So, >> but that's a fun conversation. I There we go. All right. Welcome and good evening. I would like to call the Monday, January 26, 2026 school board meeting to order. Lisa, will you please call the role? Director W. Felton >> here. >> Claflin >> here. >> Cummings. >> Yep. >> Duffy >> here. >> Weber >> here. >> Chair Hume >> here. >> And that's six present. >> Thank you. And now I'll ask all who are able to stand up for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. At this time, welcome to everyone who's here with us in person and watching online or at Townscore television. First up, I am looking [laughter] for approval of our meeting agenda and minutes. I'm looking for a motion to approve the regular meeting agenda for this evening, as well as the minutes for December 8th, 2025's work session, December 8th, 2025's regular meeting, January 12, 2026 work session, and January 12, 2026 special business meeting. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Thank you, Wendy. >> Second. >> Thank you, Ann. Um, any discussion regarding the agenda or minutes? Uh, the buildup of the minutes is because we took a holiday break and we didn't have a [clears throat] second meeting in December and so just feels like it's been forever since we've all been in here. So, it's nice to be back. All right. Um, well, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> Opposed, say nay. >> Uh, motion carries 60. All right, we move on to colony in action and reports. I'd like to have our student school board reps come up, please. Do we all right? Um for Okay, just in case anyone doesn't know, triister caps is a program for students. It involves Similey, South St. Paul, and Two Rivers. It's for people, it's for students to see like different careers instead of it's not like original like um classroom aspect of it. They get to go out and on field trips that involve that career choice. We have four programs, the natural resources, the trades, health and technology and internships are starting February 9th and students are currently interviewing or finishing up interviews and committing. I am a part of the healthcare one and I just finished up my interviews and committed to one >> which is regions. >> Good. Good. >> Yep. I had to do the TB test and everything. [laughter] >> And Finette, how many um were selected to go to regions? >> Nine. Nine in total. >> Oh, that's very cool. >> It's a great experience. >> Next one. >> Yeah. >> Um we were just talking about this inside the work session, but might as well bring it up. So um students are not getting information for the scholarships which the community ed foundation is providing and last year they gave over 600,000. So yeah and the the scholarships will be uh for it was it will be like we're applying before February February 9th but it will be awarded in the scholarship banquet in May. Okay. And then moving on to more current events. Um on January 12th, student led or organizations put together a sitin to support our struggling communities. Students were also asked to wear black to show their support. And it was really cool to see so so many students just kind of unite and be able to stand together, especially during this time if you're keeping up with the news. And then also another a new Instagram account. It's a pretty I don't know if you guys are with the news on social media, but Instagram's a pretty cool way for people our age to communicate. And senior Raphael Torres and former school board representative Jackson Schultz started the SSP Times. and they're offering students ride to school who might be a bit more scared or worried about being harassed in any way or taken in the slightest terms. But yeah, it's really cool to see them willing to help out and they were also interviewed by WCCCO about it which is really cool. So yeah. >> And then I just want to give a really quick shout out to our senior knowledge bowl team. Uh we got third place at Spring Lake Park back in December and then we got second place at Holy Angels and then just uh last week we got fifth place at Holy Angels. So the season's going really well. We got everybody right there. Uh familiar face. We got Rafie on our team as well. So he's doing a lot of great work around our community. So >> can you tell me about your antennas? >> Oh, our our team name is called the Ministry of Martians. So we just have the alien antenna because we thought it was funny. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> That's it for school events. All right, good work, Tina. >> Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> All right. It's a tough act to follow, [laughter] but I would like to invite our middle school principal, Leah Borg, and members from her team up. Yeah, thank you. Um, ladies and gentlemen of South St. Paul and the school board, thank you for having us today. My name is Leah Borg, and I am the principal at South St. Paul Middle School. Normally during quality in action we bring young people to talk to you about their experiences. Um and today we do have a component of that available um that we'll share with you. But we have implemented um some new curriculum in the middle school for our English language arts and science. Um and I've brought some staff members to come and tell you about their experiences. Um first up is going to be Lindsay Lawer who is our equity and instructional coach. Um then Janine Leonard who is going to be talking about her experiences with science. She teaches science to seventh and eighth graders. And then Tyine Griefy is going to talk about her experience teaching English language arts specifically with sixth graders. So I'll turn this over to them. >> All right. I'm Lindsay Law, equity and instructional coach at the middle school. This is my second year at the middle school. And last year a big um bucket of work that both the science and ELA teams did was undergo a curriculum review process. And so what that is curriculum is what um students are learning and how they learn it. So um teachers then use that with students. Um departments periodically have to go through should go through review cycles to make sure that there's alignment to new state standards um that current and best practices are reviewed and that there's current and relevant materials for teachers to use with students. And so after a year's worth of work and meetings and investigating, you know, what's out there that teachers are using with classrooms, you know, all over the the state really, um science landed on amplify curriculum and the um science team, the science teachers are using amplify in their 68 classrooms. Um and English language arts is using arts and letters um again with their 68. So, it's a full comprehensive classroom curriculum that they're uh using with students. Um, as a coach in the building, um, I've seen how hard the teachers are working to um, learn and unpack and really like internalize the curriculum. It comes with lessons, but um, you know, and materials and texts and um, as Janine will speak to, like hands-on materials that they're, you know, still prepping for. Um, and so by and large, the what is there for teachers, but they're still really learning how how to teach it with their students. Um, and that takes a ton of work and a ton of, um, like real backend support. So, they've had planning release days, we've had coaching support both from the vendor, um, from myself, from other district, um, education support staff, and, um, they're all in a professional learning community together, which meets weekly. So, they're really uh leaning in and um have learned a ton this year and are really excited to share um just what they've what the curriculum is like for all of you. >> Sorry, I'm short. All right. Um I'm Jannine Leonard, uh T seventh and eighth grade science at the middle school. Um we are using Amplify and Amplify is a phenomenonbased learning program meaning that the students start with a idea a problem that they're trying to solve. Um Amplify does a really good job of making them uh believe that they're scientists actually exploring this problem and trying to find an answer for it. Uh one of the big things that the teachers are learning as we work with this is don't give things away too soon. So, um, [clears throat] it's meant for the kids to discover as they're working through the lessons. Um, so, for example, some of the, uh, ones 8th grade currently is working with thermal energy. So, their problem is which heating system will best heat the school. They're looking at two different heating systems. One using groundwater, one using a water heated by a a water heater essentially, and then having the water pumped through the school to heat the air. So, they're comparing those two. Uh, sixth grade is using how can an astropho photographer, excuse me, plan for best times to take photos of specific features of the moon. So, they're looking at that. Uh, seventh grade is currently looking traits and reproduction. So, seeing how genetics works. Um, and the idea is for them to really think like scientists, think like engineers. So, um, so yeah, next. Um, so there's a huge language and literacy component to the curriculum. Also, I bought one of the seventh grade workbooks. And you can see there are uh articles in the back that we're reading articles and they're learning how to uh annotate, highlight, and uh make notes in the margins, ask questions while they're reading. Um, they discuss them with each other. So, we do a lot of think, pair, share where they'll think about what did you read, then pair up with somebody, talk about what you read, and uh share your ideas with the class that way. Um, there's a lot of hands-on activities. So, various things from a simple card sort to look at evidence and decide what's good evidence, what's kind of eh evidence, we like to say. Um, and what is evidence that, yep, we're going to throw that out because it's biased or it doesn't have enough information in it. um and then uh experiments that they're actually doing so they can see as much hands-on activity as far as what is really happening with the phenomenon. So from simple things of games which I believe there's some pictures of some of the kids playing one of the games in here um to uh putting [clears throat and cough] food coloring in water and how does it disperse in hot water versus cold water just to see a difference of the molecules that way. So little variety in that aspect. So kids seem to be enjoying it. So they do say it's a lot different than what they have done in the past. So which is true. So science now is taught as figure things out as you go rather than here's the facts, memorize them and take a test. So but they seem to be enjoying it. So yeah. >> All right. I'm going to introduce this video we have. So we have some sixth and seventh graders. The first video is sixth graders. The second video is seventh graders talking about their experience in Amplify. Um true middle school fashion. Danette came over to do the recording. We were in the hallway and I think that I had a fun little buddy figure out what was happening and he went into the bathroom and flushed the toilet like a hundred times. So, if you hear [laughter] flushing in this, that is what's going on. Um, and Dette was like, "It's okay. I can I can edit it out." And like probably because I'm the only one I know that it's there. I I hear it or maybe I it's part of my nightmares. Um, but we'll show you the sixth grade video and the seventh grade video of the students talking about Amplify. [laughter] >> Right now we are learning about how like the moon orbits around like the earth and the sun and how the moon and the earth get their light from the sun. I'm using our workbook and doing amplify. >> Okay. So, what is Amplify? It's an online clever app where you can like get that's like where [snorts] it's mostly where we do like all tests and you can use like like sitting layers kind of like to like show you what I like just kind of thinking about like how the moon like where the sun comes into play. Like we've been yesterday we did um it was like a little game and like we it was like the the earth was in the middle while the moon was on the side and we had Mr. Quick he >> there's a lot of [laughter] pictures and we had to get where the moon would go to show what the land would be. We say help each other out. >> Like only travels in straight lines. So it can only open. >> Is that um something that you knew before you started sixth grade? >> What do you think better at? I think I'm getting better at like like taking my time on like my tests and stuff cuz science tests are not hard but like harder than some other tests I've had. So you have to like take your time and leave the questions all throughout >> so that like you don't answer questions. >> What are you getting better at? >> Um I'm getting better at annotating. I just kind of >> All right. What is can you tell because maybe some of our grown-ups at home don't know what is annotating. >> So it's basically you're highlighting and you're adding notes and you can like add questions to >> what are you getting better at? >> Um I'm getting better at like not just like skipping over a bunch of things like passages that >> All right. All right. So now I'm going to have the video about the seventh graders that the seventh graders talked about Amplify. And just fair warning, my my husband is very afraid of spiders. So honey, go ahead and turn this part off. This this part's about spiders reproducing. Um but thank you to Vaniah or Vaniah, Aubrey, and Lily who are sixth graders. Um and then our seventh graders are Gio and Courtney. learning about um spiders genes and stuff, how genes connect to what their offsprings look like. