[Applause] um we are very interested in the storm that is coming good evening I'd like to call to order July 22nd 2024 school board meeting to order Lisa would you please call the role director laa birdie here T Felton here human here W Felton here and Claflin here that's five y please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance 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 thank you um at this time I'll ask for a motion to approve our meeting agenda for this evening as well as the work session and regular meeting minutes from June 24th 2024 do moved second any discussion all in favor please say I hi apposed and motion passes the agenda is approved uh and tonight we will get started with our quality in action so I'd like to invite Amy Winter and Robin Schwab to highlight our summer Learning Academy hi good evening thank you for having us Board of Education and um we're just here so this is my first time without a little mouse so how do I click up through all right so thank you for having us in the Educational Department we've been very busy planning all kinds of programming for all the students from all the way ECFE through um Credit Recovery in the high school so at this time we just want to highlight some of the things that are going on right now because the programs are still going so usually we do an end of the summer recap where we give the final results of everything but it's all still still going right now so when we're talking about summer programming it really is a team lift between all of the different departments across the entire District so think of it as like a mini school year so we started in January and it crossed all over from Human Resources to finance to Food Service I mean all of these meetings were were happening and figuring out how each of these students were going to qualify and how we could support each of the students with the needs that they do have the programs that we're going to highlight come from different areas that are all represented across the district we have some highlights from Community Ed some early learning the elementary summer Learning Academy some programs at our Middle School our high school credit recovery and our special services we'll start with Community Education which Jean Zender leads as the Director of community ed through them they have programming that starts all the way from Early Childhood all the way through our adult and Senior programming so some of the highlights that they wanted to to put forward this year were some of the new programs that they have with some of the numbers that they have of the um people attending starting with our ECFE so this this covers the the birth all the way through age five they have nine weeks of programming that they have located um at the family education center and it's a drop in place so we have some that take advantage of every opport and some that are just here and there and that's Thursdays from 9: to 12 we have 115 students that are enrolled in our Kids Choice program so that gives not only our families flexibility but it gives continuity for our students um to come and it's located at kosia Education Center and they provide 11 weeks of programming and that's Monday through Friday and we start as early as 6:30 and go all the way till 5:30 p.m. the youth enrichments Aquatic program that has expanded this year and so they have three different levels where they have a swim club and then they have swimming lessons that are open to the public and swimming lessons that they're going to or that they offered for our Kids Choice students and so it's it's a growing program there the gymnastics program still continues to expand and so there's 413 participants this summer wow so if if you're wondering where all of our kids are it's there um they're they're all doing gymnastics apparently so um there's some great programming that's happening at our community ad sites because it's Olympic year that's correct and then our adult um adult basic education we do have about 20 adult Learners um 12 e and 8 GED students that are going to to go for their GED now 271 seniors in our community are participating in the senior Fitness classes so I think that's something to highlight as well and they are having some new programs there to to tap into some of the interests of our community so they have writing your own will that's popular and then they are starting an an artist it's unleashing your inner artist so that's what's going on in our community edor for our summer Learning Academy we moved back to kosia education center this year and we ended up having 280 students that are enrolled and this is serving students going into first grade through fifth grade wow we have approximately four sections that are going on at each grade level and we ended up making a push for our multi multilingual Learners this year and we provided some more supports in that area and then we really focused on um we had our stem curriculum that we were using our engineering Elementary kits so we made sure that we were really focusing on that but we supplemented with our literacy program and we got math curriculum that we were able to implement for the first time so we're previewing a lot of those materials this year for full implementation next year so the materials that we got and the feedback from the students so far is it's all Hands-On learning and there is not a whole lot for digital platforming on any of this curriculum and the feedback that we're getting from the students and staff is that they're they're having fun and they really like that um as part of some of the Community Partnerships they have partnered with the