rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good evening fellow school board members, district staff and community members. As a reminder to us all, the St. the mission of St. Francis schools is to equip all students with the knowledge and skills to empower them to achieve their dreams and full potential while becoming responsible citizens in a dynamic world. Our first item for tonight is agenda item two, adoption of the agenda. Are there any questions or a motion prior or any questions prior to a motion being made? >> Motion to adopt the agenda. >> All right. There's a call motion for February 9th, 2026 meeting agenda. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Working. Any discussion on that motion? >> Seeing no discussion, all in favor of the motion signify by saying I raising your hand. >> I motion prevails seven to zero. Thank you. Our next agenda item is item three, consideration of visitor. We have two individuals requesting to speak tonight. We'll allow five minutes per speaker. Uh I ask that each speaker, once your time is reached, that you make your final statements quickly and be respectful of everyone's time. The superintendent or myself will address any comments if required, but we typically don't have discussion uh during consideration of visitor. Our first speaker for tonight is Don Don. And uh Don gave me some paperwork to hand to you uh before his speech. And just so you're aware, those last three pages have some personal information on them. So we will remove those before it goes into the board packet after tonight's meeting. Good evening, St. Francis School Board and others attending this meeting. My name is Don Napa. I have lived in St. Francis for a range of over 20 years. My children graduated from St. Francis High School and grew up here. Back in January of 2025, I applied on Indeed for the transportation safety [clears throat] position. I spent the last year doing a wonderful job which I was hired for. It was a job I was happy to be doing. I expected to work there until retirement. In late December, my boss Peggy came to me and told me I had to get my bus endorsement so I can fill in as a sub substitute driver. I explained I could not do that. I was then told I would lose my position as it would be eliminated. I was told HR will repost the job under a new title, transportation manager assistant, which will then require a bus endorsement. I was told, "Feel free to apply when you get your bus endorsement." I was devastated. When I applied for the job through Indeed, it never required the duties or responsibility for self-driving. I never received any paperwork or written documentation from s St. Francis Transportation regarding the requirement for a bus endorsement or subdriving. I have a class A CDL, but like I told HR and Peggy, due to my knee problems and severe obstructive sleep apnea, my health card has been on medical waiver with the state of Minnesota since 2022. During my interview with Peggy and Steve that was brought up, the only thing said, "It would be nice if you had a CDL." to which I responded, I do have a class A CDL, but I do not have an active healthcare card. If you can't pass the physical due to severe sleep apnea and a disabled knee, you cannot get a health card. With without a health card, you cannot get a bus endorsement. I've tried to explain this multiple times to Peggy and Brandon in HR. This proves to me that St. Francis transportation needs a safety person that knows the rules, codes, and laws to keep our staff and students safe. Some of the few things I have done as transportation safety manager is update driver files, getting all the needed parts for the driver files. I got cameras going in vans. Came in two two times over Christmas break uh to address buses with lights on due to squirrels. I also have help Peggy with anything she asks and needs. I'm very concerned about the lack of needed drivers for our students. Our drivers and EAS work very hard and deserve the support and tools to do a good job. Taking Stacy, Logan, and myself, who knows the e easy routing and Zonard's GPS tracking system to help subs out of the office will leave subs with lack of support on their routes. Taking the route specialist and safety manager out of the office does not fix the problem. This community is growing and more than ever we need more buses, more drivers, and more support staff. In my meeting with Brandon from HR, he brought up the new Minnesota Leave Act that was signed into law May 25th of 2023. Knowing the official start date was January 1st, 2026. I have at least a dozen friends and acquaintances who own small businesses of or all businesses of all sizes who have been preparing for this for two and a half years. St. Francis administration and HR should have been doing the same. There are people willing to try implementing ideas and options for long-term results. Pulling staff to do jobs not in their wheelhouse just robs Peter to pay Paul. I am devastated that ISD15 is willing to fire me when what they really need is a safety person. and a firm plan for our future. The students, drivers, and EAS for our district deserve better. Thank you for your time. [applause] >> We love you. >> Thank you, Don. Our next speaker is [clears throat] Jennifer. >> Good evening. So, I'm Jennifer. I'm Don's