um after we made the program changes? Yes,

095they are. Okay. And I think that kind of covers that one. I'll just keep going for continuity's sake. Can you help me understand a little bit around any constraints? There's been a lot of concern around our ability to acquire substitute teachers or provide for sick leave even before COVID. How are we addressing those types of scenarios in a situation where we're more likely going to need more substitutes rather than less? Absolutely. Outstanding question. And what we're looking at is, I think as you saw in Director Chapenduka's presentation, we're looking at the expectation that we would look to hire permanent subs in buildings so that we can minimize contact, so that we can hopefully have individuals that we can continually rely on. And that's why you saw that added line expenditure there, anticipating what that would

096look like. in contact with teachers on call who is our agency that provides substitute services and has a pool of candidates we have some permanent subs already that we utilize throughout the district and we are looking to increase that cadre and have them housed in specific buildings um so that has been part of our planning and part of our work to make sure that we can look at greater levels of flexibility to account for the increased need that we anticipate with substitute services okay awesome thank you um my next question is more around curriculum and classes so i'm thinking maybe directed at Ms. Ertl, but also maybe Rhoda. Can you guys help me understand any shifts we're gonna see from our traditional class size ratios in both the hybrid model and the distance learning model?

097And help me understand what maximums could look like in both. Sure, and I know that Dr. Lightfoot is also involved in that conversation too. Dr. Lightfoot, do you wanna start? Sure. We looked at the, and Principal French, you can chime in as well from the elementary, and Principal Ballard as well from secondary. We've used and began with the same expectations that we were looking at originally as our starting point. So no increase. And what we've been trying to do is look at the state guidance and looking at having, quote unquote, the operational with the AABB. So we really tried to keep the building classes as the base point that we've used in our mapping process and in our staffing process. The challenge for us is how we've looked at the Royal Distance Learning Academy. We

098mapped out multiple scenarios where what if we collaborated district-wide and had students from across grade, you know, one from across the district and what would it look like if we were able to accommodate in a specific elementary. And so when we did that modeling, it really landed on us looking at how we could keep as much as possible because remember, we still have hundreds of families to hear from about what their choices will actually be to place their students. Now what we've looked at is keeping that staffing in the building that it is in as much as possible for those that are choosing distance learning. And some of those numbers come in at strange numbers. And some of those might be 33 in distance learning. And we aren't going to increase a section for a

099couple of distance learning students. But what we might do is look at some additional paraprofessional services and what that might look like. additional ability to respond and engage with and interact. So we're trying to find some additional ways where there are those outliers and how we can partner with teachers because some sections were lower. And if you have a 14 or 15, might we be able to look at some teachers from there partnering with some assessment and contact. So we're really trying to be flexible with what that looks like. um but not looking to go above where our previous numbers were if that's helpful but with some flexibility along the way I would also say, I don't know if this helps with your question, because in a traditional year we could have up to 30

100students in a classroom. That is the max because now we can only be at 50% capacity. So the maximum number of students that would be in any classroom space with their teacher or with a companion instructor would be 15. but we're not reaching that number in many places yeah more concerns more lie around the teachers ability to support the students across the board um which leads me and I think this one would be more towards you. Can you help me understand how the distance learning scenario might vary in some of the smaller schools? I've heard some other parents mentioning that perhaps distance learning is watching a live stream of in-person learning. Are we seeing that in some places? Can you talk to me a little bit about that? Sure. Well, so, no. The streaming of

101live lessons is not an approach that I anticipate that we will be taking. So one of the, I guess one of the benefits of what Dr. Lightfoot and Principal French were describing in terms of really looking at let's say a third grade group at Gatewood, for example. So in any third grade group, we're gonna have some students doing distance learning full time, some students in person, and then some students doing their distance learning days. And so where the principles landed and what we thought made sense in terms of continuity for kids, and connection and teacher workload was to try to get that team of teachers to really collaborate on all of the content so that the distance learning teacher might be creating content that may be used by another teacher in a different way with

102a different group of students at that grade level. What I think that's going to allow for us is no matter kind of what happens in terms of our health data and where we're you know what we're kind of at um the student will not experience a significant difference uh either if they're full-time distance learning or if they're in the hybrid model nor will they experience a difference if we have to switch from one to the other so and our our department is We're going to be working in support of your teams both in the building but also across the district because we don't need third grade teams at Gatewood recreating a wheel with third grade teachers at Tangley. Like we should all be working together and really cooling that the labor that it takes to

103provide both of these. So we're going to be working closely with our teachers and principals to do that. Awesome. Those are most of my questions. I will allow my fellow board members to ask theirs. Thanks everybody. Thank you, Director Peterson. Other board member questions? Chair Brouchard, I had a question. Yes, Director Kahn. A lot of letters that we received stated that the teachers were very apprehensive about teaching distance learning and in-person learning at the elementary level. They said it would be overwhelming for them to, you know, do both distance and... From what I understand, it seemed like they're saying they have to do distance learning and online, sorry, and in-person teaching at the same time. So that is a concern for me. How did you work out? you know, how, like the amount of time

104that they'll have to do all of that because I used to substitute teach and I know that, you know, if I have students in front of me and then I would have to look at a screen and teach those students online, I wouldn't be able to manage that. I can, as I have been talking with staff members about their requests and their assignments for next year. In my building at a grade level, I will have hybrid teachers, those who will be teaching students in person. And there will also be a distance learning teacher at that grade level. And next week when we come back, we will be collaborating and communicating and figuring out how that distance learning teacher is supporting the hybrid teachers for students who are on their off day. So there is going

105to be collaboration and communication. between the hybrid teacher and the distance learning teacher so that a teacher doesn't find themselves having to do both things at the same time uh there will be curated lessons, will be sharing resources on Canvas so that teachers will have access to providing lessons for their students when they're not in person with them as well as being in person. So we hear that concern. We don't want teachers to feel overwhelmed by having to do two things at once. be starting to talk about that collectively next week how are we working as a team to support all of those students okay thank you so much i appreciate it chair bouchard yes director adams i have some questions um but appears that we're only going to be using canvas this year It's

106not going to be more Moodle, no more Google, no more Seesaw? We are using Canvas, but we do think that Seesaw might be a tool that some of our particularly early childhood or primary teachers still continue to use, but it does work within the context still of Canvas, yes. Okay. I've sensed based on some of the email comments we've gotten that parents are a little concerned about learning Canvas themselves in case they have to help their child. Are we going to do any training for parents on Canvas? I'm so glad that you asked that. Yes, we sure are. We have and Director Nelson may have some additional detail on this, but we do have a full team of, we call them our digital learning coaches, and they, along with our department, are looking at... What

