They're like the profit we had made versus the enforcement risks that we were taking. >> Which were like, nah. >> Yeah. At a place like there's I can see where it's people aren't going there just to drink. >> No. >> All right. Here we go. [laughter] Welcome and good evening. I would like to call the Monday, October 27th, 2025 school board meeting to order. Lisa, will you please call the [clears throat] >> Director Cummings? >> Yep. >> T Felton >> here. >> Duffy >> here. >> Weber >> here. >> W. Felton >> here. Claflin >> here. >> And Chair Hume here. That's seven present. Thank you. Go first. >> All right. And I ask all who are able to stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. [clears throat] Well, welcome everyone in the back corner, [laughter] everyone watching on Town Square Television or online later. Thank you for joining us. Uh first up is the approval of our meeting agenda and minutes. I am looking for a motion to approve the regular board meeting agenda for this evening as well as the minutes for September 22nd, 2025's work session, September 22nd, 2025's business meeting and the October 13, 2025 work session. Do I have a motion? >> So move. >> Oh, thank you, Wendy and Tim. Uh any discussion? All those in favor, please say I. >> I. Opposed. Motion carries. 70. All right. Now we move to the fun stuff, quality and action and reports. And I would love to invite our student board reps up to present. [laughter] All right. Uh, so some things to share. We had, uh, Mr. Chaki had the connection representatives meeting. Uh, a couple things were just things that were overall going well this year. We've seen a lot more people getting their schoolwork done and getting a lot more help when they need when they need help with their schoolwork. Uh, which is really good. Overall, attendance is going super well. We've had a bunch of incentives that OAKI is using to try and get kids to go to class more which have been working a lot as well. Um, oh the new waiting for win things. So the first half of the trimester uh is we're not having win Wednesdays and then the second half so the last 6 weeks we are having win Wednesdays have been a lot more helpful in kind of getting students to get their work done so they can look forward to that win Wednesday in the second half of the trimester. Overall uh behavior has improved across the board so we don't have as many students hanging around in the hallways. uh during class time which is really good. Uh teachers have been helping deescalate students and a lot of bad stuff going on which has also been really good and overall as a whole school spirit has been up by a lot this year. >> Thanks Monty. Sorry about that awkwardness. [laughter] >> Something the students would like to change for next year is the homecoming dance. So instead of it being like a week before the football game, they'll like it the day after the football game so they can like participate for spirit week and the football game and they can have like their emotions high and stuff for the g. >> Okay. And then athletics and activities for this week. Um, football got the number two seed in sections and they play the number one seed, Hill Murray, this Friday at 6 p.m. Swim and dive also has sections next week at John Glenn Middle School. And then the winter sports are also gearing up. And our friend Mati who's a captain of knowledge bowl, they have a fundraiser November 19th. Uh, it's $2 per person. You need four to five people for a team and you just compete in Knowledge Bowl and the money goes to Knowledge Bowl. Well, the money the money is going to go to our activity fund for the Stride for Packer Pride. So, some people who can't afford to do activities as much, hopefully that money will go to somebody who can use it to help sign up for an activity or something. >> And you can try to take on me and Finette, >> but it's going to be hard, guys. >> Yeah, it's going to be hard. >> We know what we're doing, >> right? >> We know a lot about random stuff. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. It'll be around 3:00 on that Wednesday, so it's going to be a fun time. >> Yeah. >> That's the gist. Thanks. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you guys so much. >> I was like I'm I haven't like studied for something like that in long time. You probably would take most of us down. [laughter] All right. Thank you. Next, I would like to um Oh, no. What opened up? I would like to invite the principal of Lincoln Center up. Uh Sophia Versail. >> And she brought guests. Yay. >> Like, do I come up with her? Yes, why not? All of you. >> Come on up. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you for having us. We were just discussing, do I come up or can we just have >> Yeah. teacher come up and we decided we're going to continue collaborating. Um, so at Lincoln Center this year, obviously we're all getting to know each other and we really value collaboration. Something that our teachers have worked hard on and in previous year and this year um is our outdoor classroom. So, I brought a very important member here. Hi, good to see all of you. I'm Emily Sto, Mrs. Sto. I was Emily Molinar previously and I recognize a lot of your faces and some of you have come to read in my room and I know the kids love that. Um, so I did science club and then that transitioned into garden club um, for the last few years and we've been so blessed with um, so many different groups of people supporting our outdoor classroom like the PTO um, and just different communities. I know even neighborhoods have come together to pay for some of our seats for our outdoor space. And you can I don't know can you see you have it in front of you, right? Okay. I was like, I didn't want to be referencing something that only I can see. >> Um, we have beautiful those like uh the rocks are outdoor seating areas. We're going to get a nice like uh chalkboard there that looks like a caterpillar so people can do lessons. Um, and then all those new nice new planters. We just had temporary ones previously, so they were kind of falling apart. Um, all that jazz. So, it's beautiful. And we have tons of different um materials available like whiteboards and markers, seat, like cushions for kids to sit on, all of that kind of stuff. Basically, anything that you would need in a classroom, we have available for the outdoor classroom. And so far this year, my classrooms really used it for silent reading. So, I haven't taught tons of lessons out there. But things that they love, and this is what they told me, is they love that they get to look out and see nature rather than the inside of the building. They love how the noises they hear are different from school noises. Like it was calming to hear a chainsaw. [laughter] This was in September when they told me that, not October. Um and a mower instead of students in the hall. Um I personally haven't used it much yet, but I love that it's available to me. Um and that the students love it and asked to go daily. So, and sometimes we actually have selfarting of students. So if they need to co-regulate or regulate emotionally, they will walk out there and it does help them just to sit there and sometimes garden or sometimes just sit in the nature. >> Mhm. >> For the outdoor space. >> And then um this is actually from our science specialist who couldn't be here tonight and so she shared some things. Do you want to read it or should I read it? >> Go ahead. >> Okay. All right. Um so there's a video and it's about kindergarten students utilizing the space. Um, they're observing and recording the weather in their quest to become weather watchers. They have been learning to identify four different parts of the weather. The sky, what do you observe there? The temperature, what type of clothing is needed? The wind, do you feel or observe any wind? And the precipitation, is it rainy, snowy, or dry? And there is a video that is linked on there. >> Thank you. >> Mhm. Michelle, what are we doing? Um, pictures of the temperature so we can so we can [music] [music] >> I guess [music] this is the pink. This is >> what are you wearing in your picture? >> And I because I cut off all the cut all the leaves off. >> Okay. So you drew that all the leaves. [music] [laughter] >> The wind blew all the leaves off. >> Uh very cute. Um, yes. And then, yes, this is actually my class reading out there. So, students of all ages enjoy utilizing this space and they're constantly asking if they can go outside for science lessons or reading lessons. You can clearly see that they love it. >> Oh, that's fabulous. >> And then, uh, Liz Zerinsky plans on using the outdoor classroom for minds in motion classes. Um and then her um three through five classes will be done in collaboration with a grant with Whole Foods. Um students will study gardening, growing of food, and food science. And then many of the students will hopefully continue learning joining me, Emily Stoe, and the garden club in the spring. So that's kind of the update on the outdoor classroom. I just it's always been a dream for me personally to teach in a school that has an outdoor classroom. um instead of just going and looking at the landscape plants. So, I'm very um just thankful to everyone that made this possible. >> Thank you for listening. Th those are just some of our highlights at Lincoln Center, but we had to pick one that we really appreciated this time in our kids. >> So many. >> Can we have you not sit down right away if we have any questions? >> Yeah, absolutely. >> I just didn't know how we were doing on time. >> I want to know, so you said you have like whiteboards and all these things available. Do you have an outdoor storage space then? So, it's all accessible in the classroom. >> Wonderful question. So, actually, yes, we just put in um an order for two metal boxes. Um what I've discovered is the kids uh don't love sitting on the rocks without the cushions. So, I think the cushions are going to be stored out there as well as these materials so they're easily accessible to teachers and the students. And there will be a lock on the box. And that's something we'll put out in my newsletter, too, just so the community is aware to please help us keep the boxes safe. Uh because when we're not there, we're not there. And we're hopeful the community will be respectful to our boxes, and we think they will be. >> Yeah. >> But that's where all the materials will be. >> And there's a bird feeder coming and lots of other new things that we just put in for. Well, it's >> exciting to see the progress from when it was like initially presented like we would like to do this thing to this point. That's it's awesome. >> Anyone else? >> All right. >> Might dad joke here might be a good place to plant some seeds. There you go. With students because we just added the new CAPS um agricultural like sustainability food systems. So, it might be neat to get them connected and and buddy them up a little bit. So, I think we'll we're just kind of figuring out, you know, just scratching the surface, so to speak. So, it' be really fun. >> That's a good idea. >> I'd love for love that. Send them our way. