[Music] Prett good all right good evening everyone um I would like to call our November 25th 2024 school board meeting to order Lisa will you please call the role director T Felton here human here Weber here W Felton here Claflin here labery here and Cher rash here at 7 present at 6 p.m. all right if we could rise for the Pledge of Allegiance pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all all right I will ask for a motion to approve our meeting agenda for this evening as well as that of October 28th 2024 and the work session minutes from November 12th 2024 do I have a motion so moved second chair rash I'd like to make a motion if I could to amend the agenda to perhaps include a public comment section uh right after right before item 6A uh with whatever parameters or guidelines that you deem appropriate we have a motion for public comment do we have a second come on really really what the joke I'm going to ask that we be respectful in our audience I do have public comment that has been submitted um and I have a review of public comments that have been um submitted to present to our audience tonight respect us please respect you your job and second the motion so we can talk about it let's talk about it second okay all in favor please say I I I will to discuss this oh discussion I don't feel comfortable with it yeah [Music] okay all in favor please say I I I can I say I on the condition that you are able to present the public comments that have been made and that we ask that the public comments be something that's beyond what's presented sure okay that's three eyes I agree with with opposed n that the motion passes after 6A you said Tim uh yes no right I would before 6A or after your presentation in 6A whatever you feel is appropriate the presentation occurs under 3B yeah that would be then 3B after [Applause] 3B all right sh we will begin tonight with quality and action and I would like to invite Terry btoy uh up in front with some guests good evening South St Paul school board superintendent sanino just have to mention composure quality and action and look at the room fill up right so uh we're here tonight I'm going to invite Amy Winter up because we're going to talk about talent development and talent development is a program that was brought to us through the research and the work of Amy Winter and we're going to share with you what our launch has been the past three months both at Lincoln and kosia and just some kids to talk about their experience as well so Amy you want to come up and share some background thank you for giving me a couple minutes I did ask to just uh introduce this group because I wanted to just give a huge thanks um this work has been just some new work in the district and this work uh really could not have been done with the partnership and collaboration that's been happening um at both Lincoln Center and kosia and so we're going to highlight that tonight um I first obviously um both Terry and Teresa have been very involved in supporting this at the site level and then um Jake is our new hire that came in and he has been partnering with all of our staff in launching the talent development uh down at that K2 level and then uh Advanced academics at 3 through 5 and so just the partnership that teachers have been really supportive partnering um to make sure that we provide a service model that supports our kids when they're ready to excel um and then just the families who have really kind of received us and given us feedback to help make this be a success this year so I do hope that we just kind of take a moment to really celebrate this work and I'm excited to hear what the kids are going to share tonight so Jake [Applause] excellent um thanks and thanks for having me here I have I'm on the tail in the bronchitis so I have my emotional support tea with lemon I'm going to just put it right there um let me turn on my slides here that work all right first try um I just want to Echo what uh what what Amy has said too that um I was seeing people file in and I'm like these are all the people that are really making the program go um not to mention the kids but I see so many teachers here that have been so uh so collaborative and so welcoming and everybody says Jake how's it going in South St Paul I said everybody's so nice and it it it's really been both a Lincoln and a Capia um it's it's really been my pleasure to get to know everybody and be really welcomed by these staffs it's been it's been really really nice and equally thank thank you uh for welcoming me here to talk a little bit about what what we're up to in uh talent development and advanced academics so I want to give you a little bit of the big picture uh before we get to the main event which are these nice these nice kids that are going to talk about what they've been up to uh as you know we're uh as a district we're transitioning away from IB the primary years and middle years into something else and this is the something else talent development and what it looks like um thus far this year is um kind of beeno levels in K2 band and 35 band the K2 is what we call the primary enrichment program it's talent development and talent spotting and um the rationale is really to to start to backfill some of the skills that some of our kids don't come to school with um some of the experiences and some of the the high level thinking experiences that that some of our kids have and some of our kids don't it's also K2 is a way the the program that we have in kindergarten through second grade is a way that we can find those students who show potential who we can then include in advanced academics when they get to grades three and five and in grades 3 to 5 like I said it's it's what we're calling Advanced academics and it makes a nice acronym tdaa Tada and you can't have a program without a snazzy acronym right and the advanced academics um will be excuse me um both in literacy and Mathematics for kids that need an additional challenge and we know that that's an area that in both of our schools both our elementary schools and then middle school and high school that we need to focus upon we need to give kids more challenge kids that need more challenge with again the goal being finding those kids in K2 and then challenging those kids throughout their school careers um is it appropriate to just say jump in with questions if you have questions like sure I'm a teacher so I'm well used to being interrupted no you're not going to hurt my feelings so part of the the talent development Tada program that we're going to do involves a formal identification process for advanced Learners which will happen at the end of second grade will you can see the the details there I'm not going to read the slides to you and I promise I won't because that's one of my pet peeves and someone say I'm not going to read the slides and they read the slides you're you're all our readers I'm sure we'll use something called the coat test which is a test of cognitive ability and we use it as a universal screener so every second grader in April will will take this test it's about a hour and a half test and what it does is it provides us information about students um cognitive ability in literacy and in math and in thinking skills in general the beauty of it is that it's language agnostic which means that our our multilingual students can take the test at the same time it doesn't involve reading it doesn't involve language um it's it's a somewhat unique test that way we'll combine the the scor from the Kat test with fast levels uh and also weeda levels which is a measure of English proficiency and our multilingual students and then um curriculum based assessments that are embedded in wit and wisdom and in math expressions we'll take that as a whole picture and then we'll be able to identify students as being Advanced Learners to uh be as part of be a part of the advanced academics program in thir to 5th gr so again for the little ones um what we're up to is really talent development and talent spotting and we're looking to find kids especially to find kids from underserved populations students who don't normally show up on the fast test who we know have high cognitive levels because we know that students we have cognitive Advanced students we have quote unquote smart kids from every population right it's a normal distribution it's a that they come from every single population cultural religious linguistic backgrounds racial backgrounds we need to find those kids and we I use the Royal we and gifted Ed have traditionally done a very poor job of finding those kids especially are multilingual kids our students of color um kids who are homeless and highly mobile students who receive free introduced lunch um we haven't done a great job of finding those kids and that's what this program and the town spotting is really meant to do so what it looks like basically um you can see a nice picture of uh M gross kindergarten class at Lincoln uh wrapped attention and they were like that the entire time I can tell you as I was teaching the um I'm just finishing up the first four we cycle of whole group lessons in a thinking skills curriculum called the pets program starting after Thanksgiving I'll do four weeks of targeted small group interventions with kids um to again kind of start to backfill those experiences that some of our students come to come to school not having um and then I'll go back to four groups of whole four weeks of whole group lesson and then back to four four weeks of small group lesson again the whole group is um the talent spotting where we can start to find those kids and then the targeted small group is the skill development to backfill those skills for um our students with high cognitive ability but maybe low skill development yet can you give an example of what like those missing experiences might be yeah for sure so this uh this past week just as an example with the kindergarteners I was working with um I gave them random squiggle line drawings and then they were completing them uh making all kinds of some of you have experienc with kindergartens you can imagine what they what they were um first graders we were working on deductive reasoning so solving Mysteries by looking for clues in pict and then auditory Clues and logic puzzles and my second graders we were um using ven diagrams to classify objects with three and even four rings they'll be very happy to tell you so it's it's those kind of enrichment experiences that some of our kids already have some of our kids are oh yeah I know that but some of our kids it's a brand new thing and it's starting to develop those thinking skills and start to backfill those skills um to put everybody in a Level Playing Field as they go into that advanced economics station in thir through fifth grade thank you yeah any time of course so this year um the 3 through five um Advanced academics looks like uh book clubs literature groups with um in grade level specific bands and these uh young people behind me here are part of that they're going to come up and tell you about it just a minute which I'm very excited for them to do um eventually um we'd like I would like to we would like to expand again I'll use the Royal Wii um the 3 to5 Program into doing both literacy enrichment and math enrichment and um me and my staff it's just me are are researching ways and looking for ways to to make that math enrichment happen um expeditiously and uh responsibly and intentionally uh I envisioned the K2 program still um still being the exact same the talent spotting and talent skill development but expanding the 35 into doing U math as well and Frank to be perfectly Frank um well I'm only doing literacy because there's only one of me and I was able to do literacy and still see um every grade level at every Elementary School well okay I came from Minneapolis so I can say every elementary school but here I can say both Elementary School it's much easier commute so this is the this is the the the impact and I feel pretty proud actually and I feel pretty good about the fact that we've got the program up and running um by the middle of October from a brand new program and um these are the kids that I see each week um in the book clubs it's about 153 kids and um that I see every K2 classroom once a week also the thing that I the thing that I love and the thing that's closest to my heart as a teacher um is the equity connection for this talent development model Talent Development um lens of way of looking at uh Advanced learning is that that backfilling of skills I think is really important to me because like I said we we know that uh we know that advanced luners come from every population and we've got a lot of different communities a lot of different populations here in South St Paul and this is a way that I and the classroom teachers can start to look at our kids differently look at our kids in a way um to start to see their true Brilliance and then we can bring that Brilliance to the FL and develop it and work with it one thing an example of that that I'm excited to get started as soon as my book order comes in U is to start a Spanish language book club at both um Lincoln and at at kosia again to really think about because I want these kids to have I'm a bilingual teacher that's my background I I'll say that straight away that I I want uh our students who are B bilingual to become biliterate and to see the beauty becoming biliterate and to keep kids using their Heritage language using their family language their home language and then to feed directly into what we're trying to accomplish at high school with the B literacy seal and having that be recognized and be a part of advanced academics and having being bilingual and being biliterate to be every bit as as as as prestigious and as important and as noteworthy as passing IV tests in my opinion it's just that cool and it's just that important and it's just that it's just that that um that imperative on us as Educators to point that out and to make that make that real for kids so that's um plenty of me