um Community Education or the high school theater and they have some other people performing so they had some outside um artists come in they had some musicians come in and then they've had um they've had the ninja course up there so there there's a multitude of different programs that there have in addition to the academics and one piece that I want to highlight that I was able to see was they made solar ovens in their fourth grade class and they ended up making s'mores with that so that was I'm self- serving I went to go eates but um there's some really cool things that were happening there K Camp just started today so that went back to their home sites where these incoming kindergarteners are going to be attending their home school that they go to so even some of our kindergarten teachers that were helping in SLA they switched back and so they were there to welcome the kindergarteners today at their home sites um this really gives them the opp opportunity to see what uh school day looks like just to get them in the building and so they they are ready to go um and the parents feel a little bit more comfortable as well when they're dropping their kindergarteners off at school middle school um this is ran by principal Leah Borg and we have a few programs that are going on right right now we have summer Learning Academy at our middle level and that has math language arts and social studies that is being taught through Hands-On curriculum and the final day for them is this Thursday and they have a culminating um fun day at that Valley Fair so they learned they learned for their their program and then they're going to celebrate on Thursday we have sixth grade intervention um there is not a slide for that but that was identified students that got some some more academic help that they would need in the areas of math reading and they also had a component with some art to help break up their day and then Packer preview we did stick with two separate sessions this year so we were able to accommodate families in June and July and so I believe we were able to get over half of the students that are coming into sixth grade that were able to come and spend a couple weeks with us learning all about sixth grade and how the transitions work between classes how the lunchroom works um making sure they know how to do their combination lock and all of the stressful things that come with moving to the Middle School in 9th through 12th grade that is our credit recovery program for our high school students so to qualify these are students that have have taken the course and they are primarily going back to just earn that credit that they need so they're not going there to move ahead they are going there to essentially know to to show what they know to move on and and start moving towards graduation so a piece of feedback that we had was we had moved to two classes that students were able to enroll in in the previous year we were offering to students this year for the first time they had an opportunity to earn three credits at one time so if they finished early they could start another course um but otherwise we will we will get the data at the end of this week when they finish their final courses but at this point we already have 167 courses that were completed early so we are we're really looking forward to seeing what the end result is and we had a couple offerings um instead of just doing all Odyssey Weare software based assessments we were able to offer some project components for some of those students to show their learning off of a computer so and we do have 277 students that are World um extended school year this is provided through special services these are students who have services that are identified on their IEP they have programming at both early ages and all the way through high school and they have specific goals that they are working on while they are attending um extended school year with us at each of the sites they have a big project that's going to come out on Thursday they've all worked together and there's going to be an Olympic field day that's going to occur at Lincoln Center so that is that's going on so 38 students are going to be participating it as well as some of the students help plan it and we'll help you help facilitate some of the events so that's that's the end event for our extended school year program students that happen on Thursday so a lot of things are going on and a lot of things are closing up this this Thursday so um I ran over everything pretty fast but if you have any questions I welcome them now um could you go back towards the Middle School numbers we got numbers on how many kids were participating in the other programs and I I might have missed that oh sure um for Packer preview we had 107 nice for sixth grade intervention those were 21 students and for summer Learning Academy we had 47 thank you so and these were the numbers of students that not just enroll but we have to actually count who shows up yeah so those were those were the true numbers for those that's great uh lots of ways for students to stay engaged over the summer and get the help they need to continue learning U it looks like learning is fun and with the um summer Learning Academy for the elementary school students they might not even notice that they're being taught something they're just having so much fun learning along the way I love that um I'd like to hear just a little bit more about what credit recovery um looks like if if students have so much flexibility to work on um finishing courses at their own pace sure could you tell me more about how it's done online I certainly can so we have