South St. Paul Public Schools — Transcript
Monday, March 31, 2025
Compensatory Revenue Deficit and State Advocacy
Personal Learning Lab (PLL) Program
Student Survey on School Culture and Climate
2025-2026 School Year Calendar Development and Approval
Collective Bargaining Agreement with Operating Engineers Local 70
District Policy Review and Adoption
Student and Staff Well-being Initiatives
Federal Education Funding Concerns
Votes (7)
Approval of Regular Board Meeting Agenda and February 24th & March 10th Minutes
Dissent: None
Moved by Director Cummings [00:03:59] · Seconded by Director Claflin [00:04:02]
Discussion focused on the March 10th work session's decision to address a $1.5 million funding deficit from compensatory revenue drop by using the fund balance. The board also committed to encouraging the state government to correct the issue and sought community advocacy through emails, articles, and postcards.
Approval of District Policies (Final Reading)
Dissent: None
Moved by Unknown [00:49:50] · Seconded by Unknown [00:50:00]
The board conducted the third and final review of several district policies. Minor wording updates were made to Policy 512 based on MSBA model language, and a correction was made to Policy 801.1. The importance of receiving and incorporating feedback from employees on the front lines to ensure policy effectiveness and buy-in was highlighted.
Approval of Special Work Session with Team Works on April 22nd, 2025
Dissent: None
Moved by Unknown [00:53:30] · Seconded by Unknown [00:53:35]
The board approved a special work session with Ray Queener from Team Works to develop evaluation tools aligned with the new strategic plan and to continue building out the two-year agenda. A clarification was made regarding the meeting start time, confirming it to be at 5:00 PM.
Approval of Special Meeting on April 22nd, 2025
Dissent: None
Moved by Unknown [00:56:20] · Seconded by Unknown [00:56:25]
A special business session was approved to be added to the normal work session on April 22nd. This additional meeting is necessary to address time-sensitive staffing and scheduling matters that cannot be delayed until the April 28th meeting.
Approval of the 2025-2026 School Year Calendar
Dissent: None
Moved by Unknown [00:57:15] · Seconded by Director T. Felton [00:57:20]
The board approved the 2025-2026 school year calendar after a comprehensive process involving teacher representatives, bargaining units, administrators, department representatives, and the family advisory committee, along with surveys. Key priorities addressed included an earlier end to the school year (first week of June), a rolling start for kindergarten, consistent days off across all sites, and dedicated professional development days for staff relicensure. Future calendar approval processes will be moved to the fall/winter for better planning.
Approval of International Union of Operating Engineers Local Number 70 Collective Bargaining Agreement
Dissent: None
Moved by Unknown [01:02:10] · Seconded by Unknown [01:02:15]
The board approved a tentative agreement with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 70 for a contract period spanning July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2026. The agreement includes a 4% wage increase in year one, 3% in year two, a 2.5% district contribution to 403b, stipends for specific licenses, and a revised pay structure for weekend and holiday work. The importance of the operating engineers' tireless work for the district was acknowledged.
Motion to Move to Closed Session
Dissent: None
Moved by Unknown [01:19:40] · Seconded by Unknown [01:19:45]
The board moved to a closed session to discuss negotiations with office and professional employees, as permitted by the Open Meeting Law, Minnesota Statute 13D.03.
Notable Quotes (10)
we had decided to cover the $1.5 million funding deficit that was caused by the drop in the compensatory revenue. Um, and we're using our fund balance to do that. Tied to this decision, we also agreed that we needed to take actions to encourage the state government to correct the situation going forward for this year and for the future.
Please, please, please continue to advocate on behalf of our schools, our kids, and our staff. It's very important.
I just wanted to note that um, you know, I've mentioned this before, but um, ensuring that our employees or other people who are um, on the front lines trying to administer these policies, it's really important that we receive their feedback.
I think it helps our policies um ensure that they are um something that people feel bought into and that they're able to live out.
We are going to be um digging into building evaluation tools that align with our new strategic plan that we should be presented with so that we can make sure that we are um following the goals that the strategic plan are saying our community wants us to focus on and making sure that our um we're also want to continue building out our two-year agenda.
So, at our normal work session, we are adding a special business session in order to be able to accommodate things that cannot wait until our April 28th meeting with staffing and scheduling.
Moving forward we are going to move this process up. We are going to um start the process in the fall and get it approved more in the winter timeline so that people can make plans accordingly.
What I heard from the committee and from the people that they talked with was getting school out on that first week of June. [...] And then we also heard that um making sure that we have professional development days for our staff so that they can get their rellicure requirements uh for their teacher relic was also very important.
The agreement includes increases to base wages of 4% in year 1, 3% in year two, a change to the district's 403b contribution to a 2.5% district contribution for all members of the unit based on the individual's employees salary, and addition of stipen for specific licenses that are required to operate various equipment and a change to the pay structure for required weekend and holiday work.
This is a group of men and women in our district that work tirelessly day in day out to make sure that our district is operating for our students, for our staff to be able to get the education that we provide to them.
Ordinances & Resolutions (29)
An online platform used in the Personal Learning Lab for credit recovery courses.
A second online platform used in the Personal Learning Lab for daily assignments like bell ringers and reflection questions, also mentioned for teacher communication.
Screen monitoring software used in the Personal Learning Lab to maintain academic integrity during quizzes and tests.
A community article mentioned as a medium for communicating the need for state advocacy on funding.
A student support application that students are not widely aware of or using.
Legislation that previously imposed professional development restrictions on the calendar, now less restrictive.
Reference point for minor wording updates made to Policy 512.
New district plan that will guide the development of evaluation tools during a special work session.
The calendar for the upcoming school year, approved by the board after extensive stakeholder input.
A contract agreement with the Operating Engineers union covering July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2026.
The Open Meeting Law under which the board moved to a closed session.
Newspaper that published an article about the high school girls' flag football team.
Publication of the Minnesota School Board Association, mentioning board member achievements.
District policy reviewed and approved.
District policy reviewed and approved.
District policy reviewed and approved.
District policy reviewed and approved.
District policy reviewed and approved.
District policy reviewed and approved.
District policy reviewed and approved.
District policy reviewed and approved.
District policy reviewed and approved.
District policy reviewed and approved.
District policy reviewed and approved.
District policy reviewed and approved with minor wording updates.
District policy reviewed and approved.
District policy reviewed and approved.
District policy reviewed and approved with a correction.
District policy reviewed and approved.