we got married during the state shutdown 2011 oh jeez all right uh good evening everyone I would like to call the Monday December 9th 2024 school board meeting to order Lisa will you please call the rooll director Claflin here La birie here T Felton here human here Weber here W Felton here and Cher rash here that's seven presents thank you if we could please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance do do a good job navigating that I pledge alance 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 [Applause] all right at this time I am looking for a motion to approve our meeting agenda minutes for this evening as well as the regular meeting minutes for November 25th I'd like to make a motion to update the agenda amend amend amend the agenda excellent I would like to add a public listening after um section 3E okay that would be comment to the board right there yes please okay um we have a motion to have comment to the board um on tonight's agenda after 3E do we have a motion or a second second all in favor please say I I post that the motion carries all right um with that out of the way do I have a motion to accept the agendas as amended for this evening as well as the regular meeting minutes for November 25th 2024 so is that good all in favor please say I I I opposed that the motion carries all right as we kick off most of our board meetings we start with uh quality and action and I would like to invite Brady Krueger um understand you've got quite a few friends with you tonight I I do have some friends with me I tend to bring a lot of friends along with me when I come to these meetings which is good uh but yes again thank you for inviting us to come back and share about our fall activity season thank you to dror zambino uh school board members High School administrators Chuck oaki Middle School administrator uh Leah Borg uh for their continued support of Packer Athletics and activities um as always I appreciate the opportunity to come before you to highlight our coaches our advisers and most importantly our students uh in our Athletics and activities programs I want to take a moment uh though again and recognize the coaches and advisers that work with these individuals they do an incredible job the time and effort they put in is absolutely admirable um but without further delay I know you're not here to listen to me speak uh I am going to turn it over to our theater uh director Mr Eric holson to talk about willly Wonka if you didn't get a chance to see it you missed out it was an absolutely fantastic fall play very good Mr holson all right can I hi can I have my theater kids who are here oh here we go all right cool uh I've brought a few friends too um so yeah we had a a great production of our fall musical uh with Willie Wonka our fall musical as you probably already know is an all School Musical so it's grades 6 through 12 uh and we uh got our Spotlight results back uh a little while ago and we had some some really nice um accolades for a number of our students and for the group as a whole so I'm just going to kind of run through uh what what those accolades were and and point out those who are here uh some some folks couldn't be here um so for our overall uh technical production we got an honorable mention uh we also had honorable mention for uh Ensemble vocal performance running crew and overall technical team for individual honors we had uh honorable mention in a leading role for Wyatt Ren as Willie Wonka and he's at rehearsal at school right now and also for our other Willy Wonka uh Harrison shil uh they both got honorable Mansons come on and then uh we had an outstanding and a supporting role for Kaylee contras as Violet Bard and then uh outstanding and Technical leadership for Bella Mau our stage manager where'd she go here and also for Alex RoR who is our assistant stage manager um and I'm not sure but U I was just talking to Bella a moment ago and she thinks this is her fifth outstanding from Spotlight no second second we'd give you five we give you on three unable mentions okay I heard that wrong but uh that's uh she might be number one in terms of uh individual Spotlight Awards yeah she doesn't like me saying that um and then we also had an honorable mention in technical leadership for Maggie to he is a soundboard operator um Maggie is not here T no okay and then uh a number of evaluator shoutouts uh one was for Tessa jich who played uh Charlie thank you y she's right here and then Jordan danic who is one of our grandpa Charlies Joe Grandpa Joe Charlie's Grandpa uh Johnson Roth who was Charlie's dad Joe yeah no I've already moved on to the next production uh rapael vakas uh for Grandpa George uh Eliana clan for um what's her ver yeah a Iana to be okay uh and Rachel Reynolds who's here I got a shout out she was yeah right there uh she was one of our Oompa Loompas and we got a couple valuator shout outs for groups for Ensemble acting and Ensemble performance um all in all uh willly Wonka involved 76 students uh in grades 6 through 12 49 of them were actors 15 in the running crew uh moving all those really large set pieces around uh another additional 12 in the production crew who helped build uh the sets and paint the sets and the props and so forth um and we had an audience of well over 1,200 uh people in attendance which was a very a very nice-sized audience so we had a great time with that and uh and thank you guys for all your support in that um coming up next and I think yep all these folks behind me and a whole bunch more are involved in the winter one act plays which are already in production actually just came uh from from rehearsal for that that'll be performing January 18th and 19th uh 7:00 p.m. on the 18th and 2: p.m. on the 19th and then our competition play goes to competition on either January 21st or 22nd we're not sure which time yet uh we've got six plays in our onea plays uh a high school one uh competition one act a middle school one act and then four student written student directed skits in all right now for the one one acts we have 71 students involved that includes 11 students who submitted plays to our playwriting contest we chose four uh we have 10 student directors 51 actors over 20 technicians and a whole bunch of students who are doing more than one of those roles in the onx so uh we're looking forward to that and hope to see you there excellent thank you J thank you wonderful all right up next our next program just to kind of set the tone for you guys when I started here three years ago I was in the gym on senior night and our coach uh recognized that this was their first Conference win since joining the Metro East Conference so when Mr lose gets up here and talks about all the wonderful things volleyball did I want you to think about how far that they have come in these three years so lose and girls volleyball hello board hello Dr zambino hello students I am Tyler lose I am the head uh volleyball coach here at South St Paul um I'm Hayden Michaelson I'm a junior and I I was a Setter and captain for the volleyball team and and Hayden has been here every step of the uh the way with us in terms of what Mr creger was just talking about with all that success so even going into the season back in June July as you know the the girls were starting to come together before we'd even taken the court we took a look around and knew that this had a potential to be a really really successful year so we just decided to try some manifesting and we used the hashtag beste on social media all year long just to see what what would happen and we ended up in in almost every way imaginable achieving our literally our best most successful year ever at South St Paul volleyball uh that started out on day one we had the highest number of girls ever participating in the program we had five high school volleyball teams this year wow and we had um two big middle school teams we had 77 total girls playing volleyball this fall in grades 7 through eight that equates to about one in every nine girls in grades 7 through 12 at the secondary building was playing volleyball this fall um and so I think just in in the overall scope of things to see this program going the way it has been um has been really really special for us uh we also set a score record for most wins in the season our previous record was 21 one wins in 1984 and 1987 before either of us were alive uh we won 24 matches this year come on we went undefeated at home in the regular season in fact our only loss at home this year was when Creon Durham Hall came in and beat us in a tough SE section quarterfinal match they ended up going to State Kon did so uh we've beat Simley and we won the prestigious shovel trophy for the first time since 2013 it's an actual ual shovel that both schools have painted it's half blue and red half maroon and white and we have that sitting in our team room now where it'll be for the next year which I think was a really special moment for us uh we also had really probably the highest number of fans in engagement we packed the we packed the gym regularly this year we hosted a Hispanic heritage night where commun de Latinos sonidos took over our concession stand and sold a Hispanic themed food menu to everyone that night that was really successful we had our pink out night where we sold over 200 hoodies and t-shirts and we're able to raise over $5,000 for the family of Nicole Delino Jensen who's battling breast cancer right now and has a couple kids in the high school that was really a special night for us to be able to to do all that for her family um uh we hosted our first home playoff match since 2003 where we beat Simley again for the second time in two weeks uh we the team the varsity team earned the academic All State silver medal for a GPA above 3 .5 and we had three honorable mention athletes thank you come on three allconference Metro East honorable mention athletes Audrey Madson for the third time sheay Michaelson Hayden's sister for the first time as a senior and Siri Cruz was the only freshman to be awarded honorable bench in the conference and we had three All Conference thank you we had three allconference selections we had Izzy olich our senior labero Elena penopolis for the third time as an outside hitter and Hayden Michaelson as a Setter and we had some really impressive single season performances too uh Alena penopolis who at our last meeting she was featured on the screen as having just um signed with feris State University they're currently the number one ranked undefeated division 2 volleyball team in the country and she's going to go there next year she set school records for kills with over 1,200 Aces with over 200 and Diggs with over 900 in her career wow both offensive and defensive categories atena was also named um our second only three-time ever All Conference award earner she was named at the class 3A All State team and she even received American volleyball coaches association All Region honors and there are only seven regions in the entire country she was awarded as one of the top 30 players in our region so really special for her and now Hayden's going to talk about Hayden I don't know what to say um well I broke the single season um assist records with 709 for this season and then I think I had 89 89 Aces right last year last year yep School record um yeah and then I also broke the record at school for Aces last year which I had 89 and I think it was second in state as well so I really and so just a big thank you to everybody who has ever given volleyball um a thought or you know their support and which obviously starts and and ends with this board right here and Dr zambri know um it's really been a successful four years for us and we're we're really excited for next year and we get Hayden back which will be a great thing she's going to do really awesome things for us as a senior leader excellent thank you all right up next I'm going to bring up Chris bachan he is our new head coach for our cross country program this year uh good evening my name is Chris bachan I am the cross country coach at sou St Paul I am going to leave this presentation in the in the very able hands of my captain Sophie bibo and her sister Julia these are my girls welcome hi I'm Sophie bibo and this is Julia Julia my sister I'm a junior this year and she's a freshman this year and I've done cross country since 8th grade and then Julia's done it since seventh grade and one of the coolest things about cross country is that well first of all cross country we run 5Ks that's our race and we have one probably what was it 12 or 9 to 11 meets this entire year or season and then um for practices we meet up we warm up and then we just run like there's really nothing else that we do except for um different types of practices like since we run a lot we're very tired most of the time so we did like swimming practi practices where we go into the um the Central Square pool when the swim team is gone and then we just play we do our own workouts and then we play like water polo or something and we do really fun other um practices to kind of spice it up to make it fun again where we do like a marker run where we just like hide markers at this um Jefferson Hill and then we run around and we do races and it's really cool another thing about cross country is that it's very hard Sport and we're all trying to push ourselves to be the best just by ourselves but we have this sense of community that like helps us um push through it together so we all get very close like there was seventh graders all the way up to 12th grader and there's 20 of us on the team 22 on the team and we all just there was no like Middle School and High School it was all just one big thing and we all talked and that was one of the best things about it pretty much so um everyone set a new record for themselves this year is great oh Grayson Simons he's a sopore he's a sophomore he got um Honorable Men honorable mention I'm pretty sure he got not mention this year and um overall it's just a really great Sport and we all have a lot of fun and it oh we got a lot more people this year and everyone just has a great time so thank [Applause] you thank you girls uh next up I'm going to bring up noi quink our boy soccer coach and our talk about our boys soccer program [Applause] um make my notes Here uh thanks for having us uh having me again this year I'm no WKA coach of the soccer uh voice soccer program uh my captains supposed to be here today day take up a day out but uh they just basically told me that they have another activities at school like hockey and wesling so they decide to just like liit myself again but uh you know uh program I think uh this year possibly it was like a really tough season uh our record was one uh win two uh ties and 12 losses uh but uh the good thing uh I said this that we did we did great in this program because uh in our conference we and section we talking about uh conference uh or conference at least we have on the boys side at least like five five or six schools that they are like ranked in the first like 15 and State uh in the top 15 and state and sections we basically compete against like the top five State and it was a it was really nice uh uh they did really well in SE in our section quarterfinal game uh we lost to nothing against the number one uh in the state and they also win the the