all right good evening everyone I would like to call the October 28th 2024 school board meeting to order Lisa will you please call the role director Claflin yes laber yes T Felton yes human here Weber Yes W Felton yes and chair rash here that's seven presents thank you if we could rise for the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all all right I'd like to start with asking for a motion to approve our agenda for this evening as well as the work session and regular meeting minutes from September 23rd 20124 and the work session minutes from October 14th 2024 do I have a motion so mov second any discussion all in favor please say I I I opposed that the motion carries and to start things off tonight we I'm going to invite Teresa principal Teresa Marty up to uh introduce some new science curriculum which is some new changes to our Elementary School this year that's right thank you uh school board and Dr zambino for having us we're super excited to share this we have a couple things to share the first one is to we're going to spend most of our time talking about our new science specialist um that we have for kids and the second one is just how we create a positive School culture um so I just want to take time to say how proud I am to introduce to you Liz serinsky who is our new science specialist she comes to us from with a wealth of knowledge he had done a lot of science work before had aligned standards um was the science lead in her um building and um she lives in South St Paul and now gets to work in South St Paul right we like to keep everything at home so it makes it super exciting um she spent a lot of hours this summer working with Bridget Ferell the science specialist at kosia aligning the new science standards that were implemented this year with our new curriculum um and I just want to say there's not a day that I don't get approached by other teachers in our building saying how happy they are they have science and how happy to have her teaching it her we have a new science lab up in the third grade Hall if you want to come see it it's super fun really bright and colorful and she just brings a joy and enthusiasm um that the kids and all the staff really appreciate so just going to uce lose to you thank you excellent welcome welcome welcome I'm Liz serinsky I'm the science teacher at Lincoln Center um have a quick demonstration for you um I'm so sorry to tell you that this building is haunted do that and I prove it so don't be too scared um this by the way is a what I did with fifth grade science today the exact same thing except they got to draw the ghosts well anytime a science teacher comes at you with a lighter you know something exciting is about to happen no building um now I know you're really worried about these ghosts but actually with science we can get rid of them quite easily if the lighter works please be patient they don't like to go oo um this happens uh because of a scientific uh Concepts called conve ction um so essentially um warm air is less dense than cold air um and so when the air in and around the tea bag is heated um it will start to rise because it is much lighter um and so we learned about convection and heat transfer um in fifth grade today Bravo talk yeah um so we have some videos of some students um we so on water can soak through paper towels and it can go gently and then so we put I love the enthusiasm you can see yeah you might not be able to hear so they're talking about um they learning about erosion um and now they're trying to prevent erosion from happening um so they're talking about uh how they use their different materials um the materials are very similar to what uh Works in real life to stop erosion mainly plants um but some other things as well [Music] protect snow here and some of these here and all the mkin around it with two PS on top of it where it can stay on okay help awesome tell me why did yours survive uh so cuz we put like things around it what kind of things put tin foil put tin foil these little and then paper on the top for like an umbrella okay [Laughter] um yeah so they're just explaining their thinking and they were very successful um here's some more photos um we have um second grade in some of these pictures is working on um improving a paper house so that it won't blow away um uh they learned about um like tornadoes and other windstorms um so how do we make our houses stronger so that that doesn't happen um some first graders are working on um how do rivers form so they had mountains made out of crumpled paper do some coloring on the top with a regular Crayola marker um and then spray with water um so they could see how Rivers were formed by water flowing down the mountain um there's some more pictures of the of students working with their erosion um prevention and um the one where this stud is kind of going like this um with fifth grade we made Sund dials and then we took them outside and they were amazed that they actually work all the time I think that's everything any questions for Liz all right so are you teaching then every day just different like do you do you have all like first graders in a day or do you have one through five in a day or how does your schedule work um I have K through five in a day except um 1 through five like I'll have a day off um before their new cycle starts um so every day I see some combination of kindergarten through fifth grade we're in a five day um cycle so once a basically once a week everybody gets a specialist we go by day 1 2 3 4 5 in case there's a day off so that way we don't ever skip that day um that way they don't miss a specialist I love seeing the students so excited for academic content and I think that's so like makes some such strong connections to other things that they're doing you know sometimes when we see Specialists and electives students sort of turn off and think that