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Well, thank you so much for coming this evening. >> Thank you. >> Thank you for having us. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Well, moving along to item 3C, I would like to invite Executive Director of Educational Services Amy Winter and members of her team to present on our comprehensive achievement and civic readiness report. The kacker, are we not calling it that yet? I am. [laughter] [snorts] Thank you. [clears throat] Sorry, as I was getting up here, I was accidentally adding blank slides to my presentation. [laughter] So now I'm trying to delete them very quickly here before you post. You might have to exit and enter back in after I get all these deleted. Okay, I'm done. I'm [laughter] not touching it. >> Careful with those live Google Docs. >> Uh, yep. Yay. Thank you. Okay. [laughter] Well, [clears throat] thank you so much uh for giving us a few minutes. I have brought several people with me who are each going to kind of take a part of this presentation. Um you may notice that this year it is called the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness which is a little different from last year because last year it was called world's best workforce and so um the state has made an adjustment and they have renamed it and um there were some minor changes in 2024 that were you'll see some updates from that. Um so let me first do a quick introduction. So Scott was here um the last meeting because he really specifically focuses around um a lot of our reading and um one of the changes that you will see is reading used to be in this report and it is now being moved out of this report. Um but I kept him just here because he kind of presented um at a different night. And then I have Natalie here. She primarily focuses around secondary um but also has some other buckets. And then Tom is here. he is our technology director and then I have Kristen here who focuses around early learning. So we'll each kind of take a piece of the presentation um and then we'll be available at the end to ask uh answer any questions. So for this plan, um the state reviews every 3 years um districts that are receiving title funds and they review achievement. They review um how language proficiency is progressing and graduation rates and consistent attendance based on those indicators um which is the Northstar accountability. So that's again um what we kind of went over last time. They identify districts that then need to do an annual report. [snorts] With the new um updated language, uh there are five goals. Uh all children are ready for school, which is similar to the previous um world's best workforce. All racial and economic achievement gaps between students are closed. All students are ready for career and college. And all students graduate from high school. Those are all the same. They've rolled from the old plan. Um but what you will notice is all students are prepared to be lifelong learners is a new one and again they have dropped that all students can read at grade level because they have now rolled that into the read act and so we report out on that in a separate report. All right I'm going to bring Kristen up here. She is going to do our first goal which is all students are ready for school. >> How do I advance the slides? >> She's doing it. So >> thanks. [laughter] So um you can see here that this is our last year's results and then this year's goal. So we did not meet either one of our goals based on the fastbridge kindergarten testing benchmarks that they did in the fall of 2024 and spring of 2025. However, for math, we are on track. It's a definitely a smaller gap than it was before. So that's good progress. Um, and then we kept the goal the same for this year because we did not quite meet it last year. So, it makes sense to keep it as it was. So, here's uh the data from I think that is 20. Oh, yeah. So, this is the three-year trend graph. Sorry. Um, so you can see the the third one there 2024 25. We did the that's the uh at risk students in the green and it did increase a little bit in the spring and this was for math. Same thing just a smaller increase and that's where we really are seeing the progress is in the math. So this is the prek data. This comes from our uh teaching strategies gold data that we do. It's our developmental assessments that the preschool teachers give. Um and so you can see this is from the 2023 24 school year. Um we had increases in the the the dark blue there in those pie charts is the students who are at or above the developmental expectation that we would have. Um and it increased in the spring last year which was positive. That's exactly what we wanted to see. It was right at 3% too. That was oh that I'm sorry that's from 23 to 24. And then the next slide is 24 to 25. Same thing. We saw another increase. Maybe not quite as much, but still right around that 3% that we're aiming for in math and quite a bit more than that in literacy. So with that said, here are our action steps for this coming year. Um when we talk about kids being ready for school, it's really are our schools going to be ready for the kids that are coming because they are coming like ready or not. So um we the first step is to make sure that we are ready for them and that we know what it is that they need. So screening becomes extremely important and obviously we want to screen all children between the ages of three and five that closer to three and a half is best but you know within the first 30 days of kindergarten is the state mandate and we aim to get all kindergarteners screened by that time. We came really close this year so didn't quite meet the goal but eight students were not screened within that 30-day window of starting kindergarten. So, not too bad. This is a new one for us this year. We are hoping to create a kindergarten transition team so that we can share that TS Gold data that was on those other slides with the kindergarten teachers and create some continuity so they know what to expect as those students are coming into their class. Um, and I'm hoping that we are able to do some professional development this year so that the kindergarten teachers can really parse that data and understand what is um, what the TS Gold data is saying and what that means for how they teach these students. Third goal is that in the preschool the creative curriculum which is our academic curriculum and conscious discipline curriculum which is um social emotional learning our use of fidelity in the preschool classrooms because the best way to make sure that we are helping them make progress is to make sure we're using our curriculum effectively and to make sure that it is the right curriculum and in order to do that we need to know it's being used appropriately. So this is a picture of um the culminating building study. They had built buildings as part of their building study and those proud faces of the work that they did. Goal four is that all of the preschool teachers will implement science of reading strategies which they gained from their letters training that they all completed last year. So um we are going to be doing walkthroughs to see that as well as the creative curriculum implementation. That's that. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks Kristen. >> So again this is a goal that has sunseted in this presentation but because we have to report out on previous last year we have to report but then you will not see it in this uh plan moving forward. So I'll go really fast. So the previous goal was that the percentage of students proficient or exceeding grade level benchmarks on the MCAs or the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment will increase from 39% in the spring uh of 2024 to 42% in the spring 2025. So um our result was in 2024 we were at 39%. In 2025, we increased, but we only increased 8%. So, we didn't make that 3% gain that we were going after. And so, um, again, we would make a goal moving forward, but that will be presented in a different presentation moving forward. This is, uh, just some of the trend data going back from 2021. All right, I'm gonna bring Natalie up for goal three. [cough] Um, good evening. Um, so this is really about closing the gaps, um, between groups of students. Um, if you go to the next slide. Yep. Um, really, uh, we had two elements to this goal. Um, one is that each of these groups, um, our white students, students of color, and our students who qualify for free reduced lunch each, um, increase by at least 3%. But that also that the gap between those groups um, begin to close. Um, we the sort of growth among white students and students of color, we we had growth in both cases, but just like Amy mentioned, it just was not very large. So, we did not meet that 3% growth. um among our free reduced lunch students it was significant in that group is small enough that it tends to go up and down a little bit more inconsistently. Um and then the the gap piece um the gap between um white students and either of those other two groups um is slightly smaller. So we did not have a a number by which we in the goal did not state a number by which um we were trying to close that gap. So technically