state champs Holy Angels and I think that we did really well uh everybody thinks that they going to destroy us really bad and uh but the kids did really well and we just last like the last was like two nothing and was like really really great to see these kids like step it up uh and also or uh only win this is uh past season uh we beat uh Humble High School and it was really great because it's the uh if I got the uh if I'm right I think it's the first time the in Easter that we beat that High School uh it was great uh we have one of our captain uh captains Tomas uh oaki was the an honorable mention for All State and is the one that canell the last time at last minute and but and uh it's good to have a program kids with that talent and uh basically uh having like uh that a record like that they recognize that for like State uh we looking uh look uh coming uh being a coach outside the school uh trying to be a little bit more involved with kids and uh pushing them not just focus in uh and soccer to the mically to be focused at school too and uh and right now uh our program is main focus in uh develop kids and we are looking uh or working with our middle school kids to uh to keep growing a program uh as and be like more competitive in the future I like in a couple years I think that we have a lot of talented kids and are like nine and 10 grade and uh and it's what we doing right now uh I'm not saying that Varsity is not important but at this point uh uh with with my assistant coaches I know that we like kind of focus and and try to build uh and grow this program a little bit more so uh planning to have lot of clinics uh for kids this SE the summer and all that to kind of promote a program and be more involved with the community awesome thank you very much thank you thank you all right we with the soccer theme I'm bring uh Tom Hart up next to talk about our girl soccer program hi there I'm Tom Hart I brought along Alita Ahern and Scarlett Johansson along with me two my seniors this year uh the girls soccer team had a wonderful uh season this past fall uh past fall full of memories and moments um I had a privilege of having 14 seniors this year uh most I've ever had and many have been with the program for over 6 years and it's been a really great honor seeing them develop over the years and just coaching them uh we had a really good season I'm really proud of what we accomplished as a team this year uh we scored 48 goals as a team allowed only 22 uh and that was 15 fewer than the previous year and I think that's it goes in hand with the defense and goalie that we have here with us tonight uh our overall record was kind of a weird 66 and five um but many of our games were decided by a single goal uh we're very competitive in each of our games um the team earned the number three seed for sections uh and we ended in a double overtime loss to Hill Murray which was a really good competitive game with a lot of opportunities and moments for us um the girls soccer team earned our soccer coaches association team academic Gold Award this year uh with a team average GPA of 3.85 awesome and then individually um these two scarlet and Alita uh were both named all conferences here for our conference but they're also named uh First Team all state which is the first time we've ever had two girls make the first team really proud of what they've done this year and I'm just going to let them have a moment to kind of say a couple words about the season um hi I'm Scarlet my favorite part of not just this season but like all my Seasons with South St Paul soccer is just how we're like a family and everyone's just all friends with each other and all the practices and all the games like every time we're with each other it's just fun like that's just the only word just fun it's a great time all my best friends it's great hi uh I'm Alita I think my favorite part this year is probably just like we stayed in so many games we had no business being in like we always the we were always the underdogs in every game like and we stayed in every game practice was always fun games were always fun team bonding outside of that like like pasta dinners bus rides all that type of stuff like made it a great year this year awesome thank you thank [Applause] you all right we're going to change direction here a little bit I'm going to bring up Mr Anderson to talk about our debate program at the high school hi uh good evening my name is Conrad Anderson and I'm the debate coach at South St Paul high school I just finished my 34th year of being debate coach at South St Paul um and this I think is the most fun I've ever had coaching this activity uh we have 14 different Stu 14 students that participate in debate this year so our numbers were up uh not a single senior on the team so we're actually a pretty young team um Debaters are kind of a rare breed they're usually the students that are in our honors classes or IB classes as 11th and 12th graders and then they spend all St with academic rigor and then they want more um and they come to me after school and they want to do more research and reading and writing and organizing and note taking and all kinds of things so with me I have Monty Whitaker uh he is one of our captains this year he's a junior at C St Paul um and he's going to tell you a little bit about our uh we have two different topics that we debate we debate season goes from August and we just ended this Saturday at the state tournament at Two River so he's going to tell you bit a bit about our topics that we debated this year uh so our first topic was about um the us and whether or not it should achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 through a binding commitment um essentially that topic just took into consideration uh a lot of policy and overall just uh a lot of hypothetical what would happen or what wouldn't happen if we tried to achieve carbon uh net neutrality by 2050 and I just think that that topic was just crucial to learning a lot about I mean uh crucial to learning a lot about like our world currently and like what of these a lot of these wh ifs or stuff to become a better person uh our second topic was if Ukraine should become a member of NATO through a um commit a policy of commitment and I believe that that Pol or that topic was just super important because it just taught us so much about um you know World policy and all like overall global polit like global politics and overall just a lot about the world we live in and I just think that that's huge uh as a student in high school yeah then I also want to mention mon give shout out to Monty he uh so at the state tournament uh in the division that he was in there were 52 person teams uh he and his partner who is a seventh grader this year uh Advanced to the final 16 uh this year and then um yeah give him and and of those hundred uh 100 Debaters in that division mon Monty was the number six speaker in that as well so he had a phenomenal end of the season so so thank you for your continued support for our debate team so thank you thanks Conrad all right next I'm going to bring up uh Rebecca sprigle to talk about our girls tennis program [Applause] hello everybody I'm am Rebecca spriggle and I am the girls tennis coach and I'm here with one of my players Libby Meyer um our other players tonight are at hockey so they couldn't attend but they're here with us in spirit um we had a wonderful fall season of tennis um it's one of the best times of year to get to coach a sport and be out there every afternoon um with this great group of girls it's a favorite my favorite part of my day I'll fall along so um tennis a lot of people think tennis is an individual Sport and we try really hard to emphasize the team element of it here in South St Paul with these girls um and my goal for them is to always know that regardless of the position they play or um who their partner is or where they are in our lineup that they're working towards the good of the group our goal is to win four points in every match um and how that happens it doesn't matter and we have different um Heroes every match who who achieve great things for us so we had a wonderful season with the overall record of 12 and N we're a tiny little school but we play some really big schools some big wins for us this year we Lakeville South Burnsville Rosemount um we finished third in our conference and we finished fourth in our section we had three players earn All Conference honors this year one of whom is here Libby Meyer and and we're missing merera gross and Annie straggle who are other All Conference earners and then two All Conference honorable mention uh Liberty Felton and Grace spriggle so um our team this year was made up of almost all sophomores on a varsity lineup we had zero seniors so um lots of young talent and we're excited for the future yeah thank you all right we're going to keep it in the family we're going to bring up Mr sprigle next uh to talk about our football program hi everyone uh it's great to be here I got Jack come up here too got a lot lot of great bodies you know uh football there's a lot of different types of people here and they all have different roles and are all important got coach laska Packer Alum coaches defense uh King Thompson defensive offensive lineman also our Snapper we got Brody Henry he does everything uh wide out secondary punter and uh holder and did I miss uh El Ahern she's our kicker uh a craft linebacker running back and Jackson Kenneth Schultz uh blocking back defensive extraordinaire um you know the I I it's been so great to listen to everybody talk about all the different things that that uh has G on in their stuff um for playing football it's a really it's really fun but it's a tough sell people don't really realize uh a lot of things that go into football specifically at South St Paul uh South St Paul has a long tradition of kind of being a little bit more than just kind of a fall sport for football uh we kind of do things uh year round and it takes a lot to to really be a part of it um these guys spent a lot of time these guys collectively these guys spent a lot of time unloading 300 trees for the Lions again and we've been doing that for over 25 years and we did that at 7:00 a.m. and they got their chance to get the first hour on time and so that's that's awesome we just uh participated in in the South St Paul West St Paul border battle for packing 30,000 food uh meals for people of uh four different communities in food shelves um additionally on top of that during you know during the summer we we uh put on a football clinic for all the kids of town we participated in on the road again had a tent for kids to come and play we at the split spash bash had a there for them as well we were in the composure Days parade and gave up 5,000 ices um so we're we're really working hard to try to let people know that you know to make a community work it takes everybody and that's really kind of uh how a football team Works um as well and so you know we get together pretty early in June and we have practices and we go up to UMD and have a camp there and that's fun and then during the summer we're we're lifting at at strength camp and that's also fun and then when the season starts really the the cool thing like I said these guys are all play uh different positions and they all rely on each other um you know great example we got we got our snapper right here for our Pat snaps it to our holder right here and then so then our kicker can kick it and while meanwhile these two guys are both out there blocking so people can't get it so really it's it's really cool to see the diversity that football brings because there's a lot of different people who have a lot of different jobs and some of them are are pretty high-profile jobs and some of them are are thankless jobs and we all know from our lives that you know sometimes we all work really hard and we prop someone or something up and because we're a part of something bigger than ourselves so that's really cool um other really cool accolades you know we were three and six and we lost some really close games uh but it was it was there were a lot of really fun games coach uh lose talked about playing for the shovel this year we played for uh you know a barge with Simley as well kind of the same thing you know the uh just down just down the river at simile you know the coach there is a really good guy and I'm good friends with him and so we talked about having a trophy and so we did that and we played him at TCO which was a fun experience and we ended up you know coming up one point short uh that was very interesting I enjoyed listening to the feedback of all people tell me about that just part of the job then um on top of that we we had some some pretty exciting and fun games and in the end we ended up having a lot of success and we had a lot of things that we still have yet to accomplish uh this year uh Aiden was uh our district our district consists of North St Paul South St Paul Hill Murray and Simley uh who voted these are all kind of unanimous votes uh our most valuable linebacker which is really cool because he made a lot of of tackles because King was also voted our District's uh most Val most valuable defensive lineman and so uh they really complimented each other and and played a big role in that uh Alita was our special teams uh District uh Most Valuable Player as well and she benefited from you know like I said from Brody holding and having all those great kicks or those great holds from King sending those things as well um on top of that coach Tim Keli was our Skyway gold uh most valuable uh assistant coach coach because he works tirelessly to try to do a great job and he does and I'm glad he got recognized for that so it's uh it's been a truly a blessing uh to to do this and so I'm really glad that you guys got to get recognized and I'll miss all of you and I'm excited for next year with with Jack so go Packers Ando to the kicker aah you rock yeah she does she's busy like a lot of our kids that are involved in many different things throughout the year Alita played football and soccer and hopefully you caught all state soccer goalie and all district football kicker so quite quite the athlete quite the student um last program that I want to highlight our is our swim program so we came to you guys earlier I guess last year to talk about our numbers issue with swim and we need to start a co-op and so we started a co-op with minha Academy and Crystal Ray and it went really well our swim coach could not be here tonight but some of the highlights that she wanted us to share was that we ended up with 28 total kids on the roster which was more kids than we expected coming into this which is fantastic um of those uh kids we saw 48 swim 44 swimmers spam swim their fastest times of the season um and Championship meets um all three of the relays medal at sections senior Maggie hay who was a s St Paul kid medled in diving took sixth place overall we had three athletes qualify in the top 16 of their individual events section which is phenomenal uh statistically it was a successful season but the coach really wanted me to stress that it was more important that they came together as a team um the word of mouth seemed to spread and more kids wanted to get involved um next year the swimmers already have a ton of ideas about