like that's free time and like to stay connected to the academic experience and the enthusiasm that you are bring into the room is absolutely infectious and that's really remarkable and just really appreciate the work that you're doing M thank you do you have a budget for materials I don't know work you're doing experiments uh so we're working with a curriculum and so it does provide materials list okay um and so um we have been taking it in small chunks so that we don't have to order every every single thing all at once we've been working with Leslie gas um my myself and Bridget and she have been doing it together um and so for about six weeks I think we're going to make it even less time at a time we um put together a list of like what each grade needs and then like consolidate so we're not ordering multiple right things when they just need the same thing um and so then we put together a list of um for our myself at Lincoln and then Bridget at kosia um and it gets all delivered and we kind of just split it might be something to approach the Educational Foundation about yeah just a thought it's been really fun bring Teresa's been wanting this look at how excited she is principal Marty I should say with all the she right when I first started she's like can we do science and like well I just got here can we like you know but we did hear uh through our surveys a number of times that science was really a high priority for the community so there was definitely Community feedback and input um and we knew that after school science activities were like there was weight list for that going on and so it's fun to have it in there I love hearing the collaboration I know that uh Amy Winter met with our Specialists and really trying to bring them together um so love to hear that you're you're collaborating with Bridget and making those connections and yeah make sure you have what you need or let me know my wife's a science teacher so you know would be upset if if she thought our science teachers didn't have what they need actually I would be and I think everyone would be but super like high engagement and like I said our student advisory Council kids were singing praises of the class and I know it's a great space I like yeah so all the way around nice job did you have a question Wendy yeah I was just curious have the have the students asked you at all do they have any certain requests about certain science issues or things to do um uh yeah they you know the first week was a lot of are we going to do volcanoes are we going to make elephant toothpaste which is just kind of this exploding foam stuff there's a show on Netflix where that was done so that's where that comes from um so yeah I mean they just want to see some things explode um and so you know so try to like do some of also that fun stuff like this week we're just kind of doing this like fun Halloweeny science we got some &em science and glow stick science you know so yeah like the the stuff that they have like seen in videos or movies or whatever that's the kind of stuff but then um when we are doing you know the actual lessons from the curriculum they do say like oh I know blah blah blah because I saw this YouTuber said you know blah blah blah so they are making connections to like science stuff outside of the classroom that they've I look forward to you having conferences this week all the parents tell you and then we did this one at [Music] home I love that yeah that's what I said to them a lot is you know like the volcano thing you can do that at home I bet you already have all the stuff uhhuh well and hearing students being able to identify how they can solve problems themselves through that sort of experimental model I think is such a valuable lifelong lesson for all of our students to have and build up resiliency around so excellent thank you so much thank you bra yeah so we had one other part and um we wanted to highlight um Lincoln Center's strong Community culture um Lincoln Center has been recognized by mde for the last few years as a PB PBIS school and we've worked um really hard at implementing strategies to inre our calm and positive um School culture and through this work um that has been in various levels um we've been able to decrease our office referrals and increase our students time in classrooms so some of the things that we started last year with um our PBIS efforts um was our Packer pride tickets and having the kids decide what they wanted their Packer pride tickets to go for so any adult in the building carries Packer pride tickets and can give them out for kids when they see them being safe respect respectful or responsible are three key Foundation words that we um reiterate with the students and then the students come up with ideas of things we're trying to earn so right now it's a competition between stuffed animal day extra recess and an all School treat and so when they earn these they come into the office and they sit and they debate about which one to put it in and I hear every day which one's winning and I better pick a date for it so it's that is really exciting it's fun to see them excited about what they're earning and what they're doing and then last year we started doing all School assemblies to celebrate and recognize different things that were happening in the classroom as well as in the hallways um with students in different student groups and we've added a layer to that this year uh Mr Mast our Music Teacher and our students um wrote a school song and so we have a Lincoln Center School song that we start every assembly with which is super fun and now this year our students are actually kind of running our assemblies um so for example they're handing out the um certificates to students um we had a kindergarten or excuse me first grade and third grade buddy class um sing a song for the school as everyone was entering um