wife. Um, and I'm here because I'm really, really super concerned about how this whole situation has gone down. I've lived here since 1996. I've had four kids go through the district with great education, great friends and neighbors that live [clears throat] in this area. But I'm super concerned that you're that the district is willing to get rid of somebody that has all the knowledge, all the background for safety for our students. So not having somebody that knows anything about safety. I don't know how helping that's helping the kids and the students and the drivers by getting rid of your safety manager and asking him to go in as a subdriver. I understand that, you know, the main manager, the head of the transportation, Peggy, started out as a bus driver here, so she has her bus endorsement. Um, so she does fill in. I get that she was hired that way. When someone's hired with no knowledge or nothing being said about being a subd driver and they're they're doing a great job, they're doing everything they can [clears throat] at their job and doing doing it well. to be told that all of a sudden you're now that's like asking like asking one of you to suddenly be a teacher, you know, like to totally switch realms of what you're what you're supposed to be doing for your job. And the fact that there's only four people in that transportation department to begin with and now you're going to take those pe those people out to be subd drivers. I just think that there's got to be a better way a long term because I have been here since 1996. This is not the first time that we have had driver shortages and driver issues. It's hard to get drivers. I get that. It is a hard job. And those drivers and those EAS do deserve to have somebody behind them that's there helping them being the safety person when there's problems, not having the office because somebody's out driving. I know there's other ways that this can be done. they can hire do a connection with like maybe hire um an out of groupoup like subd drivers to come in from other bus companies or something. There's got to be some other way. But I feel like this is just a really rash way of trying to handle something that really needs a long-term problem and you're going to just take somebody's livelihood away because you haven't planned or made a longterm plan and just say we'll deal with that later. we'll deal with the long-term situation later. So, I just think there's better ways. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you, Jennifer. Again, thank you both for speaking tonight. We do appreciate the engagement from our community and our staff. All right. Our next agenda item is the consent agenda. Uh there are seven items in tonight's consent agenda. Are there any will be a roll call vote? Are there any questions or request to pull an item before we have a motion? Seeing no questions. Is there a call to motion to approve the consent agenda? So >> thank you Mr. Shonrock and a second from Miss Anderson. >> Any discussion on that motion? [cough] Seeing no discussion all again we're doing a roll call vote. So Mr. Humphrey >> hi. >> Miss Anderson >> I. >> Mr. Shon >> I. >> Miss Bleven >> I. >> Mr. Working. >> Hi. >> Miss West. >> Hi. >> I'm I as well. Motion prevails 7 to zero. Thank you. All right. As we move forward to reports and information. Um again let's try to hold all questions to the end. We have three reports tonight. Uh our first one is the St. Francis Athletic Booster Club presentation. Um before we start that presentation as part of the consent agenda, you saw a gifts and donation part. We're going to do a presentation with the entire board here first and then we'll get into that presentation. So booster club, if you'd like to come up, board members, if you'd like to come forward, please in front of the table. >> [clears throat] >> I know. [laughter] >> I can't see you at all. I can't see you at all. [laughter] There you go, Rob. Very good. [laughter] Thank you. >> [laughter] [clears throat] >> Okay. So, if you didn't notice, you can see the chat now, right? [laughter] But go ahead. >> Uh, hello. So, we are the St. Francis Athletic District Club and we are here today to give a little presentation about what we've been up to and what our future looks like. Next slide, please. Uh, so in 2021, our president, Tracy Torson, gathered a group of St. Francis alumni to raise money for St. Francis athletics teams and organizations. We're comprised of alumni, community members, coaches, and parents. Our executive board consists of our president Tracy Torson, vice president Brad House, treasurer Lauren Brocker, and myself as secretary. Um, in 2024, we hired our gambling manager, Heidi. And in 2025, we hired her assistant, Emma, and we have 13 other board members, most of which have been with us since our official start in 2022. Next slide. Our mission is to provide support to encourage and to advance [clears throat] projects to improve facilities and equipment necessary to provide excellent athletic programs for the St. Francis Area School District. >> Um, so our board worked tirelessly for three years to become vested by the state and reach the requirements to apply for a gambling license. In addition, we took those three years to raise $100,000 to start up for charitable availability. February 1st last year, we