recruiting new swimmers and just continuing to grow that program and I think that's one of the most important things is that Community aspect that participation and feeling like you're part of the school community that Athletics and activities bring so very happy with direction of our girls swim program uh before I go again I want to thank all of you for your continued support I want to thank again our coaches and advisers who do tremendous work working with these kids you saw over and over again how we have some absolutely incredible kids um in our buildings in our hallways and so on and that is a testament to the coaches and advisers that work with them that help them not only perfect their skill on the field or court or whatever it is but also help them become better people over time which is what we want our Athletics and activities programs to be they are are making sure that we are producing good kids for this amazing Community uh thank you have a wonderful rest of your night thank you Brady I also just want to say thank you to you that is a lot of things that you are sort of coordinating and um the relationship you have with our coaches and our students is really remarkable so thank you all right right um up next we have one more quality in action yeah this is a big one I guess I'll jump in since you're listed on that one as well and we have a couple people going off the board uh after tonight's meeting and that's um obviously Nikki lber and Cher rash so I want to start with Nikki um what can you say about Nikky laber other than that you would be hard pressed to find somebody who cares more about all St Paul Public Schools um that has been clear from day one that I met Nikki through today um Nikki has dedicated her life to this District in in many ways obviously as a teacher but you've raised your family in this community where you were a teacher and I heard John was going to be here did John make it in I supposed to but I don't see him I did not say John was supposed to be here yeah yeah right um but obviously it's a family thing I guess is where I wanted to go so I was hoping to give a little kudos to John you know I I know um um coming from a home with a wife who's a teacher and me being an administrator that that is a family commitment um and you both were able to thrive and succeed in that and I know those nights and weekends and things were hard and he never would have been able to do that if it weren't for you at his back so I'm sure he's told you that but I know that firsthand from living through that same experience and even after the two of you retired you've just remained steadfast in the commitment to the to the district um you know continuing to shape and enrich our district um and your legacy service lives on um you know8 years you talked about that that's no small commitment I trying to think of things I've done for eight years um and there aren't that many things that people stick with like that and so to show that commitment to this board and to our community uh speaks volumes and your in and your leadership has been instrumental and help us turn the tide on lots of things um we're going to have our truth and Taxation today we're sitting in a really good spot uh financially achievements on the move our teachers have more resources in their hands like new curriculum and um you're always a staunch advocate for all staff but of course our teachers um and so um I just want you to know that you know we talked about you know the way this all comes to an end and it's maybe without as much fanfare as it should be for the amount of effort you've put into this especially going through that pandemic remember that thing called the pandemic and being a board member in there um but your your work is really helping bring out the Brilliance we saw Mr Canal's last meeting with it working with our elementary Learners and seeing the impact of the changes we made have in our classrooms so while tonight is your last official meeting I know there's no doubt that you will continue to give back and care about this this District this community and you've motivated me to do that in many ways as well so I look forward to staying connected with you and uh just enjoying a friendship as two of the rare Mediterranean types around uh Minnesota but thank you so much for your hard work your dedication and everything you've done for the district and for me as well thank you yeah well since you're already a little embarrassed I'm going to talk about Nikki I want to thank you for modeling leading with your heart and listening with compassion and always trying to show how we need to serve every student even the ones that fall in the cracks we need to find them we can't let anyone fall behind yeah appreciate that thank you so much I appreciate that I appreciate that well and Nikki you and I um maybe did not start as friends um sitting on the board um and I'll just sort of like own my own sort of Journey onto the board is um I ran in a period of time where I was frustrated and didn't know how to reach the board at that time and um helped lead a carload of or a caravan of cars that were honking outside your house to try and have our voices heard um but um it's been a long time since that part and you've been a great collaborator um and a good friend and good Council as we try and figure out how to navigate really challenging decisions thank you thank you it's been my pleasure to to be on the board it wasn't always easy um I came in with a lot of preconceived notions of what I thought board work was and um over time and a lot of therapy um I figured out um what my role was and um God I hate seeing myself on that computer screen I look old as dirt stop it geez but anywh who I learned a lot being on the board I learned about myself as well as learning about how a school district runs when you're teaching you are caught up in your world your little world you know in your classroom and with your staff friends and co-workers and um this was eye openening for me I I almost think that every teacher should have a spin on the board um to see things from a different perspective um and and one of the things the questions that I ask myself if I can remember is what am I supposed to learn from this when I get into a conflict you know or a a tough situation once I can start thinking clearly again I ask myself what am I supposed to learn from this and I'm hoping that we can all oh there he is the man of the oh you miss the whole damn thing yeah I know that's all right it's all right it's all right of heard cat yeah I'm sure anyway um oh it's just a laugh a minute at our house um anyway I'm I'm I'm glad that I I did it I met you know John was involved in the district for 38 years and I taught for 10 and um this community and this staff um was our family and once John retired um and I wasn't teaching anymore we started losing look at these idiots we started losing touch um with the people in the community who have been a very big part of our lives and so um it felt good to be back in the swing of things um being on the board and getting to meet the new Administration the new staff members um the kids the kids cuz once you retire and you the Years start to click by you lose touch with the kids the families and um so this it was really lovely to be able to reconnect with kids and families so I thank all of you everybody that has been on this journey with me Lisa I don't know what I would have done without you you such a support and um hopefully we both can get our knees fixed and uh anyway I just I could ramble on and on but I'm not going to I'm just going to say thank you thank you for being the community and the people that you are it's a wonderful place to raise a family so thank you [Applause] thank you so much for those great words Nikki you are absolutely right this is a very special place uh I know John really loves to get a lot of attention too so we'll pile on to John next Cher rash uh but I do want to take a a moment to just share how much I've enjoyed getting to know and and partnering with with Cher rash um you know John one of the things I'll never forget is the night um Monica you Linda Diaz and Chris Walker called me to talk about the position and there was just a you know a giddy excitement it kind of felt like Christmas morning you know so much hope and opportunity ahead of us and um that's just burned in my brain like it happened yesterday and it's been 3 years which is hard to believe really cuz February will be it um you know and I I know we were all very cooked when we had that conversation so maybe that's why we were a little giddy cuz it was one of those you know after the whole long day but uh what an honor that was to get that phone call um you know um just you you expressing your excitement in me as a leader and clearly saying what stood out to you was being a leader of learning and being a learning organization one where we I mean we all need to continue to learn and grow adults children everybody all together and and I appreciated that's what stood out to you as we had that conversation um and you've just been a great model of you know that that adult learning is just as important as student learning um for those who may not know John uh let me tell you the kind of leader he is John is Guided by a strong and unwavering moral compass he's a man of integrity who cares deeply about those he serves which is students families and staff alike what has been especially meaningful about my relationship with John is how much we've learned and grown together over the years um since the time I was hired he's been doing some professional studies in in the area of school leadership and it's just been really helpful to be able to have those conver conversations and have a great thought partner who will push me but also support me at the same time which is what any any super uh superintendent would want from a board member you know support and growth um John always approached our shared work as a true partnership a partnership between our board our Administration and the staff and students we serve his collaborative spirit and dedication to fostering meaningful connections Have Been instrumental in our success so while I'm deeply sadden to see John leaving our board I know he can walk away with his head held high proud of the many improvements he has championed that are benefiting our students and staff um I often say that sspps is a small and mighty District On The Rise and John your leadership has played an essential role in making that a reality um thank you for your service your vision and your unwavering commitment to what is best for our students and staff I will know you will continue to be a staunch advocate for education and a powerful voice for students wherever your path takes you we're just glad that path came through here as our chair I would just like to say uh a few words so um John and I were both in the car parade um back those many those many years ago which was the first time um that I that I I met him and and shared our our true passion for um what we thought the board should be doing and oh we're going to show them we're going to run for the board and yeah we didn't know what we were doing um we also were first elected in that wonderful election of 2020 where we weren't allowed to go out and like talk to people um and we were both sworn in over Zoom um we both got to stand up in my living room and like take the oath of office that was that was an experience um and all the like one-on-one meeting that you and I got to have over Zoom as we were like do do you know what what what we're doing do you know how this is done um and then when when Linda left the board and you decided to become chair um I asked you I'm like are you ready for this and you were like as ready as I'm going to be like and your leadership on this sport has been exemplary um your dedication to communication not just with board members but with others um giving up of your own family time to answer emails and phone calls from a variety of stakeholders um your willingness to be stopped in targets when you just want to get your groceries um has really just been an exemplary and um tries I made to try to get you to run again you you chose that this was your term of service um and I'm just so honored to have served with you thank you [Applause] um thank you everyone I'm wildly uncomfortable with all of that um it meant a lot to be able to give back to the community that has given so much to uh my wife and my own children uh my wife is very much looking forward to me coming home as am I um as we navigate through this um no I haven't gotten right everything right along the way and continue to learn and um hope I've been able to serve the community well so thank you all right um up next Lisa do you have slideshow for me um like to provide a little bit of a summary for some highlights from stakeholder comments to the board um us as a board we've been hearing from many um as we've kind of been navigating our way through did I miss something am I no no you're good okay okay all right um so want to sort of like communicate what we were hearing um you know the uh at our last meeting there was a significant call for us to um be in a place of listening and to be in a place of curiosity and so really spent a lot of time kind of going through this um we had some concerns expressed to USA's board members through email through other points of contact through phone calls um about some of the benefits in the superintendent contract um we heard overwhelmingly from many of our staff concerns about other bargaining groups still working on expired contracts and unsettled agreements that had were long overdue um we've also heard some Expressions around worries that not approving the contract will lead to instability and District leadership um some concerns about superintendent leadership and relationships with staff um and then um contacted board members um some people from our public contacted board members to express belief in the positive changes that our district has been making uh over the last three years and that's kind of some of the major themes that we've had kind of along the way and the points of contact that we've been getting um through that since we last had our public meeting um our board um got together um and you know made some parameters around our lapsed contracts one of our contracts for the esps is up for approval tonight um and we really set some very strong priorities around what we were going to do around our unsettled contracts as our employees need to feel valued for the incredible work that they do for our district um I think that's most of the points on that one um and then also want to sort of review the place that we are at um because I think the board really needs to own some of the place that we exist with our community and with our staff right now um as a board when we hired a superintendent we had some significant worries about the state of our district at that time um and we really set some very very strong priorities for the superintendent that we hired in Dr zambino normally when a superintendent is hired there's a pretty lengthy transitional process for that and much of that is about getting to know you and our community and at that time the board set some parameters because of some very very urgent needs