talking I didn't even need a sip of my emotional support I'm pretty proud of myself principal all right well thanks Jake um so Jake that he is the team he is the talent development team really and so the amount of kids that he has seen and had an impact on already is is really huge in in three months of work um and you're going to hear this from the kids too where does talent development fit in our system it's part of our puzzle um we have had teachers and intervention teachers who have worked their tail off to see kids who are below grade level get to grade level or see great growth and they do an an awesome job we have classroom teachers who have taken on Whitten and wisdom which is a massive curriculum that's super rigorous that will get us there okay we have needed some leadership in Talent Development I'm so old I remember gifted and talented right where kids left the room a few kids left the room they went down the hallway uh with Jane stasson bless her and um we didn't really know what it was doing to not that many kids this is more kids more impactful with a gentleman who was really passionate about these things too and um our kids are talking the talk so when we had them in to say hey would you like to be on TV and wear some nice clothing and we'll get you to basketball practice Jeremiah but um uh just to come in and talk we sat around and talked to these guys for 30 40 minutes and just the way that they're talking these days now I'm going to put them on the spot and they might have a moment like er uh well um but they're talking about having Socratic seminars at home around the dinner table which is really unique um and so I want to invite up our uh kids today and these are kosia kids but Lincoln kids are experiencing this too as you heard too so Jeremiah want you come on up he's in fifth grade and Cairo come on up you're in fifth grade too okay Hattie is right here and she's in fourth grade and joy come on up okay you guys can just kind of stand in a semicircle okay and I want you to sing your responses no I'm just kidding just kidding um so uh Jeremiah you're in fifth grade uh book clubs right yeah what do you like about book clubs um I like getting to explore like different types of books and like getting a understanding and like a deeper meaning of the book yeah you used a different term when you said type of book what did you call them um the genres different genres okay what's your favorite genre um probably graphic novel graphic novels yeah I hear these a big hit we I keep ordering more and more for our library you're welcome um anything else that like about like going to book club every week I mean you get to leave class I know that right but what else do you enjoy um I like getting to like notice different stuff that I I didn't notice in the book from the other people in my group that um see what they notice and like kind of build off of it yeah you're learning from each other aren't you mhm yeah do you have pretty good conversations mhm yeah awesome okay what book you reading right now um The Giver The Giver okay wonderful great awes awesome well thanks Jeremiah I want you we got a big crowd give him a round of applause let me ask you questions okay hi Cairo hello how are you good good you want to talk about book club yeah yeah I like the book called B CL it's extra reading and allows us to know words that we've never seen before getting into the habit of reading books and stopping at the right times we're making differences thinking ahead on what might happen next mhm you use uh you use a lot of big words Cyro right um what are inferences what does that mean to you stinking ahead of what might happen happen in the book right right based on what you're reading okay and then didn't weren't you the one that told me that you have little mini Socratic seminars are on your dinner table yeah yeah do you want to invite do you want to invite Dad up right now and have one of those sure no he dad already went down the stairs okay anything else you like about book clubs Cyro we get to leave class you get to leave class all right very cool all right let's let Hattie have a chance here okay all right there you go hi Hattie hi yeah what do you like about book clubs or what are you learning I like I like greeing Club because I love to read just like my mom I really enjoy all genres of books in the book club we have the opportunity to read many different books I am currently reading amina's voice and I can hardly put it down I look forward to the book club every week I really enjoy listening to my peers about the books they are reading I really like my teacher he is kind and super funny thank you yeah awesome way to go now we're going to have to adjust for Joy right Joy we're going to go over here okay get yeah and joy you if you know Joy she is APPL name she is the most cheerful person on the face of the planet aren't you yeah what do you like about book club Joy I like the read the reading club because the book has a lot of mysteries and we find out a lot of cool stuff I get very excited to come do you really yeah do you compare what you and Cairo read at home cuz they're brother and sister well not really because we have like different grade levels and like yeah it's like M's like mysterious and this is like mysterious too so like kind of sounds like a commonality there but you got to make sure Cairo stays up on his reading though okay Joy okay Terry I love that she's sort of correcting you that no the we're at different grade levels I'm sorry they're learning discourse too it's okay to agree with people taller than you okay right uh any questions from you guys for any of the kids who have experienced a question yeah go ahead you get to suggest what books you get to read for book club yeah somebody want to speak on that go ahead Joy go yeah we get to like pick like when we first went to the reading club Mr Canal gave some op some options of books and then we got to rate them and then we just um he just figured it out and that's why we have this book club club and we just find out a lot of stuff about it awesome that's awesome good thank you any other questions are there kids from other classrooms in your book club somebody want to take that one on go ahead Haddie step up there you go yeah there's many different kids from my class in it there from um there's actually quite a few in fourth grade there's um I know a lot of my friends do it and so a lot of people do do it not just from your class but from other classes yeah from a lot of other classes grades yep now has this sparked your interested in Reading other things beyond the book club and other interests for you to start reading um I kind of because it's letting me like kind of figure out what it is so like if I like mystery or if I like just whatever type there is so it helps me like um find different stuff that I like mhm when Jeremiah and I were talk about his book he really wanted to talk about the other book he was reading though what else are you reading um it's called manga yeah it's a graphic novel too right yeah it's graphic novels so if we come to you guys for money for graphic novels um you'll know why these guys right here okay all right you guys uh thanks so much you guys let's give the kids a round of applause all right they are absolutely loving it and you know what back in the oh hi Haddie do you have more to say you know as I was alluding to back in the day I mean I was a fourth grade teacher I remember having book clubs in my classroom right there is so much to teach these days and wit and wisdom is a monster and it's really rigorous and our teachers are doing an awesome job implementing it they really are so having the leadership of Jake uh and hopefully one Jake in our building one day I don't know can you maybe two Jakes we could have two Jakes right um this is really a need what's that science was last time they're working on cloning they're working on cloning yes um but you know some of the reflections we've got from families over time is kind of missing that my kid can go go go how can you let my kid go go go and I don't mean leave the district I mean academically they can really they can do and we just have to set the bar here and they will reach it too and so I just want to thank Amy and I want to thank Jake and all these kids for taking such a great interest in this program so thank you so much question quick for the sort of you know adults as a part of this program for students who participate this through the elementary school what's kind of the next step when they move over to the secondary building and how does that sort of align with our curriculum through there that's uh and I know that's that's like next step and when this is at sort of full maturity but how does that align no it's a great question and and that's um something that's it's definitely on my plate and we're looking to um make make a not just a K5 but a K12 Continuum of advanced academics to to see what we're doing in middle school and I've started working with the math team a bit in Middle School school to figure out how we can move kids through advanced academics in elementary school seamlessly into middle school and then how that can connect into the IB PSO College in the schools whatever the advanced academics the kids are going to be engaged in in high school um preview of Coming Attractions I love that I love that question that means um so how does this identify the kids who is whose intelligence is in their hands um not just the book paper pen learners but the kids that this is where their smarts are another great question and that's U part of the three-year plan that I've worked up is um that eventually the the advanced academics will not just be literacy and math but that it will involve defin especially the Arts because we know we have kids who are talented in I was going to say who are talented in drama just can I just say dramatic is who are are talented with in movement and in Fine Arts in dance and all of these things and the problem is cramming it all within a school day for one so perhaps it can be extended into Community Ed it can be part of an after school program that um we can have kids uh um identified as part of our our core school day and then connect them with services that will that will that will enrich and keep them going in those those Pursuits because you're 100% right so that will be addressed yes we we've had a lot of conversations around we can do a lot of work on trying to find the right metrics to identify students but if we're not serving them we're not doing any good with that information and so I think again it's always that Balancing Act of providing really quality um and also like how do we serve our kids and where they're at knowing that Talent looks different uh with each individual so we definitely have been having some conversations on how we can stretch that out Beyond just math and reading absolutely yep we agree with you important excellent all right I just like to make a comment two of my kids have enjoyed and I hear about Mr canas at least like three times a week and word Wizards and all the little jobs that they get they are so pumped about it I'm hearing so much about the giver uh so I am super excited to see this continue to grow in our district and I mean if I'm seeing that excitement just like from two kids I can imagine the 564 you're reaching out and it continuing out oh thank you that's very kind well it is very exciting I know Terry principal VY and I have talked a lot about some of the things he's heard people leaving the district because we haven't had and this is one of the things that he and I talked a lot about um so I'm excited for you Terry that this is coming to fruition because you know we need to support our kids who are struggling but we need to push for the kids who are ready to go and as um Nikki mentioned um you know that looks different ways for different kids and so it's really exciting and I you know we'll see over time but we are coming in over projection in both of our elementaries and so have can't help but think this is part of it when kids are going home and sharing stories like that on a daily basis uh so thanks for your contributions uh Mr Canalis it's been great and Terry for your advocacy and Amy as well for pushing us to do this it's great and thank as well let's give them a round of [Applause] applause all right uh before we move on um my vice chair has pointed out that we maybe didn't do AC cross all the points to make sure that we did uh pass the agenda so I am going to make a motion to uh pass the amended agenda do I have a motion so moved second any further discussion all in favor please say I I opposed that the motion carries all right um up next Lisa can I have you pull my slide for do the the minutes what minutes yeah it was the agenda and the minutes were all together the updated agenda oh the updated agenda okay uh Lisa will you so in advance of us uh amending sort of the agenda we had created a summary of the stakeholder comments to the board um we did have quite a few this go around and so wanted to make sure that we were providing sort of a trend and summary of what we as board members were hearing from our community go ahead Lisa um so there are three big trends that we'd heard some information about um we still had um one individual come in in person to discuss a maze Works curriculum with us at our work session which is the time that we regularly do our comments to the board um we had one public comment submission um expressing some concern about some school safety issues and then we've heard some feedback from the superintendent's contract on both a positive and negative sign which I think I imagine has brought many of you here um so the big summary around those concerns about the um superintendent contracts contract is request for transparency um there were separation benefits as a common theme and thread um that was sort of brought up um multiple people brought forward to us that we still have bargain groups that are working on expired contracts and