the gap is a little bit smaller. Um I think the most important piece um on the next slide is that when never mind sorry um no you're you're in the right spot. Um this is just sort of going forward. So this is the for each of those we have a goal again of increasing um by 3%. So um the if you look at 23 24 25 for each of those groups um that we've been slow incremental increase the goal again is 3%. Um because that's sort of a reasonable goal in terms of lofty reach. Um and then I think when we talk about closing gaps, um the the piece that is the most important to sort of wrap our heads around is that in order to close gaps, we need some students to make one more than a year of growth in a given school year. If some students start kindergarten um as Kristen was just talking about at grade level and some students start a year below grade level and every year both of those groups makes exactly one year's worth of growth, that group that started a year below grade level will always remain below grade level. So we need to do things within the school to support some students making more than that year of growth. Um, and so the question is, what do we do to to do that? Um, and so we have some action steps that really we're using on a regular basis to try to close those gaps. Um, using our assessment data to drive our instruction, looking at the fast scores and our classroom based assessments to make our in real time instructional decisions. Um, intervention, that's why we have those intervention classes. um to get those students to make that more than one year's worth of growth. Um academic support in addition to the in uh intervention. So things that our counselors provide some of our additional classes at the secondary school to provide additional academic support as well as that social emotional and cultural support. Those are things that when students are more comfortable in school, when they're coming more often because they feel safe and comfortable, they're going to be able to engage further, participate in intervention, and take the support that we're giving them to make that more than one year's worth of growth. But I think for closing gaps, we just always have to keep in mind we have students that need to make more than a year's worth of growth. And then I'm also going to talk about um all students being college and career ready. [snorts] Uh our goal um in last year was related specifically to ninth grade reading. Um again this the state had a lot of reading pieces within um this these plans. Um this was a goal about 9th graders making growth from fall to spring. Um we are moving we met that goal. um but it was not directly as tightly attached to college and career readiness as we might um have. So um this next year our goal for um college and career readiness is going to be very tied to our seniors. So our goal uh for this school year is that 80% of our seniors will have You were in the right slide. Yes. Sorry. Um 80% of our seniors will have a plan um that they know exactly what they're going to do after the school year ends. Whether that be work, military, two-year school, trade school, four-year school, that we know what at least 80% of our students are doing and that they have that plan fully uh sort of detailed out with us. Um we have a program uh that uh helps students with career exploration sort of an online program that helps students with sort of self reflection some of those uh career inventories and self- surveys some research. Um it's also the tool that can get used to support um for students who are um searching for colleges um a place for them to sort of document their plan over the course of four years. So, we're really um pushing um the use of Zello in our high school to support that. Um and then tracking those uh personal learning plans. My hope also is if you come into the high [clears throat] school in May that you will see visually what our students are doing, whether that be um something on the wall um with kids pictures or names, what they're planning to do. Um a lot of schools have that sort of a celebration and recognition. And so my hope is that as we move forward, we can include that in um our celebration [clears throat] of seniors in the in the spring. Um and then we have great tri- district experiences, work experiences, concurrent enrollment, IB classes that help students again with that figuring out what they want to do um towards that getting at least 80% of our students. So I have previously um given you some data around our high school graduation uh rate. I am going to just revisit that and again to remind that we are a year behind on this data point. So um it doesn't officially get um publicized um and so it is a little delayed. So in 2022 23 the percentage of South St. Paul students graduating on time will improve from 74.4% 4% in the spring uh to 77 uh4 in the spring of 2023. I don't know if I said that right, 74 to 77. Um based on our data, uh we did not meet that goal and so we will continue to have a graduation goal and we're going to then have a starting point from 70.6 and then we're going to go after 73.6. [snorts] Here's just a visual of um comparison of the state of Minnesota's average graduation rate and what our graduation rate is looking like right now. So I think um one of the things that with this goal in particular, what we're going to do is we have um very closely tied our progress monitoring to the district strategic plan scorecard. And so one of the goals is around keeping track of kids and are they on target for graduation through all of high school. And so we are looking at that data pretty um frequently because we are seeing you know what I mean what the end data looks like. And so when we talk about action steps we are going to continue to do um the plan around our academic um kind of course design around the pathway to Packer Promise. uh we talked about the personal learning plans in alignment with our online platform and then also looking at credit recovery options for students after school and during the summer. And I think again we want to be a little more responsive when kids are falling behind. That is why um when Wednesday is different because of that we want to be responsive. We want to be able to respond in that moment to give other steps that gets everybody back on track. [snorts] All right, I get to introduce Tom for our last and new goal. >> Thanks, Amy. Um, thanks for the opportunity to be here. I'm really excited to be a part of the district now. Um, I'm two months into the role and I'm loving every minute of it. [snorts] Uh, so this is a new goal for us this year. Um, so we don't have data to compare from past years, but uh, I really want to give a quick shout out to the to the technology department that's here that I'm coming into. The group is amazing. Uh, just some of the stuff that they're working on behind the scenes that I don't think gets recognized enough. Um, the educational technology, edte stuff, we'll talk about more in a second. All of the infrastructure and systems they have to support and build. uh the cyber security, data privacy pieces, um answering questions, troubleshooting, all of the student devices, all of the teacher devices, [snorts] um data management and reporting to the state, all of that stuff that that the technology department handles and this team that I have come into is amazing. Um so the way we in the technology department want to help prepare these students for lifelong to become lifelong learners is through digital citizenship. uh really trying to enhance the digital citizenship skills of every student in the district. Um so digital citizenship um just like regular citizenship as we would want students to grow up to become responsible uh knowledgeable um respectful members of a community. We want to do the same thing for our students in terms of online and digital relationships and communities that they're a part of. Uh so we really want to provide a way to help students understand what that looks like. Um how they can utilize information online. Um engage with media in responsible respectful ways. [snorts] Um so how does this relate to lifelong learning? Well obviously we know that engagement online is going to be an important part of everyone's uh future. Um and how do we help the students prepare for that? How do we teach them the skills they need? Uh we start all the way from kindergarten throughout high school. Uh helping provide students the the skills, the ideas, the thought process to help them with the critical thinking it needs to really become uh engaged and and responsible digital citizens. So how are we going to do that? So we have worked with curriculum from common sense education. [snorts] Uh and so we provide lessons to teachers to implement with students uh starting in kindergarten, the K through five grade levels. The media teachers that those students work with provide lessons on things as simple as how do you put a device down when you're engaging with someone and talking and communicating with someone in person? How do you take care of a device? Um what does it mean to have a digital footprint? And these [snorts] lessons can go all the way up. In middle school, we work with the language arts departments along with the ELELLL and sped teachers to deliver lessons on students or for students on um who's looking at your online presence. Um what what does it mean? What are some red flags if you're doing online chats that you should be aware of and careful about? Uh and then when we get to 9th through 12th grade, uh we work with both the language arts and the social studies teachers to deliver the curriculum to students. And now we're talking about um things like online privacy. Uh how do you request permission to post information about someone else? Um cyber bullying is something that is a piece that goes throughout the whole curriculum um from the young kids all the way up to our our high school students. And so we track the progress of these uh lessons that we're providing to teachers because we have teachers submit back to us when they've delivered the lessons and any input they have for us on how those lessons went. A lot of the