107are the training tools or parent-facing training tools that are needed to help our parents at various levels feel comfortable and confident with Canvas? Because there are some really nice features that Canvas has, but of course, if you don't know how to use them, it doesn't help anybody. And the other thing that we are also... aware of and working toward is ensuring that those parent facing training tools are available in the languages that our parents speak as well so that they can also be accessing those training tools. And can is a big part of our Hopkins Strong Start, Director Adams. For staff or for parents? Well, for everybody in different modules. But one of the things that our digital learning coach has done to prepare the students for Canvas is to incorporate the parents into part

108of that training. For the older students, one of their assignments in their learning Canvas course is to sit with their parents and to create an observer code, which then allows the parents to have a login to that Canvas account. being able to be connected to that student in all their classes and then they can go they they sit and go through some of the features the communication features primarily because there's a lot of robust communication within the canvas system all right so looking over their student's shoulder essentially well somebody's looking over somebody's shoulder yeah right all right well good i'm glad to hear that um I was a little intrigued and somewhat concerned about this companion classroom model. And I don't know if Principal French can answer this or who's the right person, but is

109it my understanding that there's no licensed teacher in a companion classroom? Is that correct? Is it strictly a para? So I'll go ahead, Principal French. Yes, the current model that we're looking at, the companion instructors, the companion adults would be paraprofessionals. And Nick can help with that too. It's not unique in that these professionals, our paraprofessionals who are very skilled and talented, have been working with students, have been supporting teachers, have been following through with intervention support. So they are used to working with groups of students and we are aware that they will be doing that work under the direction and guidance of the classroom teacher. We're not asking them to plan lessons, organize lessons. We're asking them to follow through, to enhance. to review to make connections so but you are right the model

110that we're looking at will use our very skilled and talented paraprofessionals as a companion adult this sounds like something more than one it's in their current uh job description for a paraprofessional are we going to give them an increase in pay as a result or Yeah, I'm happy to address that. We have a class six paraprofessional that is the learning support paraprofessional. And yes, we would be looking at these companion classroom experiences at the highest paraprofessional rate we have at a class six rate of pay. When you look at the budget implications that Director Chapinduka presented, we have a good for that increase in all of our companion classrooms. so that we are readily planned for that and have had conversations with our paraprofessional union about what that would look like for rates of pay

111while we are in a hybrid model. Okay, and yeah that's one of the other questions I had was that we consulted with our unions, I assume we have, but you know we've got multiple unions they're going to be affected by this hybrid model and the distance learning. I'm just wondering if they've taken a position on the proposed hybrid model. Any of them. Is that a yes? No? Do you want me to address that, Dr. Lightfoot? I'm happy either way. We spent time with our paraprofessionals and our paraprofessionals this afternoon were looking at the specific nature of how we were looking at the class six, how we were looking at utilizing our paras to assist with the elementary model as well as what the transition looks like in the secondary model. Some original concern around what

112that would mean for people's jobs and clarifying that no, the temporary assignment is not an ending to what your previous job was. These are temporary adjustments to what we need them to be in order to service during hybrid. And then a return to your expected assignment that it would have otherwise been, barring for the hybrid needs that we have. So good conversations with them. Like I said, you know, with the paraprofessionals, we are looking at the need to increase services and increase individuals to provide those services. So we know that we will be giving additional opportunities for paraprofessionals to extend their skill sets. As Principal French outlined, we have many talented individuals that we welcome to provide those services to our young people and extend their connections even further with additional pay, additional hours, and

113additional services. When we have had conversations with our... members of the Education Association. There has been an expressed preference for distance learning and there have been individual members that have said we are ready to be back in the classroom. I think as Chair Bouchard read in the opening you can hear the range of individuals and where they are and there is as we have said no common message that has always been across the board. and it has been expressed by the Education Association that there is the preference for the distance learning start. Okay, but the teachers union has not expressed any concerns about us using paraprofessionals in the companion classrooms? No, the Public Education Standards Licensing Bureau, PELSB as they're referred to, did make administrative clarification for all of the districts that the use of

114paraprofessionals in companion classrooms is completely allowable and well supported as long as Principal French identified those individuals are supporting the work of the classroom. under the license and the direction of the classroom instructor who is providing the instructional services and assessment. All right. One last question. Director Adams? Yeah. Yes. I did want to point out in addition to what Dr. Lightfoot has shared that one really great thing about our Thursday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. return to school operations team meetings is that our HEA union president has been fully involved in those meetings and so every step of the way that we've engaged during the planning process she has been listening in and providing consult and conferring on a regular basis with Dr. Lightfoot and also with her members and so it does feel very

115good to be in a place where we're constantly in conversation with our education association. Absolutely. And one final question probably for Mary Jo Martin. What kind of screening are we going to be doing for temperature or any screening? for people walking in the doors of our hybrid classrooms? Are we screening students on a daily basis or staff on a daily basis? Thank you for the question. We are going to ask families to do screening at home, staff and families to do screening at home to begin with, so that just to catch those that are not feeling well from even coming to school. And then once in the buildings, as they enter, we are not going to do screening. We're going to get the kids into their classrooms to, you know, to promote physical distancing and

116all that. And then the nurses will be in their offices to assess any staff or student that becomes ill during the school day. Okay. But no, like those thermometer guns, nothing like that going to be in use? Not at the front doors, no. We'll have them in our offices. All right, very good. Fever is just, yeah. Okay, thank you. So board members, I do want to point out that I promised the team a break at 7 p.m. about a 10-minute break. And so I'm wondering if we could take that now and then return to make sure that all board members have time to ask all of their questions before we take a vote on the resolution. So I move that we take a 10-minute recess and reconvene at 722. Could I have a second? i

117second i have a motion and a second to take a 10-minute recess and reconvene at 7 22 clerk andreessen roll call vote please thank you chair mouchard director adams hi director ahmed aye director andreessen aye director khan aye director latondras aye director peterson aye And Chair Bouchard? Aye. 7 ayes, 0 nays. Motion carries. We'll see you back here at 7.22. And we can resume the live stream. It is 723 and we are resuming this special meeting of the Hopkins School Board. We're currently in our Q&A section following the fall learning models presentation. And I'd like to invite my board colleagues to continue with their questions. Chair Bouchard. Director LaFondress. Just three quick questions here. Two for Director Chapenduka. So I'll start with you. Number one, can you speak a little bit to the estimated 50

118to 100 student decline in enrollment and what our best judgment is to the drivers of that? Is it primarily COVID related? And that's also quite a range, you know, like typically when you are planning. Yeah, it's not that wide range. So can you provide some additional context on that point? Sure. Sure, I know Dr. Leif has helped me with that piece, but to my level of understanding right now, Director Lachan-Rose, it's a combination of factors. one based on the numbers we are receiving with our current registration process and also just the new choices out there. You know, there's so many choices for families to actually take alternative routes into registering and some of it is just probably because people still don't really understand the whole entire concept of what's really happening and are waiting for