brought on Tasty Pizza. >> Rob and Shelly are Tasty Pizza. >> Rob and Shel, they um >> they took a chance on us as a new organization and uh we will forever be grateful. >> And Rob and Shel are alumni as well and live in the community and they're very invested in keeping the money in St. grants the previous um group the money was all leaving our district. So um this it's a vision of everybody that's involved to keep the money here >> and their pizza is amazing >> and their pizza is fantastic. [laughter] >> Uh June 1st we brought on the ponds golf course. We have Josh here. Um so thank you for the ponds and also in December we brought on Oak Roads. So, thank you to those community partnerships for entrusting us with their charitable gambling inside their businesses. Okay, so this is kind of how we made some money in the years before we got our channel charitable gambling license and we're continuing to do this one fundraiser every year. It's a fins and feathers um is what we call it. It's hunting and fishing competition. Um uh new this year in 2026, we're revamping the event to include not only hunting and fishing but also a bingo event and it raises money um that we are now going to earmark for scholarships. So the the charal gambling money is uh to get to the athletic programs. This fizz and feathers event will be for scholarships. Next slide. Uh now that we have started earning money through charitable gambling, we have been able to start donating into athletic programs in our district. We recently donated to the St. Francis Basketball Association for scholarships to allow for reduced fees as well as St. Francis fast pitch softball for their needs. >> Thank you. New new in 2026, we'll be donating $10,000 scholarships to graduating Saint senior athletes and [clears throat] thanks to our year and really think about that. We started in February. So with the charitable gaming that goes on a tasty pizza and then we brought on the ponds in June, we were able to raise that much money for the waiver and and and it just it's it's mindboggling sometimes when you talk. So we decided to make a big splash for our first donation because the weight room at the high school, it's for everyone. It's not just one team. It's for everybody. So um we are super grateful to everybody that is helping us uh do this. >> Uh okay, so the St. Francis Athletic Booster Club is looking forward to working with the district um to help us improve the athletic programs and facilities. This is not something we can do alone, but together the SFA [cough] with the district can make major change. We would love a partnership with the district to make measurable change in our athletics. We're here tonight to give the board an update as to what we've been up to and ask the question of what could a partnership between us look like. >> Thank you. That's our presentation. [applause] >> As you businesses, please remember that, you know, they're they're giving back to our kids, too. So, >> any questions or comments from the board? Jake, I'll start with you if you had >> just way to go. Nice work, Jess. This is I remember when I first met you and hearing about this and holy cow, big effort and obviously awesome results. Sure. A lot of people gambling. [laughter] >> You know what, the customers are very loyal and the people in this town are they're great. They really are. >> Absolutely. >> It's it's a lot of small town coming together. >> Just really impressed. I think this is outside of the box in the opinion. so necessary and needed when such a drought of funding and resources and such. >> I'll tell you what, guys, when these guys came in, it was like, oh boy, you know, like it was a no-brainer to make the switch, but you know, making sure all the puzzle pieces were in place, but the the outgoing um organization, you know, they they of course were, you know, making their effort to stay and they were showing all the numbers that they've donated over the years, but you know, the thing we always ask is like, you know, where's the number that's leading? like that's that's what we want to know, you know, and they never really shared that with us, you know, between a couple of us places. This is pretty cool to be able to, you know, I know that that other organization never even came close to doing that for our community. So, it's pretty cool and it hurt us as businesses to have charitable gambling in there that didn't directly benefit St. Francis, right? So we have the pond since 2012 had no Ramsey and different youth organizations that the money just went straight out of the community and now it's staying here which is great. >> Yeah. Pretty cool. [clears throat] >> Yeah. Thank you to everybody involved. I know it was a lot of work getting to this point and years and years and hours and to be able to finally see the fruits of your labor and this is I think just a small start of what is to come. So thank you to everybody involved in what you've done. just absolutely incredible. That's a large amount of money in like you said, one year. Yeah. >> Um that is just incredible. And thank you to the companies or the businesses that stepped up and made this possible. I mean you took a a chance letting go of one to take on another. And we are so grateful. I mean that reflects right there. Thank you for everybody for