unsettled agreements and then con um some concerns about Statewide budgetary shortfalls that are happening in a lot of other schools um and then there were our concerns about academic outcomes uh perception that the salary is not in alignment with our community concerns about student and teacher retention and then preference uh had been stated for the next board to be making this decision um and belief that the superintendent had not yet demonstrated um the effective leadership that they they were um looking for in their comments other comments in favor um were around the investment in High Caliber talent that is essential for the success of our district um that it is important to pay competitive market value for a key leadership positions um within the district and then a strong belief in continuing the initiatives the superintendent has started with desire uh to see those efforts to completion um and then other comments in favor around uh concerns about disruption in the leadership and critical timeline would risk setting the district back and then approving the contract um is a practical decision as hiring a new superintendent would incur um greater costs and require negotiating a similar contract anyway is some of those statements that we heard so in advance of that I wanted to provide a summary of the board process um by Statute the board can begin negotiations with the superintendent um after July 1st in the year prior to the contract expiring um if the board intends to release the superintendent notice must be given by January 1st and the board entered into negotiations pretty early on as we were watching many other districts enter their negotiation with their superintendent and start settling contracts at really astronomical ballooning rates and I will just be upfront as board chair that really concerned me for the health for our district I was very concerned when I started watching District settle at numbers that I was not comfortable with um up next so um the board um we conducted a market study to narrow down um how we were going to base this um in kind of the negotiations process we aren't an Eden Prairie we aren't a Woodburry or a Lakeville and so we narrowed that down to districts that were as similar to us as we could sort of create here are compensation packages for West St Paul Inver grve Heights North St Paul and Richfield which we felt were districts that were kind of in Greater alignment with the size of our um School the scope of job of the superintendent and the size of the cabinet and the number of students that they serve um and so the proposed contract uh aims to bring compensation closer to the average um of this narrow Market study uh benefits language is modeled after U Minnesota School Board Association language and is in kind to other District contract language those other districts that we were looking at um there's fair amount of misinformation that I think had been spread through social media through this period of time upon um leaving uh sou St Paul schools uh the district would only provide coverage only if the superintendent was not in a position that also required insurance in the same way that if any of us were to leave an employer and go to another employer that provided an insurance benefit that has to be your primary insurance carrier that is by based on law okay um and negotiations for this contract did not take resources away from other bargaining groups through this process as that is a separate process the uh bargaining groups negotiate through um HR and finance negotiations between the superintendent happen between the superintendent and the board chair okay um the major priorities the board had put forward through this process it is um for both um the board and the superintendent to feel valued in that process um to be aligned with average compensation of similar siiz districts in that narrow Market study um from smaller first ring suburbs within the twi Twin Cities with similar School sizes and populations um and then to also be based on the performance evaluation which shows the superintendent to Be an Effective and highly effective in the categories that we ranked them on and that we have a summary of that coming up later tonight as well and the board was also interested in providing incentives for longevity we do not have an interest in becoming a district that is a revolving door in which we become the first stop for someone in their superintendent journey and then they get that experience and leave us right away um and we have seen some districts who package that in such a way that they are that sort of revolving door and I think our Community Values stability um and so and then growth in some of our um academic achievement our graduation stand and consistent attendance demonstrated growth for our district during this time all right so those are the summaries from um the comments to the board we had received an email through the form and in the in-person um session last time per um Tim Felton's um addition to our agenda to do public comment we still have a fair amount of business that is on the board um I would ask that we consider the information that was there um we have heard a lot of this information and um hearing the same information over and over again I think um is uh a challenging use of all of our time um but um at this point your agenda stuff what this is important why don't you move your other agenda stuff down I am offering you right now what we add so I will provide uh 30 minutes of uh comment to the board at this time um for us to be able to do that as we work through do say two minutes per person you want to make a motion for that sure I will make a motion that no one person can speak more for more than two minutes I have a second all in favor I I I post that the motion carries okay it is 638 and we turn the floor to you hi for most of you or for those of you that don't know me I worked for the district as a teacher for 23 years um retired very very very successful career loved every almost every minute of it um my question to you board members is why do you suppose all these people are [Applause] here do you have a I just want to ask how can we move forward with with raising somebody's rates when I've been without a contract for 15 months and in June it's going to be hypocritical how many more months 3 years and what do you how do you think you might not have a revolving door with your staff right J nobody care John should they be introducing themselves I'd ask that uh comment to the board uh this is your period of time to express how you feel and to bring your concerns um Wendy Felton has requested that um we identify when uh we come up for public comment so um my name is Carson Dorne um I have a few questions to drors and brino here um so first of all is there really staff members who are um running with no contract at this point yes or no yes okay thank you um and that is part of your negotiation is that correct yes or no we negotiate with all of our bargaining units right so but you are the main driver of negotiating Mrs people the board sets the parameters for negotiations and then we have a team that does bargaining on both sides still finds in goes into your bucket of things to do correct okay so that is not done yet um you are also one of the people who um bought in brought in a new curriculum especially the maze which you know there was a little bit of a controvers with his books correct yes or no mhm okay so I don't really know what this Rush is in terms of negotiating the contract John thank you we had the conversation maybe about a month ago for half an hour over the phone and thank you for calling me back you never did thank you Mr uh zambino um well must be Mr yeah it can happen right no problem all I would absolutely call you back if I knew you call me so bottom line is there's new two new board members coming in what is the rush to now squeeze it through a hole and get it done I know John you're a reasonable person there's literally what five weeks left not even six weeks left until a new board member two new board members coming in so my proposal don't throw it out but at least table it for some people who maybe have some feedback and I know you said multiple times we work really hard on the new curricula on the new school district uh contract here for dror it's two minutes okay thank you I I think I'm done I mean this is just hopefully we can table this uh until the new board members are in and that's all what I have to say thank you hi my name is zanel Palma castano I work at Lincoln Center um I understand the idea of comparing rates to our neighboring districts I'm curious as a staff member if my rates are also being compared to our surrounding districts I know many of us make significantly less they are and we do not receive full family coverage which most of our kids go to school at the schools that we work at so is that being considered yeah I mean I might look to chair rash to speak to that on the our bargaining practice has been to do a market stud for all positions um and I think we have been doing that for the last 2 years under our new HR Director I can assure you that we are making significantly less than West St Paul Inver Grove Heights Woodberry North St Paul we could look at Richfield since that was also included in this list we are not making comparable to them and we are substantially underpaid yet we are sacrificing that because we care about the students that we support hi my name is Candy evanov and I'm president of the Paris Union and I just want you to know that my parents who work very hard work alongside temps from a temp agency that make much more money than the pairs do that some have been here 20 and 25 years and that's really hits a sore spot with them and I know my myself I'm in my 32nd year I started out at $9 an hour and I'm up to 18 something that's 32 years hi I'm Olivia Smith I'm a special ed teacher at the high school and Paras are essential to my job I tell the Paras I'm the mouth and they are the arms and the legs and it doesn't work in my role without them and I have seen Paras from temp agencies experience greater rates of turnover than the Paras that are employees of this district and I really want to support them in staying here because as other people have mentioned they are sacrif iing higher rates of pay better insurance for their family members to be here and I want to prioritize them because I know a lot of Paras that have multiple jobs and aren't able to be at school board meetings at night because they are taking care of children or family members or working so I really want to emphasize the importance of Paras and how important it is that they have a fair and just contract [Applause] good evening board members Dr zambino my name is an Kahan and I am a lifelong resident of this crazy community and um as a former board member I said in sympathy with the decisions you have to make today in addition I'd like to say just for clarity I'm also Pete Schultz's sister um and I am proud of the work that he does on a daily basis has done and will do for the kids in this District I love you little brother proud of you and I will just say I'm not uh on staff you I think can get enough feedback should you choose to reach out to staff members to get that and um assess Dr zambino's performance I would just encourage you to get to a solution because I think if you approve this contract this evening sounds like that seems the direction that you're going you're going to find a community that will be in not in support of whatever initiative that you're trying to move forward in the next couple of years if it's a levy if it's a bond we need you you need us right you need us to pass those and I would just encourage you to find a solution I don't and I shared with John I don't have a problem with Dr zambino I have a problem with this community not being in a position to support the kids of this town and let's work towards a solution and I don't think that means to vote for a contract tonight let's find out a way to get it done thank [Applause] you hi I'm Liza um I'm a Pera at Lincoln Center and I just wanted to kind of I'm sorry I forgot your name back off her um I'm a Pera at Lincoln and I know zambino knows my story but I was diagnosed with cancer in January 2023 and I have to work a second job to like make ends meet and so it's really hard I go home I love my job so much I love the kids so much I've beat cancer to like be back with them and I'm so tired every day and I have to go work a second job because I don't get paid enough and it's just really difficult and so I just wanted to like come up here and share that that's like an actual story that like that's not she's not making that up like there's so many I know so many people that I work with that also have to work second jobs and their situations are different too and everyone has families and kids and we're all just really tired and it's hard to go online and see Inver grve and West St Paul they're making three four more dollars an hour than us and our contract is 16 months behind like it just really feels like we're not cared about and I know that everyone that I work with puts so much heart and soul into their job and we care so much about the kids like we love them so much and everything we do is for them and we show up every single day for them that's all I wanted to say I my name is Jose Castillo I have a kosia student middle uh seventh grade of middle school and a high high schooler uh and respect to you Mrs umino and to the board it sounds to me like it comes down what I'm learning cuz I don't know much about this contract stuff but I'm here just to learn and listen and observe it sounds like like it comes it's about money uh and maybe respect but I just found out two days ago that there's a a bunch of cafeteria workers that work in the cafeterias and that um they don't get paid or something I think when they're off school or some of that part-time or working not full-time or something like that so I don't know if I need to research