programming that runs Monday through Thursday and students are scheduled for three we have three blocks in that day so if they need to take three classes they're scheduled for those three classes if they only need the one we work with our families to figure out which which time works the best for them so they would rotate just like their their school year where they would have three separate blocks that they would that they would attend to get that support they need to be in the classroom with that licensed teacher and they do a preassessment for every course that they they ended up getting a zero or no credit in and so after taking that preassessment it really does a nice job of fill aling out the exact standards that those students need to need to get proficient in to earn that credit so it if a student ends up needing the entire class they can have that entire class if they only need to do um three units they end up just getting what they need and when they need it and so the tests have to be proctored in front of the the teacher um but that licensed teacher is there to help review and help um assess the student because a lot of times students will say I have this knowledge but I'm unable to show it here so teachers being in the licensed content area can help assess them through different like modes so that's that's um the structure it's three three class periods three blocks Monday through Thursday and if they wanted to start a new class they we start kids every Monday and then that will help address too if a student says oh I'm going on vacation I couldn't go to the first week am I out of any of the credit recovery and it's no we'll we'll keep enrolling students every every Monday that's great so responsive to what the kids needs and making sure that they're getting the pieces filled in that they need and not repeating contents that they do know that that really helps me understand what they're doing this summer uh thank you any other questions no I just have to say I have a solar oven right now in my house with a chocolate Remnant on the bottom of it and a reminder that I need to by marshmallows so Learning [Laughter] Works maybe we'll have some more solar Engineers that' be great all right um we have not received any public comments through our uh District website as a reminder to everyone if you'd like to reach out to the board to share your thoughts with us you can submit comments to the board through our website you can also attend the meetings that we have on the second Monday of the month uh those are at the district office and uh we take public comment at 6:30 or you can reach out to any of the board members uh we have not received any comments at this time um so next up director human will highlight the board's work session we met this evening at 5:00 across the hall in the con conference room um as you can see tonight Dr Zan bro chair rash and director Weber are not with us they were not at that meeting either but we did go over our um annual conflict of interest SL disclosures with Brady Hoffman a procedure that we go through every year making sure that we are not um approving any contracts or making Financial gains from our position on the board we um discussed the upom lease for display boards that will come up later as an approval item and we discussed the resolutions that will also come up regarding the election that you will hear about later in this meeting then we had some Public Relation relations discussion there are lots of opportunities to meet us out in the community but also more formally we will be at um night to unite we'll be popping up at the Wednesday farmers markets that are from 2 to 6 at the Wakota Federal Credit Union on South View you'll see us probably on Halloween and on the road again you have lots of opportunities to catch up with us and we look forward to telling you about the accomplishments going on in our district our um Packer Pathways and our joint values that we have with the city we're really pumped about that Tim has a shirt I can see you're excited um and then we had an an opportunity to discuss that we will be having a special work session next week Monday to go over um how we work as a board I think a really cool part of being a school board member is that no individual person has power it's what we do as a group in representing our community and so we're going to make sure that as a group we're doing the best work for South St Paul that we can by meeting with Teamworks and then we did some committee updates that was our meeting it was very short and now we're here thank you yeah we got things done tonight very Qui efficiently uh so Dr Zino is out but we are glad to welcome Dr winter to provide some updates from around the district thank you uh yeah I'm the executive director of educational services and so I work in the department uh predominantly around um teaching and learning technology um Community Ed early Ed um and adult ed but I get the privilege tonight to um just give a quick uh District update and I really wanted to focus on kicking off the school year here this fall and so the district has um is in the process and is updating our website to really make information accessible to families as they are thinking about um getting ready for school here in August and September and so I think the first reminder is just that we really want to make sure families give us updated contact information and um communication has been sent out about um census information just to make sure that if we ever do need to reach out that we um Can Do It um quickly uh without any issues and I think just the other reminders school supplies handbooks um any type