one of them was a pending fiscal cliff that we were projected to have a $2 million shortfall for the 23 24 school year which would have been really really challenging for our district to um work through we also recognized that we needed to address our average daily membership um and make some plan for um challenges around declining enrollment in our community um and then also identified that we needed to set a priority around student achievement as our student achievement wasn't in a place that we wanted for our students and for our community um and then we wanted to strengthen our relationships between the city and the school those directions came very very clearly from the board um to our hired superintendent and those are heavy heavy lifts um that required very immediate action um and then um we reviewed this at our last meeting but want to kind of summarize our contract negotiation process um by Statute the board could not enter negotiations with the superintendent till after July 1st um and we entered that pretty quickly as we were watching other superintendent contracts across our metro area really ballooning in expenses we are not a really really large District we are a small and mighty district with a very small tax base and we needed to figure out how we were going to handle that um really quickly and feared where some of those contracts were going across the metro area um so we entered into negotiations um trying to beat the punch of where other superintendent districts were go ahead Lisa um we did a market study of what superintendent contracts a in like districts look like um and at that time our superintendent contract was wildly behind where those districts fall um and so the proposed changes in the contract are reflective of the average of this Market study go ahead um benefits language that sits inside that contract is modeled after msba and like District language um as we set those up and there's been some information that has been um being distributed that I want the opportunity to correct upon leaving uh sou St Paul Public Schools um under this contract they would only have the insurance coverage if the superintendent lacked access to insurance from another employer and by Statute if someone were to and Joel you can correct me you're HR um but um the way Insurance Works your primary employer has to be your first stop for insurance that's dictated by f ederal law um and negotiations with this contract were authorized the board and worked through by our district lawyer as well um we had some priorities that were sort of set within that one for that to reflect our Market studies um it was also based on the evaluation um that was done by every member of the board it was kind of a lengthy packet that we all worked through um and every board member um diligently filled that out um and at that time the board wanted to prioritize incentives around stability um inside of our district as uh the amount of change that we have overcome and the change in leadership is something that we wanted some stability around um okay all right um that is what we have been hearing from our community thus far we certainly want to provide the opportunity for you to provide additional comment to the board if you have additional information you are here and you want to share some items um and so we've got a couple reports to work through um and then we are going to go to uh public comment or a comment to the board if you wanted to provide some additional information and we'll go through the parameters of what that looks like um when we get to that point okay all right next I will turn it over to Anne Claflin to provide a report from our work sessions thank you um our work session before this meeting was brief and you'll be hearing most of this uh presentation again later tonight I've already heard the truth and Taxation presentation twice once at the finance meeting and then at our work session but you will get to hear it in its entirety uh later this evening and you will also have the opportunity to comment on uh that at when that presentation is made we also heard about the CLC community Learning Center roof bed that uh we'll get a new roof on that building um discussed then finally our board reorganization with the new members who are elected to join us uh that will happen at the meeting on January 13th okay excellent thank you man um next I'm going to turn that over to Dr zanino for some highlights from around the district great thank you chair as my name miss here in that uh well first and foremost super excited about kindergarten kickoff so our team has been working really hard I see principal pretoy over here and Lisa and others at the district and of course uh principal Marty lots of folks really leaning in on how do we make that like the very very best experience of course that t-shirt sure does help boy those kids looks adorable in those shirts but want to make sure people save the date for the kindergarten kickoffs both at Lincoln and capoa uh Tuesday the 28th for Lincoln Wednesday the 29th for kosia we we had been on the same night we move those apart so we can provide more support to each of our sites so those of us who hold a district wide position can't be in two places at once so we thought we would try something different because we know it's a big load and lift on our on our site leaders and their sites uh all information you need is available online most everything is digital at this point but we will have paper copies and everything people may need to help make sure they're able to do that one of the things is very exciting we've talked about enrollment and our enrollment is Bucking projection and so um we use a 5-year historical migration rate to uh to try to project as best as possible we don't have the crystal ball boy I wish that when we were building out our staffing and our allocations uh but typically we've seen a retention rate of about 95 to 98 maybe 97 is around the average meaning when we move from grade kindergarten to first grade we retain about about 97% we lose about 3% and that plays out each year year after year between grades and that has been the trend for about a decade and this year we came in above projection in almost every grade and in many grades we came in not even just at 100% but like 103% meaning we moved at Lincoln from first grade to second grade and instead of only keeping 97% we kept 100% and added 3% which is really exciting but our our single class that was the most over projection which was based on birth rates was Kindergarten and so our our our Trend Breakers this year were our kindergarteners so this hard work and how we on board obviously really matters I know our schools have worked really hard at this and uh when I came in right after the pandemic was like can we be in person and I was like oh we haven't made that decision yet I remember uh the principal's asking me that and man have they really rolled out um a lot to to welcome some people I actually had a a vendor I met with today I'm going to give you a shout out Terry you don't know this but I met with our Our Life Touch rep and he said he was at the open houses and he just happened to be at that caposa open house said wow like what an amazing job you guys didn't he specifically named you out there just greeting the people and so these touch points just matter so much right so I think we all know that but really excited to welcome our our Kinders in they are so cute cuz the backpacks are like as big as they are when they start but we even have smaller Learners so we have preschool open house coming up uh obviously preschool is not required by law so not everybody participates but we'd love to get as many people into our pre uh prek programming uh Jean Zender Kristen sartino uh weeks they just do a fantastic job within that programming and so we have a registration opening there as well so uh an opportunity to have an open house again meet uh families and staff so that will happen at Lincoln on the 21st of January and at kosia and the 21st as well those are are running simultaneously a little bit smaller group uh you can visit the open house to tour of the preschool classrooms meet the teachers and staff and ask questions uh that they may have and um of course all that information on our website and I'll give a shout out to Amy Winter Kristen samartano um Jean Zender they've really done a lot of professional learning and growth uh and curriculum adoption and things for our prek so like to just think that that Foundation is getting built so strong and we know our I talk to our teachers in the primary grades we know the impact preschool has on that so I strongly encourage every family to register and I want to give a shout out to the teams that make that all possible and I'll try to be brief because I know we got a long night but we did hear about the theater the Willy Wonka but this is what's really fun coming up here well they're all really fun uh but this is what's really empowering or the the one act place so this is where our student actors are the directors the writers they do the whole thing and so performances feature two short stories four student written student directed 10-minute skits so really great chance to empower those students especially after they've been in that program with Mr holson for so long and so if you want to check those out January 18th at 7 on Saturday or Sunday the 19th at two um really great annual tradition here where our senior citizens have a Thanksgiving dinner um shout out to our nutrition services team I think I try to sing their praises often they feed I mean it's hundreds of thousands of meals each year but they take this time out of their day to come in or out of their weekend to come in and serve our senior citizens or out of their hours I can't remember the day I apologize I couldn't make it there my calendar was blocked but celebration held at the high school each year is partnership with the district in the city and other local organizations and we always love when we can partner with uh our city and others uh we had a knockout hunger border battle so SSP varsity football players that's what I was going to tell Manuel I was trying to figure out who had sang the Praises but that was one uh Deb Griffith had said how great the kids were she also said West St Paul cheated which is why they won so I'm staying out of it but like I'm going to say I probably would agree that Sal St Paul had to win um but either way it's the people who need the food who want and so shout out to our uh our partners in the city and our kids and staff who participated in that they packed more than 30,000 meals in an hour um and all of those donations go to neighbors Inc uh the open door 360 communities in neighborhood house and I think you know that's just also worth um pointing out we feed a lot of families through the district uh with Grace and dignity at Central Square that is a service we provide really fun for me because during the pandemic I my Karina and I upped our donations to Second Harvest and it was really fun to be at Central Square when they're bringing the food and going oh look at that second harvest here comes that food so to see it right here and the impact it has uh is incredible so we really do take pride in serving our entire community and then just some dates to M uh cannot believe it but winter break is upon us here starting on the 23rd uh we will have buildings closed uh on the holidays the 24th and 5th and January 1st and then no school on the 20th it's Dr Martin Luther King Jr day so that's a holiday and the elementary side there's a movie night at caposa on the 12th a PTA meeting on January 7th and then Lincoln's PTA I think they're meeting right now as we are and then they meet again on the 13th um one uh principal oaki got the word out today but we saw that we needed to postpone our mistletoe dance because I think it was six teams that are out with some pretty big competitions and we certainly want our athletes to be able to participate in something like that so we apologize if that creates any frustration on the date change but we definitely wanted participation there for those kids that we heard so many great things about our athletes and activities students and then just with that activities in athletics we got girls hockey um kosia Class A Doug woo Arena that's the 26th to 28th the boys hockey Premier tournament at the arena from the 30th to January 1st basketball coming right around the corner uh corner so excited about that on January 6th and then I mentioned the one act plays just right up around the corner on the 18th and 19th so we continue to fly through the year we're going to be knocking into 2025 and just tons and tons of great stuff going on so thank you to our staff our uh students and everyone who makes all of this happen this is definitely uh the culmination of lots of people's great effort thank you excellent thank you Dr zri um all right Lisa do you have a slide for me as well um up next we are going to provide opportunity for a comment to the board um in terms of how this is going to work for since this is sort of like Auto order of what we would typically do in any um given sort of like public meeting cuz typically we reserve our comment to the board to our first meeting of the month that is over at the district office but certainly understand that um people have um a great deal that they would like to be able to communicate and be heard and us as a collective board would like to listen to that we will schedule a 30 minute um comment to the board session at this point I'm going to Simply ask that um if you would like to make comment to the board that you fill out one of our board cards so that we can follow up with you if there are answers to questions we can provide or context or if we have additional questions from you as well individual speakers will be allowed for 2 minutes um if you come as a collective group I ask that you nominate an individual speaker um ask that we be respectful in our uh conduct um and not um take part in personal attacks uh open meeting law prohibits discussing concerns about an individual employee or student as they are um do their privacy in those matters as well um and when we are in that um comment to the board section I set observers refrain from comments um so that we can give our attention to the speaker and um hear from them um so I will U make a motion to move to recess for 10 minutes to allow people to fill out um stakeholder comments to the board form do I have a motion so moved second all in favor please say I I I opposed that the motion carries we move into recess for 10 minutes um I will put these cards up on sort of that front table if you feel so moved to um grab one of those and fill those out e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e moved second all in favor please say I I I post that the motion carries looks like we are back on air um and at this time we'll be doing a comment to the board and per some advice um would like to sort of like also sort of give some parameters around that typically on comment to the board is a chance for us to collect information and viewpoints and to hear from you there are sometimes that we are unable to respond at this time um having kind of a point of contact information gives us the opportunity to follow up with you