Our Bold Vision to Reimagine Schools

Vision 2031

Vision 2031 was launched in fall 2018 as a bold response to community-wide stakeholder engagement and a call to action to reimagine public education. More than 250 staff, students, and community members served on Strategic Task Forces to help us identify what success will look like in 2031. Learn more online at HopkinsSchools.org/Vision2031.

What’s Coming Next

As we continue to operationalize the core tenets of Vision 2031, we have divided our work into three main goal areas: Learning and Teaching, School and District Culture, and Operations. Within each goal area, there are specific outcomes that are aligned with our overarching strategies. This process is our strategic plan for Vision 2031.

SCHOOL & DISTRICT CULTURE LEARNING & TEACHING

Every E-12+ classroom will move toward rigorous concept- and inquiry-based personalized learning that activates literate, critically-conscious behaviors and is supported by wellness and restorative practices.

As a district, we will increase wellness by building a workplace culture that is safe and caring We will experience wholeness by increasing trust, sharing power, and ensuring people are of equal worth.

Vision 2031: Five-Year Progress Highlights

We will identify and address system gaps or flaws that prevent employees from doing their jobs efficiently or effectively.

International Baccalaureate

Eisenhower Community School and Gatewood Elementary are International Baccalaureate (IB) candidate schools. The IB program builds on the belief that children are naturally curious and learn deeply when they are engaged in relevant topics. IB aligns with Hopkins' rigorous curriculum framework which encourages students to think critically and solve problems.

Experiential Learning

The Glen Lake Go! program extends learning beyond the confines of a classroom. Students embark on field trips and adventures meant to broaden their perspectives and give them a better understanding of the world and their place in it. Experiential learning is relevant and engaging while meeting academic, emotional, and social needs.

Community School

West Middle School has transformed into a community school. Community schools are built on four pillars: learning enrichment, collaborative leadership, family engagement, and integrated services. Gatewood Elementary has also added components of a community school model into their building including a food pantry.

6th and 9th Grade Transition

It's exciting to see Vision 2031 in action in classrooms across our schools. Even while in the midst of a global pandemic, we were able to put deep roots down on our progress. In some cases, the pandemic, which required us to approach education differently, helped fuel and expedite Vision 2031 advancement..

Over the last five years, our elementary schools launched a plethora of innovative programming, from International Baccalaureate (IB) and environmentally-focused schools to experiential learning and increased language immersion as well as outdoor immersion. West Middle School embraced a community school model, which includes integrated services for scholars and families. We launched VirtualEDU, the first fully-accredited public K-12 online school in the state of Minnesota to offer blended learning (a mix of in-person and online instruction). As a system, we modified our start times to allow middle school and high school students to start school later, which supports adolescent brain health. We also added three holidays to our school calendar — Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Eid al-Fitr — to be more inclusive of our diverse student body.

Want to learn more about Hopkins' Strategic Plan?

Visit HopkinsSchools.org/Strategic-Plan to see a full list of strategic plan projects and deliverables.

Expanded Holiday Calendar

Starting in the fall of 2023, Hopkins junior highs will become middle schools. Our 7-9 grade configurations will shift to grades 6-8. Our high school will also welcome 9th graders for the first time. Teams of teachers, staff, and students have worked together to develop our middle school and high school model that incorporates community, collaboration, and learner experiences.

Hopkins added three new holidays: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Eid al-Fitr to the school calendar to better reflect Hopkins’ diverse student body.

"For most students, this will be a minor change, but for those students who are for the first time having their holidays honored, this is a really big deal. Not only will it help students who are in the religious minority, it will also help students who are in the religious majority get a better perspective about the other cultures in Hopkins.”

— Oscar Wolfe, HHS School Board Representative 2021-22 and 2022-23

Chinese and Spanish Language Immersion

Hopkins’ Chinese immersion and dual Spanish immersion pathways advance our students’ global perspectives. Our teachers create authentic experiences and our immersion curriculum holistically embeds empathy and cultural awareness into our students’ daily learning. Hopkins immersion programs begin in kindergarten continue through high school. Immersion scholars who complete the full immersion pathway will be fully prepared for advanced coursework in Spanish and Chinese at the college level, may earn Minnesota bilingual and multilingual seals, and can earn up to 16 college credits.

Environmentally-Focused Outdoor Learning

Hopkins' environmental focus school at Gatewood Elementary allows scholars to build curiosity and make connections to the natural world as they learn outdoors, leveraging the beautiful campus, on site farm animals, and state-of-the-art greenhouse.

Outdoor learning has shown to have a positive effect on the brain and leads to increased engagement and focus, enhanced inquiry and discovery, and develops resilience and confidence.

Staff & Educator Highlights

Innovation Inside and Outside the Classroom

As part of Vision 2031, Hopkins aspires to be a destination school district, attracting the best and brightest employees. Our staff are empowered to be agents of change and primary drivers for re-imagining school from the ground up. Here are a few innovations that have been created by Hopkins staff and educators:

• Outdoor learning flourished in the pandemic and created a new model for how to do school in all seasons and led to our outdoor environmental school.

• Freedom School is not new, but it is new to Hopkins and was added to our summer program by a Hopkins educator. Freedom School provides a rigorous summer school curriculum in an affirming environment centered in community and parent engagement.

• Our instructional leadership group is co-led by teachers from early childhood through grade 12 who help bring cutting-edge concepts and practices into the classroom.

• Glen Lake teachers and their students co-led the school’s playground accessibility initiative. They collaborated to design a fully accessible playground and the story was covered on local and national prime time news. To date, they have raised nearly $1 million.

K-12 Fully Online and Blended Learning Pathways

VirtualEDU is the first, and only, fully-accredited K-12 public online school in the state of Minnesota to offer blended learning — a combination of inperson and online learning. Our blended learning model offers enhanced social interaction and in-person school community along with the flexibility that fully online learning provides.

Whether students choose the fully online or blended model, VirtualEDU’s smaller class sizes, multiage classes, and strong teacher-student relationships allow for a deeply personalized learning approach that meets students where they are at and guides them to reach their goals.

94% Enrollment Increase in VirtualEDU students since fall 2022

96% of VirtualEDU Secondary Students report they have a teacher they can count on

100% of VirtualEDU Elementary Students report positive relationships with their teachers

• Teachers at Hopkins are committing their instruction to align with the Science of Reading to give kids the best possible literacy education.

• Hopkins hires native Spanish and Mandarin Chinese speakers who create a positive and authentic immersion experience for our students.

Representation Matters

Just like leadership and teacher quality matter, representation also matters. While we have a responsibility to hire teachers of color, we also have a duty to hire teachers who reflect the many unique identities represented by students throughout our classrooms.

21% of Our Workforce is comprised of staff of color

1,331 Educators & Staff across Hopkins Public Schools

11 Median Years of teaching experience

72% of Educators at Hopkins have master's degrees or beyond

+80 Educators are trained in the Science of Reading (LETRS) to date

11 Hopkins Educators have been candidates for Minnesota Teacher of the Year between 2021 and 2023

Hopkins Schools has a Higher Percentage of Licensed Staff of Color when compared to other Minnesota school districts

385% Increase in staff of color hires between 2017 and 2023

Studies show that Black students who have at least one Black teacher between grades K-12 increases their likelihood of going to college.