of information around transportation that you may need to access for your child um educational benefit applications um in case we have any type of closing throughout the year just to prepare ahead and school calendars are all now um accessible on the website and then in particular for our elementary families we have some events coming up just to help welcome you to the the school year and to the sites there is a family connection day on August 29th from 10: to 6:00 p.m. and then the first day of school for 1st through 5th is on September 3rd and that kind of allows all of the students who've been there before to kind of get settled that first uh day and then there's a kindergarten family connection day on that day and then preschool um there'll be parent meetings um that kind of first week and then the first day for kindergarteners is September 4th and the first day for preschoolers is September 9th on the secondary level there is a packer essential and that's on August 15th and 19th and then on August 28th 8 and 30th there is family connect um and CLC is also aligned with that um time on the 28th and then just to prepare September 3rd is the first day of school for sixth grade 9th grade and 12th grade and so those transition years in 6 and N get them into the building before everybody else returns but everybody else is invited then on September 4th which is 7th 8th 10th and 11th grade and just a quick reminder that all this information is available online on the website thank you so much Dr winter could you talk about what those Packer Essentials are and and why it's important for people to go to that you know there's a lot of um I think behind the scenes to get kids ready for school and so whether it's just updating information whether it's getting schedules whether it's getting your device and there's a lots of just Logistics and so those days are really set aside to kind of take care of all of that um beforehand so you feel prepared on that first day of school thank you yeah thank you very much next up we have our consent agenda items these are items that are Financial claims are Staffing and personnel and they've been presented in the board packet at this time I'm asking for a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved do I have a second second any discussion all in favor please say I I I opposed then the motion passes thank you tonight we also have a number of policies up for their third and final reading these policies have been brought forward from the policy committee and they've been reviewed at two previous meetings um at work sessions I believe and the policies that are up for the third and final reading tonight are 506 student discipline 507 corporal punishment and prone restraint 605 alternative programs 607 organization of grade levels 610 field trips and 507.00 human would you yeah since this is the first time the policies have come up on an on camera meeting I thought we could just quickly go over what the policies are number 506 student discipline is a 25 page policy that um underwent a lot of change um updating it with legislative wordings and putting in a chart that makes it very easy to reference for our families and our staff to understand the repercussions for different behaviors as outlined by the state and through Guidance with msba um 507 the biggest changes to that policy was um again post legislative updates regarding school resource officers and the wording around that regarding corporal punishment and prone rest State um school resource officers are not considered School staff so that's really clarified there um 6 5 607 and 610 did not have any major changes it was really just updating like abbreviations and reference numbers and then 507.00 [Music] and just kind of clarifying the role that they play um we're very fortunate Dr zambino always talks about it but I know it's true also that we have a really great relationship with the city of South St Paul and the police department here and we have no issues taking on this policy thank you any further questions or discussion right all in favor of motion to approve these policies please say I I a post thank you the motion passes now on to the business items for this evening um first up we have a resolution uh let's see I'm going to follow this order business uh a resolution to approve the acceptance of gifts do I have a motion so moved and second second thank you any discussion Hoffman would you like to tell us about the gifts good evening we have three monetary donations this evening we have one from the menoa Mendoza Navaro LLC for the cdlu one from Robert's funeral home for the senior allight party and then a donation from the sou Paul open foundation for track and field coaching salaries we also have a piece of equipment that was donated a pediatric standard was donated to the special ed Department from Leslie Miller uh and these standards are assisted devices that help individuals with physical disabilities or Mobility limitation to stand upright so uh something that comes in very handy as we're working with our students so uh grateful for the donations from our community and um all they do to support our schools thank you any further discussion Alisa would you please call the role director Liberty yes T Felton yes human Yes W Felton yes in Claflin yes that's five years thank you the resolution is passed we're lucky to have a community that supports our district like this um display all right uh the next item up is approving the purchase of display boards and authorizing the superintendent and finance director to enter into a lease purchase agreement for those do I have a motion so moved a second