after the fact um and I ask that you give us some time to be able to do that um but you will hear as we go through um and up first I would like to invite Jesse Rock uh up for comment to the board hey Jesse hi guys my name is Jesse Rock uh thank you for giving us the space to talk um one of the first things I'd like to start off with saying is just I've been in South St Paul for 10 years and one thing that I have learned through my time in here is that the school and the district is filled with a lot of people that are willing to make tremendous sacrifices for something that they really love and care about um and I've seen that time and time again with teachers with Paras with clerical with admin and I think that is why we had such large attendance at the last uh school board meeting is that there were a lot of people that feel that we we have been making a lot of sacrifices um to yeah uh to do something that we love and we kind of Overlook some things just to to make it work uh so I I first want to thank you guys for prioritizing negotiations with the pair of professionals and bringing all of those up that's I mean honestly like thank you for you guys for doing that um it means a lot and it's huge for our par it's huge for all parties I think the reason why maybe communication has still been presented to you guys and there's people still in attendance tonight is just a feeling of you know teachers Paras I feel like we all have kind of just been tightening our belts and been willing to work through things and put up with things even though things are really difficult and it's it's hard to see and not even talking about the par party not even talking about there's other parties in our and I won't say specific names but there's people that are getting overlooked in our building right now that don't know what their employment is for the future um and they don't have this kind of really like robust or like generous contract um and these people have been parents in our district they have put their kids through our school for 12 years yeah you can finish your sentence but you're at you're at 2 minutes okay I'm sorry um finish your sentence okay yep um I guess I would just say that uh just a powerful quote that I've heard is that just Leaders Eat Last and that you know you you can still vote no and we could still look at these things and we can still go back to the drawing board and I think that's why so many people have reached out is just because they yeah we just want to be on the same page and I think there's still a chance to do that so thank you thank you Jess I there's another one thank you uh Beth Johnson on community discourse and as Monica Weber has reminded me she is my timekeeper as well and so she'll just kind of let you know when you're at two and so we WRA thank you okay again my name is um same as two weeks ago Johnson um I want to say that um there are I only know a couple people on the school board including Lisa she helped Usher and my daughter into seventh grade Nikki was her fifth and sixth grade teacher um I I sometimes I don't want to be able to say this but I adore C St Paul and I really really like what I see and what I feel here except right now um I feel like there's a lot of discourse on this school board I feel like you're not in touch with the Community whatsoever I've heard comments such as you're lying I've heard comments of um I'm scared to present the our vote Yes for the contracts I feel like the the audience here is going to rush us I've heard things like um I feel bullied and why are why are those comments coming to you guys why do you know who's saying them do you know why it's being said do you care um I I don't know I just I'm I'm I've been in this city for almost 40 years mom graduated from South St Paul my husband did I mean it's it's in my it's in my bones I get it I know I know what South St Paul's about um we have to do better you guys have to do better if you want to be voted in again you need to do better okay thank you Beth and chaquan Williams about contracts and valuing employees hello board uh my name is jquan Williams I'm uh the SCH School social worker at South St Paul Middle School um there are staff um as we know without contracts and I can't do my job without them and uh the support and dedication um that they provide to us and um even the leaders in our building um I feel like them working without contracts for 15 16 months is it it it shows the the dedication and heart and commitment to South St Paul and I think um that being a priority um and a uh um a moment not a moment a priority for the board to ensure that that those contracts get negotiated first and completed and um and approved um should be next steps thank you thank you uh Kim Bower good evening everyone um I am a resident of s St Paul but tonight I'm going to speak as um an employee of the district um we are representing the executive Council of the sou St Paul Teachers Association and we are here because we'd like you to at least hear the names of the executive Council so right here we have the president Jill kist I am the membership secretary so I get people signed up we have Emily seberg and Teresa Tonda the ones that are not here tonight that couldn't be here are Andy gufferson Jane Cornell Charlotte habber Sue Meyer Connor Murphy Chris Kirchner and Scott sunley so we want to put some faces to some names um as you have been busy with your board and Gathering comments we to have spent hours this weekend hearing from our teachers currently we have 236 teachers that are members of our Union that is an over 98.66 um percentage um and that's we are a very strong union um we have a general membership meeting coming up this week and we look forward to um reconnecting with all of our members so one thing that we want to just say in a message to you is a few things moving forward after tonight we too would like greater transparency and greater communication right what you see just in these four people are over a hundred years of service as teachers in the C St Paul District just the four of us not to mention um thank you the ones that aren't here we remember the days where the board members used to come and have lunch in our teachers lounges and just get a feeling of like what's going on and it was always Pleasant I don't I Nikki did you do that were you part of that okay that was before you and it was a pleasant time it was never contentious and it was just a good pulse so we look forward to more communication and more transparency and also if you would like to reach out to us we would love to talk with you about the timeline of how the original teachers contract um went down this summer and how it got pushed back um and instead of just you know saying that well it was the teachers contract that kind of made everything go late let's talk about that timeline cuz we have that timeline for you we would love to share it with you and we would would love to talk about contracts and timelines for everybody we support all of our bargaining units we that was on our agenda at our last executive meeting a week ago so we really truly we are not just here for our good we're here because like everyone has said even all the board members like we don't function without our Pairs and our custodians and our secretaries and our principles and everybody thank you for your time uh samhar yabo okay um hi my name is Samar ybio and I'm a junior at South St Paul secondary and um I wasn't really planning on coming here to talk but I wanted to voice my opinions on how staff supports students I don't think students receive the enough support at the building that they should be getting and I think it's kind of sad that students have to lead um students do stuff like protest against leaders of our building because they aren't supported or targeted and I don't think even after the whole situation it was resolved I think it escalated and I think that instead of supporting students many of the staff in this building I know I can't say names they have these stereotypes for students that they kind of force them into and I think that instead of expecting I think instead of seeing a student struggling and expecting them to go downhill you should be there to support them instead of attacking them or targeting them and that's why I'm up here because I don't agree with how the admin chooses I don't agree with how certain staff chooses to handle or support or approach students thank you thank you and an Kahan hello everyone um my name is an kunan I've been a lifelong resident of this community as had my parents my grandparents before me um and before I just say um John thank you for your time on the phone Monica your time as well and Kim I appreciate your time reaching out after the multiple emails that I sent to this board um I want to um and I told you John I would write it down and I would keep it brief and I have it here um so I recall a time in Wendy you and I served on the board together for many years and I I want to bring us back to a time when we all appreciated and the things that we took pride in in this District things like um beautiful landscape Lawns um facilities that were up to par uh courts bleachers the work that Glenn Bern Sangle and his team that did to make our schools really the um Envy of all of our neighbors I think it's appropriate tonight that um we're celebrating what the fall activities have done here because um now when I go to um watch a tennis match it's on cracked and crumbling courts I sit on a bleacher in the pit where um you could pick up a rock and throw it down onto the field yet somehow this District was able to find the funds to renovate the district office and provide um upscaled furniture and paint job in the district office at a time when our kids are playing on less than uh Stellar um facilities um when when we worked on the on the levy that was a while ago and I remember very clearly uh focusing on things like low class sizes and safety since that time uh class sizes have increased and we have laid off security persons at the middle school all at the same time were able to forward a contract for you doctors ambino two weeks ago that was um astronomical and I like Tim canel asked us two weeks ago to be curious it makes me curious where does that money come from thank you um finally I'll just say um academic progress is one thing I expect the students here to have academic progress I expect our students that's your job that's our staff's job and they have excelled in that we also are graded and S and um the community expects us to have academic not only academic support but loyalty commitment respect respect empathy sympathy towards one another and I would just say I feel that as Leaders we as a district and I include myself in that and you are falling down in that area thanks for your time and I appreciate the opportunity to speak all right I have no further cards okay um with no further cards for um comment to the board at this time we'll move to our next items within our agenda I think we're at the did I miss any pieces in there we're at the consent correct yes we are at consent um up next I am looking for a motion to approve our consent items that our financial claim Staffing and personnel and nature have been uh presented in our board book um and have been reviewed by the board um as a whole do I have a motion to pass our consent agenda items so moved second any discussion jash if I may I just want to give a shout out to Ben bcft in our finance team who came in at a very entry-level position and has had to step up with reports and things like this and he's just done a fantastic job so I want to go on on record saying thanks to Ben we're all really enjoying getting to know him and seeing the talent that he has so I'll be remiss if I didn't point that out excellent all right thank you Ben um all in favor uh passing our consent agenda items please say I I oppose that the motion carries up next we have an enormous amount of policies here that are uh under review for the second of three readings these policy items are available in our board packet um and up for review have made it through our policy committee those are number 516 student medication and telea health um 513 student promotion retention and program design 607 organization of grade levels um 614 school district testing plan and procedure 626 assessment policy 418 drug free workplace 419 tobacc free work environment 437 student student teaching and 522 Title 9 sex non-discrimination policy grievance procedure and process 7:22 with the public data requests um these are available for review and will be voted on at their third reading at our next meeting chair Raj yeah we do have one policy up for approval this evening oh man I've missed that yeah that that was a curveball thank you um then I've done number B before a all right at this time I am looking for approval um for policy number 307 emergency school closings do I have a motion so moved second any discussion around school closings yeah thank you cheer rash um you know school closings are one of a superintendent's favorite things because you make half the people mad and half the people happy you got to love decisions like that actually it's really hard in Sal St Paul because our city does such a fantastic job of clearing the streets that it's really hard when you drive around town to get a sense of how hard it may or may not be to get into town last year we did not have anything which was great my first winter was lots of sleepless nights so I'm not sure where this one will be but I did want to I had talked to um chair and vice chair about just kind of pushing forward a change that I think will be beneficial for our staff and um probably reflective of some of what we all got a little bit as a reminder we get five e-learning days for inclement weather so there's a lot of terms thrown around I want to make sure people really understand an e-learning day is like it's literally only for inclement weather and we can do that five times um a lot of people are moving more towards looking at traditional snow days and so I did talk to our chair and vice chair had approved this idea to move forward so I'm bringing it Forward here to for the full board the reason it's timely is because we just don't know when the weather's going to hit us uh but 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 I know some of our staff have already done that because they're just that way um but then they would just have that day off and it would be a paid day for all employees by law anytime we close the new state law is that everybody would get paid so it' be a paid day uh for all staff who were scheduled to work that day it would not affect that um but it would allow time um for some of that flexibility that we used to have and I think we're learning uh the virtual screens and things are just not quite our preferred method and maybe just given that day of Grace would be kind for our kids and kind for our staff absolutely all right um all in favor of approval of policy 307 with School uh emergency school closings uh please say I I I I opposed with that the motion carries rash if I may I should have let me come back a level two this is also in align with Excuse me with our Tri District Partners so the tri District actually I think Inver Grove has two days and West St Paul has one