Everybody in the school um has been paired up for an older grade and a lower grade having buddy classrooms as another way just to build that um collaborative Community within the school um and then um for our assemblies they have different themes so then our student ambassadors are involved and they're doing pieces of it and spreading the message of whatever the theme is in um the assembly then we do a bulletin board and other messages on our school announcements so it's just kind of bringing everyone together and then our next layer of that is um we wanted to taking um feedback from staff from last year is um provide more ways to support our staff on giving them strategies um to help students both academically and with their behaviors and so um our intervention team and um our school psychologist did a whole presentation on interventions for both academic and behaviors um you can click you can want see through the um different uh links we have here of the slideshow that they did um they did a um presentation they did examples um they then created a who can help so if I'm a teacher and I'm struggling with a student who's um academically struggling in one area they can look at the list reach out to that staff member they can come and give um ideas and collaborate together to support our students um we also looked from getting feedback from our teachers looked at our Behavior form from last year and decided what can we um shift to be better support um detailing what has been done prior to them coming to the office or what things did you work on with a team Etc and through doing all of this we have just seen that the students are in classrooms more our our culture is just it's really calm and positive and it is just you're nodding your head because you walked your so good I mean all the buildings are honest Kudos in South St Paul for 26 years and taught at for 18 of those years like it is amazing and I am so supportive of all of our staff who have stepped up to um do when you know better you do better and um it's teacher driven it's not coming from top down it's truly teachers saying hey I'm an I'm an expert in this I'm talented in this I'm willing to help others in this and so we're all supporting each other and collaborating together which then brings that whole positive culture across the building so with the excitement of science and the excitement of all the things that we're doing with um PBIS and mtss it's just been a awesome start to school year oh I love you so great so great thank you very much excellent that's PBIS um positive behavior intervention system so it's a national okay maybe an international yeah and it's just a different ways that you are positively helping shift um how you think about behaviors both academically and you know physically socially emotionally the tickets that she talked about kids used to earn them and just take them home right it was kind of more of like oh I had a good day but now that they know when they earn this it goes for the greater go of the community right so that when they're earning something we have these big footprints that are in the carpeting in the office that they like to jump around to to get back to where the buckets are and so every month there's like she said the three ones that they're voting on this time but there's always something different and they just know that they've earned something by doing um their job really well at school and now they get to contribute to everyone else being a part of that too um which just adds um just another layer of um working together well that also builds positive foot traffic in the office and not just Behavior foot traffic in the office um at the end of the day and you can see many many kids coming in with their handful of tickets to put in the bucket so they're pretty excited yell down the H I earned four yay so I love that they think my main job is to come up with these ideas for them they always say you're so lucky you have the best job cuz you get to come up with these ideas and pull the pack of pride tickets I'm like yes I do I love I love that that's the way they see what my role is oh that's such a transformative change to like what office culture can be like in a school as well and um to also be able to see that positive interaction on a daily basis is really remarkable yep it's a it's a social spot for positive interactions love that sounds great love that so fun excellent thank you so much excellent all right for to keep good feelings coming um for our next report I'd like to invite Amy Winter up uh and cace burkart to kind of give us an overview of District's performances around some standardized testing and assessments that we Face inside the school you got a hard act to follow though you got a really good team in front of you too I I know I realized we're not as exciting um and we don't have the fun videos of the kids don't have a lighter have a lighter exting let's not let's not downplay that actually but I would say this it is actually really exciting to see work that we are planning you know in advance thinking through how do we meet the needs of our kids in our buildings and our staff and watch it get all the way to implementation and actually the impact of our students that's actually what's really exciting and so yes we're giving a summary of the work from last year but embedded in this is the planning that's coming into the future um and just the amount of time it takes to kind of make sure that that happens so as much as it's not quite as exciting as the previous work it's really really um exciting how relevant and important it really is so so we're going to do just a quick summary around our um just accountability measures that we um collect and that the state collects over the course of a year and I think the other piece of it is is this is a districtwide summary so it's not going to get