second thank you for discussion I'll turn over to Brady to describe these good evening uh back in November December our tech department hosted an edtech playground uh which allowed for teachers and staff to come in and demo a bunch of different displays um and allowed them to provide input and feedback on what would make the most uh be the most beneficial for them in their classroom so a really cool process um that was used to narrow the devices down to three finalists and then they were brought back in to do a more robust presentation to our technology committee um and based on those results then staff were also surveyed to kind of rank which devices would make the most sense and be the most beneficial for them and uh through that process we've landed on the Prometheans uh displays so these are display boards that'll be replacing smartboards that were in put in place many years ago um as those things are um kind of reaching end of life um so through this process um to replace them we'll have to do this in about four waves of installs so this is the first wave or the first purchase to um purchase some Promethean displays to um start upgrading those within the classrooms um so this first wave is um the uh purchase amount is 22487 we are recommending a 5-year lease uh to finance this first purchase and that will also allow us to retain resources to continue to invest in uh Chromebooks laptops our Network infrastructure um so by leasing it it creates that opportunity to continue investing those other techniques that we have as well um versus an upfront uh purchase um so tonight uh we have the recommendation to approve this purchase and to authorize uh entering into the lease for these devices so uh with that I will open up to any questions you might have we discussed these a bit at the work session and they sound like an amazing technology that will help our students in the classroom and be a great way for teachers to interact with material easily show things to the classroom um and did have a discussion about um financing rather than outright purchase um and we're taking your recommendation on how to proceed with the funds given all of the other technology uh expenses that we're facing with upgrades and repairs following the um the tech issues we've had earlier this year um so for this do see um all in favor if there's no further discussion uh please say I I I I and post and the motion passes thank you thank you all right uh next we're going to uh have a special work session and I need a motion to approve scheduling this work session for Monday July 28th 2024 at 5:00 p.m. is there a motion so moved second thank you any discussion uh this meeting will be for um a board retreat for ongoing board development some reflection evaluation of our work as a board uh and our ability to work for the district and our community so we will be meeting for uh so review of our work as a board are there any further questions or discussion all in favor chair Claflin just a conf um correction it's the 29th it would be on oh okay just for that motion I just want to make sure that we've got that piece correct Monday July 29th at 5 um all in favor please say I I I uh post and motion passed thank you we'll be back next Monday for that one and that is at the district office uh and then our last two business items are on the election that will be coming up uh so first I need a motion to approve a resolution relating to the election of school board members and calling the school district election so moved and a second second thank you and uh is there any discussion right this would be to uh call the election um Al all in favor please say I I I and a post chair cin we need a roll call a resolution I even circled resolution so it's aoll call Lisa would you please call the role yes um director T Felton yes human Yes W Felton yes La bir yes and Claflin yes that's five years thank you a surprising result this is also a resolution and I need a motion to approve this resolution establishing procedures for County and the wrin votes for the school board election so moved second thank you any disc discussion uh this simply says that we do not need to uh count and name every right in vote unless it exceeds the number of votes that would actually um win a seat so it saves our County election um officers quite a bit of work and as it's a resolution Lisa would you please call the rooll director human Yes W Felton yes La Liberty yes T Felton yes and Claflin yes that's five years thank you the resolution passed all right that concludes our business items and I'd like to open the floor to our members to give any updates to the um the board and the community from your committee work uh or where you have seen a passion in our district uh director human like to begin oh sure um I was able to go to the Splish Splash Bash this past week and I know that that's not a school district event but walking around it was amazing how many School District groups were there so many sports teams so many coaches and staff so many kids just really excited to be representing their teams even during the summer when they are on summer vacation and break so I just want to point out the uh pride and passion that I saw from our community and from our school community at the splish flash bash it was a great time thanks uh director Wendy Felton yes I also was at the Splish Splash Bash it it was a lot of fun that was my first time officially there seen a lot of people great groups of Staff members from from our school district many of our Sports Department Ms were there and it was a very very nice event and I also being a member of the senior center board of directors