I'd like to propose or have you appr support approving that the first day of inclement weather would be like a traditional snow day for students so students would be home and they would do their thing hopefully sled or have fun or just be safe mostly and then that would give our staff a day to plan for any subsequent inclement weather days.

we continue to have a gap of $450 million uh in special education and so again uh coupled with our general education Aid uh and and the special education component uh we continue to have large unfunded gaps um which result in US needing n Community for operating referendums

I hope you guys Board District have a background of someone of a business or economics or some kind of numbers or taxes cuz for saying all that think requires some time to digest it and process it because that's some very Prestige educational Finance Tax of stuff he just proposed and I thinking that if you guys are going to make a decision or somewhat um be patient with that because I want to see where we can get some money for that for our teachers for our kids students or uh our facilities stuff so I really I don't know what if you if you have any background in business or accounting or taxes or any of that cuz you guys are here you represent us so that was my comment you know do you are how do you digest this you know how do you process this in that 10 minute amount time that he just proposed to us

as Mr mutsen bger laid out the levy timeline this information was first presented to us back in September and we've had the opportunity to review and discuss it the finance committee has reviewed and discussed it and brought it to the committee as a whole it is also a process that happens every year and it's pretty standardized that way but also to speak to the education component because it's true the average person is not educated in the world of Schoolboard Finance that's crazy right if we all walked around and knew that um but we have the opportunity through um msba the Minnesota School Board Association to participate in trainings I think specifically phase two is School Board finances and that opportunity is offered to all school board members so that we get those opportunities

The agreement includes an increase to base wages in year two only that's the 2425 school year current one that we're in that positions the district to improve both our Recruitment and Retention of Highly qualified esps through a 22% increase to the base wage for all job titles in the group in addition the settlement includes a change to the district's 403b contribution to a flat 25% for all esps based on the individual employe employees based salary a $100 increase to the employee longevity beginning in year two and an increase to District contribution to ESP health insurance beginning in year two aligning the ESP contribution with other non-certified groups

I'm just excited that we were able to create parameters that show our esps that we value the work that they do I also want to recognize that we were in a position that we were well behind in doing that and um I hope that this is not by any means looked at by the board as a solution to um our need to sort of Express that appreciation but really a first step in that path

field trips you know local field trips are approved at the principal level and so they um do those there at that level if it's out of state that would come to me and anything out of the country uh comes to the board so you had initially approved this trip but part of our practice is to then review it just to make sure conditions haven't changed obviously we've seen Global pandemic we've seen civil unrest and all kinds of things that can play out and so that's why this one's coming back again for its final approval so that the staff and kids can go have a blast in Europe

I would just like to add literally 50 years ago go when I was in Spanish class at High School here in South St Paul our Spanish group we went to Spain wow right around Easter time and I can honestly say my friends and I who attended that even to this day we still do discuss it occasionally the things that we learned the things that we did and speaking our Spanish back 50 years ago we still do retain it so going on these trips with their classmates and instructors isn't a very wonderful forever remembering event so I thank these instructors for taking their students to these events

when we hired the superintendent we set some really challenging parameters that didn't give a lot of Runway to sort of like building some of the relationships that we would expect um our leadership to sort of be able to do inside of their first year um in any sort of position we were facing a really really challenging fiscal cliff that led to um the school district uh pursuing the levy

I don't think we've quite done our due diligence maybe I just speak for myself I have not so in that regard I will be V voting no for the three-year extension I would be open to an extension a year perhaps something different come up with a performance plan Engage The stakeholders have let them have a say in this have a transparent process so then everybody can feel better about superintendent zambino about school board about yourselves and about what our kids are getting

I also agree with uh directors human and Weber um that of course we want to set our district up for success and part of that is having some stability knowing what we're going to um have for a longer term plan and our district is going through strategic planning right now we want to be able to see that through and show that we are going to um have a longer term Outlook than the next year having a three-year contract does not limit our ability to evaluate the performance of superintendent srino

The focus of my first contract was you know we're coming out of this pandemic and it was tough I mean people were hurting and unhappy when I got here and that was not easy and I didn't have any Runway to prepare for that I just jumped right in because Dave said my wife is dying can you jump in and I'm not being Sensational that is the truth I did not have the 4 and a half month Runway I was jumped in and it's like raise achievement pass you know all those things we did it but we didn't nail the mark and the relationship and the thing about it is I would love that that's the like that's the best part is getting to be uh in in that relationship so I think about the first contract was let's get the ship pointed in the right direction now let's tune it up and that's clearly what I'm committed to doing