down to an individual student level or um a site level um that information at least from a site level is available um on the mde website and you can just type in like a school report card um so that is available to the public but we are really giving a broad um summary of The District as a whole so this uh presentation is really focus focused around um sharing out our accountability measurements which include attendance graduation the MCA which um identifies math reading and Science and then mtas is also tied to that and we'd like to highlight Trends celebrate areas celebrate areas of growth and identify Focus areas for improvement all right we'll start first with attendance great so um you can see the attendance data that in front of you um the data goes all the way back from the state to 2021 2022 and there's on a 2-year lag so we don't have the 22 23 24 data um in front of you but I shared a little bit in the Friday update and I can summarize that here as well for the board um so chronic or I'm sorry consistent attendance is defined as being at school for 90% or more of school days um so they count e either excused absences or unexcused abces as an absence so um if you have more than 10% then you're defined as chronic absentee versus consistent attendance um what's exciting though is you can see that we U made some significant growth in that 2223 school year um so we increased from 55.1 to 61.3% and we uh also increased at a rate faster than the state average um I did pull some of that 2324 data um it's always a little bit of a black box on how mde pulls our data when they make the final calculations so big big note of caution there that their final calculations next year may be a little bit different than the data I pulled um but we also are projecting that we had about 68.6% consistent attendance so another big year of growth um for the school district that's huge it's big jump yeah so as Amy shared it's it's always kind of exciting to report out on we had started some of the things in 2223 we added even addition more additional layers in 23 24 and um you know it's always I feel like implementation science says wait you know five years to really make sure what you've done has made a big difference but I I'm optimistic that these things are really lasting and have made some major improvements so we added different supports last year including um with the support of the referendum increased psychologists counselors and social workers that really get at the root of Why students are gone from school we also have a partnership with the University of Minnesota that will continue through 2028 where we have um grad students supporting at the secondary level meeting with students we've increased our partnership with Dakota County including another meeting that we had actually just today to continue talking about attendance supports for the district and then um we do monthly meetings with all of our social workers Community 360 staff our psychologists um social our counselors we've also added monthly clerical meetings because we found that they are the ones that really are inputting a lot of that attendance data so making sure that we're all using the same consistent approaches and they feel supported within that and then we're also working on the creation of an attendance guide book and revising that Schoolboard policy as well as looking at even more um evidence-based attendance inter interventions to put into place so excited about some of the things we have um already implemented and where we're heading in the future and hoping that were kind of a model for the state moving forward that's right so the second half of this is now really getting into the academics and so the first area is going to be graduation and similar to the attendance a graduation um data is a year behind um the rest of our data and so what you'll see here is is the blue line is the state of Minnesota's um gradu four-year graduation rate um they do track uh graduation rate for 5e and Beyond um but we just right now report on in the 4-year and then the kind of pinkish uh red line is then uh South St Paul and so what you'll see is we had some um going up down up through some of those covid years um right now we are on a 2-year Trend that is increasing um and it is higher than uh that 2020 score so we are moving in the right direction and seeing that growth when you you look at our MCA which is our state assessment and again this um does a a snapshot of how our students are doing as a whole and it tests them in reading math and science and you'll see here um the grades that they test for reading and math it's third through 8th grade and then uh reading is 10th grade math is 11th grade and then science they do just Fifth e8th and High School so this is our reading scores and what you will see is the state of Minnesota is in the orange and South St Paul is in that maroon color and uh we are doing a multi-year uh view of this and so starting from 20 uh 20 to 2021 um and then going to uh 23 24 and what you'll kind of see is that we have um if you look at the multi-year we've done some up and down but we are um sum like generally going on an upward Trend which is what we want to be doing um ideally you know we want everyone to be successful um what we are noticing is is that there is a gap closure that is happening with our upward Trend um and with the state um either staying a little flat or a little down on math uh again the state of Minnesota is in that orange and we are in that maroon and again we are are seeing um increases as we go through multi-year um and the state is having some increases but it's we are at a greater rate than what the state is showing and so again in math we are also doing some Gap closure and then finally our science um we over a multi-year we have seen um an increase and so you see that 2.4% increase from 2020 up to 