lessons also include quizzes that we encourage them to give to students just to see what they're learning and and how the lessons are appealing to the students. And so that's been a huge um [snorts] uh goal of ours to really help students become lifelong learners knowing how to do it responsibly and respectfully. So thank you. Um so moving to a slightly different um next step of the reporting. Um one of the other parts of my role is our achievement and integration plan. Um we have three uh the in a achievement and integration funding from the state is funding that comes based on enrollment. Um but it requires a plan that is renewed every three years. And so we are currently on the third year of a three-year plan cycle. uh and it requires that each year that we report out on it and then um sometime this spring we'll be submitting a new uh three-year plan for how we'll use that funding. And the achievement and integration funds um really are intended to be used to support um integration um between uh us and other districts um in particular focusing on we don't have any racially isolated schools but there are schools near us that are and then achievement for all students in particularly um students of color. Um our first goal is about reading proficiency. uh the goal that was set um a couple and I'll also say sorry there's a ton of data with this um I'm going to go I'm going to highlight a few data pieces and then we're going to skip through a few data pieces um this will go on the website um it it needs to be publicly shared and so the data if you want to look further into it um you can do that and if you want even more data I have even more um so this is just um the achievement integration uh funding has a lot of data attached to it. Um, so I'm going to try to highlight some things and actually Lisa, if you want to go back, this is one that I was going to highlight. Um, our one of our key goals is reading specifically for our Hispanic or Latino students and our black or African-American students. And that's the way the the state um phrases those two groups of students to be as inclusive as possible. Um, our goal was set um at the beginning of this three-year plan, so in the spring of 2022. um and uh with a 5% increase each year. So I'll just share that the black numbers were our targets and the blue numbers are our actuals. And so when you set your goal is to increase 5% each year, each year you get sort of further from the target. So even though we're growing um overall um our we're getting sort of further from our target because that was the target that was set um as a very ambitious set um target three years ago. Um but so you can see sort of what the target was and um where where we're at. Um the next slide is just the same thing except we're specifically focused on third graders. So again um if you want to dig further into that um you can. Um but the next slide talks about our actions related specifically to um how are we working um on growing uh reading for those groups. Um but these are very like culturally specific strategies instead of just like science of reading. So we know that we're doing science of reading but the achievement and integration um funding asks us to to focus more um on targeting these groups um and uh being more culturally specific. So um that funding is used to support our cultural leaison at each of our schools. Um our uh Amaze Works antibbias curriculum at the elementary um goalgetters which is a targeted mentoring group at our middle school that has expanded to 9th grade this year. And then some of our student um cultural affinity groups um at the secondary. So those are ways that we're using some specific actions um to support those groups of students. Our second goal is around teachers. So we have a student goal around student growth. Our second goal is around teachers receiving regular job embedded equity focused professional development. Um and then uh uh including that in their professional development their their PLC's um and their ongoing team meetings. Um here again, lots of data. Um but really uh the top one is really us showing um that over time we're wanting that uh equity and science of reading to be in more and more present in more and more of our teachers meetings in their PLC discussions. We want them to be bringing that science of reading training into their PLC. It's a little harder to track which is why I don't have actuals there. Um but um we're working on figuring out how for for this spring how to track that. Um and then this one is very specific to middle school. So I will I do want to highlight here um again we're not at the targets but if you look um for our middle school students our MCA reading has grown um faster and more significantly um and just more where our 10th grade has not grown as much. Um you know when you do reading work it kind of works its way up. We've put a lot of work into the elementary. we've moved our work into the middle school um and we're now trying to move that up. So 10th grade is a place where we hope to see those growths growth in the coming years. Um strategies in this area we've science of reading um we've started this year with everyone who has um previously been in the district has completed their science of reading training. So we have a very small number of new teachers um who are doing that this year. our equity and instructional coaching again because this is strategy is our goal is focused on teachers um and then working to recruit um hire and retain teachers of color. And so we have some specific strategies there um to support that um specifically knowing that students when they students seeing someone that looks like them at some point during their day that has a real positive impact on students. The last goal um uh in the achievement of in integration work is specific to integration. And so it's our students having opportunities to um interface with and work with students from other districts um and to increase their opportunities um to participate in racially and economically integrated activities. Um and so that one is very specific to um an activity that um we have called youth ambassadors. Um there is you can go to the next slide. Um this and one more because this is just what the requirement is. Um we participate with um two Rivers High School and the St. Paul public schools, high schools on a youth ambassadors program where students are able to apply um help plan an event for in the spring um called uh beyond our walls um and then help lead that um in May. Um we had the first year three participants, we had seven participants last year. Um our target this year is eight participants. Um and those students have the opportunity to work with those other students from other schools in an integrated activity. Um and that is the end of those things. So I think are we opening up to questions? Okay. >> That was so much information guys. >> I was like give me a second. If anybody else has questions Monica please. So I have two questions and they're kind of dealing with our youngest learners and our oldest learners kind of at both at both ends. So I guess my questions is for the making sure every student is ready for kindergarten like like do we work with the county? Do we do we know how many three-year-olds we have in our community? Do we know where? And obviously people move in and people move out, but like how do we know where they're at or how can we connect with maybe county services or other services to know like that these services exist and you need to do this. [laughter] >> So we receive birth data from the department of health uh every month and so we kind of extrapolate and also census data. Uh so we use that to reach out. We send postcards uh for screening. We send postcards for for preschool. Um so it's all kind of based on that census data and um the birth data so that we know like how many are out there. It's just like you said. Does that answer your question? >> It does. But then so how do we as a community work together to make sure that every threeyear-old, fouryear-old, 5-year-old, like are there community things that we can do outside of the school district before they become our prodigy? >> Are you talking mostly about screening the early childhood screening or just in general? >> Just any I'm just cur I'm just brainstorming of like >> Yes. >> What other community events or supports could we set up to make sure? Yeah, I mean we are always trying to get the word out. I will tell you that. [laughter] So, community events have been huge. We do um we have as part of our screening process, we do a um a survey for families afterwards. It's anonymous survey that just gets sent out to them. And a lot of the day, one of the questions on there is how did you hear about screening and how old was your child when you heard about screening? A lot more and more and it started out that oh, I heard about it when my child was five and we were starting kindergarten. A lot more people are saying, "I heard about it at birth. I heard about it from a friend. I heard about it from school staff." And it's earlier and earlier. So, um, and they also, a lot of people said, "I heard about it from a a person at an event." So, we that gives us some like, "Okay, capo days. Here we go." [laughter] So, [clears throat] uh, I think just the more that we get the word out because I think as long as screening has been around, it's still not super widely known about or understood. So I think um just the more that we can publicize and really educate as far as what the purpose is and how it helps our kids um I think the better. >> And then on on the other end um major all so I don't know how many how many seniors do we have? >> I can tell you in a second. >> Okay. >> A little over 200 cuz I I had estimated 230 just as a guess. Um, and so that would be 184 students that we need to know what their postsecary plans are. Do we have enough staff to accomplish this goal? >> Um, we our counselors last year did some uh informal surveying and had a pretty good sense. So I do feel like we do um between our counseling staff and then we have a college and career uh center coordinator. Um and then that is like