this week I also attended we had a bus trip that attended up to Alexandria on Tuesday it was a very nice event had had a real good time up there last week it was very good and also um coming up with our senior center this Thursday is our cookout C celebration it's our it's our July dinner that luncheon that we're having it starts at 11:30 until 1:00 if you're interested in coming to that and our member of the senior center we urge you to come on Thursday it'll be really good I also attended the the high school play called under the big top it was a very very nice event with with the middle school students and also coming up this week starting Thursday through Sunday at the secondary building it is the prom play which I am looking forward to I will be there on Friday night looking forward to it having already seen the prom movie I'm sure the dancing and the singing it it it will it's a musical it will be a very very nice event coming up this weekend we encourage community members to attend this community play for us and also one other thing that I have been doing some volunteer work which is called the re Relay for Life if you're familiar with it this is their 20th year anniversary for the Relay for Life which is a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society and the the main promoter of this one of our former school board members Shelley Forester I thank her aot for doing this this is being held Saturday August 3rd at Lincoln Center on our track and field area so it's a great opportunity as a fundraiser for the Cancer Society if you'd like to come there there there's usually a couple food trucks there also to eat you can walk walk around the track and you'll see a lot of charitable donations and there'll be a lot of bagged things that people fill out and sign on and several several booths also put up by family members in a promotion and thanks for their family so and if you if you are a have a family member who unfortunately passed away from cancer or are a Cancer person who has survived and done well you are encouraged to come for to the relay life which includes Inver Grove Heights South St Paul and West St Paul like I said at our Lincoln Center track and field Saturday August 3rd so thank you thank you director Tim filon yeah we had the South St Paul Open golf tournament last week it was another great event we missed the rain thankfully which is pretty hard to do lately and the open gives all their money to uh sou St Paul Athletics and activities and um I know they were looking to have a a big year because it was our 50th anniversary and I just wanted to thank you know all the golfers volunteers donors the open board members chaired by Mark Duffy they do a great job so a lot of work goes into it and uh it was a good success thank you Dr lber um I have nothing at this time thank you um over my summer I've seen seen some of the South St Paul sports teams also um been great role models to our younger students uh at The Parks and Rec summer camp the first one of the year was composure themed were the Packers and the younger kids look up to those older students so much um the wrestling team was a hit and um I'm always proud of our uh Athletics and the students being such good representatives of our district to those younger students they're great role models and I was at the uh South Paul Junior players performance of under the big top as well those kids were having so much fun with this play uh it was just obvious in their faces that they were enjoying themselves up there and I really have to thank our senior high students for again being excellent Role Models they were there cheering on the middle school students and showing up to watch other friends and really showing up just to be there for other theater students um it's important that those younger students that are coming up through the ranks in any of our programs activities Athletics theater see those older students being a great role model like that um and then over at our local issues meeting at the end of June we had a live demonstration of our emergency response plan uh where we had a lockdown uh occurred during our meeting and because we knew uh the procedures um I we were able to respond very quickly very safely to an incident happening right outside of the Central Square building and uh that was gratefully resolved without further incidents but it for our community to see how we respond in that type of situation was very helpful um and then hearing more about the response to uh situations where we might need to evacuate students to another location uh the Veterans Memorial Building down in Inver Grove Heights uh they could really see how we've thought through situations that we hope to never need to enact but that we really are ready to respond and can respond quickly um besides that at the local issues meeting we also heard some interesting news from Dakota County Technical College about Z degrees where there are courses um entire degree programs created where there are no book costs so uh there's very little cost to entry to earn some of these degrees um and we will not be meeting in July but we will be back in August all right uh so we are now at the end of our public agenda there will be a closed session scheduled per open meeting law uh Minnesota statute 13d .05 to discuss appending Minnesota Department of Human Rights charge with the board attorney uh so I'm looking for a motion to move our meeting into close session still moved is our second second thank you any discussion all in favor please say I I I opposed thank you the motion passes and we'll move across the hall to hold that meeting thank you very much