what you did and thinking outside the box and making this happen. It's great. I don't have much more to add to what my counterparts have already said. Thank you so much. I I've watched this growth the last four years since you started out and how everything has changed and where you're at now and it's amazing. Simply amazing. Thank you. >> Ditto. [laughter] >> Yeah. So, uh you know, on behalf of the board, thank you guys for asking to come and present to us. We appreciate that. We love to hear what the community is doing. the collaborative um effort that you guys have all come together with businesses, the groups, uh is really something that we all should have started to [clears throat] do, right? Uh within the district because we're seeing what it's doing. Um I know Rob has benefited from the weight room as well with his team as well as my team with coaching. We absolutely love it. The youth love it. The athletes love it. They ask to go to the weight room now where before we had to drag them into it. Uh so they asked to do that kind of stuff. Now it's amazing to see that and we're going to see that over years, right? It's going to help us as we continue to grow. Uh I think we've already filled community ed um strength and conditioning classes well beyond what we even anticipated and I think it's because of things like this to help us. Uh one of your comments that you had about uh we want to have premier equipment, premier uh facilities because that's what athletes want. Uh that's what our students want. So we appreciate that. to answer your question because you did come here with a question. Uh we're not going to give you a solid answer right tonight as you know Jess. Uh but I know Carson has already been talking about ensuring that you guys are included in some of our committee meetings uh with activities with facilities with other things to help us um so we can provide input and we can help share the needs, right? Because we we know the needs, you guys know how to get the the resources to help us with some of those needs. So, um, I look forward to what this relationship is going to do with the district, not necessarily just the board, but with the district as we go forward. So, thank you all for being here tonight. Thank you business owners uh for coming and supporting uh because it does pay off. >> Thank you. Carson, do you have anything? Um, I'll just add that I was at an initial meeting when Tracy came in to talk about this and, you know, plans for the future. Um, and I I knew he was confident and passionate, but I was still skeptical. >> So, I was wrong. [laughter] And by the way, I'll add too, you know, it's not just community ed and sports day. Something that I really love was when I there's a group of us that that toured the weight room during class and Steve of course was there leading the show and he had things so well organized. you know, the kids would do a certain set and then they they'd switch like this and uh he was using every minute and every piece of equipment that he needed to use. It was it was really a joy to see. So, thank you for >> Yeah. So, we just sat through a ACT committee and one of the goals is how to make St. Francis a premier district, right? And some of that has to do with offerings that we can give to our students. Well, because of your guys' donation, we now have a new offering uh for incoming ninth graders as a course uh which is something that benefits across the board, right? I think it's intro to strength and condition uh is something new that we get to offer because of the donations uh that you guys are providing. Thank you. [applause] [cheering] [laughter] [cough] >> Thank you. >> All right. Our next agenda item is St. Francis High School Student Council. Do you have a big check tonight? >> What? [laughter] We have a jump here tonight to provide us our update. What's >> good evening school board cabinet superintendent Anderson in the community community both here turning tuning in online. I am Angelie Mulleno representing St. Francis High School student council who is once more very appreciative of this opportunity to speak and represent ourselves at the schoolboard meeting. It is snow days and it's be being snow days. Our main report is on the activity surrounding it. We will be hosting a pepfest on Thursday honoring our dance teams who are qualifying in both kick and jazz to the MHSL state dance tournament and also honoring snow days. Our 2026 snow days court is as follows. Freshman Isaac Gwyn and Payton Bernard. Sophomores Tristan Click and Ella Barber. Juniors Braden Rosinka, Emily Wentz. Senior males, Skyler Eldri, Gage Davis, Jack Humphrey, Austin Cruz, and Hunter Sanders. Senior females, Brea Alman, Alyssa Anderson, Frankie Vicello, Elena Larson, and Annabelle Orbit. We will crown our king and queen during the pro fest with honoring our winter's captains in activities and sports. This week, we're also hosting dress up week. Today's theme was Hawaiian day. Tomorrow is fashion disaster. Wednesday, PJ day. Thursday, class color day. And Friday is as always saints day. Also during Saints time this week, we are hosting grade level volleyball tournaments. Today the juniors beat the freshmen. The sophomores and seniors will play tomorrow. The juniors will play the winner on Wednesday. And the winner of the two