more that and then I know there's situation with I'm learning about staff or teachers not being underpaid or something and I'm thinking if maybe we should look into everyone's positions at uh not just your position but everyone else all those the all the schools and district and teachers and those work in that cafeteria and look into them as well and not forget about them too because it sounds like you get a raise maybe they shall get one you know you know respectfully or or or if we're behind somehow let's look into that we have a lot of the communities get together here but I think maybe we should put it on pending status or something for the research and figure out if we can come to a conclusion with peace and it comes down I'm learning about the community but like um I don't know if it's true about the teachers or the cafeteria workers or they don't get paid or they're doing a contract or something while Thanksgiving coming up they don't get paid Wednesday Thursday Friday and Monday or so I just wanted to come up here and say maybe look into that other people staff who are representing that they're not getting paid where they're supposed to get paid and then also like the sports facilities I heard that something about city of sou St Paul and this District are both working together now or something you guys teamed up what can we do for sports you know are you renting out the gyms you know to the other sports players stuff like that you know so I I just want to come with respect and see if we can take care of all the other workers too thank you thank you board members I'd just like to say something briefly my name is Martha Terrace I am a special education parah at caposa elementary and I have an adorable 8-year-old child at Lincoln Center uh Mr rash I just want to say I take some Umbridge at one uh point you made up there on the screen you said that uh these are separate processes between the two unresolved collective bargaining units and then Dr zambros they may be separate processes but they draw from the same pot and that pot is taxpayer pockets and the taxpayers are speaking very firmly and directly about what they want tonight and I do ask that you respect that as you take your vote so thank you hello uh board members my name is Jesse Rock I've been a teacher at sou St Paul for 10 years uh one thing I could say is that although I've never been in Sal St Paul before teaching here that I care care a whole lot about this community uh Tim I just want to thank you for giving the community a voice I don't go to many Schoolboard me meetings but I'm at attendance is a little higher than usual tonight so thank you for giving us the voice uh to be here uh I would just like to say the reason why I'm talking right now and the reason why I'm here tonight is just uh for a lot of people here John you talk about the salary compensation and comparing those things and I and it seems like for the Paras we've only heard from the Paras tonight we haven't heard from clerical and we haven't heard from maintenance whose contracts are still under negotiations but it seems like they're you know negotiations could be maybe favoring a little more their way but I think the biggest reason why we're here is not a matter of Dr zanino but it's just the amount of priority you're putting on certain positions in this District by voting yes on this tonight it is sending a very clear statement to everybody that is in attendance and the South St Paul community that this position that we are voting on is more important than peras more important than maintenance and more important than clerical that is I mean that that's why I'm here and it's [Applause] not there you go hey Amber hi board members and do amberino my name is Amber gay I'm a special ed pair at the high school and the adviser for EO and I just want to say um there have been a lot of really great points raised by um other employees of the district I'm a lifelong South St Paul resident and a graduate of 2003 this is my seventh year working in the district and I just have to say like I have never had such an acute feeling of um being undervalued in my entirety of working here the fact that we've worked for so long with a contract but this is what takes precedent um is really the issue here not that the superintendent's position is not a valuable one but it's a very top down model instead of bottom up and as you can see the people who are at the bottom so to speak are really powerful people and our district would not function without them and my greater concern is that this is going to be like some sort of a spark a push as we're teetering on this edge of um being underpaid and overworked that our students are going to be the ones that suffer when we have to leave our roles to prove a point that we deserve to be paid fairly um and it's not that other people don't deserve to be paid fairly it's just who is the priority what is the priority um who's being valued who's being undervalued I can't stress this enough like I have two kids that go to this District I work two jobs for this District um I'm in school full time to give more of my labor and my life to this District there's no reason why I should be working without a contract [Applause] right good evening my name is Tim Canal I'm a resident and teacher in sou St Paul and I appreciate the opportunity to speak thanks school board for all that you do Dr zamino for your service to the community uh I would just say the points that I would like to make are are that my job as a teacher as a classroom teacher is uh I'm only able to be my best teacher when I work in tandem with Paris so I come out in complete support of uh the Paris and all the service workers I understand the board's frustration that so much of what you do is tied into uh privacy laws and legal concerns and I think that's really really true I do believe that that's true like everywhere all school boards do that and I think the feelings that have been expressed here suggest that we really need to moving forward focus on this idea of curiosity not everyone here with concerns has personally attacked anyone and if you have been victims of a personal attack that is an awful feeling and no one should have to be in public service or work in schools and be victims of a personal attack that is not okay but my job is harder right now because the adults that I interact with are frustrated and they feel like they're not listened to and so I think we need to commit ourselves to a curiosity we are we are long moved past the previous administration we are long moved past our our our new ideas and what we should be committed to is a curiosity in which people feel heard and listened to and there's a lot of people here there must be something missing there and I understand that everybody in the room is frustrated about things we're frustrated there we're listening to these same things over and over again but then the question is in my class if I try really hard and the students didn't learn it I need to turn back to myself and say what do I need to do differently so I hope that we all can recommit ourselves to an idea of curiosity because there are so many people that are passionate about this District passionate about these kids and right now we are wasting so much energy not at the kids so I'm really hopeful that moving forward we commit ourselves to being curious about each other certainly being respectful to each other but understanding that we are not going to move forward with the goals that we all share if we are frustrated with each other thank you for your time hello um hello my name is Stephanie I was a grad here in 2018 I've also lived here my whole life um I'm a special ed um Pera and sadly I'm sad to say that I'm from here today um as of today I put in my resignation I threw away my girl your own Grand because this school district does not value Paris it doesn't it really doesn't and as a woman of color that is so discouraging so discouraging this is my second year going in and I can't even finish and I feel ashamed of myself at times but but I'm not going to be cuz this is not my fault as a student you have failed me as a staff member you have failed me as someone who lives here this city has failed me I don't know how many other students you are failing but care for us listen to us not in one year out one year listen to us care for for us advocate for us because the students that we work with if they don't have consistency they can't succeed they can't and they won't and that's something that we are just going to be part of this cycle this educational cycle that makes students who are who are in the sunro programs who are in special ed classes or have a par or maybe our all students fail so care for us take care of us the same way that we take care of the these students here in this city and I'm going to keep advocating I'm going to keep being here because this is my city and students deserve more teachers deser deserve more parents deserve more I look at teachers and I'm like and just like that women of color also get cut off hi I just have one thing to add I've been president of the Paris for a decade plus and I've always been told that a healthy carryover of a budget is 15% today we stand at 29.267562 need to be giving that out good evening my name is Mark Westfall I'm a parent of a student in the district a resident and a teacher in the district there's so many things to Echo tonight um as a former School Board member I've been through the decision you've been through as well with not hiring or rehiring a superintendent and also hiring one and looking at all the data that you guys are what I would humbly ask free to do is table this discussion and until the future yes I understand that there are ramifications for that but the public has been finding out this information with 4 days notice what's in the contract the community deserves to be able to have input and understand what the terms of this negotiation are and to see what the findings are that you've come up with for your comparable study that's the responsible thing to do the teachers in this District also need to have a voice at the table during this to my understanding the teachers union was not cons ulted or asked what their thoughts were on this that's problematic if the community doesn't have a form to be able to look at what the terms are to be a true stakeholder if that's what our district has said for the past three and a half years we're going to listen to the stake put or stakeholders input also putting a 30- minute timeline when you have a crowd that is this big there are more than 125 people here tonight they want their voices heard I'd also urge you to extend this time to let those voices be heard by your community thank you hi good evening my name is Peter Schultz this is my 26th year uh teaching at Sal St Paul I'm uh a father I have a son sitting right here I told him to get his elbows off the table and look straight look people in the eye uh and I very proud to be a salul St Paul guy and it's been very easy to work in salul St Paul for My Career because you always felt that you were doing what's right that we worked for a place in which students were at the center and it was a community- based uh school that isn't really the feeling we get right now so all of the things that we're talking about here uh of our Paras uh not having a contract uh our clerical our custodians I just would like to point out that these are the people that live in our community these are our neighbors these are my neighbors these are my friends these are uh the parents of children that I have in class um and as a community-based place the reason why this works is because it's been a communitybased place that's been the priority that doesn't seem to be the message um so I also would encourage you to table the discussion over this contract and encourage you to put some time and effort into negotiating particularly with our clerical staff our schools don't function if Jolene Mayock and Chris neart aren't working we can't function our our Fields our uh outdoor uh facilities don't work unless we have custodians to clean and take care of it and then go home and pay taxes in this community which most of them do and I would say the exact same thing about our Paras that we haven't gotten to that point with our neighbors and friends that that seems to be a misplaced priority and I would encourage you to reconsider and table this decision tonight thank you [Applause] respectfully believe there's time for one more speaker if someone else wants to come [Music] hi my name is Beth I've lived in this my entire life generation for Generations back I just have a question you you've taken the time to listen to what people are feeling are you going to be able to respond at all are are you able to respond at all and or are we going to get you know that everybody's done the talking and thank you and then and then and then nothing know we're wondering excuse me what your reaction to this can be and when we can expect to maybe hear something thank [Applause] you I think it's really difficult for us to be able to respond because the part of being on the school board is that we only have power as a board and so all of us have our own thoughts and feelings of all the information and viewpoints that you've brought to us and so I don't think we're in a place where we can respond as a board without it being a vote that is how each of us individually and then as a board represent what's happening it's well [Music] said make a motion to table it till December it's okay to table s PL still I don't know where she is right now what's the process when is the December meeting the 9th the business meeting is the first or the second we only have because we only have the one yeah so it's what's the calendar date Brian I think it's the 9th yeah um can I ask for where we are on the uh esps so that that is answered in a public way yeah so you know it is I first want to say you know I was a as an educator I'm a special ed teacher and I taught English to students who