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Um and like how genes like tell like the traits like that's how you get your traits. >> Might be like mutations in your genes. So you have like different traits than your family members. that show each unit that you have like spiders. We just did um one about like blood and stuff and like there's like these things that you can go on to like test out how they work. Like you can like freeze spiders and um change them and like cover them. There's like Yeah, there's like different simulations that you can do and like you can like not even mess around with them, but you can There's a bunch of different things on there. And then there's also a good book that we're in better about how like >> um like writing more cuz in our last month we wrote but not as much and also we're writing like more and then also like the side we're talking a lot more was talking in front of everybody else. Like when you're in like a circle and like there's claims, there's evidence and like you just like all talking about it and like you could disagree, agree, or just like state your claim and be the evidence that supports your claim. >> [laughter] >> Um, I thought it was yeah, pretty difficult and I I feel like I've learned better on the test than like like previously before test. Um, I thought it was kind of difficult like answering questions, but that's only because the spiders like spiders were just like a human body and then I just like that and then I saw the question and I was like I wouldn't concept anything like that. Um probably doing the um the work days. >> These are like work like lab days for lab day. >> Oh, lab lab day. Okay. Do you work in groups a lot? >> They were pretty much done with me by then. [laughter] [gasps] So, seventh graders are learning science. Um every every kid in the school is learning science. They're enjoying the amplify. It is hard. Um, and the the change really is for for a lot of kids um, a lot more reading and writing um, and a lot more group discussions and things like that. And so I'm glad that this is the the curriculum we chose. Our students are getting better at reading and writing every hour every day. Um, and so that that is exciting to us. And so now I'm going to turn it over to Ty and she's going to talk about arts and letters. >> Hi, I specifically teach sixth grade so I can focus a lot on the sixth grade material. [gasps] We as a sixth grade team went to Grand Rapids last spring to tour their school and watch how they use this curriculum. And we went in very hesitant like we don't want to change like we like what we're doing. And then we left that day like okay we are going to adopt this curriculum and we are extremely happy that we did that. Our students are reading and writing and talking to each other just like they are in science all the time. Like kids I you would probably never hear their voice because they are just that quiet kid. They are the ones now who are sharing with a partner and now raising their hand because that's what we're doing in our curriculum. Like you do a think, pair, share. So first you're thinking to yourself, pair up with the person next to you. Now share out and they're doing it. And you can tell these kids at first they're like, gosh, why do I have to do this? But now more hands are going up and they want to um we are writing every single day and they're writing amazing things. Our sixth graders just did a narrative story about how people help Bud, because we read Bud, not Buddy, persevere through a hardship. And the creativity that these students are coming up with based on these lessons that we're going through about the Great Depression is just amazing to me. And it's really nice to see that these students are like embracing it as well. Um, we read full text. Seventh grade is doing a medieval, right, medieval unit. Eighth grade is doing a poetry. Um and it's just they're getting into deeper level than we probably would have in the past. Um it is again that essential question we focus on a lot like sixth grade. How do people persevere through hardship? And they are relating it and they're connecting it to like what is happening right now and we have to depend on music at one point and then we depend on the people in our lives and now it's like we're depending on like where we travel to and these are things that students can relate to and they're connecting to and they're making those connections to something that happened in the 1920s 1930s and that's really also nice to see. Um, and you can see what the seventh and eighth graders are doing, the intersections between stories and poetry, and then a society's influence on their future. So, the first group, I believe, is the sixth grade ELA group, and this is Bernice and Amelio and Simon. Currently, we are learning about the Great Depression and the hardships that citizens had to go through. >> Anything else? >> Um, we're reading the book. >> I think the main question is like how important they listen. [laughter] Well, I would say that I enjoy that it is very it was a very complex situation and major part of US history and it's always interesting to learn about. >> Um I like that they like break it up into small pieces and then when we answer the question they like try to pull it like together. >> Oh, so they take different parts of things and then you can kind of see the big picture. >> What do you like? recently just wrote like a little story about boos and how they help other people >> to take tests like multiple choice. >> Yeah, I mean they're free just like they're pretty short questions that's just about the subject. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> So, some of what you're seeing there is that they were actually missing the lesson and they're like, maybe if we kind of go slower, she'll stop asking us these questions and we can go back to class. Um, which is something that you might also see with the seventh graders. the seventh graders that we um talked to, one of them goes, "Honestly, I don't like learning about the m the Middle Ages." [laughter] And he was jealous of the sixth graders who were talking about learning about the the Great Depression. So, we'll we'll watch seventh grade now. [laughter] Yeah, we're learning about like a bunch about the Middle Ages and how they live and like classes and like their like past as well. >> So like cousins and serves and things like that. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> The book we're reading right now is like from a kid who's trying to become knights. Yeah, I'm learning pretty well like how like I'm kind of like learning your perspective on how they used to speak when I write. >> Okay. So they they talked different in the Middle Ages in England or Europe. >> Uh yes, actually a little use like extra words in those sentences and stuff. Mainly we go through the read about it. We have it like we have concept that an assignment and it says what did the blog do? And they'll usually give us page numbers to work with as well. So we can try and find keywords within it. >> Okay. Are you writing a lot? >> Yeah, the time together sometimes. >> Okay. What does that sound like? Um mainly we go together on a assignment and then we discuss whether um yeah basically double checkers and stuff and it usually sounds like a bunch of people like reading and like trying to answer different questions. Like sometimes you'll have this read a passage for like final test of that and wrapping up of that um specific >> unit. Yeah, there is um yeah, it's like a wrap-up test. Are you getting better with your fluency? >> I feel like I am a little bit. >> So, that was um Sam and and Isa and they um were very excited to get back to class, too. Uh I said to somebody today, I said, "It seems like you don't want to talk to me." And they're like, "Yeah, we're learning in class." And I was like, "That's fair that I appreciate you being honest. Um but spending time with with the principal talking about the work is not as fun as doing the work." And so, um, we just I want to open it up to you if you have any questions about the curriculum that we're using or any of the activities. I have the experts here and they can answer that for you. >> I just had a question on the on the science and I think scientific inquiry and like learning how to do that is a is a great skill and the earlier the better, but have you been working with like your high school colleagues like so they don't have a they get to nth grade and it's done completely a different way? like how do you how does the system plan on blending those two things? >> Yeah, it's you. >> Um [laughter] I mean yeah I Yep. I can speak to that. So last year during the curriculum review process we did start together 612. I mean the Minnesota standards are K12 and so the high school team is very aware of the um and have started to do the pedagogical shifts that the middle school team is doing. Um, but that is a an and that's an opportunity this spring for further collaboration too for the science the high school science team to really get in and see like what a middle school science seminar looks and sounds like um is pretty incredible. We're excited for those um opportunities and partnerships um and and high school curriculum. I think just the process is a little different on their end with um so much more spe special specialization um and teachercreated uh materials um at the high school. But yeah, definitely opportunities for collaboration. >> I would like to hear more about just the greater participation from the kids really engaging in it. And I think both in science and the uh language arts, I just think like when you saw them at the beginning of the year to like this point where we're at the halfway, can you describe like the difference and then kind of compared to the older curriculums that you were using how it feels different? >> So you always have those kids who their hand is always up. They always want to share and it's like I want to hear from somebody else and then they kind of look around the room and they're like she's not she's not going to give this up. And so then you see more hands because they've all talked with a partner usually beforehand. So they have that confidence of like I at least heard it from one other person. Even if I'm wrong, they feel more confident just because they've said it and they've heard somebody else's idea as well. So that way it is going in with more confidence that they can speak. And with arts and letters, it's a continuation of wit and wisdom from the elementary school. And so it's a lot of the same skills they've been doing now for the