119last minute registration. Dr. Lightfoot, you can add on to what I just said. Sure. If you look at where we are right now, Director Latondris, as I mentioned in the presentation that I gave, the kindergarten number is different than it would otherwise be at this point in time in the year. and it's down about 60 from where we would anticipate to be otherwise. So we know that we have registrations coming in next week before we start. Typically that is a high week, so it can be a wide range of those coming in. So we've said we anticipate. We know that we will be down. We just aren't sure how much at that kindergarten number, specifically because we have brand new factors that we never have had before, as I mentioned, with many families saying, I

120think we're going to enter at first grade rather than kindergarten. So that's a new phenomenon, and that's where we've started with the 50 as an estimate in that range. In addition, we also know, as I identified before, we still have numbers of families that have not responded. to our request to get where they will be with hybrid and or distance learning. So when we look at that number right now as identified, it's a little over 500 from our last numbers and our last counts. Knowing that some of them might be in a space where they might also be looking at making a different choice for the year, we wanted to make some rough estimates of looking at a high and looking potentially at a low. So all of that is just a range potential of

121what that might look like. Our secondary right now is actually running a little bit over where they are projected to be at the junior high, and they are right on projection at the element, I'm sorry, at the high school. As you all know, those are the numbers we have in campus in our system right now. We will see when we have that first day of operations and the virtual attendance world that we will have, that we have to figure out what that's all going to look like. Because we used to be able to look and see the smiling faces and greet individuals as they were with us. this will be a different start. And so we have to be ready for what that's going to look like. And that's why we've tried to think through

122some of those numbers to give you a range as far as expectation. Thanks for that, Directors Chapaduka and Lightfoot. Second question is just about the relief we've gotten from state and federal sources. Director Chapaduka, at our last board meeting, that number was a little closer to 700,000. It's increased now, which is good news for us. and Good News for Public Education. I am curious what the sources of those funds are. Is that then the state finally figuring out how they're going to administer funds that have been available for a while? I asked this in a context where, as I understand it, there's currently federal legislation under consideration that would include actual relief for the 2020-2021 school year for school districts. And the number is being debated depending on where you sit. But Congress was supposed

123to take action on that this past couple of weeks, and they left town without... any action on that so i'm curious where these these funds are coming from Thank you, Director Latendros, for that question. So all these funds are federal funds. So the relief we are getting is part of the CASE Act funds. So the initial figure I gave you at the last board meeting, which is that close to $700,000, was actually based on the initial drawdown which had been afforded to the states. and in the last week or so they came back with more relief so everything we are getting so far the 1.9 million and the 700 something those are all federal funds terrific thanks for that thanks for that clarification um my final question i'm not sure if it's best directed um

124and uh interim director urnall uh maybe you dr mary peary reed but it is looking back at the very beginning of this presentation and this is this Hennepin County health data matrix where we map that on our recommended learning model policy based on case rates. And, you know, from the very beginning as a board member, when I saw this, to me, it was clear that this, though it doesn't serve as a hard and fast black and white ruler, it is the closest thing that I think our community has at this point as a Rosetta Stone for predicting where the school district might go. in and out of our various models as the public health data changes. And so I just wanted a little bit more context on is this a matrix that was given to

125our district by Minnesota Department of Education, Minnesota Department of Health, or is this something we've adapted based on their inputs? Is this something that's common across metro area school districts? something unique to us. Can you provide some context there? Absolutely, Director LaTondris. Can you see the screen okay? Yes. Okay. So this matrix is being used statewide and so every district will get updated information every 14 days and there's basically a giant list of all of the counties throughout the state of Minnesota listed in alphabetical order and the district or local education agency then has the responsibility to track how many positive cases per 10,000 every 14 days and then use this same framework that everybody else is using in addition to staffing data, in addition to the system's ability to implement pathogen-resistant measures, in addition

126to the system's ability to train all stakeholders around new behaviors. So all of the different components to creating safer environments and pathogen resistant environments for our students and staff, all of these factors in addition to this data are used to point a district or an LEA in the direction of a specific model based on that health data, but also inclusive of all of those other pieces of data that I mentioned. Does that answer your question? It does answer my question and I think just again I think sort of bringing things back to the very beginning here I think helps serve as a really important reminder to our community, our educator community, our parent community, our student community. that though the Walz administration has given school districts the authority to make decisions, for example, about how

127we're going to start the year, we are not inventing this notion that we have to fully prepare for with fidelity three distinct models for learning or be responsive around those models based on public health data. That is direction that is being given to us by the state of Minnesota, and it's our responsibility legally. to make sure we can implement all three of those models with fidelity, but also it is our responsibility, I would say, as a school district, knowing that this pandemic may be with us for a very long time. to, like, listen, I would be the first one to love it if we could just wave a magic wand and like a miracle, I think it's been said, this pandemic goes away and we'd be able to, you know, flip from full distance to

128full in-person. We just know that's not how pandemics work and that's not how this is going to work. And that's why the WALLS administration has wisely counseled every school district, including Hopkins, to prepare for these three models and to be able to implement with them. them with fidelity and i think that's really important backdrop for the really ultimately difficult decisions that we have to make here at this board table about how we're starting this year agreed i think it's also important to note that we've you know for years and decades and centuries we've done full-time in person from March through June of this past school year we did full-time distance learning and truly the hybrid model is the most difficult to design and polish and implement and we want we have we have pushed ourselves

129we have pushed staff principals have pushed each other leaders have pushed each other to figure out what a hybrid experience could look like because we know that we will need it. And we have pushed ourselves to identify the improvements that we can make with a full-time distance learning model, something that we've already tried this past spring, but we know that we can do much better. And so the work has been plentiful, but you are right that we are all starting with the same framework and the same decision-making process. And I think it's worth pointing out, too, that, you know, it's not lost on me that some districts have just decided to start the year full-time distance indefinitely. I think those districts are going to be in a really challenging position when we get to a

130point where, you know, again, hopefully with some sort of vaccine or maybe just, you know, the natural cycles of this virus over the next few months, rates go even lower than they are now. And to not actually have the ability to implement a hybrid model is going to leave districts like that at a significant disadvantage, which is why I'm... incredibly grateful for the all of the hours that our leadership team has put in on this but so many so many members of our community so many members of our educator community have put into helping us figure out what what a model might look like and how we might go about this hybrid piece other board member questions or comments yes chair bouchard i had um a couple questions and anyone who's knowledgeable about them please

131answer um and this is kind of piggybacking on um katie's question um there were a lot of staff that wrote um you know emails at the elementary level saying that they wanted to choose distance learning but they couldn't because of the limited capacity that they had to assign teachers to that position like they just didn't have enough positions for that thank you for your question director khan I'm not sure I'm quite understanding. We did invite 100% of our staff to apply for a distance learning assignment. We also extended the deadline to make sure that all staff had that extra opportunity. We coupled the extension of the deadline with a personal phone call. a robocall to 100 of our staff or just to alert staff members who may not be in touch with their email on