class winners will play the teachers later this week. And finally, during lunch this week, we are selling carnations to students for Valentine's Day. Any questions? >> Any questions? >> No. Maybe we can get a board team put together at some point [laughter] if we >> know that that's something I'd shoot to our student council president for sure. >> Thank you so much for being here as always. >> All right, our next agenda item is administrative report. I know Harrison's got big check. So Carson update >> I'll talk about a few of the things that are in the report. Emily Evans uh was nominated to be Minnesota's teacher of the year and so she's one of 128 candidates um and uh the decision will eventually be made by Education Minnesota and announced that on May 3rd so good luck to Emily. She's really dynamic. Uh she's a science teacher at the middle school sixth grade. So uh good luck Emily. Uh we have a we had a community uh curriculum review uh earlier tonight and uh we have another one scheduled for Monday, February 23rd from 5 to 6. So we encourage uh anyone interested in reviewing the curriculum uh for [clears throat] high school math and social studies to take a look at the curriculum that we're considering to purchase. It's at the learning center again from 5 to 6 on the 23rd. [clears throat] And then can I add we added an hour from 6:00 to 7:00 for APAC that same night. >> Yeah, thank you for that. So um well as an AP pack is the American Indian parent advisory committee. So we have them reviewing the curriculum as you should from 6:00 to 7 dance team made the state tournament. Uh they're competing on February 13th and on the 14th. I did not get the times before I came to the meeting. Does anyone happen to know what the estimated times are? Uh that's all right if you don't because it'll be posted on the website. So, and this is the second year uh that we've made a state tournament in a row on both jazz and highare. Uh DECA state participants are listed in the uh agenda. some of the the events that they're participating in have changed slightly, but this is what I had at the time. And we do have 11 deck participants participating. Uh, and that's at the Hayek Regency in Minneapolis coming up soon. The POW uh is scheduled for February 28th at the high school at 100 p.m. I went last year and it was phenomenal. Haley and the AP pack are the ones who organize it. Uh but they have included multiple surrounded schools. Uh and so they come in with a pretty large contingent of people and uh it's really a joy to see. So hopefully you find some time. The grand entry starts at 1:00 and so you don't have to be there one o'clock, but that's a really good time to to be there and enjoy the day. And then for board members, uh, we also have the MIA conference. That's the Minnesota Indian Education Association conference from March 28th to the 20th at Mystic Lake Center in Prior Lake. Uh, board members and administrators are encouraged to attend. Uh, Ted Garing earned another award. Uh, he's a sixth grade social studies at St. Francis Middle School. He was named the Asanti VFW host 2735 regional district 7 middle school citizenship teacher of the year and he was honored at a banquet in December. Uh the the grandstyle guide is being reviewed as I mentioned at the last meeting and uh we didn't have we haven't had time to review at the cabinet level. So hopefully that'll happen a week from today. Uh again, there are no plans to spend any money as a result of change to the guide. Um but the the biggest change would be the possibility of allowing red color in certain [clears throat] circumstances. So um the cabinet will be reviewing that in the near future. Behavior data is going to be reviewed by the board on February 23rd. Uh the the district [clears throat] cabinet is looking at some different ways of containing costs. We do this every year. Uh so it's certainly not a surprise and we reviewed it somewhat today and uh suggestions are are due this Friday uh so that we can review that and make some decisions for next year. I will note though that we slowed down the the revision process for the budget in part because we want to double check our revenue expectations and the current status of our expenditure budget. You know, we want to go slow to go fast. Uh we're also working with the different department heads to better understand their needs and what their budget expectations are. So, we are in the middle of all that work. That's all I have. questions or comments. Mr. said just interested how many people showed up at the uh curriculum viewing. >> Um I would say about 18. >> Great. >> Good number. Maybe 15. Yeah. >> Great. >> Lot of ACT members and some community members. >> Okay. Great. Thank you. >> Any other questions or comments from Mr. Anderson? Thank you, Mr. All right, moving on to our next uh agenda item, action items. As you can see, we only have one. Carson explained why that [clears throat] 6.1 was removed. So, tonight we have the approval of the teacher seniority list. Uh Mr. Nelson will provide any comments or answer any questions if anyone has one. Um are there any questions prior to a motion being made? See, no questions. Is there a call motion for approval of the teacher seniority list as presented? >> So move. Is there a second? >> Second. Thank you, Mr. Shock. Any