last few years where we've done so seminars. We've done a whip around so they know what all of these things are that it's it's kind of it's comfortable for them. They've done it since they were probably this grade maybe fourth grade. Sixth grade would be a fourth grade would have been their first year. So yeah. >> Um yeah I can add I told all my students at the beginning of the year I was going to make them think this year. And if you ask them now they will say yes. She was right. She's making us think. So, um it's like I said earlier, it's a different way for them to learn. Um they're used to the, you know, here's facts, take your notes, study your notes, and take the multiple choice test on it. So, and science doesn't work that way anymore. So, with the new standards, so they're getting much better at reasoning through things, and we've given them tools as to how do you look at a bit of evidence? Is it a good bit of evidence or not? um laying things out in front of them so that they can really see and compare things. Um and like I said, when they talk with each other, then they have a little more confidence as far as raising their hand when the whole group discusses. Um and my seventh graders with one of their science seminars, they got into it. They were like arguing with each other because the topics for the science seminars are basically there isn't a right or wrong answer, so you can argue either way. So, and they really got into it as to who was going which way and they got done they're like that was kind of fun. So, it's like yeah it's kind of fun to look at things and discuss. So, so I think they are they are thinking that they're working harder but they're enjoying it. So, yeah. >> Any other questions? I was just wondering uh if there was any chance you would be interested in in showing the fifth graders now, especially show them the sixth grade in you know discussion with the students and make sure that the sixth grade students now have seen the seventh grade discussions. >> I think it would be really informative for the fifth graders now knowing that they'll be coming. Well, that's a very timely plug for our our [laughter] Thursday, Wendy. Um, all of our our district um fifth graders are coming to the secondary building on Thursday and we're going to talk with them about their arts options because that's the elective that our fifth grade coming into sixth grade have. Um, but I think that you're on to something. Um, in the spring we bring kids over to the fifth grade and the the kids share their experiences. And I really like the idea of prompting our our current students on like talk about what you do in science, talk about what you do in social studies and and ELA and math and then having kids come to a tour. And so our current fifth graders will come for a tour at the end of May. And um one thing that we didn't do last year that I I really like the idea of of having them break into groups and pop into classrooms to see what's going on with with the um seventh and eighth grade students so that then when they get back to class even if they all see some things that are different, they can get back to class and in in their elementary schools and say, "Oh, in math I saw this and in social studies I saw this." Um and kind of let them experience that. So that that is a definite uh great idea and we're we're hopeful that we can put that into use. I think it would be very informative for the fifth graders that are coming to the >> middle school. Hype it up a little bit. Yeah. >> If there are um no further comments, thank you so much for coming tonight and sharing this with us and bringing student voice with you. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. And I just one of the things that I haven't said that I want to leave you with is how proud I am of how hard the teachers work at this. It is so incredibly time consuming and emotional to change a curriculum and the teachers have really put everything they have into it and so I just I really appreciate their time and efforts on this too. Um it is successful because they make it that way. So thank you. I'm going to second that real quick because I just asked Ty this morning said, "Where are we at on the arts and letters roller coaster?" Because it is a bit of a a roller coaster up and down and our elementary colleagues have been through that as well with the wit and wisdom. But I did hear that you all at the middle school because I've been telling Leah for a couple years like the kids are coming different. The kids are coming different. And I've heard that this is a year where you've really seen that difference. And so it's exciting to see the hard work of our elementary colleagues really paying off as they metriculate up and and continue in that arts and letter. So absolutely all the way through. A shout out for our teachers for sure. >> Thank you. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you. >> All right, back to the agenda. I hand it over to Dr. Zambino [clears throat] to make my mom proud. [laughter] >> Well, that's I like that. I mean, and it makes all of us proud. So, we are very excited. One of the things that I love, you know, is we we really pride ourselves on being a true learning organization. And we saw that here with these teachers who are learning a new curriculum. We're asking our kids to stretch themselves and learn. And I love that our school board uh is very focused on um getting their own accomplishments and their own development to be able to be successful board members. So, I want to uh congratulate our chair Hume. She is um receiving a certificate here. I'll hold that up so people can see. She has um completed 100 points through MSBA sponsored sessions focused on improving individual performance. So for folks who don't know, we belong to the Minnesota School Boards Association, which is very helpful resource because um they help us with things like policy recommendations and other things, but really also in developing our our school board members. And so um I know Wendy's been a strong champion of that and wants to see all of us uh getting through as many trainings. So congratulations to Chair Hume on reaching this milestone with 100 points at MSBA training. So >> thank you. [applause] >> I know she loves all the attention. So [laughter] all right enough of that. Uh we will now move to the reports listed on our agenda. Uh first we will start with stakeholder comments to the board. As a reminder to our community, there are two ways to make comment to the board. You may either submit an online form or appear before the board in person. If you would like to speak in person, the board has set aside time on the second Monday of each month at our 6:30 extended work session meeting. So, all are welcome to come. Um, no one came to speak to us during our stakeholder comments to the board on Monday, January 12th, and we have received no online submissions since our last business meeting. Our next public listening session is at 6:30 on February 9th. The next report is midyear evaluation highlights. On January 12th, during the boardwork session, a midyear self-evaluation was conducted by the board. This allowed the board to use the new a new evaluation tool that we developed to align with the strategic plan that was adopted in 2025. This opportunity allowed us to engage in conversation with each other about the performance of the B board as a whole and then we will repeat this process again at the end of the school year for the actual evaluation. So, it's kind of a nice test run to see how the tools worked and to experience the process. On January 21st, 2026, the full board met in close session during a special board meeting to perform the mid-year evaluation of Superintendent Dr. Brian Zambrino. Similar to the board self-evaluation on the 12th, this was the first time we utilized the new tool developed to align with the strategic plan. The process required each board member to score the performance of the superintendent on a four-point scale. We reviewed 27 different standards that support the three strategic pillars. Packer performance, Packer Pride, and Packer Promise. Making positive progress on these 27 standards is the expectation with the hope that by the end of the five-year strategic plan, we see measurable growth in all of them. At this time, we have selected two standards that we would like Dr. Zambino to focus its attention on. Both of these standards fall under Packer Pride, celebrating core values and community. The first is aligned to work around retaining and growing our student enrollment in the district and improving our district reputation. And the second on ensuring that every decision and action reflects our commitment to pride, respect, resilience, integrity, collaboration, and equity. So, our core values. The board also identified two strengths that we see Dr. Zambbrino has made progress in that we will continue to watch for further success. They are the improving academic results that we have been seeing growth in year-over-year and the services being provided to support support our diverse student body. Further, the board discussed what tools and reporting we'll be looking for when we perform the end of year evaluation and engaged in discussion about what our process looks like in relation to the best practices recommended by MSBA. At the end of the school year, a full evaluation will be performed and we will report to the public regarding um whether our expectations are met, the areas of strength and areas for future growth. I would like to thank the rest of the board for engaging in this process. Um we had a focus on communication, collaboration, and clarity and all of this work helps move our district forward in a positive way. And it's it takes time and work. So I appreciate your efforts. Okay, I will now hand things over to Vice Chair Claflin to discuss this evening's work session. >> Yes, [snorts] thank you. Uh this evening's work session was mostly preparation for discussions tonight. Uh we've begun the budget process for the next school year and uh reviewed the uh guiding change document which helps us frame our work in what we need to achieve, how we will do that and some of the things that we want to avoid. So we are all in agreement that we need to have a balanced budget. We are facing declining enrollment. Some of the challenges that we've had in the past remain, but we are moving forward, planning our budget with [clears throat and snorts] uh the open eyes and making sure that we're always focused on the strategies that help students achieve uh these great outcomes that we've uh grown accustomed to seeing and uh just saw demonstrated tonight. Uh we also heard an update from community education about the fees that are proposed to be changed for kids choice and preschool. Uh our fees are quite reasonable compared to where our neighboring districts are and they provide an outstanding value for the services and education provided to our youngest students. We had a presentation about mental health and wellness and uh had an overview of all of the staff that are involved in those programs, the roles that they have and uh it came with a great reminder that we all have mental health just as we all have physical health and we all need to work to take care of that. So, we took a moment to focus our breathing in the middle of our work session, which always helps. [laughter] And um prepared for uh resolutions tonight on bonding. Previous work sessions also uh were a lot of preparation for the budget process and the reorganization for this uh current year which is actually maintaining our organization as it has been uh all the board members staying in their current roles and participating on the same committees. We did get a lot done in the past month [laughter] >> quite a bit. [clears throat] Thank you, Vice Chair. [laughter] Uh, moving along in the reports, I hand it over to Dr. Zambrino. Give us some highlights. >> All right. Well, thank you, Chair Kumman. Um, I first want to just start by saying thank you to our staff. I I think we all know there's some added challenges that are are playing out around our community and those are having