132a frequent basis do you have anything to add to that dr lightfoot no i would say that's accurate And maybe I would say elementary principals have worked for many days with Dr. Lightfoot and other members who support our schools in staffing the models, the hybrid model and the distance learning model. And I think Dr. Lightfoot said earlier, we looked... at different tiers for the requests from staff members for a distance learning assignment. And I am very happy that we were able to accommodate the majority of those requests. And even I have had a couple teachers at Gatewood who initially identified and applied for a distance learning position. after learning more information, feeling more comfortable, withdrew that and will be part of the hybrid learning team. So we paid attention to every person who applied for

133a distance learning environment and tried to find an assignment for them that matched their needs and requests. Okay, I think Director Kahn, just to reassure you and other board members and perhaps if there are teachers or staff listening, if there is anyone who missed this invitation, please just give us a call and we will work with any individual who feels somehow out of the loop or they missed something big. So we welcome working with our staff on that personalized individual basis. Thank you so much. My other question is that... At the elementary level, students have trouble distancing from one another and they forget, they touch everything, they share everything. You know, how will they monitor that? And how will students, you know, if you go to the bathroom, how will students be, you know, even

134at the kindergarten level, the first grade level, how will they understand how to clean up after themselves? And, you know, be safe. I think you're right. Oh, I was just going to say I can offer a little bit of information about that and I'm sure Principal French has some things to add and perhaps even Nurse Martin. What I can tell you is that a pretty significant component of both our Hopkins strong start but also some of the resources that are being provided or developed really. Our age specific safety precautionary kinds of lessons just like you are describing around because kindergarteners i mean they because it's often their first experience um and but our first graders have been in school so this will look very different to them so we have got our early childhood and

135some primary teachers specifically developing resources for kids um to help them understand that this is what school looks like now this is what we have to do to be safe and those sorts of lessons have been very um typical and germane anyway at the primary level but this is just an added layer with some of kind of the nuance the new uh the new normals that it means to be together in the school building kind of under these circumstances director khan i i've been wondering that same thing all summer long um Kids aren't going to be able to run up and give me a hug. I'm not going to be able to put my arm around. But what I've been comforted by actually is watching other schools and states that have gone back to school

136that have these practices and procedures and teaching. I'm seeing kids socially distance. I'm seeing them learn how to keep washing your hands and to wear a mask. And we're going to have to have the community and family support to reinforce these practices at home so that they are carried into school. And Mary Jo, were you going to say something? Oh, I disagree with both of you. I agree. I'm sorry. I saw some curriculum today that was just terrific for K1, and it includes books that parents can read, teachers can read. It also includes videos that reinforce hand washing, social distancing, how to wear a mask, why you wear a mask. So we're going to try our best. So I understand that, well, is this correct to understand that the art teachers will be coming in

137and out of classrooms instead of students going to them and the music teachers and the FIAD teachers? That is correct. The plan for scheduling specialists like music teachers, fayette, art, Spanish teachers is to have them scheduled with a specific grade level for a period of weeks. So yes, while they will be supporting the classrooms at that grade level, they will not be seeing multiple grade levels and as many classes as they would in their traditional assignment. We're doing a little bit of that, I think, also to, we think that it may be easier for the one adult to travel through the building and to go into a classroom instead of sending the students regularly in groups around the building. And so when these teachers come in, will they have their, you know, will they have

138their vitals checked or like if they have? temperature or anything i think i i think i heard mary jo say earlier that our nurses will be ready to assess and temperature check any staff or student who is exhibiting any symptoms related to covid um we will as a principal i'll keep working with my staff if they need more and different kinds of protective equipment, we'll get them that. If an art teacher, for example, has art materials but it's only used in this classroom, then we will work to get materials for the other classrooms so that we're reducing the contact and the sharing of materials. We will do what we need to do for keeping specialists feeling safe and protected and as much as we can do to limit the number of classrooms and grade levels

139that they come in contact with. Thank you for that. Director Fischer, your sound is not coming through. Director Kahn, I asked Mr. Fischer to come. to speak to the hundreds of children that we have had enrolled in our Kids & Co. and Camp Royal all summer and the staff have experienced a high level of success training our children and having them follow mask wearing, social distancing. hand washing and all of these other things that we know are going to be important to keeping them safe, to keeping staff safe, to keeping our environment safe. Alex, are you able to speak? No, we can't hear you. It's okay. Log off and maybe we can hear you a little bit later. Director Andresen, did you have a question? Yes. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. Following up on a comment

140that you made, principal French about I have some questions about does the district have plans to do public health engagement helping parents give lessons to prep their students for being in the classroom also what our best practices for when we're in group situations or out in public just wondering if we're going to be bolstering our hybrid learning model by also involving the community and making sure that we can reach our common goal of educating children to the best of our ability. Mary Jo, I saw you shaking your head. Do you want to share what we're planning and what we want to make available for families? We are through Canvas, and I haven't been directly involved with this, but another member of our nursing team has. We've developed lessons like we talked about earlier. We also

141have sort of PSA videos that we're going to show on monitors in schools just to, you know, create this culture of health. I understand what you're saying. And also shared responsibility. So that's what we're thinking right now. I know on the website we'll have information. Principals will be pushing out things to parents, I'm sure, through newsletters and things like that. Does that help? Yes, it does. I was also wondering, are we going to, knowing that we've got a little bit more funding than we thought perhaps we would have, are we going to be doing any sort of community testing initiatives or screenings in preparation for schools meeting in person? Right now, the Minnesota Department of Health does not recommend mass events, testing events, so we're not going to do that. I have gotten inklings that

142if we get close to a vaccine and that vaccinations start taking place, there will be events in the community, and most likely they will happen in schools. So in that case, Minnesota Department of Health and epidemiologists come in and they did this during H1N1. I don't know if anyone remembers a few years ago. Came into Hopkins High School and just took over Lindbergh Center and the old gym, whatever it was, and we vaccinated like 600 people. So we're just going to follow public health guidelines on all of that. Great. Sure, Bouchard. Are you able to hear me now? Yes, thank you, Director Fischer. Okay, great. If I may just take a moment to talk a little bit about the experience we had this summer in community education with Camp Royal and Kids & Company. Our

143staff has been hard at work all summer. At first, there was trepidation to come back and be in spaces with small groups of kids, wearing masks. If you recall the beginning of COVID, there were so many unknowns. that we just, you know, we didn't know. And so it was really scary, but our staff was very courageous. And over time, they started to feel more comfortable and students started to feel more comfortable. And it was a great experience for all. And I say this because if you add up all of the students that we had through. Camp Royal and through Kids & Company this summer. And if you add the staff, we had over 850 staff and students combined. And out of all of those, there were zero positive confirmed cases of COVID. That's because of

144the groupings that we did, the ratios of students to staff. That's because of the cleaning measures that we took as far as hand washing, sanitizing, the building and grounds and custodial crew that maintain the facilities was outstanding. And the mask wearing. And so after a while, the experience of the students and the staff was... very positive and people just started to feel safe. So I think the kind of the fear and trepidation that we all have is completely normal given this circumstance. And based on the experience we had this summer, it was okay. It turned out well, it was positive. And I think it's something, an important data point to mention as we consider all the factors. Thank you for that, Director Fischer. That's important context. Director Andreessen, did you have more questions? I did.