the the Zello the technology that I mentioned um is partly to gather that initial sort of to manage the information. Um but [snorts] based on conversations with the counselors from their work last year I do think that we have the staff to to gather that information and provide students at least with as much guidance as we can. I wanted to ask regarding the graduation rates when the state is looking at that statistic. How do they define like the time? Is it a time period that someone graduates in or >> Yeah. Um they do graduation rate based on the four-year rate. Um there is a seven-year rate that we do report out on. Um but they don't necessarily publicize it or put it in this report. And um I think the other thing I will tell you is that graduation rate is a combination of our high school and our CLC alternative um high school and so it is combining both of their data points for that uh one. So I would say kiddos that we are normally sending to CLC are already behind and we are trying to close that gap and get them back on target. Um I have looked at the data with CLC in particular. The four-year rate is obviously not where we want it, but our seven-year rate looks um pretty solid and so we may not get them, you know, be able to close the gap completely in that four years. Um but we are seeing success if we give them a little more time. [clears throat] I also had a question about the Zello. [laughter] I was like no one else is going to go. Do our students have access to that like just throughout the day or throughout the year or is it only during [laughter] Student board reps, can you tell me about Zello? >> It's like a career [clears throat] readiness um program where like we can research careers on there in different schools, right? >> Yeah. >> Oh, yeah. We get like a.5 credit for the connections class if we complete it. >> Okay. >> Do you find it a useful tool? Is it helping? >> Yeah, I mean there's like stuff in it. One of them is about like uh job interview skills. So, I mean, they're pretty helpful tools. >> And do you guys have access to it when you're not in connections class? >> Yeah, it's in our connection schooly page. So, >> you can do it at home and stuff. >> Very cool. >> Any follow-up questions or did they pretty much hit hit it on the money? >> I think [laughter] that's what I wanted to know. Like, how useful is it if you can only access it like 15 minutes once a week or whatever, you know? Okay. >> Um, any other questions or comments? >> Thank you for that information. >> Thank you so much, >> Amy. I have a question for you. Just just quickly, so we talk a lot, you talk about groups of kids that are at grade level and then groups that aren't at grade level. >> There's a lot of talk about getting that lower group up to grade level. Do you feel you're at a place where you have enough resources to not take away from the kids that are at grade level so grade level so they keep succeeding without taking from them and giving to that group that isn't because that was kind of that would kind of defeat the purpose like slowing kids down to correct we don't want to do that. >> Yep. >> What do you feel are we there? >> I mean I think that's the big question is do we always have those resources to do this? Um I would say that I would always advocate for more resources candidly um to make sure that we are pushing everybody and closing that gap. I mean it does take layers of of uh support um and I would always advocate for more. So >> right, but they'll always be limited. They're never end. So you feel we're at a point where you're not pulling from those kids that are at or above grade level cuz they want to keep achieving, right? Otherwise, >> if if we are known for not letting those kids excel, we'll lose that group of students >> for sure. And that's actually one of the reasons when we when I was coming in and we did that whole pathway to Packer Promise. It was one of the reasons why we built the whole kind of GT and accelerated learning program and building that into a K12 model because we know we need to push everyone. And so I would definitely say that we are still building that program out for honestly an individualized approach for some of our highest achieving students. Um that's also what IB does. That's also what the concurrent enrollment classes do. I think we're having to work smarter, you know, like how do we really refine some of this work while also providing um intervention support that's targeted that is able to close it. Um we're always trying to find that sweet spot. Am I saying we're figuring it out perfectly? No. I think it's just always that moving target, but do I feel like it's at a cost like we're subtracting? I would say no because we're also expanding those programs simultaneously. So, we're doing it on both ends. >> Good. I mean, that's what I wanted to hear. I want I I want to just keep knowing that we are feeding those kids that are at or above and not taking away from them for other groups. >> And I agree. I think that's something that um like it's very much on our minds um around making sure that we are offering the programming that our kids need. >> Yeah. >> You want to talk about the change at the upper elementary that went in this year around like math instruction and >> Yeah. Um so like one of the um things that we really wanted to kick off this year is giving more individualized math instruction at that earlier age. And so we are um doing some specific grouping for kids who are showing readiness in math. Um they're doing it in third, fourth, and fifth. And so they are doing an enriched math class. The intention of that is is really to go deep on concepts so that they are ready for acceleration. Um and the goal is then to move acceleration uh into sixth grade so that they can move uh and again that's all an expansion program that we haven't previously had. So that is we've been building it um and we are now starting to kind of see that shift moving into the um the middle school and that secondary level. >> Yeah. I think one of the things that I always try to prioritize is is that emphasis on the way I like to frame is highly individualized instruction for for all learners. And as principal, I used to say to my students, I accept you where you are. I don't accept you staying there. So, um if you need extra help, that's okay. We're going to provide you that intervention and extra support. Um but if you're above grade level, you also deserve to be pushed and challenged and and grow at that individualized level for sure. Um, and we also do receive uh to support some of our students like our English learners were one of those groups you saw. They bring in separate categorical funds. So, we do thankfully get as as Amy said, we'll always advocate for more. Um, but our our free and reduced price launch, there's clear data that shows that that has an impact on student achievement and uh that is a significant source of income or or revenue for us, which is why we're still waiting to find out what the legislaturator is going to do there. We've uh advocated for EL funding and that was something that the state stepped up on and helped with the cross subsidy there. So, uh there's always going to be a need. Uh but that's a great question and we definitely don't want anybody to to not be challenged at that level they they need and deserve whether that's middle of the road high or or needing some extra support. So, it's a good question. >> Well, thank you so much and welcome to Tom. We're happy to have you here. >> Yes. Thank you. All right. Next up, item 4D, stakeholder comments to the board. As a reminder to the community, there are two ways to make comment to the board. You may either submit an online form or appear before the board in person. If you would like to speak in person, the board has set time on our second Monday of each month at 6:30 during our regular extended work session meeting. We received no online comments during this time. However, we welcomed one stakeholder to speak at our session on Monday, October 13th. A parent came to share their concerns regarding our fifth or fourth grade curriculum materials and whether they are age appropriate. All right, at this time I will now turn things over to Vice Chair Claflin for an update on our work sessions. >> Thank you. Um, immediately prior to this business meeting, we had a work session for board members. Uh during that meeting, we uh prepped some of the conversations that we'll have at the end of the year going into next year on our board organization and the roles that we all fill on other committees and liaison to other uh organizations outside of our participation as board members. Um and all of the other community engagement that we engage in as well. Um such as the Halloween get together. We will be out uh representing the school district on Marie Avenue from 5:00 to 7:00 and uh we recently hosted a senior lunchon at the community center. We also had some discussion about the policies that will come up later in the agenda. Um some followup on the proposal to rename our or name our stadium uh following the discussion that we had uh two weeks ago at our work session and um a discussion of the state high school league resolution that'll come up later this evening as well. It was brief but touched on a lot of different topics. And then two weeks ago at our work session, you can also read the full recap of this in the minutes that are attached to our agenda, but we um discussed the proposal to name the stadium after Jim Carter and uh that had been resubmitted to the school board and the finance facilities and long-range planning committee reviewed that did not recommend supporting that proposal. Um after board discussion, uh a consensus was reached to pause the action to gain more information about the actual scope on the commitments of donations and um that is still um a developing proposal. We discussed the need for a bond referendum and reaching out to our community to continue to support the South St. Paul um education community. We have many many identified needs and we have a bond that is going to be expiring soon and could [clears throat] ask our community to continue