but we know when we hit that first one they'll they'll be out without any um plan to make up those days so it also is a piece a point of alignment I apologize I didn't mention that before your vote excellent thank you um up next as we move into a public hearing for taxes payable in 2024 at this time I am looking for approval for the South St Paul school board to certify the payable 2025 Levy uh at a great big number of uh 15,292 23141 do I have a motion so moved second and for discussion I'd like to introduce Jason from C so to help take care of things for us thank you chair Raj members of the board superintendent andrino it's a pleasure to be here this evening uh to present your truth and tax taxation hearing my name is Jason mutsen Berger um with ceso the Center for Effective School operations we are supporting your finance department during transition right now and are happy to be here uh to do so um the truth and Taxation hearing is a required public meeting uh on an annual basis uh we're we have a number of uh requirements in statute uh that we need to meet uh which include uh meeting between November 25th and December 30th at a meeting at 6:00 uh in the evening or later um it can be part of a regularly scheduled meeting which is what we're doing this evening um we must allow for public comment uh at the end and we may adopt the final Levy at the same meeting which uh is the recommendation for this evening um the presentation also has some requirements in it uh which adds to its length so I apologize for the the lengthy meeting but um we are going to cover current uh year budget along with the proposed tax levy um the hearing agenda for this evening is uh to look at background information on school funding uh to cover the current year District's budget uh review The District's proposed tax levy for taxes payable in calendar year 20125 and then take public comment uh the Minnesota Legislature uh sets uh a number of the the rules around uh taxation for us um under section one of the Constitution uh we they the state does provide a uniform system of public schools and the legislature shall make such Provisions by taxation or otherwise and so that is uh where our tax levy comes from uh from the state the state does set our formulas which determine the amount of Revenue most revenue is based on specified amounts per pupil or the number of students we serve um there's a tax policy for local schools and then the state sets the maximum authorized property tax levy um the District does not create that tax levy it comes from the state through the legislature uh we are allowed to Levy less than the maximum uh but not uh more than what's authorized by the state the state also authorizes the school board to submit referendums we'll talk about the reason why we have some of those local uh property tax levies and oper operating referendums in place uh the general education formula has been uh widely talked about here in recent years we know that um on on the chart on the right the Blue Line shows uh the amount of money that the state would provide under an inflationary increase each year uh had they kept up with inflation uh the red dotted line is what we actually receive and that creates a gap and over on the right side of the chart that Gap is significant um and so the pupil allowance for this year is $728 per student um it would needed to have increase by an additional $1,364 per student in order to have kept pace with inflation um and that's after historic funding from uh the state in this last bium and so we continue to have a gap in funding um and and that results in a need for operating referendums within our community the other gap that we have is within special education we know that um special ed has been underfunded uh for a long time uh the fiscal year 23 un underfunded uh amount is about 726 million Statewide we know we received historic funding on on special education cross subsidy uh in this last bium as well which helped close that Gap but we still 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 we're going to shift into some budget information uh School District budgets are divided into separate funds um based on purposes uh of Revenue as required by uh state or federal law our district funds are uh the general fund which is our operating fund our food service our community service Debt Service internal service and our OPB trust and so we categorize all revenues and expenses Within These funds uh this is a large snapshot um of our revenues and expenses along with fund balances uh we'll break this down into some pie charts here in a in a minute um this uh report is published in our local newspaper each year as required by law and so this information is available um on the next Slide the revenue for all funds uh so all of those funds I listed we uh generate about $58 million per year uh in Revenue the largest share goes to general fund uh which is about 50 million or just under 51 million at uh accounting for about 87% of our total budget on the next slide our general fund Revenue um is that 51 million most of that is State uh state aid at 72.7% uh we also receive federal uh funds as well in in Grant revenue of about 2 and 1.2% and then our our local component is about 24.5% um most of that local component is made up of property tax revenue on on the expenditure side um this is by objects our our specific categories our salaries and benefits account for uh most of the way of how we spend our money about 57% is salaries 22% is benefits um so almost 80% of our total budget is spent on on our staff uh purchase Services account for about 133% uh supplies of materials at 3% Capital expenditures at about 4% and and we've got a miscellaneous category uh with a small amount of money um by program or areas of uh areas of instruction largely uh we have regular instruction vocational aded instruction and special ed instruction uh which account for um about uh 63% of our total budget instructional support services and pup support services are the next largest categories um outside of our sites and buildings um we do spend about 12% of our budget maintaining our our sites and buildings um about 3% of our budget goes to Administration um about 6% to District Support Services we know that a a change in tax law does not determine a change in budget um so tax levy is based on many of those state determined formulas um plus voter approved referendums and we do have approved referendums in place some increases in tax levies are Revenue neutral um where it's offset by reductions in state aid um and so while the state may provide us um and say you have uh Levy Revenue in say operating Capital they also provide us an offset in a state a component our expenditure budget is limited by those state revenue formulas so again we don't determine what those formulas are these are determined by the state um we do have voter approved levies which the board did determine and take action on and then we do maintain fund balances and then lastly an increase in school tax does not always correlate to an equal increase in uh the budget we know that school district and City Cycles uh operate differently so while we're all talking about tax levies right now um as we receive our statements our budget Cycles uh look a little bit different from a school district side our budget year begins July 1st so tonight we're talking about the tax levy for taxes payable and calendar year 2025 that's Revenue we will receive for fiscal year uh 2026 so that's not Revenue we're receiving now and spending right now uh that'll be into the future year um with the budget adoption that we bring forward in June of 2025 the city operates differently along with the county their budget year begins January 1st and runs on a calendar year uh so those 2025 taxes uh do provide revenue for them in that 2025 calendar year uh we provide just a sample um uh of the property tax notice that was mailed to uh Property Owners those go out between November 10th and the 25th that's determined by the county again not by the school district um so every owner of taxable property uh pays taxes to various taxing jurisdictions so the school district the city the county or any Special Districts each taxing jurisdiction sets its own tax levy often based on those limits in state law and then the county sends bills they collect the taxes from the property owners and then they distribute that Revenue back to uh us the school district and the other taxing jurisdictions each school district has limited authority to Levy taxes MD calculates those amounts for us as set by um state law or voter approval we then work through um a a very lengthy document uh in order to proofread those and make sure everything is correct and so as we look at the next Slide the school district property tax process um the city or county is really the the first First Step as the assessor determines the market values for each uh each parcel of property the legislature sets those formulas the county auditor then calculates our tax capacity um for each parcel of property as well as for the entire School District the Minnesota Department of Education calculates those detailed limits uh for the school district um based on uh formula set by the legislature the school board will then set the tax levy and uh and and really is the only step in the process um and then finally uh the the county auditor will divide that final Levy um by The District's total tax capacity to determine tax rate um and uh what's needed to raise that Levy amount so our timeline that we've been working on September 88th is always the that's the state Set uh timeline that uh the Minnesota Department of Education prepares and distributes that lengthy draft of calculations um we came to the board September 23rd to approve the proposed Levy amounts mid November the county mailed the property tax statements were here tonight uh for the public hearing and to approve uh the uh the final Levy certification the overview of the district's proposed tax levy um we are proposing an increase from last year of 2.8% or approximately $410,000 um the changes by Levy category and reasons for for those major increases or decreases um are are coming up in the presentation we do list all the specific amounts uh by category or by line item um for people to view so this uh information is on the board's website um for people to take a look at um just to highlight a few of the totals in general fund uh we are proposing a 1% decrease uh to the tax levy um again that's a decrease of about $112,000 this is the money that goes to pay staff salaries and benefits to pay for purchase services to to put money into the classroom that tax levy is going down uh the community service fund is increasing by $174,000 that's a significant number but it's based on uh the prior year we had an adjustment in the prior year um that was a negative adjustment that brought our tax levy down in 2024 and so so while we're not necessarily increasing our Levy this year by very much um that uh shows a large increase of 70% in debt service um we're increasing by about $348,000 or 10% those are uh regularly scheduled principal and interest payments on the debt that we have um U we also are showing a reduction um in our other category um we are finally paying off a 10year Capital facility bond for improvements we made um 10 years ago in the district and so we're able to pay off one of those debts which will reduce our Levy in total again that Levy is going up by about $410,000 or 2.8% a few exceptions or or Levy changes we just want to note in the general fund uh that's uh the operating referendum the voter approv operating referendum is decreasing by $211,000 um that's a combination of decreases in our enrollment projections along with increases for the inflationary adjustment that's built into the operating referendum the combination of those along with the the state formula results in a decrease in Revenue I briefly mentioned prior your adjustments we have adjustments in both general fund and community service funds uh both are showing as a result uh an increase um in that adjustment category um but really due to those uh those 2024 negative Levy adjustments that we had uh each year we do estimate a some categories within uh the levy um as we don't know uh exact numbers of enrollment or um other factors and so uh what the state does is they recalculate our Levy each year um provide us with adjustments to make sure those are are accurate and true and then either collect more money from the taxpayers in this Levy cycle or provide money back to taxpayers as well uh so we always end up with the the true and accurate uh Levy amounts in The Debt Service category um we do have $384,000 of voter approved uh for those scheduled interest uh and principal payments um we also have an increase in our debt excess because in 2024 our fund balance um was running high with Deb access uh each year we are required to Levy an additional 5% above the the amount of principal and interest payments that we have and then hold that in a reserve fund just in case there are tax delinquencies within our community um as that amount builds up the state requires us to refund that money back to our taxpayers we did that in 20124 um and that results in an increase uh for this year even though we don't have uh any debt excess currently uh and then here's the the reduction in the capital facilities bond by $176,000 um so that's great great news for the district um there are a number of factors uh uh impacting individual taxpayer school taxes we know that the change in individual property value is the largest factor driving um a change in property taxes it's also uh impacted by the changes in total value of all property within the the school district and then certainly increases or decreases in a school district's tax levy so the two an 8% increase this year does impact uh school taxes so what's happening uh as we call with each slice of the pie a higher market value increase results in people paying more taxes a lower market value increase uh results in a smaller slice of that pie uh and each each uh property owner pays a portion so we just want to highlight what that might look like on the next slide um there if there are two properties in the district that are both valued at $100,000 um and the total Levy is say $500 each property will pay an equal amount of $250 on the next slide two properties in the district um that orange house uh the value increases by 10% but the blue house value increases by 25% the total Levy is still $500 that we're collecting uh but now there's a different amount of money that each uh each homeowner needs to pay so um the orange house pays less the blue house pays more so it's important to look at your property tax bill or statement and see what that value changes in your property the Minnesota uh legislative changes for this this pay 2025 cycle um in 2023 the legislature did pass laws that affect the taxes payable for 25 um the largest one was to provide a tax benefit to homeowners by increasing the homestead exclusion for valuations between 76,000 and 517,000 so that 517 uh increased uh from the previous year um and and that provides some tax relief for our homeowners we want to provide just a a small comparison um of uh taxes uh school taxes uh based on different values of