145This is for, well I'm not sure who would answer it, perhaps interim director Ertl. I'm wondering about how the distance learning will work with the hybrid on both levels, both elementary and secondary. So if we have, I'm just hoping I understand this correctly. What we will be having is a licensed instructor responsible for a full 100% distance learning class. And then alongside that will be hybrid classes. Is that correct? Yes. Yes, that's correct. So the neat thing about the adoption of Canvas in our district is that the person who is the teacher who is developing the distance learning resources at any particular grade level, and this is true in secondary too, but those teachers developing those resources are actually in some ways building up like a repertoire of resources or a catalog. And so those

146resources then could be utilized by a grade level peer in the same building or frankly across the district to help support a hybrid student. during that maybe the distance part of their week. And so, for example, I know that there is, I think, a second grade teacher, and I can't remember what building she's at, but she has been all summer long building materials in Canvas for her second graders. And what's amazing about that is that has created the ability then for all second grade teachers to utilize those resources and so it both creates continuity both in the building at the grade level team across the district but it also um it can relieve some of the partner teachers at that grade level in terms of having to be the sole creator for every minute of

147every bit of instruction. And I think, I mean, I see that this model, you know, nobody asked for COVID to happen or for this pandemic to happen. But I think one of the benefits that our system will see out of this is that teachers really will, by necessity, figure out how to work together in new and different ways to their own benefit in terms of their own amount of prep work and all of those things, but also to the benefit of students. So I think it's potentially a really exciting outcome born out of, like I said, something that clearly nobody asked for. Yeah, I'm wondering with when the, so when the hybrid classes, when the half of that class goes to their distance learning day, are they then going to be added to the 100%

148distance learning teachers? student load or are they going to be supported in their distance learning through a different method? I see. And Principal French, if you have any other detail on this, please feel free to weigh in. But no, the students will be assigned to the same teacher. throughout whether it's hybrid or whether it's distance learning what i'm talking about sharing is the content that those teachers are providing not the teacher themselves so we would have let's we'll go back to the second grade or third grade teacher example that those kids are still going to get feedback from that teacher no matter whether it's during the distance learning part of their hybrid experience or the in-person part of their hybrid experience and then the distance the kids who are assigned to only the distance learning

149teacher are going to continuously get feedback from that teacher and i think also what is new for all of us and provides maybe some new and innovative ways to work together and collaborate is that we have these ideas but when staff come back next week they'll start to take the opportunity to communicate and collaborate. I can see the hybrid learning teachers connecting with the distance learning teachers and saying, you know, you have a strength in this area or you're developing these lessons. May I share those with my students who are on their off days? I think there's an opportunity and of this collaboration and communication the good thing being that the team is in the same building they're generally colleagues who have worked together so I think they'll we'll be looking to them to offer

150some new ideas and ways to support the students who are in distance learning and the students who are in hybrid Thank you. So then my question is, so if those students who are on their distance learning day are not being added to the distance learning teacher, then... But they're not being taught by their classroom teacher because they can't do two things at once who is then do we have a Halftime staff person designated to then provide distance learning to those children who are on their their at-home day at this point we don't have an another identified person I can envision again maybe the distance learning teacher is able to provide the lessons and connect with their full-time class of distance learners. And they will collaborate with their hybrid colleagues to offer any support or assistance

151or help that they can. I see the students on their off day. continuing to work under the direction of their teacher but I think you're pointing out that yep we're gonna have to do some collaborating and communication to make sure that the hybrid students who aren't in person have support, have a point person, have someone who's providing some feedback. And some of this is to be figured out when staff come back together next week. Thank you. I was just trying to wrap my head around how that was going to work. So that kind of brings me to my next question and perhaps Director Contreras you might be able to help with this one as well. But I'm wondering how students who need additional supports are going to have access to their classroom teacher with the

152teacher being in person learning for a full day. Those students who need extra support either when they're at home on their off days, how can they access their teacher without those two hours that were free in the original model? Okay, I think if I'm understanding you correctly, so if a student had peer support normally on their IEP, they would get it. And regardless of which model that they're in, whether it's distance learning or the hybrid. And so in terms of their SPED teacher, you know, we're going to scaffold that support too. And hopefully with progress monitoring, we'll be able to see like where So it's that collaborative interaction that needs to happen because for students that are that'll do a hybrid model it may be that they get their said services on the distance learning

153days, or it may mean that they get their services while they're, you know, in person. It just depends on the needs of the student and what it is for. And so whatever their services, they'll get it. And I think it takes Gen Ed and Special Ed staff collaborating together to see where the gaps may be, if that makes sense, which is what we would do prior to this. Did I answer your question? Yeah, I mean, I think it helps to know how families and students can navigate this because I don't think it's, well, none of us know how to do this, right? But also, I guess one of my concerns is that I'm wondering if we've lost some flexibility in the new iteration of the model for families and parents who want additional support from

154their classroom teacher to access it. If the teacher is, if they aren't in the classroom with the teacher, how do they get the support that they would need from that teacher if there aren't any extra hours for that teacher to provide it? Well, and I think that's where the flex day comes in and not that it only has to be that day. I think we provide a way of communication, whether this is FedArgent or not, for parents and students to be able to reach out and advocate for additional support. So I see there being some way of reaching out just like prior to, you know, if there were some needs. And I know it did come up this spring with students just needing more support to navigate even on their technology. And so, you know,

155I think staff can be available to support parents and students. And how that looks may vary, but I do think that, I mean, just like before, like if it was outside of the day or during the day or however, that we can build in time so that students' needs are met. Director Andreessen, I don't know if this helps, but in my mind, I'm thinking there are other adults, there are other teachers in the elementary school besides just the classroom teacher and the companion teacher that we could. that we will rely on for support. We have EL teachers. We have our talent development teachers. We have media specialists. We have our Title I teachers and multi-tiered systems support staff. So we will use those staff members as well to identify and to support students who might

156need that support from those professionals as well. Great. I did have a question too about how specials will work through distance learning. Will they also be in that block instructional time or will, say, Spanish be provided year-long if you choose full-time distance learning? Do we have a sense of that yet? I think so. So we will have some specialists who are solely providing distance learning lessons. And so I'm not, I don't know if the model will kind of follow the longer period of time with one special or if it would be more of a rotation on a daily basis like we have now that we haven't determined but I do think that there will be opportunities either way for students to do specials work all year long. But I think particularly with Spanish, I know