are new to Country and so um pars have always been an essential part of the work that I've done I've tried to share that over and over again I think when I look around the room and I see a lot of our esps um you've seen me in your spaces in your classrooms with the kids whether that's on the ground with them or whatever I've never acted above that work I never would because it's such important work uh clearly there's a need for some work around you know relationship and repair uh on some things and I'm committed to doing that work I think it's appropriate I will share um a lot of the reason where this is a very unique time with negotiations we had a situation where the legislature added a lot of money they were saying they were going to add historic funding and so the the the notion was pause and go slow so we can see what money the state comes with and so we held on the teachers at the teachers request to wait to see what the state gave and then once that came in we gave our teachers the biggest pay raise they've had probably ever so it was 10% over two years uh and that set the metric for every other negotiation okay sorry Joe it was it was four and three plus steps right okay sorry Joe I I I'm I'm not at the table so like maybe Joel would be better to speak to that I I'm not at the negoti table I work with the board to establish parameters to give to the team I contract please yeah respectfully please let so I'm just saying it was a delayed process because typically when we're negotiating our teachers contracts we don't know what the funding is from the state historically the state has given 2% we usually come back and I'm saying we meaning like the large Wei around the Metro historically it's 2% 2% 2% does that seem fair Dr Burke that's I'm not no I'm not blaming anybody I'm trying I'm settlement I think it was a settlement yeah yeah yeah there was a in the middle that was not on us okay well I apologize on that we've been short staff so thank you for the correction I am not staff we can go into Cuts yeah I'm just I'm just again I'm not placing blame and I apologize if that's way I'm just saying it was a slower process because we were all waiting to see what the historic funding was going to be from the state and then we got that funding and we gave our teachers a historic pay raise and our board's been supportive of those same parameters for everybody else since we uh went into that and I would actually say I would be thrilled if we give I'd be fine right here tonight say give me the same parameters we gave our teachers because we are obligated by Statute to do this I don't want this for me and not for you I do not then table it to when I I don't know if the floor is closed for comments uh my name is Nan Quinn I'm part of the clerical Union I think for a lot of us um some of the figures that were put out there um just our draws dropped we had a meeting a couple weeks ago and some of our members are paying over $600 a month for health insurance for their families um and we don't have the salaries to to make a living and pay for health insurance for families um over the years I've been here for 20 years we have seen so many of our positions being pulled out of the union and given like $220,000 raises so the district knows that we are underpaid when they are taking our hope is that our jobs be pulled out of the union and we get a bump in pay it's the only way we get a decent wage around here so we have seen a lot of that over the years and so I think for a lot of our members just looking at the numbers um if I'm sorry but two years in the district and Longevity pay to me that was an eyeopener after 15 years I got $500 for a longevity pay and so I think the numbers just seem too for some of us that have talked to be astronomical at this point for somebody who's been here not 3 years yet I've been here 20 and this is not it's just very disappointing thank you for your time I mean mind I don't know that that's going to resolve anything hi I'm uh Chris Bach and oh we're done can can can I just ask that this is the last for the night you are welcome to you welcome I want to go over the time but thank supp uh I've been teaching here 34 years and I I love teaching here I love the community I love working with staff and you know as a as a husband as a father as a coach as a teacher I'm best when I listen I really am and when I don't I'm at my worst my wife could tell you you know listen to me kind of thing right just had a conversation with my basketball team tonight I I wanted to listen to them because we had an issue that we were you know disagreeing about right and so I feel like from what we've heard tonight I don't hear a tone of we don't like Dr zenino he's not doing his job it's we think he loves it here and wants to be here I know that since I know that I'm just saying I really feel like when I'm in my classroom and I and I say I'm going to do it this way and I don't listen to my students that's when they just look at me and they turn to me and they say why you know they get frustrated with me and so just hearing what I've heard tonight as a board who you know we elect you to kind of represent us and we appreciate what you do right and I and I don't like the way we've spoken to you tonight the way we've shouted out to you I don't think that that's the way that these meetings should go right but I I wish that you know we were acting better but at the same time hey there's a lot of people saying the same thing and they just want you to listen and I think that would be very wise to do just because we want you to represent us and that's what I want you to hear maybe just listen to what you're hearing and thank you for listening okay thank thank you um I want to ensure that I don't violate any sort of open meeting laws and anything around there um I think that's an area that frequently boards can kind of get themselves in trouble um I am going to take a moment and kind of check in with my board members individually before we sort of Advance through the parameters of this and sort of discuss where we are at so I ask for your patience um I also ask that we have other moments on our agenda tonight that I want to make sure that we can kind of work our way through so if you can give me a moment to kind of like work through my board and see where we are at and kind of have a discussion and in a few moments maybe I'll give you a response about where we are at is that acceptable Crown thank you we need a motion to recess no I'm not say so I'm going to start down here go into recess we need recess I'm not going to recess I'll just I'm just going to pause for a moment and talk to people individually and then I will resume I'm not going anywhere I'm not going to hide from anyone we're all right here I I would do a [Music] [Music] recess I'm not CRI I get why they want well that's why I'm just saying I know right hopefully brought they [Music] hav the Flor in your pocket immediately Che retr to retrop July 1y soon what would be your [Music] [Music] but it's like 4 what do we do at January 1st day guys you can't come down I don't want to do I will report this is all on camera forer and I don't control [Music] that MBA their [Music] C basically is putting take it [Music] um I don't know tell we know that put [Music] [Music] it should be following and been doing okay all right how much time um we're going to recess for 10 okay to see oh boy [Applause] my all right folks um I want to express a little appreciation to Lisa brander who tells me that uh I have to break to rec uh I want to express a little bit of gratitude to Lisa brand Decker who's looking out for us making sure um we keep our board meetings legal would like to thank Lisa brand Decker um for making sure that we keep our um meetings legal and above board um seems that the required time for these discussions is going to mean that we need to um make a motion to recess we will turn in 10 minutes okay um like to make a motion to recess the meeting so move second all in favor I I post that the motion carries if we could um convene next door uh briefly in recess can all of us or can only three of us no it's only a couple at a time so um actually is this room still e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e and then we will [Music] be you have a gamble I do here comes NY and [Music] Monica yeah I know yeah all right motion that talked about okay all right uh I'd like to make a motion to reopen our meeting moved second all right um I want people to know that um your board members have heard you we have spent a great deal of time listening tonight um and this is I think a complex process for all of us to make our way through um and so um at this time um we would I would like to make a motion to table the contract until the December 9th meeting chair rash chair rash we'll need to actually table the motion when we get to that business item I can't do that ahead of time okay that's what I intend to do everyone that's where I'm heading um there's a couple other pieces around that um that's what I intend for us to do in the interim in the time between now and then the board is going to meet with the administrative team to to set parameters for all of our bargaining groups that have yet to have settled contracts that does not mean we will have settled contracts by the 9th for the vote but we will have been able to do the efforts that we can make on our part for those processes to follow okay sir this is probably out of order but I just everything is so far right now so carry on no it really I was I was making a joke carry on two contracts ago with this HR that was here before Mr Milner we went in as a negotiating team put a lot of time into it and the first thing that was said to us is the board already decided what you're getting and I'm like why are we negotiating in good faith I want to make sure let let me respond to that it is with this board the board takes a look at our budget we meet with the administrative team and then we set parameters around what we can fit within that budget and I what I am making a commitment to and I'm also stating that commitment on behalf of seven other adults we will meet between now and the 9th to make sure that we have parameters set for all set unsettled contracts okay thank you thank you very much okay all right Lisa tell me where we're at right now I think it's highlighting the works great awesome I would like to turn to Vice chair an kunan [Laughter] [Applause] to come on an we're bringing you back no to give us an update of the other things we've been up to it's actually going to be me well you're part of it so so first part was our prior just to start back with the work session that we held on the 12th um at that meeting there were some updates on events that are perent to board members the student Representatives um were unable to be there but we heard a um explanation of some of the plans that we are ahead for our student representatives to um reach out to other students and figure out what the course regist ation process is like and what courses would uh students be interested in uh we'll hear that in the future and we spent most of the work session on uh the review of our superintendent through the executive committee the evaluations that we've proposed and you'll hear that presentation uh later tonight and then we had a work session today before the business meeting and I arrived late so I'm going to ask Monica Weber to fill in uh what we did at the work session today so thank you you want me to introduce you by someone else's name in the audience as well sure absolutely one I used to be Vice chair so I mean it's all it all works um um so again so the work session that we had prior to this meeting um we talked about the most exciting thing I think for this meeting which is the new courses that we're going to get at the high school um and so we did an overview and the process for the new courses at the high school um that I think are just going to be fabulous so we did a whole presentation on the new coursework uh we did committee updates um B we did committee updates for the various committees that we sit on you can hear individual committee updates when individual members um give their give their updates um we talked about Community engagement of which we have been doing all week and continue to do this evening so we talked about um Community engagement um and that was that was it so that was our meeting that we had before this meeting excellent which was also a public meeting thank you both all right um next I'm going to turn to Dr Zam bro to provide some highlights from around the district great thank you chair rash always fun to highlight the great things going on around the district uh obviously our last meeting we canvased our election results I wanted to say congratulations to our new board members um Paul Cummings and Ryan Duffy coming on I'm excited to work I know Ryan comes from a great family I'm getting to noal so I haven't gotten to noal as well and then congratulations again to Monica Weber for coming back in as our incumbent who won as well so that's a four-year term starting in January uh also like really excited about the strategic planning work we've been that we started so um we're we're listening to stakeholders this is uh something that's really important to me and and we've spent a lot of time this fall uh listening to staff students families Gathering good information around uh what people are hoping for what's going well what's not going well and where we want to be in the next 5 years and then now all of that data has been compiled and shared with the Strategic plan steering committee which is St staff families community and uh we're sifting through that that committee is sifting through this data to to work towards identifying uh what where do we want is our is our current Mission still accurate Vision our strategic direction for sure is not our strategic plan expired kind of when that uh pandemic window so that's uh needing a refresh and it's just been so powerful to listen to the conversation