property um and just to lay a little groundwork um we know that there's there's been about a 17.3% increase in property value for residential property uh over the past four years so over the total of those four years it's been about 17.3% on average we know every homeowner is different um some will be much more than that some are less than that but on average it's 17% so on the next slide um we have a table again this is included within the on the website in the in the board packet and I'm going to uh jump ahead one slide just to highlight what that change looks like so estimated changes in school taxes between these four years so first of all let's assume there are no changes in property value um and look at the chart on the right side it's a home valued at $300,000 in 2022 you would pay about $1,383 in school taxes in 2025 that's about $1,498 we see an increase in 2023 and then starting to to come back down on the next slide we list a couple of different uh property values as well the one on the left is a $400,000 property the one on the right is a $500,000 commercial property we'll jump to the next slide um this now uh takes into account the increases in values of property so the 177% increase is reflected here um so the chart on the right is residential property with a value of $300,000 in in 2022 uh you're paying $1,163 in taxes um that that is now 1,498 again you can see the increase in 2023 we jumped up quite a bit that's where most of the property value increases occurred um here in South St Paul um is about a 15% increase on average for homeowners in 2023 that's also the year that we passed our operating referendum uh increase and so that played into a factor as well we're starting to see those taxes come down a little bit um the the next slide just shows a $400,000 residential property impact as well if we jump to the next one it's estate property tax refunds and deferrals so homeowners that may have questions about their taxes there are a couple of different options for refunds uh for folks the first one's a homestead credit refund uh it's available for all Homestead Property which is mostly everybody um it's both residential and agriculture um refund is on a sliding scale based on the total property taxes and income and so people may want to take a look at that if they've seen a large increase in their their taxes um the second one's a special property tax refund homeowners that have seen an increase in their property taxes of at least 12% um for this year um and over $100 are eligible for a refund you can submit that online um and then the last one is a senior citizen property tax deferral so people uh 65 years of age or older with household income of $96,000 or less uh have an opportunity to defer a portion of their taxes on their on their home um again that's a deferral um not a refund Next Step um I'll turn it back to the chair to uh to ask for public comment uh around property taxes and then uh we would recommend the board certify uh the property tax levy as presented this evening excellent thank you um at this time I'll will make a call for public comment if you have comment you would like to make in relation to um our public hearing around the taxes payable um I invite you at this time to come fill out a comment to the board card and um we are here and receptive to listen I'm trying to do my good teacherly waiting time got weit time Jose go ahead and fill out a card and then take public comment about uh I didn't do one yet do we have some up there still good Rush all right thanks Jose all right so that's a lot of stuff you represented I mean to make a any kind of decisions on that 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 cuz for some of us like whoa you know that's that's a lot of money but to like analyze it and then make a decision I just want to recommend you guys to like look into that carefully because talking about millions of dollars you know that's all thank you chair can I make a comment you are welcome to Kim whoose I want to speak to your concerns regarding our preparation to be able to think about it um 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 that is I think a 4our course that just reviews all of the different ways that the money comes to our school district the different buckets it goes into and how it's used appropriately oh nice B all right any further comment uh around truth and Taxation J as if I may just before you vote um we have a the privilege of being supported by Jason mutzenberg who's got a vast experience um and an interim role and in basis and he works with a number of districts and in our conversation before he said 2.8 8% is by far the lowest you seen of any District he works with they're much more in the 8 to 12 13 14 range so just want to make sure people understand that those are big numbers Jose is absolutely right um and this board does have a very astute finance committee that uh Combs through things pretty rigorously um to make sure we're good stewards of taxpayer money but just want to make sure people understand that um that is a pretty good value compared to what we're seeing in other spaces thank you all right as other boards are in the same process that we are thank you Isaac come on for uh good evening Isaac contarus and I guess the question really is do you have the ability to speak on tonight and possibly show any line items on the expenditures in regards to um the money that is go that goes to lawsuits settlements investigations and council is that something can speak on to tonight and would that bridge any of the Gap that we're seeing in our deficit okay um and that is not something we can respond to at this time okay okay all right any further comment on the truth and Taxation here okay uh board members looking for approval uh for the South St Paul school board to certify the payable 2025 Levy uh at this time do I have a motion R we have the we have the first second we just need the vote thank you uh all board members in favor please say I I I I opposed Nay with that the motion carries all right up next we are to the business portion of our night we have quite a few items on our business agenda tonight uh up first looking for approval for the South St Paul school board to approve the agreement with the South St Paul educational support professionals local 7312 collective bargaining room unit for the contract period of July 1st 2023 to June 30th 2025 do I have a motion so moved second and for discussion and turn this over to Joel Miler thank you chair rash board members Dr Zam brino it is with my great pleasure that the school district has reached a tenative agreement with the South St Paul educational support professionals local 7312 for the contract period of July 1 2023 to June 30th 2025 South St Paul esps voted in favor of the proposed contract on Monday December 9th 2024 the proposed contract agreement is within the parameters established by the school board the components of the settlement have been provided to the school board 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 emploees 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 we appreciate the amazing work that all of our esps do for the students families and districts as a whole as we are grateful for the support our staff and Community have and continue to provide to our esps we are also grateful to our school board for hearing the voices of our esps and community and we will and be willing to explore our options as a district to Value the interests of the group and employees and invest in their future employment with South St Paul schools tonight we're making a recommendation for the school board to approve the agreement with the South St Paul educational support professionals local 7312 collective bargaining agreement for the contract period July 1 2023 to June 30 2025 any questions or comments from board members 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 all right all in favor uh please say I I I I opposed with that the motion carries uh next business item looking for approval for the South St Paul school board to approve the CLC roof bid do I have a motion so moved second and for discussion Mr Fenton come on down what's happening thank you thank you sco board Dr zambo um we work to uh we looked at this identified this project as a need um we went out for bid for this project this uh an open the bids on November 13th and we have a successful bidder of berwald roofing was a low successful bidder and I'm here seeking your approval to accept the bids excellent any further discussion by the board just excited that this work will get done and the timeline for it happening during the summer so it doesn't interrupt the regular school year yep it's good excellent all right all in favor please say I I opposed with that the motion carries up next looking for approval for the South s Paul School Board to approve the final field trip request for the IB trip to France and Italy during spring break 2025 you have a motion so moved I can and discussion Dr Z yeah thank you Cher rash um just as a reminder um 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 excellent and a valuable experience for the students that get to be a part of absolutely life lifechanging all in favor please say I I opposed that the motion carries up next looking for approval for the South St Paul school board to approve the preliminary field trip request for the high school Spanish class field trip to Costa Rica during spring break 2026 so move second and discussion similar context there we go as I said we do bring preliminary request the year ahead and so that's what this one here is related to the Spanish class going to Costa Rica and then we'll have the same uh situation with French in the field trip to France and Monaco um as well for next year just speak to both of those at once it's the same situation Wendy yeah 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 so thank you excellent all in favor please say I I I opposed that the motion carries next looking for approval for the South St Paul school board to approve the preliminary field trip EST for the high school French class field trip to France and Monaco during spring break 2026 everyone's leave in town uh come then Dr second all in favor please say I opposed that the motion carries up next looking for approval for the South St Paul school board to approve the superintendent contract uh with Dr zambino for the 2528 contract period do I have a motion so moved second um and clearly this is uh garnered a great deal of the attention inside of our community and this has been a really challenging uh period of time for um collectively our community and our board as a whole um I want to kind of talk about the sort of like unique position that we are in um is 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 um we needed to address our um average daily membership and really begin to get a handle on the declining enrollment that our district was facing our student achievement needed significant work as we had a widening gap between um State norms and where our district is and we really needed to strengthen school and City relationships that was really the task that we set forward when we um were in the hiring process and those are the tasks we would have handed any any superintendent that was walking into our district at this time um this was coming in right after the pandemic which was a pretty challenging period of time inside of Education we have conducted an evaluative process based on those parameters that we had first set out um and I will say one of the things that has been challenging for board members and community members alike is to sort of sort through the information um that has been being presented back back to us over the last month um there is a great deal of misinformation that has been sort of swirled inside of our community there's also been sort of like nuggets of information that um are not always represented with the facts of what how things had sort of played out um I know every single board member up here is weighing the outcomes of their decisions tonight and know that there is a significant impact on any decision that is made tonight um and wherever that decision amongst our board members Falls I recognize that we really have to spend a lot of time rebuilding relationships inside our district I look at the amount of people that are here right now the amount of people that we've heard sort of think of this as a family meeting within our community and we're a family that is in trouble right now that is having a hard time wherever Things fall we need to invest our time in that work to rebuild these these relationships with each other and be talking to each other we need to be curious about each other's work we need to ask firsthand and talk to people not about people um as we sort of work through this as there has been a great deal of sort of talking about people through this process and not coming directly to them we need to work with you and celebrate and appreciate the work that you do inside of our community and we need to be able to have conversations with you to represent you well and for us to be able to collectively move move forward together and these are all considerations that has been on the board's mind we have been actively listening and we recognize that there is a lot of hurt and lot of lack of feeling valued at this time we need to work on that as a community as a whole and I ask that everyone come to the table for those conversations that we can be working through that and I think we are at a position that we have a unique opportunity to continue to grow as a district as we move forward um I'm turning to any other board members um for any comment and their consideration and decisions tonight can make a point of order please um we did have a portion tonight for a point of order it's not comment may I ask that it's a roll call vote and not a Voice vote thank you okay any comments from the board uh chair rash I have a comment um you know this is something I struggled with as we all did I I think deciding the superintendent position and and who we hire are we going to extend a contract what does that contract look like arguably probably our most important decision we can make as a school board one of the only ones we have direct control over so we have to get this right we have to take our time do our due deal diligence I'm not quite so sure that we have from my perspective we have to get it right for the community for the staff for the students and even for the superintendent we cannot set him up for failure I'm afraid that right now we may be doing that so I would be voting no to extend three years with all the situations that I know exist in the community in the school our morale 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 so I think like I said 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 thank you Tim well I appreciate what you say regarding how we move forward how we set Dr zambino up for success by laying out the expectations and engaging greater stakeholder feedback future in the process so that we can make sure that we're hearing the community and if they are seeing the changes that they want to take place I don't think a one-year timeline is a enough ramp up to be able to do the Deep community and relationship building