157that one's, that's a little bit different than a FIAD or an ART or something. So I think that we would maybe want to look at that a little bit more uniquely than some of the other specials in particular. Great. Thank you. Other questions? Elliot. I have a question. Wonderful. If someone chooses, I know a lot of students, a lot of my peers are choosing to start the year off on that full online program. What is the swiftness or the ability for us to choose to go in person or in hybrid if it does go down over time? I can tell you, I think, some information about that. So we did, of course, ask for students and families to make some kind of a commitment to either the hybrid or the distance model initially, but I

158think it's pretty flexible. As our data, you know, the myriad of data that we have to look at, but as our data allows for more students to come in person, we certainly would not let your initial choice that you made in August, like, prevent you. Should all of the other factors allow for more students to come, and that is a choice that you as a student would want to make, we would certainly want you to be able to come back to the building. Right, I know just the viewpoint of a lot of students right now is we are in Hennepin County and that's where our numbers are coming from and Hennepin County also hosts the U of M. And of course, I don't know if the board members have been paying attention over the last

159weeks, couple days, college after college has been shutting down due to online or off-campus parties. And I mean, they're going back to session in the coming weeks and those numbers will start coming out. And right now what we're seeing is we're going to move to, we're going to shift to an online system based on those numbers, if the 30 per 10,000 people. So just a lot of my peers, a lot of people who are paying attention, a lot of parents are saying, why send the first two weeks, first four weeks going to be online? But why go into this hybrid phase right now when we get those party numbers back, when we get those college numbers back? And it's going online because that's what we're following. And no one knows, but what we've seen is

160these colleges going back, these students parting off campus, and these numbers going up. So I think that's something crucial to think about right now as we're making this decision, because we're not immune from those numbers. The U of M, St. Thomas, I mean, we have lots and lots of colleges in Hennepin County. And we're not those schools, but we are affected by their numbers. Yeah, I appreciate your point and I know that our secondary leaders and staff in thinking through what that hybrid model would really look like at our secondary sites really intentionally built that model so that it could be as responsive as possible to those ever-changing numbers and the learning design. being all through canvas um will facilitate that those shifts um you know whatever happens and so yeah i know that there

161was a lot of intentionality and forethought um just because of what you described thank you i appreciate it thank you elliot other board member questions I have just one more and I think I directed it principal French I'm curious the The vast majority of the emails that we've received as a board come from elementary educators and their concerns are in the shift from the four and a half hour day to the six and a half hour day and the shift to specials in the classroom. And their voices were heard as Chair Bouchard said at the beginning, we spent as a board a lot of time reading all of these emails. Do you feel that your staff personally is prepared and ready to go back? Obviously, change can be hard, but do you feel that we've

162mitigated those concerns, or do you think that there are still a vast majority of those primary school educators, those elementary educators that are not prepared to go back into the classroom? I think over the last week or so, because a lot of work has been done over the last week, that we've been able to mitigate concerns and answer questions. I talked with my kindergarten through sixth grade teachers today to tell them about their assignment. And there was a feeling of hope and optimism. I'll give you an example. We had an optional staff meeting yesterday afternoon where Kevin Newman came. And the topic was about air quality and our systems. That was, for the last week, that was very concerning to our staff. But he did an amazing job and talked about how the systems work

163to try to make people feel knowledgeable, educated, and comforted, even to the point of we have an outside contractor coming in to verify that our systems are working and they're doing what they're supposed to. So I think... concerns have been mitigated and addressed and we will continue to listen and address their concerns if it's about cleaning practices protective gear this how do we help students understand their responsibility and their behaviors so Yes, I think we've been able to answer and make people have more of a feeling of comfort and safety. And we will continue to listen. We're not done. We will continue to listen and respond as we start school and move forward. Does that help? It does. Thank you. Any other board member questions or comments? I just have one and it's for Dr.

164Lightfoot. So I too want to honor the health and safety concerns that our educators and our families and our students have been sharing with us as a board. And as I think about my role as a board member and the tools in our collective toolbox as board members, one that comes to mind is policy. And so I'm wondering if you have already identified some work that our policy and monitoring committee can do, for example, around a mask policy in the event that the state mandate expires, policies having to do with safety protocols or sanitation, anything along those lines. Absolutely. Great question. The mask policy we finalized today working with health and safety and with Nurse Martin looking at our Department of Health regulations requirements. So all of those documentation pieces are complete and will be

165with the policy monitoring committee and in front of you on the 1st of September. So we will have all of that information ready to go. Are other information related to the protocols? Specifically, there are quite a few questions around some specific protocols and what it looks like for any kind of suspected cases or contact tracing or other kinds of symptomatic procedures as well as what some operational procedures might look like. And much of that is really documentation based on what information we're getting and the regulation procedures are put in front of our administrators and our staff and working through the training that needs to go with those as well. So from the policy aspects, a lot of the policy aspect, as you identify, would be the mask policy. And beyond some of that, I mean,

166much of all of our work is so integral in the policy aspects that if there are some specific items or questions or concerns that come forward, feel very comfortable and confident in working with the monitoring committee on what those might be as we may get new sets of information that we need to consider. Great. Thank you very much. Last call. Any other board member questions or comments? This has been a great discussion. Chair Bouchard. Director Adams. Yes, I'll make some final comments here. You know, I'm a person with a compromised immuno system. I've suffered with asthma my entire life. And I understand people's trepidation about going back into a classroom. So it's especially sensitive to me. But I got some... confidence restored when I spoke to another school board member today from a different school

167board. She's the chair of the West St. Paul School District, which is slightly smaller than ours, 5,000 students. And I asked her, what is West St. Paul doing? And she said, well, we're going with a hybrid model at the elementary level and distance learning at the... high school and secondary. And she said, you know, I had some concerns about that. But she said, I'm married to a doctor. And when he went back into a hospital for the first time, sometime in April, he was very concerned too. And then he went in there and saw all the steps that were being taken to mitigate all the risk. And he's been working ever since. And she said he felt his confidence was restored in our health care system. And she said she had toured West St. Paul's

168child care and summer school program, too, which is very similar to what we did with Camp Royal this summer. And she said, you know, they really did a good job of, you know, masking. keeping surfaces clean, maintaining social distance. She said, we didn't have a single case of COVID that came out of our summer school program. And I think Alex confirmed that we were similar in our outcomes that, you know, you can conduct education without infecting people if you follow the proper procedures. So I feel pretty confident about the the hybrid situation. And I've had parents explain to me that their kid cannot learn well in a distance learning situation. Their attention wanders. They really need to be in a classroom situation with a teacher. And, you know, they're very concerned about having to be

169forced into a distance learning container. you know, for their kids. So we're kind of torn as a board between teachers on the one hand who have concerns about health and parents on the other hand who have concerns about their kids' education. But I was thinking about this today and I was still undecided. I thought, well, it's really about the kids. You know, we have to do what's right for the kids. And I think, especially at the elementary level, we have to look at doing the in-person education. Some kids, some parents may have concerns about that, and they do have the distance learning option. But I really think that we have to make a hybrid option available to parents, especially in the K-6 age range. So I support the... the recommendation of the administration to proceed