to support education with no change in the um taxes that you pay. uh or other possibilities to uh come out to the community and ask for funding for different projects. So, we are evaluating that and there's a survey going on right now. You may get a phone call. Please answer those phone calls. We really want to have a feedback from our community. It helps us um be successful and we know that our community really supports our students and our education here. We're very grateful that we are able to um fund a lot of our needs because of the very generous support of our community. Uh so we'll be continuing to discuss that. Um we heard about the scorecards that the district is going to be using uh similar to what we had just heard on the Oh, it's a long title, isn't it? the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness um measures and um yes and then we heard the preview of all of the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness as well. So it was good to see it in even more detail tonight. We have been busy at our work sessions. [laughter] >> Thank you. All right, I'm going to hand it over to Dr. Zambbrino to give us our district update. All right. Well, way too many great things going on to share it all. It's just been a a really fun fall. Certainly been fun with um our athletics and activities and things doing very well. Had fun at the football game on on Saturday and then we had a great fundraiser at Tonucci's on on Sunday with the open which I'm sure we'll hear a little bit more about. But that was uh fun to get to my first fundraiser at Tanucci because it's been a while that uh since they've been able to do that. So, but lots of great things going on. Uh people should be seeing in your mailboxes our new six times and um again an opportunity to highlight the great work going on and what what you'll really see in there is our commitment to engage, educate and empower learners and really our entire community. Um so um as as far as in our spaces, our innovative learning spaces, technology, how we're addressing through our scorecards our learning needs, our attendance, our graduation goals. Uh we've I shared we expanded our tri district caps programming to include uh natural resources and s uh food system sustainability. Um lots of things going on to make sure everyone's feeling great. I I love the way the new colors and brands show up. Um it's really fun for our uh communications team to get to work on that. I love the front page getting to see the the work we're doing paying off in outcomes for kids. uh you actually see where the state's been dropping a little bit in reading where we've gone up and um Minnesota's gone up a little bit in math and we've gone up more. So, we're not we're not satisfied yet, but you heard the the commitment of the team today to continue to push on that and um continue to learn and grow and improve. But hopefully you got that in your mailbox, but you can always find out anything on our website. There's a digital version there at our news link on our website. So, please uh anytime you're looking for something, our team does a fantastic job with the website. So, hop on there. But we again, we really wanted people to see our commitment to serving our entire community. And that's what we really hope people see when they're uh walking their way through that new six times. Uh each year we put out the reminder for families. It is uh state statute that students are supposed to be fully vaccinated to attend school. Um and so there is a cut off date where either the students have to be vaccinated or um have an objection on record. And so uh we really work hard to to support our families. And so we're offering a a free vaccination clinic on Wednesday. And so that's from 8 to 12 at Central Square. Um they would like it if you would register, but if you just show up, that's uh no problem. Um we'll support with that. And if if folks need uh clarification on um the [clears throat] exemption, we can certainly share that. But I want to make sure no kids miss a day of school for that reason. Uh we've talked a bit about um student achievement across the board. And I love this picture cuz here are some of our just highest achieving students. So I got to attend the academic gold awards recently, a few weeks back, couple weeks maybe. [snorts] And the students who received an academic letter, they earned that from having a 3.7 GPA each trimester during one school year. So, all these students were able to maintain a 3.7 GPA for a whole year. You'll see the group gets a little smaller when we go to the next award, which is the Chevron. That's when they've done that in two school years. So, that 3.7 GPA all the way through for two school years. And then our highest uh award being the academic pin recipients. And so, uh, nice to see one of our student board reps right there in that picture, uh, working real hard to have a 3.7 GPA all the way through. So, congratulations, Monty, and others. And let me see, who am I missing there? I got to look at >> Chloe's. >> Chloe's Where's Chloe? Oh, with the Oh, I see the hair. Sorry, Chloe. So, these that just shows you how good our kids are and like why we have them on our um Were you Were you supposed to get it and you're not in there? Yes, I uh take some PSO classes on >> Oh, see, she's too good. She's got to be doing other fancy stuff. So, all three. So, how about a shout out for our student board reps. Congratulations. [applause] Uh and I know from watching the work that the kids are doing, it's high level. And so, these aren't grades that are just handed out. They're working really hard. And I know that the teachers also pay in a big commitment because we talked about like the win Wednesday and that time uh that if our kids need that extra support, that extra push, our staff are always there for them. So glad I got all of you in there. Sorry missed it at the initials. So it's super exciting though. I I um I love the fact that we catch kids doing something right cuz I know a lot of times uh we all get snared in the things we weren't doing that were on point and we got a lot of kids doing exactly what they're supposed to do including these three right here. So congratulations. Um we talked a little bit about CAPS. Our CAPS program really is rooted in how do we bring real life learning, hands-on experiences tied to what's happening uh in the real world. And so um neat opportunity for students to go to the Mississippi River Institute, which is actually a floating classroom barge and they have opportunities to explore many career opportunities that the river supports. So um actually I think there's a really neat social studies unit in there around why we are where we are because that river is so essential to our economy. But what's really cool is they were able to tailor each experience to the different pathways that the kids were in. So, business, healthcare, transportation trades, and then that new sustainability and food systems. And so, they were able to to get on that barge and do some real life hands-on learning and uh bring learning to life. So, shout out to our CAPS teachers and uh team for working on that. Uh had a lot of really cool attention on our Ninja Warrior course. Um, I think all of us are pretty well aware of what a neat thing that Miss Johnson and of course her students because it's really about students leading the way uh to to take a a stance to fight against cancer but to bring positivity and joy into our classroom or into our learning spaces, in this case our gym. But um, word got out and we got coverage from from Fox 9, ABC and Town Square. So, they've been uh interviewed and a lot of attention on the on the great things happening there at the Ninja Warrior course down at Compos. So, shout out to our staff and students there. I've not uh heard this one, so I'm kind of excited. So, our theater program is putting on Bright Star, which is uh a love story, a story about love and redemption set in the American South during World War II. Uh, I guess the plot is a young soldier helping a woman remember a child she gave up long ago. So, you can see the performances. Again, I have not heard of that one, but I know it's going to be fantastic as we they have yet to disappoint. Uh, and so those performances are right around the corner here coming up. We've got it uh the opening on Friday the 14th at 7:00. We got matinea and evening performance on the 15th and then a matinea on Sunday the 16th. So, we do ask that you uh try to purchase tickets online, but if not, you can certainly get them at the door. If you want to go online, just go to our website. Apologize losing my voice there. Um, I love this. No school on Halloween. I think this should be a thing. Actually, my personal bias after being an educator for this long is it should just be the last Saturday of of October, but I don't know if I'll ever get that dream to come true. But we are going to take that day and do some professional learning for for teachers and we'll keep the candy out of the schools for at least one day. And then we're coming up, we got a break there around the Thanksgiving holiday. So just want to make sure people mark that. PTA meetings coming up on the 10th and 11th. Uh 10th at Lincoln at 7:00 and 11th at 6 at Caposia. And then fall conferences November 24th and 25th. So as we just continue to motor our way through the year. um talked about our theater performance other uh you know we love the arts we have that strong commitment to the arts we have choir on November 18th putting on uh a concert and then band on the 19th so lots of opportunities to engage uh this month coming up here with the arts and then we have the uh roll out as we heard earlier that uh athletics and activities are transitioning over so we'll have November 10th our [cough] gymnastics girls basketball boys hockey starts up the 14th through 16th I mentioned the theater performance. Uh opening days for boys basketball on November 17th and wrestling as well. Uh lots of interest and excitement in our wrestling program. So really excited to see the uh our girls program continues to just grow and thrive. And then and I watched them wrestle last year and it's terrifying. So I [laughter] am in awe of what they're able to do. And then uh November 24th, opening days for boys swimming and diving. So, lots going on as we continue our way through the year. Uh, as always, if you want to check out any of our materials, our website is always a great place to go and you can see what our school board's been up to or just general information about the district. So, lots more than that going on, but I'll keep it to that so we don't keep you here all night. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Zambrino. >> All right. Next, I am looking for a motion to pro approve the consent items on tonight's agenda, which include the financial claims and bills payable and staffing as presented. Do I have a motion? >> Second. >> Thank you. Thank you. Any discussion? >> All right. All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed. >> Motion carries 70. All right. This evening, we have a series of policies on our agenda for review. District policies play a critical role in the governance work of the schoolboard. All district policies are available on our website under the about us tab located within the school board section and then under SPPS policies. 12 of these policies are up for approval tonight. These policies were initially reviewed by the board policy committee on September 29th. At this time, I am seeking a motion to approve the policies listed on our agenda this evening. Do I have a motion? So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. Uh the policies for approval tonight are 2011 legal status of the school board, 202 school board officers, 203 operation of the school board governing rules, 203.2 order of the regular schoolboard meeting, 203.5 schoolboard meeting agenda. 203.6 Consent agendas. 423 Employee Student Relationships. 507 Corporal punishment and prone restraint. 507.5 School resource officers. 598 Extended School Year for Certain Students with Individualized Education Plans. 519 Interviews of Students by Outside agencies. 520 Student Surveys and Forms. These policies all had no to very minor changes such as just updated legal citations. Hence, they're only reviewed for the one cycle. Are there any questions or discussion about these policies? I say we had a discussion earlier in our work session. So, that's not surprising. All those in favor of approving these, please say I. >> I. I. >> Opposed. Uh motion or these carry 70. The policies pass. Uh the next two policies were also initially reviewed at the policy committee at the September 29th meeting. They are on their second of three readings and will be up for approval at our November 24th meeting. Their policy 532, use of peace officers and crisis teams to remove students with IEPs from school grounds and policy 905, advertising. All right, moving on to business items. We have seven business items before us for approval this evening. First up, we have four items related to schoolboard member employment in the district as substitutes. These items can only pass with a unanimous vote of the board. So there is no need for any of the directors to recuse themselves from voting on these. So first I am looking for a motion for approval for the South St. Paul School Board to approve the resolution authorizing employment of board member Ryan Duffy as a substitute in a classified position in the school district. Do I have a motion to approve? >> Is that good? >> Thank you. Um Dr. Zimbrino, do you have anything to add on this topic? >> I think you said it right. It's an annual process that all board members vote on and we're always happy to bring that forward. >> All right, Lisa, will you please call the role? >> Director Weber, >> yes. >> W. Felton, >> yes. >> Claflin, >> yes. >> Cummings, >> yes. >> T Felton, >> yes. >> Duffy, >> yes. >> And Chair Hume, >> yes. >> That's seven yays. >> All right. Carries. Now we'll do it all over again. I'm looking for a motion for approval for the South St. Paul School Board to approve the resolution authorizing employment of board member Kim Hume as a substitute in a classified position in the school district. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. Anything new to add? No, of course not. Lisa, will you please call the role? >> Director W. Felton, >> yes. >> Claflin, >> yes. >> Cummings, >> yes. >> T Felton, >> yes. >> Duffy, >> yes. >> Weber, >> yes. >> And Chair Hume, >> yes. >> That's seven yays. Thank you. Carry 70. I am now looking approval for the South St. Paul School Board to approve the resolution authorizing employment of board member Wendy Felton as a substitute in a classified position in the school district. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. Second. >> Thank you. Thank you. All right. Any questions or discussion? Please read the role. >> Director Claflin. >> Yes. >> Cummings. >> Yes. >> T. Felton. >> Yes. >> Duffy. >> Yes. >> Weber. >> Yes. >> W. Felton. >> Yes. >> And Chair Hume. >> Yes. That's seven yays. >> All right, that carries 70. And finally, I am looking for a motion for approval for the South St. Paul School Board to approve the resolution authorizing employment of board member Tim Felton as a substitute in a classified position in the school district. Do I have a motion to approve? So move. >> Second. >> Thank you. Lisa, will you please call the role? >> Director T. Felton, >> yes. >> Duffy, >> yes. >> Weber, >> yes. >> Wfelton, >> yes. >> Claflin, >> yes. >> Cummings, yes. And Chair Hume, >> yes. All right. Also carries 70. Perfect. Next item. I am looking for a motion for the South St. Paul School Board to approve the resolution of governing board supporting form A application to the Minnesota State High School League Foundation. Do I have a motion to approve? >> So moved. Second. >> Thank you. And I invite Dr. Zambino to touch on this, please. >> Yeah, this one's not uh necessarily as intuitive, but this is really cool opportunity. So, the Minnesota State High School League, of course, charges fees at events. And so, they get um a pool of money that they that they build from that. And what they do is they make this pool of money available to schools to apply for. And it would work in a similar fashion to like how our open does where uh if if you all approve this, the money will instead of going to the open, it comes to the district, but it would be used in a similar manner to help with um fees for activities and athletics or even potentially supplies, uniforms, other materials that the our athletics and activities might need for the students. So all forward to the students really. >> All right. Any questions or comments on this? >> Yeah, I had a quick question. Is that automatically come if we fill out paperwork or are you in a if you qualify you can get it? >> I believe it's still needbased but for students it would be like a need-based thing. But obviously for the teams it would be up to our athletic and activities director Brady to look at where that need is and and backfill some of that need. But I can find out more details and share that back with you. >> Yeah. I was just wondering if our district got some automatically. As long as we filled out the paperwork, we're going to get a chunk back. Or if >> what he told me today is we apply so I can find out more specifics. Yeah. >> All right. If there are no further questions, Lisa, will you please call the role? >> Director Duffy, >> yes. >> Weber, >> yes. >> W. Felton, >> yes. >> Claflin, >> yes. >> Cummings, >> yes. >> T Felton, >> yes. >> And Chair Hume, >> yes. >> At seven yays. >> All right. Resolution carries 70. >> Next item. I am looking for a motion for the South St. Paul School Board to approve the preliminary field trip request for the high school IB history class field trip to Spain and Portugal on March 17th through 25th of 2027. >> Do I have a motion? >> So move. >> Second. You absolutely do because I did it 50 years ago. >> All right. And I invite Amy Winter up. >> I know. Hello. So, this is just a preliminary um for the um high school to start doing some of the planning. They are planning on going to Spain in Portugal uh March of 2027. And this is aligned with some of our IB classes. >> Any questions or comments? >> Um if there was any need to have a chaperone from the school board, I I [laughter] volunteer. You're volunteering. >> Very generous. Thank you. >> Yeah. I like I said back 50 years ago when I was in high school in the Spanish group, we went to Spain for almost three weeks. It was phenomenal, extremely educational and I had had Spanish classes for almost five years alto together way back then. So it is a wonderful, wonderful opportunity for students to do those things. They heard the three weeks, didn't you? [laughter] We're we're not quite asking for that much time. >> All right. Um if there is no further discussion, all those in favor, please say I. I. >> I. Opposed. >> Motion carries. 70. Plan away. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Next, I am looking for a motion for the approval of the acceptance of gifts report. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. Second. >> Thank you. And I would like to invite our finance director [clears throat] Raj Chatham. Please share the donation. Thank you so much madam chair, madam vice chair, members of the board. Uh it is an honor, you know, to acknowledge the the hardworking and supportive and welcoming community that our our city south. Paul school district here has um entrusted us here. Having said that, there's a monetary donation for $1,500 by Thomas and Jane Simmer for the outdoor classroom. Uh the former presentation that that that all of us saw here. Just phenomenal. So, I just would recommend the full board to accept this generous donation. >> Oh, yeah. Definitely. >> Uh any questions or comments? All right. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed? >> It carries 70. And thank you so much. It sounds like this classroom is amazing and it's through donations from our community to help support that. >> Thank you so much. >> All right, we are getting towards the end. As our final agenda item this evening, I ask our school board members to share any updates on the committees they serve on or highlight any recent district activities or events they've participated in. And I will start with Director Duffy. Uh yeah uh was at the uh what the Packer breakfast. I'm not sure what the exact name was that the Open put on yesterday. Uh great food from Tanucci. It was a wonderful event. Uh I know they they did uh they raised quite a bit of money and it's the first year they've done in a while. So they're really excited to continue uh this tradition and having people come down and raise money for our students uh activities and athletics. Um, and then you couldn't be more excited to be back in a section championship if uh you follow Packer football and that'll be Friday uh at Hill Murray at 6 p.m. Uh, little bit of a revenge game for the kids. So hopefully uh all goes well and I know the kids are really prepared. We played our best game uh this past Saturday, so it was fun to watch. >> Thank you. >> Wonderful. >> Director Felton. >> Yes. First thing is I want to remind everyone next week on Thursday, November 6th, our education foundation major fundraiser, the gala will be held at the Modota Heights Country Club. And one of the really wonderful things by the foundation is they have many auctions, silent auctions and loud auctions. And it's a nice variety of items available if you would like to especially sign up on the silent auctions which I do. If if you have anything that you would want to donate to the education foundation, please give it to them as soon as possible because they are arranging everything in the packages and it is a wonderful wonderful evening event. And also was as was mentioned earlier, our theater department which will have their next theater bright star program in three weeks at the secondary building. It is a musical program which is my personal favorite. I love their musicals. So I certainly will be attending that play. And also this week on Wednesday at the senior center at Central Square, it is our fashion show which starts at 11:00 and goes till about 1:30. And it you you you do need to pre-register if if you plan on attending because we do have a provided lunchon which is from the coupe. So, we are having a chicken dinner again, which is always so good and so welcomed this Wednesday at the senior center at 11 o'clock. Of course, I have been a one of the fashion show models for many years, so that's that's coming up again this time. And I also personally want to say a thank you to everyone who came to our booth when we were in the on the road again thing on October 4th down on Southview Boulevard. Thank you everyone for coming to us and they got to do spin the wheel. That was that was fun and uh a lot of purchases that if you were interested in the the hats or or t-shirts. So, I thank everyone for coming and supporting us at the on the road again. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Director Weber. >> Um, not much. I also had a great time at on the road again. Although, if I could request I don't want it to be 30° and I don't want it to be 85 degrees. So, if we could settle on a nice like 65 for like next year, that would be because it it was a warm day. Um but no, had a had a great time. Um and also just looking forward to all the, you know, winter events um getting started and um I'm a huge basketball fan, so hope to get out to some of those games um this year and yeah, just going forward. Thank you, >> Director Cummings. >> Um well, it was great to see members of our community out again as other board members talked about it on the road again. Um, also great to see um, so many folks at our Hall of Fame ceremony that happened and uh, the gold award certainly with some of our student reps and so many other students. Um, our one of our student reps from last year as well. Um, Jackson um, was honored as well at the gold award ceremony. I set out the goal um, to try to go to all of the fall sporting events and I failed. Um, I missed uh getting to a women's tennis match. Um, and so I owe the women's tennis team, but um, it was great to go out and see our cross country team and Canon Falls and our football team and soccer teams swimming and diving and volleyball. It was great to be out this year to see so many of our student athletes. Um, wanted to shout out to our ED Foundation and our open foundation for putting on um, just some exceptional events. um the walk-athon uh and then there was the feast um yesterday at Tanucci's that I am um hoping that they um continue into the future. And um as others mentioned, there's opportunities for you as community members to um support our our students. I know that others have mentioned Brightar, the theater. Um I just went yesterday or uh this weekend to the taco feed and and won porkloin in the meat raffle. Um, so I got to figure out how to um cook that. But, [laughter] um, go and support them in Brightar coming up this next month. As Director Duffy talked about, um, we're playing Hill Murray on Friday. I am told that at Hill Murray, you need to come early. Um, you cannot show up on time. You have to come very early to get parking and to get a good spot. Um, and so I will have to come a little late um, as we're doing trick-or-treating. And then on November 13th, there is our senior social and I'm her I've heard they're going to have a nice turkey dinner. So, um, thank you to everyone who comes out and supports our community and thank you especially to our ed and open foundations for all their work supporting our students. >> Thank you, Director Felton. >> Well, just two quick things. Um, my daughter who's a girls tennis player did mention she didn't see you there. [laughter] So, I will tell her you apologize. You'll be there next year. And then just a shout out, uh, SSP Open, he doesn't ask for any recognition, but uh, the chairman Mark Duffy did a great job with the event and a lot of work and so I just want to give him a shout out and it was a nice day. Thank you, >> Vice Chair GL. >> Thank you. Um, I've got to cast my memory back a little bit here as well and remember all of the things that have happened because it's been a busy start to the school year. Um, at the walk-athon, I was really excited to see the number of young students who were there participating uh and all of the familiar faces that were at the walk-athon and the huge number of new faces. It was really nice to see people welcoming in families to our community and introducing folks to this tradition that has carried on for a very long time and the culture that we have in South St. Paul. Um, I also really have to shout out our nutrition services staff. A few weeks ago at a work session, Dory came and spoke to the finance facilities and long range planning committee and talked about all the work they do to really do a lot with very little funding for our students. Um, and I I'm honestly not surprised at how much our students eat, but [laughter] they just uh use those resources to their full advantage. And we learned quite a bit about the challenges that it takes to pull that off. Um, and to pull it off where lunch is the first thing that we hear about in the house over anything else. What was for lunch? And those lunches continue to get rave reviews. I have asked Dory for the Lain recipe because it's better than mine apparently. [laughter] >> So, nutrition services is just doing a fantastic job. And I have to thank all of our students um at the football games that I've been to. Everyone is so enthusiastic and polite and kind and you can really see that school spirit and pride show through. Um and you can see it in the young kids too that are emulating the older kids. So you are all good role models for the younger folks that are there because you know they want to be exactly like you. And finally, I was able to help take down the Ninja Warrior course at Caposia, and that was a lot of fun. Um, there were a bunch of kids there who told me all about their favorite parts of it and, uh, demonstrated all the different things that they like to do. It is a huge course and the kids are so excited about it. They love this challenge. It gets every kid to participate and um find a a personal challenge to work on. And they were also excited to tell me through the leadership project associated with it that they are trying to figure out how to support a classmate who is battling cancer and to really bring this back to how they can be engaged in their community and give back to someone. Uh without being prompted by an adult asking about this, they were telling me what they want to do to help their classmates. So, that's exactly what we want to see in our kids. Um, it's been a a great month here in South St. Paul. Lots going on. >> Thank you. Well, I know that Dr. Zamrino touched on in his update, but I want to thank the communications team, Lisa and Dette. This six times looks beautiful. I hope everyone in the community takes a look at it. And I would love to hear from people who haven't seen our brand refresh yet what they think. So, everyone check your mail if you haven't already. you know, it's I think it just looks gorgeous. And then kind of just touching, I know you always say we have the best kids and I also was at the taco feed at the crow on Saturday for the theater program and while I was eating I observed a senior come up to a sixth grader. it was revealed in conversation because they're both involved in theater and they were encouraging them to stay involved and to do more things at school and to think about show choir and I just thought it was so cool to see someone who is now at the end of their high school career trying to bring up like the next kids to kind of fill their shoes kind of speaking to like what are they doing unprompted and that's what we want and I just it was such a great moment I did genuinely tear up because I was like That's so cool. [laughter] So, thank you to everyone and all our kids. And that is the agenda for tonight. I would like a motion to adjourn the Monday, October 27th, 2025 school board meeting. >> So, move. Second. >> Thank you. Thank you. Any discussion? Um, all those in favor of adjourning, please say I. I. Opposed. The school board meeting is adjourned at 7:29. >> Thank you so much.