in this room I've seen some people who were at that table uh heartfelt tears I mean people care about this this community and this district and so as we kind of move forward I hope together as one we're really looking to this process to help uh Define where we want to be and we're already on the path to great things but this will help us even more uh speaking of that our six times uh shout out to Lisa we hear her name a lot and Denette uh they did a fantastic job so hopefully everyone saw the the six times in your mailbox um love the just all of it the layout is great but we've been trying to figure out how to share some of the data around our academic improvements and so uh if you're looking at that one pager over here you can see that where um we are up 5.3% in rating uh reading the state is down 2.6 so I know there's a number of people who've been upset to see that we're not at the state average totally share that frustration in fact I'm the one who brought that to our attention because it was concerning to me so in the in the spirit of transparency we really want people to know how things are going we are up in uh math reading and Science and the state is down in two of those so where the state went up we went up more where the state went down we went up and so we are now well on our way to closing any of those gaps that we might have between us and the state I have always said only bad things happen fast in schools and the good things take time but we are seeing the fruits of the labor the the work the things that you keep hearing in our quality and action is paying off so hopefully the community had a chance to get into the six times and see some of the great things going on we're very excited to um we're kind of had spent some time with our principles and team at the district really ramping up our kindergarten kickoff and uh it's kind of been called registration but we really want it to be so much more than registration and one of the uh goals we have is for people that see the through line so principal chaki in just a little bit is going to be talking about the programming at the secondary building and that's our intention to really get that message to our families right from the beginning you're our first little packer welcome to the pack and here's what you can expect from your experience K through graduation and hopefully Beyond uh we've heard a little bit about the Foundation gala at our work session we were talking about that what a great night that Gala is it's just so fun uh I love to see everybody all dressed up I don't always want to wear a three-piece suit but it's fun to get dressed up and go out to a great meal in uh support of our students and so our um Foundation of course has generous donors that make it possible to do teacher grants to try uh new and unique things in their classrooms very well supported from the the foundation and then of course we know the scholarships but that event is really the primary uh fundraiser for the year and I just got to give a shout out to Beth squa and the staff and uh board at the foundation I do sit with and I see for sure one proud board member hi Brenda um what an amazing thing we have there and really enjoy that um collaboration so thank you to the owners and thank you to the G for the foundation for that Gala College Signing Day always a thrill I really love the way that our high school team does this where they set up the the little uh station there in the stock exchange and honor the kids and so excited to have Elena being signing a letter of intent to play D2 volleyball at Fair State in Michigan next year so uh congratulations and shout out to Elena uh the Wily Wonka production I think every time we have one of these Productions on the we always come here and I see the heads nodding about how wonderful it is and so um we know that the Arts mean so much to this community as do many things so great to see that the Arts are alive and well uh but now that they're done with Willy Wonka you know there's there's no rest for this group they're right back at it preparing for their onea plays that'll be coming up January 18th and 19th uh Lincoln Center ambassadors we've worked hard to have partnership with the city and I love how Deb Griffith you know I think everyone knows Deb and amazing things she does and this is one of the the ones that people don't see as much because it's a uh just happens at the school and the kids walk down there but it is so fun when the ambassadors the fifth grade students go down to the John Carroll high-rise or the other high-rise and spend time with our seniors and so that just speaks volumes about this community where we're onboarding the sense of service and Community for our younger our youngest Learners right from the gecko um Mr sanso boy I think uh Mr Oak and I were talking the other day like I think he's going to end up trying to take over one of these pack stations cuz for his physics class he really loves is is um director laber was saying like what about those Hands-On learning experiences and so he teaches a conceptual physics which makes it really Hands-On and engaging and so they were studying Newton's second law of motion and learning about how the the mass the weight of the balls affects um how they interact with them so they used tennis balls pingpong and bowling balls to to see how that uh impacts motion ask and then learning about erosion so our first graders are learning about erosion and their science specialist classes a reminder this year is our first year where we have a science specialist at both the uh elementaries that was also part of our stakeholder feedback where we heard a strong desire for Science Education and so um we brought that in and we have two amazing teachers who are uh hitting a home run already and we're meeting with them to to review curriculum and some other things Amy Winter and her team are working on that now here they were learning about uh erosion and so they had to kind of inquiry based learning where they they put together hypothesis what's going to happen if we build it this way and then testing their hypotheses so changing the shape of their Hill to learn different ways to see what works best to keep the materials from being damaged by the rain uh some dates to remember we are off uh Wednesday Thursday Friday for Thanksgiving break and then we have a staff uh professional development day on December 2nd winter break then runs December 23rd through January 3rd I can't believe we talking about winter break um we have some other dates remember Elementary has PTA meetings coming up on the 3rd at kosia the 9th on Lincoln and then we are really close to the end of trimester 1 so we're we're tomorrow is the last day of Tri one trimester kind of fall really nicely on those breaks with uh Thanksgiving so excited I know that that brings some nerves for some of our kids around their grades and things like that and certainly a load for our teachers to grade all those finals and things but exciting to get to that Milestone December 3rd no ST uh school for grades 6 to 12 that's a grading day and a recordkeeping day coming off of the trimester and then December 14th is the mistletoe dance and of course I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that it is uh Thanksgiving this week and we have um lots to be thankful for I'm thankful to be in a community that cares um and that we can have have conversation uh I'm excited about where we are and where we're going we have more work to do uh but I'm excited about the the Gap closures we're seeing and that is all due to our staff we talked about our esps and how I always refer to our esps as the glue they're like the glue that holds it together and um as like I said as an ESL teacher and as a special educator myself I know that our esps did so much we have uh Dory talked to her last week we've served tens of thousands of meals to our students this year our buildings look fantastic if you haven't seen the secondary cafeteria it looks I remember hearing one of our students say this looks like what a fancy school has and our kids deserve that and so our buildings and grounds team has done a fantastic job about keeping our buildings going our clerical and like talk about the glue again in the office uh Jolene even made me sub the other day so you know there she's not afraid to put people to work so it was fun though I got to sub from Mr Meyer and and do that but you know it's I guess my point is we're all chipping in and everybody's working so so hard and it's paying off in tremendous dividends for our kids we saw the talent development this morning we see the the fruits of our labor um but I hope I didn't miss any groups feeding the kids getting them to school and back home safe holding it together in the hallways the classrooms the offices like this is a special place and it's the people that makes it that when I interviewed for this job almost 3 years ago to you know you know I said it is not bricks and mortar that make up a school district it's the people and we have people who care and so that's why I'm excited to be the superintendent here and look forward to furthering that conversation but just want to uh say thank you and thank you of course to our families and Community for the strong support as well uh we always say that our parents or Guardians are students first teacher and we know with that end of the trimester I'm sure there's a lot of conversations happen around that secondary with some of the high school students and and their family so thank you to our families and Community for for the support and then as always you can find our meeting materials on our district website and uh follow along the great work our board is doing excellent thank you Cher Rush thank you um next I've got some uh highlights from the evaluation process that the board went um in relation to uh Dr Zam brino um this has been kind of a lengthy process um and so I want to kind of walk through what it is um Schoolboard uses an annual evalu that was developed by Teamworks which is a sort of leadership group that we have worked with for a great deal of time um and that rubric is based on standards of leadership uses multiple elements within each of those um that aligns to State um statutes for leadership and uh Administration um all board members had the opportunity to individually fill out those evaluations those were sealed um and then um they were opened by the executive committee um and then kind of analyzed and evaluated summary report was delivered um to the board as a whole and then I met with Dr Zan brino to deliver in a performance evaluation and then tonight um we are here to sort of give a summary presentation to the community as a whole um that's a lot of information um but that is the packet of information and the categories that it sits within um broadly it's about governance finances um Community relationships The District operation Human Resources teaching and learning um student support and ethical and inclusive leadership and each of those have a lengthy amount of kind of sub plans within that um and our board members I want to compliment took a great deal of time and wrote um a great deal in those evaluations through that process as well um results were delivered um as both a board average and then also included individual scor Ing we only speak as a board voice when we are all sort of there together but I wanted to make sure that um everyone's individual voices were heard uh majority of that scoring was rated as effective to highly effective all comments each board member made were delivered in that evaluation um and then the executive committee really looked this over to kind of see the trends and some of the priorities that were emerging in the evaluations for what was going forward um and I just want to acknowledge this at the start no one accomplishment that happens inside our district is the result of any one person like the superintendent clearly needs to lead a lot of these efforts but that is done with really great team and a really great staff that is inside of our district um and we have almost an entirely new cabinet team um in these District efforts and it takes a little bit of learning time to be able to deliver on all of those pieces um but in the end superintendent has to uh answer to all of the district needs and concerns and that we all sort of play a role in the success of this District together and you know many of you are showing up tonight and showing that similar sort of effort um so some of the strengths that were identified through that report um is really around some really critical systems and practices that were not present in our district um there is a fair amount of sort of like data Focus collection that was not present that it was really hard to evaluate how we were doing both in student attendance student achievement our graduation rates um there there are elements that we couldn't even really accurately say who our students were um and bringing and brought a real datadriven sort of practice to this um that emerged into um the creation and launching of our desired daily experience hearing from our students our families and staff about what it should be like to be inside our schools um that also went onto path Packer Pathways um and our new strategic plan going forward as we Sunset myp and pyp we heard from many inside the district that IB at those levels was not effectively serving our students anymore um so sunsetting that and moving in a new direction to positively impact our students took some really great leadership to make that happen um if we can go on to the next one um we appreciate the development of a strong cabinet leadership team to help us execute um kind of the mission of the district um and led us through a really serious fiscal crisis um through that Levy campaign I sat on the board um with our previous superintendent who wouldn't launch that and there was some frustration around that because we could see kind of the financial impact that was coming um we were in trouble as a district and