a real impact uh on the day-to-day operations of schools all across the metro. um regardless of what anyone's personal beliefs are, we we kind of know that to be the case. And um you know, what I've said to people is I can't imagine a better place to be doing the work and there's nothing I'd rather be doing. And so, um it's really exciting. I we heard from our students today about how they've wrapped around each other and they're really leaning in to take care of each other. Um we've had um a lot of extra need in the community. We've had people donating food and helping to get food to families who need food uh with food insecurity and just like the response from folks in this challenging time has really been to just step up and to lean in and um so I'm really proud to be the superintendent here and the way people are um really rallying around each other and I think that's just who we are and that's what we do. um the best way out is almost always through and we'll get through it and we'll get through it together. And so um what we've been doing though is really focusing on what can we control and what we can control is the experience we give our kids and the experience we give to one another. And so it's um it's been really a positive experience in a lot of ways too being a part of our district. And so just want to I you know I've been I think the board you see the emails I send to our staff but um there's a lot of them are just hurting and they're they're looking for some reassurance but they're the best. I say it all the time. We have the best kids and the best staff. So um can't imagine a better place to be to to just get through these these challenging times. Not to mention the darn cold. I'm going to say like I I will I will be honest that was the best weather related closure I've ever had in my career. Normally it's Lisa and looking at the forecast it's 1 to three inches tonight it's two to 20 inches overnight. So you're like oh it's either gonna be three inches or 23 inches. And uh it was really clear that the weather was going to be cold and just knowing um we had conferences coming and a lot of things going on. It was really nice to get to to make the announcement even a little bit earlier than we normally do. I wish they were all that easy but they are not. Uh I did have some folks pitch for uh cold weather closure day today. Nice try. Um, no, jokes aside, it is a really difficult decision. I know we want our kids here. We want them in school. We know that's the best place for them to be, uh, with their peers, with their teachers. Uh, we feed hundreds of meals, hundreds and hundreds of meals, breakfast and lunch every day. So, it it is not fun getting to cancel school. Even though some of us have those fond memories as kids playing in the snow, we know it just has a big impact on everybody. So, uh, but, you know, with with things going on, we're still continuing the great work. We heard some things tonight about uh the great work our teachers and others are doing. U but we're super excited as we're in this point where we're really gearing up for next year. We talked about budget a little bit. We're gearing up for budget and uh we're excited about that. But really looking forward to welcoming in our new Packers. That picture just like warms your heart, doesn't it? The we we all we all know it's once a Packer always a Packer. So we really like to onboard them right away. And we do have kindergarten kickoff this week. So want to make sure people have that on the calendar. So, we have it at Lincoln Center tomorrow uh at 6:00 and then on Wednesday at Caposia at 6:00 as well. So, it's a chance to come into the school, hear from the you know, meet the principal, hear from some staff, see the get the lay of the land, have kids get a little level of comfort with coming in. We'll of course have an opportunity for them as they u come in in the summer. We do that as well where we do the K camp, but this is kind of that first chance to come in and get familiar with the school and get registered and enrolled. Um, as always, you can hop on our website and go to the enroll section and uh find more information and things you need to know. But, uh, very excited to welcome in our new kinders. But we don't just start in kindergarten. We talk a lot about serving from birth to earth here. And so, uh, the following week, we're going to start with preschool registration. So, oh, great. >> Um, families are going to be invited in to learn more about our prek programs. And I got to tell you, like when you're in our pre-K program or classrooms and our kindergarten classrooms, I'm always like, "Wait, there's no way you guys are only in kindergarten. You're only in pre-k." They like our staff are so good with them and the kids are so like ready to go, but especially the kids who do the the preschool with us and come into kindergarten. It's amazing how ready to go they are. Um, so hopefully people will take advantage of that. You can register on site, get your questions answered at the school. Uh we'll be doing that at Caposia on Wednesday the February 4th at 6 and then at Lincoln Center on the 10th at 6. Again, more information on our website. I love those smiling faces. Um not to forget about our middle school as we did here. They're gearing up as well. And so um Miss Borg and her team are g gearing up for hosting tours for um current fifth grade families and prospective sixth grade families. So it's a chance to get some information about the school. um you know, welcome in folks who are new to SPS. We know that uh we we've seen a lot of new families interested in joining us and so we're very excited to welcome anyone new and she's got a number of dates and opportunities there. So um what I like, you know, there's opportunities for everybody and then you can see on Tuesday the uh 17th it's at 5 and it's an espanol Tambien. So you can come and hear it in Spanish or English. Uh the 23rd at 5:00, the March 9th at 10:00, it's my daughter's birthday. Happy birthday. uh early uh March 12th at 5 and then again in English and Spanish on April 8th at 5:00. And I know Miss Borg would love to get you in. If those times dates don't work for you, just reach out to the school. She'll find a way to get you something so you can feel good. I was a middle school principal for 8 years. I know that's a tough transition. Parents, you will be okay. I promise you. I think the parents are always a little more nervous than the kids. And I'm a father of three, so I get it. But um I I love middle schools near and dear to my heart. So they'll do great there. Um you know, we've had this long connection with the Vulcans, so they always pop in and and spread some uh winter carnival fun. And so they were here today and visited both Caposia and Lincoln. And so um you know, it's just always a fun event. You can see the excitement with the kids. We do have to tell them to check the swords at the door and things like that, but they're they are still a lot of fun with the kids. So, thank you to the Vulcans for coming in and teaching the kids about Winter Carnival, something that is a long part of our history here, even that we're um you know, St. Paul's our first ring suburb, but um enjoy that event. Um really fun visit today from uh Commissioner Willie Jet. So, he came to visit one of our social studies classes and answered questions for the entire um period. And he said, "No holds barred." And so the kids asked things like, "How much money do you make?" Which was very interesting because I'm like, "What's he going to do here?" And he's like, "You know, you can Google it and find out, but I'll just go ahead and tell you." So he told him, "I'm not going to tell you. You can Google it and find out how much the commissioner makes." But he was super uh gracious and and welcoming and really curious about the kids. Um I get why he's doing that because he was, you know, a teacher and a principal and and a superintendent. So I know kids are near and dear to his heart. And yes, I did take the time to advocate a little bit for our district when I had my my chances. So, thank you, Commissioner Jet, for taking the time to be with our kids and our staff today. We did hear a little bit about this already um with the middle school science with that hands-on learning. And uh this really brought me back because I remember I never understood the moon phases until we did that lamp experiment where you know the lamp is a sun and you move around. Chloe's smiling so she must have the same experience. So, um, so really cool just that they're, um, showing that moon because it's really hard to explain the the phases of the moon without kind of really bringing it to life. So, uh, I see Miss Ramirez in the background there, but really using that that scale model, so to speak, to show how the different positions around the Earth and and where we are in relationship to the sun affects that. And we did hear tonight that light moves in a straight line. And so we can only light up half the globe at or half the moon at a time and half the globe. This is always a really fun highlight and uh in our community um always the theater program is is seen as you know such a great place for kids to find themselves, develop skills and confidence, but what a great way to really expand on that with the um one act please. These are all student uh written, student led, student directed. Um, we had 58 kids between our middle school and high school who participated and I know it just brings so much joy to people to see these and our kids, as I say, are the best. So, what they put together is really creative and fun to watch. Um, you know, we also talk a lot about trying to provide really rounded experiences for our kids. So, very excited for our AAA winners. Um, so we have Thank you. Um, Alex and Alexander and Courtney being recognized this year for the AAA winners. that's um excellence in academics, arts, and athletics. And so, uh we actually asked our student reps today like what's some advice and they were talking about get connected, do those activities, do those athletics. Um and so encouraging us as we go into budget to make sure to preserve those things, which we will. But one boy and one girl from each high school is chosen. And so, congratulations to Alexander and Courtney for being picked to represent South St. Paul. >> [cough] >> And then just some other important dates, February 6th, non- studentent day, and the 16th is a district holiday as well, so no school there for students. Um, the Caposia PTA meeting on the February 3rd at 6th. The 4th is the preschool information night at 6:00. Uh, February 9th at 7:00 we have the Lincoln PTA and the 10th Lincoln preschool information night. So, just again a really busy time and it's not going to slow down. Um we have at the secondary um the sprawl week was um this week. So u did they rechedule the dance? What happened there? Chloe, help me out. I heard it was last week but it got cold. >> Um so it's actually all been postponed to some point. So Sprawic week and the dance we're all we're still waiting to actually >> Oh, so it's not official yet. Okay. So we'll wait. You'll let us know. >> Okay. >> Um and we talked about the tours. So I I won't repeat that. But then uh concert's coming up. So, another opportunity for kids to perform in the arts. So, on February 10th, we have the band concert at 7:00 and on the 19th, the choir concert at 7:00. Um, like I said, very, very busy time of year. It's just going to be a blur. We know we got the uh scholarships coming up. We've got all kinds of banquetss and things to celebrate. So, um, I know it's hard in this cold time of year to believe it, but it's going to fly right by and spring will be here before long. So, lots to be excited about, but you can always follow us on our website and keep up with every all the great things going on. >> Thank you, Dr. Zim. >> Thank you. >> All right. I am now looking for a motion to approve the consent items on tonight's agenda, which include the financial claims, bills payable, and staffing as presented. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. >> Any discussion? >> All those in favor, please say I. I. >> Opposed? Motion carries 60. All right, the next section on the agenda is policies. There are no policies for review this evening, but as a reminder, all district policies are available on our website under the about us tab located within the schoolboard section under SPS policies. District policies play a critical role in the governance work of the school board and the policy committee is scheduled to meet next on February 18th. All right, business items. I am looking for a motion for the South St. Paul School Board to approve the resolution relating to the authorizing the issuance of school building bonds renewing the expiring capital projects levy authorization of the school district and calling an election thereon. Do I have a motion? >> Some moved. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you. And I will invite Lisa Brand Decker to kind of unpack what those words mean. I'll just give you the little legal piece of it and then I'm going to turn it over to Drs. Zino to tell you exactly what the details are in more English and plain language, I'll say. >> Um, so after months of conversation and kind of research and working with our community and our staff and uh the school board, I'm excited to bring um a recommendation on behalf of the administration before you um to call a special election on May 12th of this year. and that is to address a lot of the critical needs that we have at our facilities. And um a part of that process um to to conduct a special election is to have the board authorize going for a special election. And once that happens, then there's many other pieces that will come before you and a part of that process. But I'll turn over to Dr. Zambrino to talk a little bit about what all those legal terms mean and what exactly is the special election for and some of the the behind thes scenes piece of that. Yeah, thank you, Lisa, and thank you, Chair Hugh, and members of the board. Yeah, this is I know for some maybe haven't been as tuned in yet, and understandably so. Um, but we've been having a lot of conversation um around addressing our building needs. So, um we've had a facility study done that showed we have um some significant deferred maintenance. I'll talk more about that in a minute. Um and we have very limited funding streams. And so we are um looking for the school board here tonight to give the community an opportunity to weigh in and see how we can address some of the needs of our buildings. And so what we're looking at is, as Lisa said, a an election on May 12th, and that would involve two ballot questions, really focus on facilities maintenance and then helping us with some long-term planning. Um I'll just give a shout out to our grounds team. A lot of people don't realize how old our buildings are until we tell them. And they are old. Yeah, Mark sitting back here like um the buildings look great. I was with the Vulcans when they're here before. They're like, "Oh, this building's brand new, huh?" I said, "Nope, 30 years old." They were like, "What?" Cuz there's not one cran mark or anything on those bricks. It looks pristine, but it's got 30 years of wear and tear on it nonetheless, right? So, it's it's this thing of you don't always see it, but it's happening as we go. So, looking at two questions, the first one would be related to a bond referendum. And so, um, if you think about bonds, think about buildings. So, it would address our most critical facility needs. Um, the ones that are really necessary to keep our school safe, functional, accessible. We have some areas of our buildings that aren't really truly, um, as accessible as we'd like for students and uh, community members. U, and we really want welcoming spaces for students, staff, families, and community to be able to come and do their best. And so, we're going to have we would like a question related to a bond. And then we're also looking at renewing our capital projects levy and that really helps us with funding for safety and security, cyber security, and then a lot of our technology needs. And so I'll talk a little bit more about what that what that means. Um, but you know, we I we already heard this term before, but when Rob was talking earlier, our finance executive director, but we do take great responsibility in being good stewards of taxpayer dollars. And so uh and we and also educating the youth of South St. Paul. So this district has as you know a long history um educating the community for more than 100 years and we have facilities that are also more than 100 years. Um our district facilities support learning of course safety that's a top priority but we also want our community to have good buildings at their access and be able to use. And so maintaining we we believe and I think everyone intuitively understands maintaining a building or all of our buildings is a core responsibility of the district. Uh we want to be good stewards. And so I won't read the whole question here but this gives just a sense of what the first question would look like. Um the the first question question one is that building bond. And so you'll see on the ballot it'll say this is approving a tax increase and it is but we're really trying to come at a time where it where we can make it manageable and affordable. And I'll talk a little bit more about that. But this isn't about fancy glitzy stuff per se. This is about addressing aging facilities critical system needs. So for example, if our air handling systems go down, we can't bring fresh air into the building. We can't have people in the building. Um focuses on safety, accessibility, and essential repairs. We want to make sure uh we have had ceiling tiles falling, different things like that that we don't put out there all the time, but that's not what I walked into um Ted's office at Lincoln Center and the whole ceiling tile came down and flooded her desk. Um we had one where something poke through another tile at Lincoln Center. So, these are things that people don't always see, but they're happening and we see them. And so, we want to make sure we have really safe buildings and accessible buildings. um funds would be for like major building repairs, reinvesting in our schools. It's not been since 2013. And so, as we were talking before, um like I own a home, that's a long time to go without really making a significant investment. And so, you can imagine at your own home, how many things would start to age and need to be repaired or just age out of their lifespan. A water heater is only rated for 5 to 10 years and and you can't wait 13 and 16 years. Um, the good news is the way we're timing this, we have bonds that are dropping off. And so when we come out with the ask, it's actually less than $12 per month on a $300,000 home, but we're just going to say $12 because there's inflation and we know uh last time we were out that inflation came in and so want to be very transparent about that. Um, so that's the first question. That's that bonding bonding for buildings. So then the second question would be for the capital projects levy. As I said, really, um, this one is just a renewal. And so when you look at the ballot language, it's very complex. It talks about a percentage of our property tax um base. And so it's very complex, but essentially this is just a renewal. And in fact, it's it's a little bit early. Um and so with this, it allows us to renew our existing capital projects levy. Again, safety, security, cyber security. We know how important cyber security is. Uh and then our technology. Right now, it's currently set to expire in 2029. If we go, we're going to use these funds again, safety, security, tech, security systems. We have really old camera systems. They're really not reliable. Um, and they're frankly the quality of the video is not accessible. So, it's just there's just some things that again, it's a onetoone replacement, but with something newer. Um, it's included in this election, as I said, to avoid the cost of coming back later with a bigger ask. There's no tax increase on this, and the levy rate remains the same. And so essentially if voters vote yes on question two, it's neutral. So that again, question one would be a bond and that would add a little bit of an increase. Again, I don't want to diminish or trivialize money. It's significant for people, but we're hoping that people can see that that would be a great investment. So again, with this, you can see different ranges because not every house is at that $300,000 mark. that our median home value is actually below 300,000 right now. So again, we're trying to come in at a number to say it's a nice round number and then it's it's really like $150 in today's dollars, but we anticipate a little bit of inflation, but you can see where the differences are. If you had a $200,000 home, it's $85 a year, just $7 a month. On a $400,000 home, um you would see $16 a month. So again, it's it's an ask, but we're hoping it's very reasonable and pragmatic approach. So let me talk about what they'll do. So with again a little more detail. So with the bond, we're looking at things like our u mechanical plumbing, electrical systems. So a lot of things that people don't necessarily see when they're in the buildings, but they're essential. The roofing, the external building repairs, um walls, windows, doors. So think about at home if you had a leaky window, how much damage putting off repairing. Granted, a window might be expensive, but it's a lot less expensive than the repairs. Um, fire and life safety systems, accessibility again, so we can make ADA improvements to have better accessibility to our buildings. Lighting, our lighting right now, a lot of we're all moving towards LED lighting and different things that are more costefficient, provide better light, and we've been doing some of that. Uh, but we need to do more with our lighting, our flooring, and our interior finishes. Um, and again, just that safety and ADA compliance. really looking at a few specific spaces. So, um we have our Edinger Field, uh the bleachers are are beginning to fall apart. Um we've heard several times here about the the the tennis courts. We've even had somebody come with a chunk of the court to illustrate the point. And so, um and then our locker rooms are just not up to to space. So, there's I just want to be clear that it's not like we're going out and building a new tennis court. It's replacing the tennis court. It's not building a new football stadium. It's replacing the the antiquated um facilities and making them accessible because right now it's very difficult for accessibility. Um so this will not address all of our needs, but it would help us make a really big dent. And what we're looking at doing, why we're coming early with the capital projects levy is to just really align the two so we can just come in do this hopefully once and then we don't have to come back right away with another ask anytime soon. So, the capital projects levy um again would be funds to support um capital needs like our security cameras, building access systems, phone systems. We have a a phone system that needs updating and if that goes down, imagine how difficult communication would be. So, our emergency communications um tools, our tech infrastructure um that supports safety and operations and also our technology, our our devices that our students have and then cyber security improvements. we we know what happens if if we're not up to snuff on cyber security. Um so those are the big pieces. So again, why now? Uh it's been since 2013 that we've gone out with a bond. Um we never like having to go to the taxpayers. There is no other mechanism and I'll talk more about that as well. Um many of our systems are actually at or beyond their expected lifespan. Um and so they do need to be maintained and deferred maintenance actually grows when we delay investment. So, um, we had our, um, Ellers, I think, was working with us and said it's about a 5% inflationary rate on construction. So, even more than the average, uh, inflationary rate. So, if we say, you know what, we're going to wait a year or two years, we're actually going to end up paying more and more and more. So, the longer we delay, the the more