170with the hybrid model at the elementary level and then distance learning at the secondary so i think at this point if there are oh i'm sorry dr mary very read uh thank you chair bouchard um director adams i really appreciate you providing the compelling testimony of just your personal health and your conversation with a fellow board member from another district. I'm hoping that really helps many members of our audience. I do want to clarify for you, sir, and also for the board that the safe learning plan that we are that we have been planning and that we would like to implement currently involves a Hopkins Strong Start for all students with students phasing in for their the in-person or hybrid portion of the experience at different days depending on the age of the student but

171the plan right now is that unless the health data worsens in Hennepin County that we would eventually phase in the hybrid model for secondary students but of course that is very very dependent on the health data and our continual monitoring of the health data so i wanted to clarify that yes secondary students are starting their schooling experience in distance learning but we are planning on following that phased-in approach that you saw on one of Director Ertl's slides to bring, slowly bring students in for that hybrid experience at the secondary level? I think for maximum clarity, I'll read the resolution that we're considering and then after that I'll seek a motion and a second and then we can go ahead and vote on that resolution. The resolution adopting base learning model for 2021 school year and

172other COVID-19 related matters. Whereas Minnesota statutes section 123B.09 best the care management and control of independent districts in the school board. And whereas the superintendent of independent school district 270 here in after the superintendent is responsible for the management of schools. the administration of all school district policies and is directly accountable to the school board. And whereas when responsibilities are not specifically prescribed nor school district policy applicable, the superintendent shall use personal and professional judgment subject to review by the school board pursuant to school district policy 351 development of regulations and whereas on March 13, 2020, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz issued Emergency Executive Order 2001, which declared a peacetime state of emergency in Minnesota in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and whereas on July 30, 2020, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz issued Emergency Executive Order 2082

173and the Safe Learning Plan for the 2020-2021. the safe learning plan which set forth five learning models in-person learning for all in-person learning for elementary students and hybrid learning for secondary students hybrid learning for for all students hybrid learning for elementary students and distance learning for secondary students and distance learning and authorized all school districts in the state of Minnesota to select and implement an appropriate base learning model in accordance with and subject to the Safe Learning Plan. And whereas the Minnesota Department of Education has issued and may continue to issue written guidance for Minnesota schools on educational issues related to COVID-19. And whereas the Minnesota Department of Health has issued and may continue to issue written guidance for Minnesota schools on public health issues related to COVID-19. And whereas based upon the collective consideration

174of these factors, the superintendent has recommended to the school board that the Hopkins Strong Start with phased in hybrid will be the base learning model to be implemented at the commencement of the 2020-2021 school year. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the School Board of Independent School District 270 as follows. Section 1. The superintendent is hereby directed to implement the following base learning model to open the 2020-2021 school year. Hopkins Strong Start with phased-in hybrid. Section 2. The superintendent is hereby authorized, after consultation with the school board chair and notification to the school board, to select and implement a different learning model for the school district or any specific school buildings without school board action if the superintendent reasonably believes that prompt implementation of a different learning model is necessary. and that constraints of time

175and public health considerations render it impractical to hold the school board meeting to approve the implementation the learning model selected and implemented by the superintendent shall continue in effect unless and until the school board in consultation with the superintendent and appropriate school district staff and public health officials deems it in the best interest of the school district and its students to implement a different learning model Section 3, the superintendent will provide regular updates to the school board regarding the school district's efforts to implement COVID-19 related educational and public health guidance issued by MDE and MDH, respectively. So I would look for a motion that the board approve the resolution adopting base learning model for the 2020-2021 school year and other COVID-19 related matters. second i have a motion in a second any further discussion i

176i have one thing to add uh you know since you're since the hybrid um model is being recommended i think we as a school board then should meet as well. I mean, if there's going to be person-to-person contact in our schools, then we as a school board should also meet. I'd be okay with that. So I think that this is a discussion we should probably have during our workshop so that we can talk about what that model might look like and at this time we're discussing discussing this specific resolution that we're voting on any other board member comments uh chair bouchard i'd like to make one one final comment uh we have spent over the last 10 to 15 years an enormous amount to make our to upgrade the facilities for our schools And if

177anyone watching this has not watched the presentation that's on YouTube by Mary Jo Martin and Kevin Newman, please do so. I sat through the entire thing yesterday. It's about an hour long. It talks about all the mitigation strategies, all the investments we've made to make our classrooms and schools as safe as possible. for staff and for students. And it is reassuring when you find out that we spent over $100 million on upgrading just the air handling equipment in our schools in the last 15 years. I don't know of any school that's any safer than that right now. So, you know, I would feel confident sending my children into those schools or working in one. any other board member comments director latondris oh no no i i just had my mic off my mistake all right

178i have a motion in a second to approve the resolution adopting base learning model the base learning model for the 20 21 school year and other covid really pro 19 related matters we'll go to clerk andreason for the roll call vote thank you chair bouchard Director Adams. Aye. Director Ahmed. Aye. Director Andreessen. Aye. Director Kahn. Aye. Director LaTondras. Aye. Director Peterson. Aye. And Chair Bouchard. Aye. And thank you, Clerk Andreessen. I have seven ayes, zero nays. The motion carries. Next, I would look for a motion to adjourn, but board members don't go anywhere because we have our organizational meeting after this. So I would look for a motion to adjourn. So moved. Is there a second? Second. Motion and second. Any discussion? Clerk Andreessen. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. Director Adams. Aye. Director Ahmed. Aye. Director

179Andreessen? Aye. Director Kahn? Aye. Director Latondris? Aye. Director Peterson? Aye. And Chair Bouchard? Aye. Thank you, Clerk Andreessen. We have seven ayes, zero nays. Motion carries. This meeting is adjourned at 8.31 p.m. And the organizational meeting of the Hopkins School Board is called to order at 8.32 p.m. I would look for a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Clerk and board. 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 new business. Dr. Mary Perry-Reed. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. The first item on the agenda I would like to invite Director Chapenduka to

180present. We are requesting that the board approve the depositories for the 2021 school year and Director Chapenduka can explain further. Thank you, Dr. Mary-Pere Reid. And again, this is routine. Every year, in the beginning of the school year, we are required under Minnesota statute to get the approval of the board for our business services staff to be able to conduct transactions for the district through our various investment banking entities we operate and work with. We have a couple of them. One within our funds, our banking. Our main bank at the current moment is US Bank. And US Bank does our depositories for most of our transactions, our payroll transactions, our accounts payable transactions. Our funds come through the Minnesota Asset Liquid Fund and any transfers are done from the Minnesota Asset Liquid Fund into our