um you know anytime you go out to a professional surveying group who says how you should do a levy they talk about a 2-year strategic plan to make that happen um Dr Zan brino was home with Co I think in May um and that's when he sort of launched this plan he's like let's go for it let's make that happen and many people inside our community rallied to help lead that effort but that might not have been initiated had you not been at home sort of with that hairbrain plan that like sure in 5 minutes or five months we can ask our community to um rescue um where we sit um I know that that passed by a very narrow margin inside our community but it fundamentally saved our schools and where we are at we would have lost between 16 and 18 teachers and a great number of Paras had we not been able to pass that Levy um our class sizes would have absolutely ballooned and then we kind of reflected about when you are going through the process of hiring a superintendent you you can't predict what sort of crisises you are going to face inside your District whether that is the tech crisis we went through um we've had more than a few sort of student related issues we've had some really significant problems and um appreciate the real level leadership through that process and then also helped launch a partnership with our city um to develop some core values I think one of the things that's really special about our community is we only answer to one city and one school um anyone who works in another school system you are spread out across many and I think there is real value in US aligning our missions together okay um and then we also focused on areas of growth there was some individual feedback that was provided as well um student achievement and attendance and graduation rates is not where we need to be as a district yet we need to be able to serve our kids better and we need our achievement to be better we had some really great growth with with some of the changes that we're making but it is not enough and so that is a significant area of uh Focus for what's going through um butts and seats is what makes our schools work so average daily membership the students that actually enroll in our school needs to be a top priority um and then the continued fiscal management we essentially got our way out of that sort of fiscal cliff we were heading through um but we still have declining enrollment inside of our community we just have L people with children inside the school and so we need to make sure that we are capturing as many students as possible we want continued work with Community relationships and um and then um supporting growth of building level leadership and so those were really kind of our areas of growth going forward for 2025 and beyond all right um okay good job that was a lot of stuff I feel like I've done a lot of talking up here tonight um up next we have our consent agenda which are items that are Financial claims Staffing and personnel and nature have been provided inside of our board packet at this time I am looking for a motion to pass our consent agenda do I have a motion so moved second any discussion all in favor please say I I I I opposed that the motion carries as promised at this time I am going going to make a motion um to table the superintendent contract for the December 9th 2024 meeting do I have a motion so moved chair rush I'm sorry can you do a postpone instead of a table a postpone okay that's what Lisa has the right answers I am going to make a motion to postpone the um vote on the superintendent's contract to the December 9th 2024 uh school board meeting which covers the 202 5 to 2028 contract period do I have a motion so moved second yeah any discussion chair rash can I ask the difference between uh motion to table and postponement um the motion to table does not set a specific date or time um the motion to postpone does the um specific date and time okay am I help and the motion to postpone also allows the time for the board to have a conversation okay I would like to make a motion at this time to make an adjustment in the proposed contract after hearing from our community I would like to adjust the contract to align the percentage increases to that what that was negotiated and given to the teaching teachers bargaining group this would be 4% this year 3% for the next two years I would ask um for people's support on this motion okay do we have a second to um for an adjustment to the proposed contract second all in favor please say I I I I opposed that the motion carries uh need to vot on not we will be voting on the contract at the December 9th meeting no but didn't we have to vote to postpone yes we got to go back so we have the first part motion so we made this change now we can vote to put it with the change yep as amended tell you this is a really good time up here I really need I need a cold beer I don't know about the you um okay all in favor of postponing to the December 9th 2024 uh meeting say I I opposed that the motion carries okay all right next gifts well done I am looking for approval for the South St Paul school board to approve the acceptance of gifts resolution so moved second um any discussion can Lisa read the gifts yes Lisa can you please read the gifts Prov um so the gift that we have coming before you is a donation of um some tables and chairs it's coming from a family um that or a person that had worked um the business that they work at is closing or something like that is my understanding but it's a parent of our district and they are going to be donating tables and chairs to our secondary building and replacing some broken chairs and adding tables into spaces where there needs additional um tables so excellent as always appreciate our community support uh will you call a roll call for an acceptance of gifts mm um director W Felton yes Claflin yes labery yes T Felton yes human yes Weber yes and Cher rash yes that's seven y motion passes next looking for approval for the South St Paul school board to approve the new course proposals as presented do I have a motion so moved second uh discussion I'm going to call uh Mr oaki up to the Lord come on downla at that kind of and and Jackson Jackson right Le he's the player here let's go all right you ready Jackson yep okay it's all you uh board chair Dr Z bro School Board greater School Community uh it's my pleasure to be here today to talk about some of the new course proposals I brought my good friend Jackson to present with me right yeah so Jackson's actually going to take care of the first part of The Proposal so okay so what we Amal and I did was we created a survey to get feedback from all the kids on how they felt our registration process was going uh and what kind of classes we were offering uh we also are looking to further explore our students opinions on the help me app School climate and cultural survey and charties and cell phone practice updates so that will be surveys that will be coming out later better later yeah nice job man okay uh one of our questions was what students thought would be a valuable add-on to courses and the options were AP concurrent enrollment and IB which is our current uh course and the majority of students thought that IB was the right course and thing to keep doing so yeah uh that's just another chart of what kids thought was more important or what they wanted the most so I'm going to jump in really quick and just say in this chart what you're seeing is we asked the students uh and the one before it is a value ad important in our classes and our kids said yes we think you should have a value ad right so grade bomb possible college credit something like that then we asked them which value ad is the most important to you and what came out was IB right the program that we all already do really well the second one was incurrent concurrent enrollment so for uh people who don't know that that's college classes that are taught in our schools by our teachers right they thought our group our students thought that that was the second most important value ad and it's really important to say we're on track already because our kids agree with what we're doing uh and when asked about how students were getting information about new classes or programs most students said that they were learning this information from their teachers and uh other students or from the announcements and that's how they learned about new classes is this the same thing yeah kind this actually asks the best way right so what I'm going to so let's give Jackson a round of applause right nice job right yeah okay what uh one of the things that I want us to really point out is the responsibilities that our teachers have for our students they our students trust our teachers to turn to them and say what should I do next right uh which is awesome right because they know and announcements and what I thought our students would do would say tell me that the the registration guide that we created or videos would be the way that they get most of the information and it's not that's what we learned right so what we are going to do as we think about registration after the first of the year is really change the system that we do to make sure that our teachers do have all the information they need that we have a registration booklet that speaks to our kids and that uh our videos actually make sense for our kids so uh the value ads that we learned right uh Jackson and I learned together was uh value ads are important to our schools and ib's the right program for us we need to do to review our registration process and do a better job of sharing all the possibilities and what I mean by that is our trid district program I've always said is a secret gem right we send our kids are here with us hours 1 through 4 and then they go they go to other places to learn uh job skills and I call it a secret Gem and what I found out from our kids is it's a secret in the survey we as like literally it's like in the survey we asked the question what do you know about the trid district caps program and it was nothing nothing nothing IDK which I Learned was I don't know right nothing nothing nothing all the way throughout so we have to do a better of not making it just a secret uh for our students cuz it's an amazing uh program for us and then our students are looking for more elective options and more opportunities which leads us into the um oh sorry I took one more I took yours my bad uh this is winter sports are in full swing right now currently we have girls and boys hockey girls and boys basketball and boys and girls wrestling and there's a lot of upcoming home events girls hockey and boys basketball and girls basketball girls hockey and more wrestling and then Boys Hockey we have our opener on December 5th against Johnson we're going to get a win [Applause] too uh and then another wrestling meet uh this is actually Jackson and I were laughing about this right I'm going to go to the uh boys Johnson South St Paul game and route for the kids in Maroon um if you don't know Johnson wears maroon 2o but actually I'm going to root for South St Paul my son is a graduate now of Johnson and so uh we I won't have to see him get crushed on the ice any longer so uh let's give Jackson a round of applause right Mr aaki can I just um sorry I just want to just comment um I want to thank Jackson and Amal our student Schoolboard reps I'm really proud of the work that they're doing and bringing in the student voice into the pieces that Mr otaki is going to talk about um I'm they've just done amazing work and it's been really fun to work with them so it's been I'm just really proud of you guys so thank you for doing Round of Applause so one of the things that we learned were more students were looking for elective options and more opportunities and so we said this year we asked our teachers hey do you have a course that you think will ignite a passion in you or your students do you have a course idea that engages students to positively change our world or do you have a course idea that builds on one of our career Pathways because we want to know about it and what I'm going to tell you is amazing is the process wasn't easy it wasn't simple in that people just uh were like yeah I'd like to do this course they actually had to complete a Google uh survey that had 23 different questions in it which ranged from background information and rationale to how does it align with our Packer Pathways does it impact our current course offerings what's your delivery method General description and a ton of other things right and what I'm super pumped about is we have 11 course proposals that I'm going to share with you today so 11 potential new ideas for our kids to take next year right so real history history through film right we all know that hist history right the history of film and the history of how film has been used to shape history is really important and so we have a teacher who said I want to teach a class like that we have an aerobics and fitness class to get more kids down into the gym and understanding that developing your muscles doesn't just mean lifting weights but there are a bunch of different ways to do it uh play production uh you guys just talked about Willy Wonka the musical uh but this really will cover the entire writing the play to actually the construction and the acting of the play so uh really excited about that we have um we have a beginning guitar class that we started last year and it was kind of a whim and we had 15 guitars and we had 15 kids who took the class we now have beginning guitar we have 45 kids that are taking the class and we have our kids asking for another guitar class so we want to introduce intermediate guitar so personal finance I'm going to tell you is the number one course for our teachers uh our students and our and our parents have said our kids need to learn about personal finance like building that uh financial literacy covering budgets saving things like that if you have a kid at home like I do we talk about his money that's going out the window all