it's actually going to cost to address this. Um, with question two, again, it's set to expire in 2029. U,, but if we do renew, it comes in at the same cost. We're not asking for additional funding there, but it again it avoids the cost of running another election. It is a time cost. It is a monetary cost to run an election and it would really help us have um safe and secure schools. Um so bonds and levies, they serve different purposes. So again, just really want to make sure we're having some clarity because we did have a an operating referendum in 2022 that was a learning levy. So levies are really to support learning. bonds are for the buildings and that infrastructure. So, they're two different funding streams and we can't mix and match them. So, if someone said, you know what, we just passed an operating referendum. Why don't you use those funds to help fix up your buildings? We can't. They're restricted in their use. And so, we need we really need these capital dollars to be able to make the changes we're looking at. Um, before right as I was coming in, the district had a facility study done with Wald and and Mark Fenton who's sitting in the back and we'll be up here in a little bit to talk about other things. um you know, they they came back with $150 million in deferred maintenance needs if they total up all the projects that need to be done. And we receive $1 million from the state. And so if there were another funding mechanism, I I want people know we would use it. We would find it. If anybody has a benefactor who has $149 million, [laughter] please let me or our school board know. We can avoid it all. But it's not reality, right? Um, all jokes aside, you know, sometimes people wonder, "Well, how could you have that much?" Well, think about your own home. Like, I shared an example with the board. I have a sidewalk that's been falling apart since I bought my house 20 years ago. It's money I just don't want to spend right now because I have three kids. I'm trying to raise them, put them through college. It's going to have to happen someday. So, it's been deferred, but I'm guessing before I'm able to sell or move on, somebody's going to say, "You got to fix that sidewalk." Right? So, think about those things. But again, some things you can wait on. Some are a little more pressing. So, that's why we're not coming out with a an ask for 150 million, but like if a roof is leaking, you got to fix it, right? Um, as far as our facilities, we want to make sure all of them are in tip-top shape. So, we have uh Lincoln Center, as I said, our our baby school that um I'm sorry, nope, Lincoln Center's Compos is the younger one. My my mistake. Uh Lincoln Center is our um one of our oldest schools at initial construction over 75 years ago in 1950. As as I said, the building looks great. You wouldn't know that the infrastructure inside of it is aging and starting to struggle because our team does such a great job keeping that up. As I said, our baby school, Caposia, was built in 1993, so it's already 33 years old. Um, so again, you think about your own home, how much stuff might happen over 33 years. And then the secondary, there's too many dates to list, but the initial construction was 1921, so over 100 years. Um, the fields, obviously, I talked about the field that's aging and falling apart. Um, Central Square um is in pretty good shape, but against uh was originally started in that area um in 1963. Most recently some renovations in two uh 2002. Our CLC is probably our building in the best shape because that was one of the ones that uh before I came just a couple years before I arrived. Um that one was refreshed. So in a good shape, but still has some needs. There's still going to be maintenance needs. Our district office, we don't um intend on spending a lot of money on the district office, but again the same things. We can't have the roof leak. We can't have those um those issues. And then Roosevelt again, soccer field's fine because it's grass, but the tennis court is in illreute. Um so the needs again were identified by the the facilities review in 2022. Uh but then we brought in a facilities task force because again um the question came up earlier, will we engage with people? Yes, we want to engage. That's been a high priority of mine um and our our team and our board is to engage with our community. And so, um, there's Mark kind of, uh, talking to some, um, staff and family members who, um, helped us kind of prioritize. And what they really said is, "Yes, we need to move. We need to go out and get some resources to address the aging infrastructure." And they didn't want to drive what that looks like because they said that's not their area of expertise. And so, uh, if we get these funds, we will have kind of two, um, rounds of engagement that we'll be looking at doing. one would be with Mark uh Fenton and kind of the grounds team for those folks who really do know that stuff like how to prioritize the projects when you have HVAC and electrical and those pieces. And then as we look at our stadium and our some of our other spaces maybe at the secondary or other spaces, we want to engage with um our staff, our students, our families to hear what they want to do. So, the best um analogy I heard is think about that if we put this on the ballot in in May and it passes, we bought ourselves a nice big block of clay. Then we're going to spend some time engaging with our community, figure out exactly how we want to shape that clay, knowing that most of it is going to be for those maintenance needs that have been deferred. So, again, uh just to summarize, a lot of information, happy to answer questions. We we're looking at a special election on May 12th. That would be the only thing on the ballot. Again, it would be two questions. One would be for a bond referendum that allows us to sell bonds. That's how we bring the money in and then we pay those back over a period of time. And then the capital projects levy, which is an annual like we get just over a million dollars a year to support that. Again, really safety, security, technology needs. And again, we're not focusing on lots of wants right now. We're really looking at needs. Our tennis court is unsafe. Our football's stadium is not accessible. our buildings are aging in a way that could cost us much more. Or for example, we've talked about with the board, we have two transformers in our secondary building that are ours. We own them. If they fail, we're going to be without power and it could be a long time before we could get it back up. So, we would want to work with Excel to have them take over that portion of the electrical. So, lots more details behind that, but we're going to um be spending lots of time engaging um looking forward to if the board approves that tonight. Um coming to the city council. Um they were great partners in sharing the message last time around our operating referendum. And so I want to get uh in front of them and share that. Other community organizations, Lions, the Open, um we'll make every effort to get uh where people want us to be. And if people have ideas, we're all ears and happy to um get out there. But we really feel like this is a legacy worth protecting. Um this is a a proud community. The schools are the hub of our community. That's where we're raising our kids. Um we really want to maintain these spaces so we can make learning possible. Um so happy to answer any questions. I know that was a lot of information. So um hopefully it was understandable and digestible. [snorts] >> Are there any questions or comments from the board and then I'll share with the public. We have been talking about this for for some of us years kind of building up towards this that facilities task force was already what two summers ago. >> Um any questions? Yes. >> Yeah. If you could just announce to the public where the voting will be held. >> Thank you. So it is going to be at the Dakota County Historical Center. Is that the right title? I want to make sure. Historical society. Thank you. Right across from city hall. So, it's the same place we did last time. So, great question, Wendy or um Director Fel. We will u be putting to you, like Lisa said, there's more steps that you all have to do. One of those will be to do the combined polling location so we can have it at one location. So, we'll be doing that. We'll get that communicated out. We will um send a mailing with that. So, don't worry if you didn't get that written down. There's lots of steps. So, we will mail that out so all of our voters know exactly where to go. Uh I and actually thank you because that makes me think to say thank you to our partners at the city. Uh Ryan Garcia and um Deian have been great to work with on um just making this easy cuz sometimes it's a real uh chore to get an election and a lot of school districts cover a lot of territory so maybe multiple cities. So this is one of the times where being a special school district where the city and the district being one in the same boundary really serves us well. Um, so we're sorry if that makes you have to go a little farther for your voting, but u to streamline that effort for the city and for our staff, it just makes sense. And again, that will be the only thing on the ballot that day. Thanks, Wendy. Any other questions or comments? I I will just say um that I really really appreciate the process that has gone through um uh in order to engage with our stakeholders um parents and teachers and administrators in order to try and figure out what were the highest needs of the district. What we're really talking about here is maintaining our facilities. >> Correct. >> Um this is not about um new extravagant purchases. It is about ensuring that the things that we have been asked to be stewards of that we remain stewards of. The one thing that gives me some pause is that the work that was done to try to figure out what we need to do was a couple years ago. >> And every year that we wait and decide not to maintain our facilities. Um the dollars that we expend as a district go less far. >> So we're able to purchase less things. construction inflation is higher than, you know, um CPI or other forms of inflation. And so this um this is an opportunity to to really ensure that we continue to be stewards of of the things that previous generations have been stewards of and that um we should continue to be stewards of. So I not only appreciate the process that went into this, but also the opportunity to ensure that we can continue to be stewards of the facilities that we've been asked to be stewards of. Thank you, Director Cummings. And and we will, as I said, have much more um opportunity for engagement. So, it's the election won't be the end. It'll be the beginning of the next phase where we really get to uh do some collaboration and partnership and engage with our community. >> I think to kind of tag on what Director Cummings was speaking to, I mean, some people might ask, why are we coming in May instead of November? And it is to be able to move forward on being able to do this work. Obviously, we don't want to interrupt the education that's happening in our buildings. So, a lot of construction projects need to happen during the summer. So, by coming to the community in May, we are giving um Mark Fenton, [laughter and clears throat] we're giving his team the ability to um lay out what the scope of work is and get bids and get the input that we need so that we can possibly hit the ground running by next summer. Um, so I hope that people see that this is actually again us trying to be really respectful of how the money is used and making sure that we can get as much use out of it as possible. >> Absolutely. >> Good. Good point. >> Um, is there any further discussion? Then Lisa, will you please call the role? >> Director Claflin, >> yes. >> Cummings, >> yes. >> Duffy, >> yes. >> Weber, >> yes. >> Wfelton, >> yes. >> And Chair Hume, >> yes. That's six yays. >> Thank you. >> Let the work begin. >> All right. Okay. [laughter] And now we're going to go kind of adjacent. Um I am looking for a motion for the approval for the South St. Paul School Board to approve the June 30th, 2025 year end audit. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Oh, thank you. All right. I would like to invite our finance director uh Rat to uh walk us through our annual audit presentation. >> Thank you so much, Madam Chair, Madame Vice Chair, members of the board. I got to get settled dongle. It's okay. >> Hopefully it cooperates. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Last time Let me try this. Sorry. >> Just building up all this anticipation [laughter] of the audit. [gasps and sighs] >> Is that you, Rob? >> Nope. [laughter] I got the presentation on. >> Beautiful. >> Yeah, it looks nice. Okay, it was a lot easier last time for some odd reason. Oh, [laughter] >> that wasn't it. That's a different one. >> That's the cities. >> Oh, shoot. Should have known the colors. >> Yeah. >> Oh, here it is. Yes. Yes. Okay. Thank you so much. Um I I just wanted to um give a brief um summary here about the key findings and and also about our audit. This is per um statute. A lot of municipalities, cities and and and and school district undergo a yearly audit here. Um just want to thank our um independent auditor firm LB Carson as well um for for helping guide us. there was uh transition within the team but um you know at the end of the day we we made it through um we met the deadline and um we also had some positive results here. So [snorts] just want to go um talk about the audit here. We had an unmodified audit opinion. This is the highest form of opinion that a school district can get. We were fortunate enough to get an unmodified opinion even though with some of the headwinds here. Um that just confirms that we met compliance and our accounting standards are transparent. We also had on the flip side is um two internal control weakness. One related to segregation of duty. Um that is something right now that I'm working with the team on to segregate out the duties. We have three people in the finance department. So we're segmenting out who does the J, who does the approval, who does the review. And another weakness we had was the monthly reconciliation here. That is something I'm working with our new controller and also our new district accountant, Pam on. Um it's in the work. Um I did submit the the cap um which is the corrective action to provide corrective action on these. So hopefully by next year we won't see these um findings. Um also we also had um Gazsby 101 to implement this year. This is a new standard with relates to our um vacation leave and and and sick. We were able to complete that on time and so I'm really proud of the team and the hard work that that went into this. Another part of the audit is our adjusted ADMs. As you can see from 2016 to 2025 here, we lost approximately 20% of ADM. Um, each ADM generates about $7,500. Um, a dollar per dollar exact is 74.81. Um, we were fortunate enough in the last two years to see adjusted ADMs at around 2018 2004. So, we lost about 14. Um, I can't say this is a trend until I actually see more data points for another couple of years, but it looks promising the last two years here. We're hoping that we can control the pace of uh the adjusted ADMs, but as you know, it's really hard to predict absenteeism with a lot going on right now as well. Um, how did we end up in the year here? As you can see, from 20 21 to 25, uh we've been fortunate enough as a district to have an increase in fund balance. A lot of that is for conservative budgeting. Also, um the referendum that was passed a couple years ago and also just being a great steward of taxpayers [snorts] money. So, we ended up the year at approximately total fund balance at 15.3. And these are reserved for some headwinds that we might be facing along the way such as compensatory aid, um lower ADMs. So, it prepares us as um a shock absorber to help balance things out if the state doesn't give us anticipated aid on um a per dollar basis. If the state was going to not give us any money, for example, there's a state shutdown, for example, [snorts] we would get approximately 11 weeks with this fund balance here. That's approximately how much time we have. Uh, I stand for any questions. Any questions? I would like to um let the public know that we actually got this presentation from the actual auditor at our work session earlier this month. Um and we're very pleased with the work that you and your department have done to get us to this point. And thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Yes. Thank you, Rob. >> Are there any other comments? >> All right. Um then all those you have to say we're in favor of accepting the audit. That's what we want. >> Yes. I would like to do that. And then my next step is I'm actually going to uh once this is formally approved, I'm actually going to post this on our website as well. >> So all those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries 60. Lot of fun posting. >> All right. I'm now looking for a motion for the South St. Paul School Board to approve the resolution directing administration to make recommendations for adjustments in programs andor positions and reasons. Therefore, do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. All right. Ral, will you please come back? [laughter] >> Yes. >> As I was walking, I was like, oh, here I am again. So, um, I just wanted to uh, uh, read briefly. The purpose of this resolution is gives us the flexibility as administrator here to pivot um if there is any need for any adjustments of program and staffing should district needs require them. This resolution does not presume reduction. Uh rather it's ensure the district is prepared to respond thoughtfully and responsibly to involving circumstances. So in um to to be very brief here um this resolution here we is the first of many steps for us to kick off the adopted process adopted budget process for next year. It gives us the flexibility. We don't anticipate any reduction but it gives us the flexibility to pivot u between programs and and staffing as needed as we move on in the coming months. Are there any questions or comments from the board? So again, this is something that we do annually to prepare for the budget process. And if there are no other comments, Lisa, will you please call the role? >> Director Claflin, >> yes. >> Cummings, >> yes. >> Duffy, >> yes. >> Weber, >> yes. >> Wfelton, >> yes. >> Chair human, >> yes. >> That six yays. >> All right. >> Thank you so much, Rob. >> Okay. Still kind of the same theme of stuff. I am now looking for a motion for the approval of the South St. Paul School Board to reject the Packer Activity Center pack ventilation bid. Do I have a motion? So moved. Thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you. All right. >> Good evening, school board. Dr. Zambrel. Uh I'm Mark Fenton, the director of buildings and grounds. Um the district recently requested bids uh to address the ventilation improvements for the Packer Activity Center. We received only one bid. So that's very disappointing. Um the one bidder was CM Construction. Uh the bid submitted exceeded our budget allowed for this project. [clears throat] Um and I'm asking the um after review administration uh recommends rejecting the bid. Rejecting the bid will allow the district and W architects to refine the uh project scope and ne uh as needed and rebid the project uh in an affordable in a project in an effort to obtain uh more competitive pricing aligned with the budget. >> Are there any questions or comments? >> Do we think it's a timing issue? Like are other companies just busy doing other things or is it a scope of work issue or >> myself and W both talked to other uh the mechanical contractors and it was all about timing. Okay. >> It went the bid was over the holidays. >> Uh if there's no further discussion, all those in favor of rejecting, >> please say I. >> I opposed. Motion carries 60. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Mark. Okay. I am now looking for a motion for the approval for South St. Paul School Board to approve the grow your own candidate agreements as presented. >> Have a motion. >> So moved. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you. And I'd like to invite our new uh student services director, Jennifer Danielson. >> Yeah. I am not Charlie Cook, our HR director, [laughter] but I am Jennifer Danielson. So speak to the grow your own agreement. So in 22 23 school year we started the grow your own as a tri- district opportunity um to support some scholarships and some different teacher pathways um for lure and as we enter or in kind of the midyear now for this school year um we're pleased to announce that we've expanded the program with three additional staff members who are starting the program um right now it's focused in special education for those staff members but open to other areas as well but we have three additional staff members who will be participating in getting their special ed licenses and we are very excited about that. I'm especially excited about that being in that area. Um the agreements define the terms and conditions of their participation in the grow your own during the course of their education. >> Are there any questions or comments? I just think this is a fabulous program that um we get to like share with the tri district, but like what an amazing way to keep like the incredible staff that we have who are dedicated to us and uh help grow them and benefit our students. >> Um >> great. >> If there are no further comments, then all those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed? >> Motion carries 6. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Next, I am looking for a motion for the approval for the South St. Paul School Board to approve the community ed fee schedule. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you. All right. And I am inviting RAW back up plus our education director, Amy Winter. I brought up extra help this time. So, [laughter] so we are both here to propose um a fee increase in particular around our kids choice which is our childare program and our community preschool. Um both of these fees we're looking to um increase just to kind of um uh address just some of the increasing costs which rock can share a little bit about. Um, specifically around the request, preschool, we're looking to increase um about $10 a month or if you're doing all day care, $20 a month. And then for our kids choice, we're looking to increase about $1 in the daily rate. We did do some um research around the area and neighboring districts. Um some of them we are maybe just right on that top end, but then in other areas we're significantly lower. So we are kind of just in the ballpark depending on individual rates. >> I I I just want to add that this is um a yearly process that a lot of school district are going through um to stay competitive um with the surrounding area here. These rates are pretty much reasonable here compared to our competitor. But a lot of u things that goes into these calculation is again labor costs. A lot of school districts are fighting for labor and just to stay competitive and stay in line and just help the fund for which is our community ed fund balance stay in line. This here would be ideal if the board could approve. Thank you. >> Are there any questions or comments regarding the community ed fees? Uh during our discussion earlier, it was mentioned that there are scholarships provided and I wanted to reinforce that for our families because to send a three or fouryear-old to preschool gives them such a leg up and we've seen how prepared they are coming into kindergarten um that we want all of our families to be able to attend and that value that's provided there is incredible. I remember when my kid was finally old enough that I didn't have to do daycare anymore, how grateful I was for the services that were provided by the school. Thank you. >> Thank you. The other comparison I would add is if you are looking at um like the actual finances, R3's program is a three-day program a week where some of our neighbors also only offer it two days. So, there's some discrepancy there. [snorts] Um, I guess I would just like to re-emphasize a statement that you made when you gave the recap of the work session that the value for what types of educational um, experiences that our youngest learners get in these settings is really amazing considering the expense and especially since we have so many scholarships available. >> Plug for our community. Take advantage of our early learning. >> All right. Um, all those in favor please say I. >> I opposed. carry 60. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> That was the end of the business. That's amazing. >> Got a lot of stuff to do. >> Okay. Um our final item, I will ask our board members to share any updates on committees they want to share about or highlight any educational activities or events that they've participated in since and going all the way back to the beginning of December. So many things to choose from. Um, and I'll start with Director Weber. >> Um, on committees, I serve on the 917 board, which is a uh, collaboration of nine different school districts in order to provide um, some special education services. We had our organizing meeting um, last week. We swore in two new board members representing the Bloomington and the Farmington um, school districts. And then we elected a new slate of officers as well as starting our own budget process for the next year as all school districts um do. So everything we do here I basically get to do again um on another um on another district only on a slightly different scale. Um, and that is a and that is a good time and an honor to be able to represent um this community on that board and that's something I take very seriously in making sure that um all of our students in South St. Paul are also served by the other board that we that we sit on. Um and then just in these times I just want to wish everyone kind of um good health and good mental health as we were talking about in our work session today. Um, I was at a community event um, yesterday that was held at the Croatian Hall and the main speaker spoke about how we are a community of immigrants and we are a community that was always welcoming to immigrants. Um, and at the time they were Croatian and Hungarian and Serbian and Polish and other Eastern European um, countries. And today they may be from Mexico or Guatemala or Ecuador or Nigeria or Somalia or other countries like that. And I just want to say that we will continue to be a welcoming community and all those are welcome here. >> Thank you, Director Weber. Director Cummings, >> I wanted to just expand upon what Director Weber said. In the last especially three weeks, I we have just seen points of light all over our community and it has been especially inspiring to see that we've seen um students and parents and teachers provide rides to schools. You know, one of whom is our former schoolboard rep um Jackson Schultz. Uh we've seen our students sit in in schools um in support of the other students. Um, I was over at a person's house as they were folding someone's laundry, an immigrant family's laundry, um, so that they didn't have to go out to a laundromat. I've seen dozens of people delivering groceries and shopping for groceries. Um, seen an increased support for immigrant businesses. Um, we've seen our school district finding new accommodations to help um, families that are in crisis right now. Um, we had an immigrant support meeting in which our superintendent came and we also saw teachers and parents and students come to and we've also seen neighbors observing interactions with um with federal law enforcement that that's happening. Um, so there's so many times in which our community has shown up in the last few weeks and I just want to say thank you. But I want to be clear that we've also seen aggressive enforcements approaches from our federal law enforcement that has been totally disconnected from um the good approaches that have been done from our local law enforcement. We've seen a former student removed from his vehicle and sent to Texas and then to Albuquerque even after a court order. Despite every effort of our faculty and staff, we have seen disruptions in our learning environments. We've seen less students attending schools. We've seen local immigrant um owned businesses close um because of fear from a federal government. Uh we've seen instances of bullying um that has been informed by um toxic social media. Um I am in support of enforcing our laws. No question. But the current um metro surge operation has left our community less safe. So, I am asking that ICE leave Minnesota and I'm asking our federal government to protect our civil, constitutional and human rights. [snorts] >> Thank you, Director Vice Kman, >> thank you. Uh, I have no updates on the finance committee. You heard all of the work that we've been doing. Um, I would like to thank the cultural liaison at the schools for all the work that they are doing. All of our teachers, all the administrative staff who are going so far above and beyond what we thought a teacher's role was, what we thought an administrator's role was. And you are doing fantastic work doing everything you can to help our students continue to learn wherever they may be. uh if they're able to come to class, it's still a disrupted learning environment. Uh kids see that their friends are missing from school and they're concerned. And for the students that aren't able to come right now, you're making every accommodation to give them the opportunity to continue to learn from home. And we know how hard that was during COVID. This is uh something we've been through before, but in a different way. Thank you for rising to that challenge and being there for all the students. Our schools are a safe place to come to, but it's not always safe in between home and school. Um you're doing everything you can. Thank you for everything that you have put in to make uh all of our students know that school is their second home. Um, and on a lighter note, uh, some of our elementary staff have the opportunity to do theater. We've heard so much about the theater program in the middle and high school. And at Caposia, they have brought theater, uh, musical theater in. And, uh, staff who don't always participate in classroom learning are getting to engage with our students, too. And our elementary kids, third through fifth grade, are going to put on a musical, Nemo. And [laughter] there will be a performance in early May. Uh they are excited. >> Uh I'm really looking forward to seeing what they come up with. It's fun to hear. >> Thank you, >> Director Duffy. >> Uh yeah. Um, I've I've been really busy, but I know this past weekend the Veldman uh invitational happened on Saturday. I believe that the boys and girls uh wrestling team swept the tournament and both won that. And then on Sunday, it was a beautiful nice nicely well-run. So, good job. Hats off to Don Niheart for that. but really good uh youth tournament [clears throat] uh between [cough] I think eight different participating youth programs and so that was really nice. I'd just like to wish everyone a safe peaceful and hopefully you can try to find some peace and some safety in these trying times. But um just know students, you've been heard, you are heard, you're supported uh and I'm just really proud to be about uh part of this community and what our students are willing to do for each other. Thank you, Director Duffy. >> Okay, great. Director Belton. >> Yes. >> First off, I'd like to let everybody know that just Kim and I attended the MSBA, Minnesota Schoolboard Association annual conference convention, which was held in Minneapolis as normal. It was January 15th. And of course, I want to congratulate Kim for getting that award, >> which the director's award after earning 100 points. That is something that the MSBA does truly like all of us to do to attend that. Of course, I had gotten it several years ago because if everyone on our schoolboard would receive that award, our school district award would get a major honor at this MSBA convention which would be truly wonderful for our district. Would really like that. And then the other thing as I serve on the education foundation board of directors for us as as I know I have mentioned we are they are starting to get prepared for the scholarship funds because they will be letting the the high school seniors who who can apply for that in February. As we know that celebration is the well the the G giving out the awards is always in May. So we're looking forward to that. So we look forward to all of our students that can apply for a graduation scholarship which is so honorable for them. So we we look forward to that and congratulations to them. And just the other thing as I also serve on the senior center board of directors. Last week was our lunchon for the seniors in South St. Paul. You have to be 55 years of age and older. LA last week it was egg roll salad which is some was something new. But then coming up of course it's little almost a month away already. It's Thursday, February 19th is the next lunchon that will be held at at Central Square. Mississippi sandwiches will be had because I I we seen seen the pictures of them. So looking forward to that coming up in in uh in February. And the other thing for me personally in February, which is on the Wednesday the 18th, I will be going with the senior center. There's many of us members of the senior center. We are going to the Chanhassen dinner theater show on that Wednesday. So looking forward to that because we travel with Inenver Grove and West St. Paul senior families. We go to that. So looking forward to several things coming up next month. Thank you. >> Thank you, Director Felton. >> All right. Um, if anyone needs the plug for a Mississippi mud sandwich, it's a slow roast, roasted beef type situation, all shredded up. I believe a stick of butter is thrown in there, [laughter] some au proolone. It sounds amazing. So, if anyone's looking for something to do that afternoon, I'm just saying. Um, so many things that I wanted to highlight have already been said. Um, but one of them wasn't. I had the opportunity last week to go to the city's uh Martin Luther King Jr. Day event. >> Um it was really a wonderful opportunity to be together in community and our um students from our um BO organization represented so well and shared some of the history of Martin Luther King Jr. Um, I encourage everyone if you haven't had the opportunity to look it up on Towns Square Television, they have um packaged it so that you can stream it or watch it online. Um, it was a really wonderful conversation for the community. Um, I'd also like to just thank all of our staff and the admin team, all the work that you're doing. There's so much happening behind the scenes, some of it having been highlighted tonight. Um, when I think about stressful times in my life that happened when I was a kid, like history type things that we live through, I realize that so much of what made it manageable for me was that behind the scenes, all the adults were keeping it together and making routine and calm possible. And I I see that happening now. I never really thought about it until we've reached these points. uh COVID being one of them, this being another thing that we're living through. Um so there's so much work happening and mental health is so important to be able to provide that stability. So I just want to thank everyone, our community, our school community, the greater community for for being that rock. Um lately I've been rereading this quote from historian Howard Zinn that I want to share and I'll just kind of leave that. Um, what we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places, and there are so many, where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act and at least the possibility of sending the spinning top of a world in a different direction. Um, so I guess kind of an optimistic hopeful note to end on. Um, that is our agenda for tonight. I am looking for a motion to adjourn the Monday, January 26, 2026 schoolboard meeting. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Fabulous. Any discussion? All right. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Uh, motion carries 6. The school board meeting is adjourned at 7:47. >> Thank you. actually know.