that we're going to be asking him to do and I appreciate that you want to set someone up for success but I think a one year and then being back into this will not be the timeline that allows for that success and I think we need to be able to have our nude board members here when we create what our expectations are for the work that Dr zambino does going forward I would agree with uh member um human that I think we set out parameters I think param the parameters that were set out by the board were met um and that if I was being evaluated as an employe and I met all of my parameters that moving forward would be would be a what what process would happen um and I agree that having a year is not not a sufficient time 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 um and we can change the way that we engage all of the stakeholders in future evaluations that the board does as well um I feel like we have done our due diligence on negotiating this contract and uh since superintendent zanino did receive um evaluations that showed he's um achieving goals as we set out um of of course we all have room for improvement and things that we are going to work on um but I am very comfortable moving forward with a three-year contract um as was proposed and um support moving our district forward with that long-term Vision that's always been a priority to look longterm for me excellent thank you me too okay all right uh Dr Zan bro do you have any words you'd like to share yeah I do chair R and thank you for that um well first I want to thank the board um for your trust in me over the past three years it is kind of hard to believe three years has blown by like that but then when we stop and think about a lot of the great things we've done I think that's the stuff that takes time I've always said only bad things happen fast and the good things take time and we've done a lot of good things so we've seen you know improvements in student achievement in every measure uh math reading science those kinds of pieces and that's great um we've seen improvements to our programming and our enrollment challenges uh we're stabilizing ourselves financially and clearly there's work to be done um I am fully committed to doing this work in partnership with our board and with our staff um you know we are a learning organization we all need to have opportunities to learn and grow and I would hope that we would model that to the top as you said I've worked really hard to deliver anything you've asked me if you frame that for me in a way that's actionable I will absolutely act on that and I'd like to partner with our staff and looking at what that looks like I heard Kim talking about you guys me I'd love to meet with you and hear how I mean you see me there all the time Kim I'm I'm invested I'm here I'm with you but obviously there's something we need to work on so I'm happy to to engage in that look forward to you know talking to the board how do we do that talking to the staff how do we do that um you know obviously it looks like the 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 um you know I I I think that's going to have to be the theme is the second contract is relationships and you know one of the reasons I chose Sal St Paul was because of my time in Richfield I was a middle school principal for eight years in a district that's very similar in size every single family went through my school and I loved it and I love being in a space where this morning I parked my car at 7:20 got out shut the door and the first thing that happened is two middle schoolers walked by said hi Dr zambino and it just fills my bucket and I see the same kids all the time cuz they're all walking in and so many kids walk right by the district office that's special when you could be a superintendent get out of your car and have middle schoolers just like yelling at you across the parking lot that will fill your bucket all day every day and that's what we have here that's the evidence of the relationships we can have and I'm so excited that we've got the team in place we have this amazingly talented team of our building leaders and our district leaders we have amazing staff I've always said that amazing students amazing staff we should have nothing but the very best outcomes and that's what we're going to do and we'll do it through relationship um so you know I I I do look forward to partnering with the board and setting that out and a a Clear Vision that I can act on um outside of my family this is it for me I don't have time never coached my kids I don't want sympathy for that that's a choice I've made to do right by kids but this is all I do my family my wife three kids and this that's it there's no time for anything else and I care I care deeply okay thank you thank you Brian welcome uh any additional comments by the port okay uh per the audience request I will do a roll call vote Lisa will you please call the roll director human yes Weber Yes W Felton yes Claflin yes labery yes T Felton no and chair Rush yes six Y and one n thank you that the motion passes thank you up next we are looking for the South St Paul school board to approve uh scheduling a special meeting on Monday January 13th 2025 to swear in newly elected board members so moved second all in favor please say I I I post with that the motion carries um next I turn to our student School Board reps the reason for this work okay it's been a long night you have uh you've sat through a hall thank you um so this is really a transitional meeting and update so we're transitioning from triester 1 to trimester 2 this week is our first full week of trimester 2 so we have lot new stuff to bring to you and as we've seen from other stuff you've been approving there's School field trips like the IB history Europe trip and you can talk more on that yeah so excuse me uh this spring break we'll be going to France and Italy on an IB history trip and personally for me I'm really looking forward to it because I'll be able to speak my French and I'll also be able to see a lot of stuff that we're learning in class so I'm really looking forward to that yeah and he'll give you all the updates when it happen and we were just about to update on the mistletoe it got postponed to February 1st because per Mr Ker's update 200 students will be away for for um activities during that weekend so we want all students to have the opportunity to go to the dance so it's going to be postponed to February 1st and other updates that will be explored next meeting so we're going to assess the effectiveness of The Help Me app and how it's been helping students we've heard some pretty good stuff and we will be assessing the school climate and conduct a cultural survey so be prepared and oh yeah you can go first one all right so the break we had a long Thanksgiving break or fall break and it was just a great time to be able to relax and kind of catch your breath a little bit after a good first trimester and yeah just good MH and as I've said before trimester 2 has just begun and students are getting busy um getting to know their new classmates teachers new classroom routines and Etc and we are gearing up for the next two weeks before winter break and speaking of winter break we will have a homework free break so very excited for that and uh not going to read all the activities but oh come on there's a lot of good things that will be going on and hopefully you guys can make it to some events and and he'll be playing hockey so you can support Jackson all right one of the ones on the pond yeah in hockey the other day love when you guys do that yeah what's your favorite second trimester class I'd say I'm getting to speak some Spanish so so excited for that yeah and you Jackson my favorite class so far probably history like that class get that from that's great that is our meeting excellent Mr thank you all right um up next I will turn to board members to provide uh committee updates and reports um and I will start with Monica Weber so um District 917 which is the uh the um Special School District that that we partner with that deals with a lot of the special education students our meeting is tomorrow um so I can give a report on back on that and then with the um Association of Metro metropolitan school boards um basically just trying to get ready for session they've narrowed down some of the issues that they want to be focusing on um particularly around the budget and around making sure that um we can close some of these um budget gaps that still exist from the um State formula um on down and their next meeting is soon the big meeting is in January where they have a bunch of legislators come and that's probably the most well attended meeting um of the Year and that is January I want to say 13th but I could be off on that but so that's my and and just thank you to everybody who reached out um I would just encourage people to reach out um I hopefully was able to respond to almost every email um but if not I would just like to continue the open dialogue um so continue to reach out Nikki I'm skipping you you get last word tonight so we going through uh Kim human I already uh Tri District Community Ed doesn't meet until January but on the topic of Community Education I wanted talk about the where I've seen passion lately I've had the opportunity to sub in adult basic education for a few times last week and this week and I just want to like shout out our adult Learners who are committed to bettering themselves and lifelong learning it's really a privilege to be able to spend time in the classroom with them and um and in the classroom next to the English language Learners which my mom has spent lots of hours in that room it's just really amazing to see these examples being committed to learning even when it feels like it could be inconvenient because it's so important all right Wendy Felton I just want to say a definite huge huge several thank yous tonight um I want to thank Mr Brady Krueger who was here earlier with his activities and the athletic department with and thanking all of the coaches and the students that came tonight it's always so nice to have that when we've done that here at the board meeting so I truly thank all of them for coming and then also coming up this Thursday at the senior center here at Central Square it is our Christmas potluck luncheon which is at 11:30 which I will be in attendance there so it it it is a it is a a fun event and one other thing I'm kind of looking forward to I want to get connected I think Deb Griffith here in City Hall helps to plan if you want to do some reading in the elementary schools at kosia or Lincoln on a Friday afternoon I do want to get connected with with her so that I know when they're going to be doing that so I can take time off of work to attend to do some reading in the classes I'm really looking forward to doing that and then of course the major is thank you and I will truly miss you both to John and to Nikki thank you so much for being with us here your knowledge your experience is wonderful so I truly wish you the best and of course want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and I'll see you next year coming F Tim Felton uh the open has not met yet that's coming up uh in a week or so and I have nothing further to add other than thank you Nikki and John abely all right you're welcome and the local issues uh meeting sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce has not met in November and will not meet in December but will resume in January on the fourth Wednesday at 8:00 in the morning um generally at uh Central Square um I also want to thank the community for all of the comments that they've given the board this is the most engagement I've seen on anything so far um thank you for sharing your comments with us um it does help us understand what our community really values in South St Paul and how we can reflect that and how we govern from the board and I do want to also thank uh Nikki and John um Nikki Nikki has always brought meetings back to focusing on how do our decisions impact students what does this do for the kids in classrooms how does this make a difference for them and that is what we need to be thinking about here in all of the choices that we're making thank you and I want to thank John for his leadership um as chair and uh all of the work he has done to build leadership among board members MERS um this is a very hard job to do I've have seen the amount of time it takes to uh do all of the communication throughout communication with board members with the superintendent with all of the district uh administrators uh communication with the public um plus all of the work that we're doing as a board leading the board for us to be able to do good work as a cohesive and um well-functioning board this is not an easy job no and I am really grateful that you have shown us um what a good chair can look like thank you very much thank you thank you Nikki well I feel like I already made my comments earlier um in regards to um all the emails and text messages and phone calls that we've all been Fielding the last however long um it REM it does make me think and um reminds me that people who aren't invested people who don't feel passion um would not be reaching out and contacting us people feel strongly about our community our district the success of our kids and if people didn't care we wouldn't have heard from you mhm so thank you for your continued passion and strong support for public education I fear there might be changes in it um I think that's it thank you all very much um I also want to uh want to express uh gratitude to all of our board members um in this time that we work together um we did not choose each other uh our community sort of uh chose um how this came to be um and also I want to recognize uh Lisa who also does so much work for helping this board operate um you've heard people say nice things about leadership tonight and that's only because Lisa has helped prevent me from getting it wrong over and over again and and you still did and I still did and so um a lot of gratitude for um how committed you are to our school and and making all of this work and I want to thank our our staff and our community and all that um this place gave to uh my wife wife and my own children um which is what my call to service was answered to and um look forward to how we move on to those next steps all right de R if I may I know we I had some words but we do have a token of our appreciation for both you and Nicki and I love that you're both teachers because it's a it's an apple which is always fitting in education but even more so since you're both Educators and so just a token of our appreciation as an Administration and the entire district and Community for but you can put something on the Shelf when you're you know when you're curled up next to that fire reading that book when it's freezing cold on Thursday you can polish your Apple oh yeah but it it's nowhere near enough to say thank you for your service to the community but we did want to send you off with something so thank you so much that's you okay thank you that's you oh sorry all right uh with no further items on our agenda this evening like to make a motion to adjourn so moved second all in favor please say I tonight's meeting is adjourned at 8:43 thank you everyone thank you