181U.S. bank and that's where we perform most of our transactions. We also have relationships with other entities in the community. We use CBIS as our investment advisory for other post-employment benefits trust fund. We also use Fidelity and MetLife for our 403B retirement transactions. So the request to the board is to have the board allow myself, Terriro Chapinduka, our controller Jason Stegman, our accountant Robin Burdenski, and our other accountant Elizabeth Kulas-Volk to conduct any transactions for the district on behalf of the board. Thank you, Director Chapman. Any board member questions or comments? I'll read the recommendation and look for a motion. So I look for a motion that the board adopts the proposed resolution below authorizing the use of electronic fund transfers and investments as follows. Resolved that the Director of Business Services, Taruah Chapman-Duca, and

182Controller Jason Stegman be authorized to make or... caused to be made electronic fund transfers between school district accounts resolved further that the director of business services Taro Chapenduka and controller Jason Stegman be authorized to open or cause to be opened investment accounts with designated institutions in consideration of terms conditions and covenants required by such institutions to endorse or cause to be endorsed on behalf of the district any drafts orders certificates checks or other investment instruments in connection with such accounts and to make or cause to be made deposits to such accounts by check, draft, order, or electronic funds transfer. Resolved further that unless superseded any and all resolutions heretofore adopted by the Board of Education and certified to depositories designated at the organizational meeting of August 21st, 2020, governing the operation of this district's accounts

183with them be and hereby continued in full force. okay so moved i have a motion is there a second second i have a motion in a second any further discussion see none clerk andreessen thank you chair bouchard director adams hi director ahmed hi director andreessen aye director khan aye director latondris aye director peterson aye and chair bouchard hi thank you clerk andreessen seven eyes zero nays motion carries and director chap and duca back to you okay thank you just give me a second there no problem So the next piece again, this is also routine for the district. What we do is we do an official bid for the district newspaper. I want to distribute our board minutes and other district communication publications. And we've been working with the Sun publications in recent years. Again, this

184is a request to the board to approve the district to have Golden Valley Sun Publications as the official publication for the district for the school year 2020-21. Thank you, George. Chap and Duca, I would look for a motion that the board designate Hopkins, Minnetonka, and Golden Valley Sun Sailors Sun Post Publications to be official newspapers of the Hopkins Public Schools for the 2020-21 school year. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. Second. Thank you. Any further 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. I have seven ayes, zero nays. Motion carries. And looks like next we're going to you, Dr. Lightfoot. Sure. Next item,

185I believe on the agenda is the approval or the appointment of legal firms as identified is that the rates remain the same with Ratwick, Rosak, Maloney, our continuance with working with Ms. Laura Booth and the other members of that Booth Association and connection with Ratwick, Rosak, and Maloney law firm. Excellent. Thank you. Any board member questions for Dr. Lightfoot? okay so i would look for a motion that the board approved the utilization of legal services as provided through ratwick razak and maloney at hourly rates as noted above for the 2021 school year dependent upon the services required and that the board allow district administration the discretion for the 2021 school year to seek other legal counsel and reutilize a licensed attorney when there is a need to acquire special expertise so moved I have a

186motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, we'll go to Clerk Andreessen. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. Director Adams? Aye. Director O'Neill? Aye. Director Andreessen? Aye. Director Cohn? Aye. Director Latondris? Aye. Director Peterson? Aye. and chair bouchard hi thank you clerk andreessen we have seven eyes zero nays motion carries and dr lightfoot it looks like it's back to you chair bouchard yes i'm so sorry did i miss something or did we miss letter c the official district newspaper or is it my mistake we covered letters okay thank you thank you The next policy component is the policy component about board member compensation. As is identified, you see the historical rates that are identified there. And as has been past practice, that is an open conversation for

187the board in looking at setting those for the upcoming school year. So I believe the information is there for your review. and your action and we'll be open to any further questions that you might have or ways in which i can assist thank you board member questions or comments chair bouchard yes director adams in light of the budget cuts we had to make this year i would recommend that we keep the the compensation for school board members uh the same as it was for 2019 and 2020. i agree with you any other thoughts from board members Chair Bouchard? Yes. Just wanted to co-assign Director Adams and your perspective on that. Excellent. Any other board member questions or thoughts? I'll make a motion. Fabulous. I move that we keep school board compensation. the same this year

188as it was for last year, $5,578.27 annually, with an additional $762.75 stipend for the board chair. 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. 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. The motion carries. I'd like to make another motion regarding the term life insurance. So I move that the term life insurance and the amount of $50,000 for each board member be continued. in the 2021 school year. I second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, Clerk Andreessen. Thank you, Chair Bouchard. Director Adams. Aye. Director Ahmed. Aye. Director Andreessen. Aye.

189Director Kahn. Aye. Director Latondris. Aye. Director Peterson. Aye. aye and chair bouchard aye thank you clerk andreason we have seven eyes zero nays the motion carries and we'll go to dr mary perry reed thank you chair bouchard So this next agenda item covers district memberships and they are fairly standard and continue year to year. The first one is AMSD, the Association of Metropolitan School Districts. So that is an organization that represents 41 K-12 districts and has membership with superintendents and school board members. The annual membership fee is a little over $10,000, and we do very much value our membership with AMSD. The next one is the Minnesota State High School League. I believe it is required for us to participate in the league, a very nominal fee. and we would recommend that the board continue

190to approve that. The third one is MSBA, the Minnesota School Boards Association, which does provide a lot of support for new board members, also for new superintendents, for board development, and we are looking forward to... Renewing that fee looks like in 19-20 the fee was a little over $12,000. The 20-21... Membership fee is $12,502. Couple of notes toward the bottom of the agenda item. The Center for Applied Research and Educational Development is not being recommended by our Interim Director for Innovation, Design, and Learning. The Educational Cooperative Services Unit of the Metropolitan Twin Cities area. is also not being recommended and the National School Boards Association and SBA the membership has been paid through December of 2020 with a renewal fee of $4,000. We're going to take some extra time to review our membership with Twin

191West Chamber of Commerce and so we'll bring that to the board at a different date. So we are recommending that the board authorize continued memberships in AMSD, Minnesota State High School League, and MSBA for the 2021 school year. Thank you, Dr. Mary Perry-Reed. Any board member questions or comments? I would look for a motion that the board authorizes continued memberships in AMSD, MSHSL, and MSBA for the 2020-21 school year. So moved. So moved. 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 Cohn. Aye. Director LaTondris. Aye. Director Peterson. Aye. Director LaTondris. Aye. and chair bouchard aye thank you clerk andreason we have seven eyes zero nays motion carries next i would look for a motion

192to adjourn i still move second the motion in a second any discussion seeing none clerk andreason thank you chair bouchard director adams hi director ahmed hi director andreason aye director khan aye director latondris aye director peterson aye and chair bouchard aye thank you clerk andreason we have seven eyes zero nays the motion carries this meeting is adjourned at 8 50 p.m i propose we take a 10 minute break come back at nine we have some really important topics of discussion at our workshop see you at nine o'clock