the time as he puts something new on his car uh and really talking about the stock market right in in financial management so personal finance uh we have uh a trades a trades and transportation part of the Caps district and what we want to do is offer our kids mathematics in the trade so we had some kids who went uh and to the carpenters union and realized there's a ton of math that's being used there and I I really want to learn how to use the math this is this is for kids who are not doing IB or concurrent math but want to feel this need that they they're feeling that they have and cinari you know last week I got to judge the uh cookies uh and I man they were outstanding they were outstanding they were five of the best cookies I've ever had and I've been really working hard not to look like Santa Claus this winter um but we want to complete our careers in culinary uh pathway for our kids and so what we really want to do is get them in the into the restaurant industry doing an internship in a program uh so that they know what the restaurant in uh industry is really like careers in human development we have a couple classes about Child Development uh and urban teaching and what we want to do is have a Capstone so our kids are out in the community and doing that work with our kids so uh coding we have offered coding one and two and they're packed classes we want to offer coding three next year mobile apps right uh I don't know how they work uh but our kids do and I they can make a ton of money learning how to do those so uh and then social media if you know me I don't have it um but there's a marketing there what I did learn is uh Black Friday at Target started like last week because I keep getting those emails okay uh but our kids are interested in learning more about social media so and then we do have a new Tri distric caps course that's really going to look at the environment so natural resources suain sustainability and and Food Systems and really looking at how they all play together focusing on the soil the air the water the and the the chemistry that's involved in that so um here's what I want you to know I'm super excited about 11 courses it's been four years since I've stood in front of you saying we have some new courses to propose uh approving the course proposals doesn't guarantee the class will run right we'll actually offer it what it does guarantee is our kids will have the option to select it and so it's my recommendation uh that you the board approve these courses so questions excellent I know you me mentioned it when you presented this to us earlier at the work session but I'd love for you to share like the Serve Safe management certificate and the value that adds to our kids too yeah so thank you uh if we talk about the culinary our Serve Safe Kids when they get that serve safe uh certificate they actually can earn up to $2 more an hour in any restaurant and they just have to go in and show it and just say hey I have this and automatically it's $2 up to $2 more an hour so that's huge for our kids yeah and something that I had mentioned when we saw this earlier tonight is I'm just really excited about all these different classes and I really think that these are the type of kind of unique offerings that we as kind of a smaller District can can throw out there and I really think it keeps students engaged in the community and then they don't feel that they have to go elsewhere to get said um additional experiences so I like when I I was talking to people this fall the career Pathways was like one of the number one things I was hitting and people were amazed that like this was a thing so I agree that it's a well-kept secret and I was trying to help by like telling more people about it and I'm I am seriously so jazzed about these new course offerings thank you excellent yeah it's very exciting I know we you know it's great to hear that the IB diploma program still Reigns supreme but it the the sunsetting of the myp really opened this all up and so it's been I heard Chuck say principal Chuck it's been four years since he's been able to propose new courses and what I love is that this is coming from our teaching staff and actually we talked about some of the numbers we'd love to see being bigger in the tri District caps and the work they're doing already this year in those new courses that are the culinary the computer science the entrepreneurship it's teacher empowerment they're getting to really drive the courses but in direct feedback to the students and our families right so this is like true partnership um at its at its best and so it's it's really exciting to see it coming together and again we've talked about the challenges we've had achievement enrollment and some of these things this is all part of us getting this right and being back on top yeah agreed the natural resources class sounds really yeah really calls to me but even more than that that math in the trades class is filling a gap that we really need um I had visited the Carpenters Hall and was so impressed by students there sheet rocking a dome and showing me the math they were using and when you can put math into a Hands-On practical application it makes sense to some kids who don't get it when it's on paper yeah it was interesting because I also talked to some kids who went to the Carpenters um Union and and looked at it and the math was what scared them right like they loved it but 1/4 plus three you know 2/3 is right that that suddenly scared them and it was like we got you yeah we'll take care of that so yeah good excellent cool with no further uh questions looking um all in favor of the approval of the South St Paul school board to approve uh new course proposals as presented all in favor please say I I opposed unanimous agreement thank you thank you all right um up next I'm going to turn to board members for brief reports on their committee work and where they have seen a passion let me start to my left to Monica um so as my committee um I serve also on the 917 board which is a collaboration for um special education students with eight other eight other districts um the biggest thing for them is that they found a new healthcare provider um and so we're going to be saving that staff um a lot of money in their in their health care um and as a return also saving our district money because we're the ones who pay for their for their operations um so that was exciting obviously um Willie Wonka was a huge success as we knew it would be um so congratulations to U Mr holson and his whole team um they always do such phenomenal phenomenal work there um and then if I could take a one minor point of personal privilege the high school I went to which was Staples monley went to the high school um Championship football game for the first time since the 80s um and they did come in second but again it was the first time they had made it since the'80s and this looking at my Facebook feed and all the people I went to high school all just so excited they this is what happens in a small small town in Minnesota they literally bust the entire 712 High School to the US Bank Stadium and all the businesses in town contributed the money so that they could pay for the buses and literally the entire student body which granted is less than 500 students um all went down to the game so that was just so exciting to see just the real Community Pride that that happens in our state excellent Nikki I am wiped it's a big night what a night but also what um the last 4 days of emails phone calls texts um discussion on the phone with board members and I honestly I feel absolutely drained by this um but I also it takes me back to a quote that I learned years ago um because many of us struggle with conflict um and that is from conflict comes growth and I think that we've all grown um through this experience and uh even though John and I are just about done on the board um I hope that it what happened informs the new board on how to proceed with issues so I thank the community as hard as this was I thank the community for coming out sharing their thoughts I didn't really appreciate being hooted and hollered at that made me very nervous but um it did seemed to subtle down and uh emotions were running High um but I I feel like we really listened we heard you um and we'll move forward on this so I I just want to remind all of us and myself especially we are all neighbors and and friends in South St Paul and we care about each other people when somebody's going through a hard time people come out of the woodwork to help others and that's one of the things I love about this community I was not born and raised here but we I've lived we've lived here for 40 some years now and um I can't imagine living somewhere else so thank you community all right let me go all the way to the other end Kim oh all right I mean to kind of echo to what Nikki was saying I think where I'm seeing passion right now is from our community wanting to be involved and when I kind of think back to the core value work that we're doing right we're showing each other respect we're collaborating and we want to make sure that there's equity for everyone and we want to live that and we want to move forward with that right um also I saw Willie Wonka and it was amazing Wendy yes I too I want to say a few thank yous out there a a huge thank you to Mr Eric holson our theater director as I was at Willy Wonka also as I've told Eric so much that musicals are my absolute favorite and his technical crew this time was wonderful they were phenomenal so I thank all of them the actors the tech crew Mr holson and all the volunteers that assisted with him for that program it was wonderful and I also want to put a personal very good thank you out to Beth squa who is our Education Foundation she is our our chairperson in our in our foundation I want to thank her so much for the gala that that we attended at the Mota Country Club it it was wonderful I thoroughly enjoyed it a great fundraiser for the foundation program and I also want to put out a thank you to the boys basketball team when I was at Cub Foods on on Sunday they were volunteering there to be bagging groceries for the customers at Cub as they they were collecting any Financial donations that parents would would give them from their assistance I talked to several of the the students that were there and also the coach thank them for that and of course I made a donation to them and it was a a very wonderful thing thing and last but not least I just want to say Happy Thanksgiving I have my turkey and I brought my little ones so thank you all right Tim well I don't think I could say it any better than Nikki La birdie did so thank you Nikki I don't have anything further welcome you're welcome and uh thank you um the community support that we feel in South St Paul is always amazing um my son joined me at the Education Foundation dinner uh was it just last week and he was just really thrilled to see teachers and other people from the school that he knows have a real life you mean you don't live at the school and he was so excited to talk to other people about how the Education Foundation has supported students at caposa um and and the number of people that were there that have supported our schools for many many years was just amazing and I'm also really pleased to see that there were people who are just coming into that uh role of supporting our schools through the Education Foundation too um we really do show up for our schools and tonight I have to thank our community as well for showing up it takes courage to show up it takes courage to speak up and to everyone who has um shared their comments to us um we've listened and we've heard your comments uh whether you spoke tonight or at other meetings whether you've sent emails uh to the board as a whole um thank you it takes that Community engagement to let us know what is important to you sometimes it's showing up at the activities and showing up at the foundation uh showing up tonight matters thank you um I mean I think we've found different ways to sort of echo this same sort of thing but um tonight I'm really reminded of what my journey was to get onto this board um theater was at risk at one point in time um and as a parent I got pretty involved and upset and under previous board and Nikki spent the first two years maybe not quite forgiving me um we no no no we are we we get along we're just fine um but at that time the school board was meeting via zoom and we as a community when we were upset about something we really struggled for how were we going to be heard so we led a parade of cars and we honked outside the homes of all board members during the meeting um and I think one of the things I really appreciate is that we have a community that's willing to fight for our kids and fight for our school and our community please know that we care about you um we care about the direction that we are going um I think the board members tonight as a whole um made some movement to try and demonstrate that we have heard that um we will try and set a priority I know we have a policy meeting on the 2nd um but I would like to kind of see if we can't make a schedule to do a um special meeting to meet um to um set parameters around the bargaining groups that do not have settled contracts at this point um so I'm just going to put that out publicly right now if we could meet and figure out a way to make that happen on the second hey Lisa um so if you um could help us schedule that um and we can sort of set our par uh parameters around that okay are you looking for a special meeting or special meeting to um CL session CL session close session to do um contract negotiation parameters for all unsettled groups and then we could do policy afterwards and dismiss the board members who are not on policy okay all right with no other further items on our agenda I looking for a motion to adjourn this meeting so moved second any discussion anyone want to hang out till 9: no all in favor please say I I I opposed that the motion carries thank you 26