discussion on that motion? >> See no discussion. If you are in favor, signify by saying I and raising your hand. >> I motion prevails seven to zero. Thank you. Next item is upcoming meetings primary topics. Um are there any questions or comments about what is presented in the board packet for upcoming meetings? Uh just a heads up for some of the topics of our work session after tonight's meeting. We're going to talk about some metrics for superintendent goals that may drive some future topics that you'll see on the agenda coming forward. specifically behavioral data, that kind of stuff. Uh you'll start seeing some of that popping in as we continue through that evaluation process. Any questions? Seeing none. Next agenda item is school board member reports. Member Anderson. >> I don't have anything this evening. >> Member Baka. >> Um I attended our APEC monthly meeting. kind of new on that uh with that group. So, um getting to know the group and and see what their needs are. Um and then with the booster club, we raised $22,000 with the St. Francis Youth Basketball Association cash raffle that was just drawing yesterday. >> Perfect. Thank you. I'm Mich play last week where the high school gave theirs which was really good and then it was fun to see right after that the middle school did their presentation too. It was just so funny just seeing the difference and just the age difference. The middle school kids had a lot of fun and a lot of jokes. Um, also [clears throat] last week took 25 high school kids on Tuesday and Wednesday to East Bethl and Cedar Creek elementary schools. Um, we can find robotics, gymnastics, boys and girls basketball and dance. And it's just such a great opportunity for the young kids to see those older kids, but it's also for the older kids to go back and just read to the for those little kids. And then it's fun for those older kids to see some of their elementary school teachers and it's just a fun day. We have another one coming up next week at SF. [clears throat] And then last week I went to the MHSL, Minnesota State High School League Executive Committee meeting on Wednesday and their board meeting last Thursday. There's just some changes I would like to see done and there's no better way of doing it than to be present and try and actually talk to the people that are involved in making those decisions. So, didn't really do too much. They let me speak for a few minutes before the board meeting. Um, but it's going to be a long process to make any changes, but you got to start something. So, that's it. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mr. >> I don't have any updates tonight. Thank you, [clears throat] >> Mr. I'd like to thank principles Kei, Carpenter, and Winter at the elementary schools. I was able to walk through those schools last week. Uh each place when I'm walking with the principal, we have all these little ones coming up and giving hugs and all these things. It's just so much love and respect there. Um, and I'm a better person for having walked through each of those buildings and I appreciate them taking the time to show off all the great things they got going on there. Thank you. >> I'm glad to see that the weather is improving because we're back to shore. You [laughter] >> Sorry, ladies. [clears throat] >> I have nothing. >> Okay. Uh, teacher negotiations. Uh, the district has filed for mediation. Uh, the mediation is scheduled for the end of March. uh exact dates uh something is the 25th. Okay. Uh is were filed for that. Uh we're just still too far apart. Uh so we are continuing to work that process forward as a district team with our union negotiating team as well. The website is still current and up to date uh from what you can see. Uh that will change once we start mediation. that'll be locked for the teacher portion as well, just like we've done with every other group going forward. Uh the final community engagement task force meeting is happening right now at the high school. Uh they will be determining what their presentation back to the board will look like. Uh and then we'll be looking at some dates for a potential special meeting that will come up for that. Again, uh the goal is to not do it at the end of a meeting or during a regular meeting, but we're going to have a special meeting where we only talk about that. Uh what comes out of that meeting will drive the dates. I'm hoping that we'll be able to get it done before spring break, but we have to just look at what their availability and what their ultimate presentation will look like for recommendations. And then uh we had the curriculum review uh that was already discussed with the ACT committee then and I ended tonight. That's all I have for tonight. Carson, do you have any last minute things that Okay. >> Uh, last item before we get into our work session is adjournment. Are there any questions prior to a motion being made? >> All right. Is there a motion to adjourn this regular session? >> Anderson. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Minister working. Any discussion? All in favor of the motion signify by saying I and raising your hand. >> I motion prevails. 70. regular meeting is adjourned at 7:08. I'm going to give us a uh just a quick 5 minute. I got to get a couple things set up for the work session. >> [snorts]