2024 um and and the state did a little bit of a dip uh came back up but again we're also seeing some Gap closure on that so all of our data and both math reading and science is showing growth uh and continued uh growth not necessarily that we're losing um the momentum that we had from the previous year we also like to take that um data and dig it apart to kind of see how each of our subgroups are doing um we will look at uh students who identify as white students of color we will look at uh students who get educational benefits or free and reduce uh students with an IEP um who receive special ed services and then students who um receive language support as an El student and so this is also showing um their proficiency level uh from the state level and what we see um here in South St Paul and then here is the math information and I would say that um when we kind of uh subdivide that out um most of our subgroups are making that proficiency up we do see a couple um subgroups that we do need to um put some attention towards because we're not necessarily seeing the rate of growth that we want to um but overall we are seeing some growth and then the last area is science and I'm excited with our science Specialists uh to actually give that direct instruction with our elementary students going all the way up um how we'll maybe see our kids a little more prepared to take this assessment in the future so here's kind of the key takeaways and also how we take this information and how we actually do planning moving forward and so um things that we're really excited about reading we are seeing increased proficiency uh math we're seeing increased proficiency and science we're seeing increased proficiency so we are obviously saying this is where we're at we're excited about where we're at and we need to keep moving forward and so when we are doing some planning moving ahead there are definitely some strategies we are focusing on from a district-wide lens and then also from an elementary and a secondary and so number one is we're really embedding time to actually look at our data and get it in front of our teacher leaders and so we have uh two times in the summer that we do this once our year kind of ends um and then we are also embedding checkpoints throughout the year and we're also collecting different types of data like what does the classroom environment actually look like for our students and and we're quantifying that just to be able to say how are we doing with our um goals and what that looks like for our students we also are supporting um opportunities for teachers to come together and talk about what's working and what's not uh improving their own learning through those plcs or professional learning in communities uh this year we implemented a new Danielson framework which kind of gives a outline around what does uh strong instruction look like and how we can kind of improve our practice and then we're embedding coaches uh at the site level to kind of support that work and then we also have a committee which is our atps TDE uh which is a group of Administrators uh teachers um who kind of make plans around how they can kind of support the work with what we're doing at the district level and then specifically at the elementary level you saw tonight the science Specialists we also have been doing some alignment with our math resources uh to the state standards uh along with our assessments so that we can kind of monitor how our students are doing um we are also pushing in some more support around our co- teing model so if we have students who uh language is um something that they're learning and they're also learning content we're bringing teachers together to be able to support that in the instruction and then I know we've talked previously where we're giving uh some professional development for all of our teachers around the um literacy uh updates around the science of reading and so everybody is going through that and then we are in year two of implementation of our reading curriculum which is wit and wisdom and our youly um and so generally we like to take about a three-year uh Runway um to fully get that up and going and feel like it's then normal practice at the secondary level again we're doing a similar model where we're supporting our Learners through a co- teing model they are also doing that professional development and we're spending a lot of time right now on um building up our CTE Pathways and making sure we remove those barriers and really uh tying authentic learning uh with students in what they want to do and what they're interested in and then the secondary is also really digging deep and doing some learning around what are those key components that make a really strong lesson and um just kind of supporting each other and having that standardized across the secondary building and then they are doing some additional Focus just around Equity training on how to make sure that they know students and how they can tie what they're learning um to what our students value and and kind of improve um just just that overall experience at the secondary level that is the fast forward version of all that information so thank you for your time and I'm happy to answer any questions absolutely I have a a question I remember last year when you were talking about the wit and wisdom and iFly you were talking a lot about the um uh the frequency of the assessments of making sure students are getting you know weekly or you know if not monthly but weekly assessments so that the the MCA wasn't just one big scary day where you know their entire future was was decided have you seen at least even at a classroom level or so the benefits of doing more interventions or more knowledge of how students are doing on a more frequent basis yeah I don't know if we've taken the time to dissect that approach um you know we uh you know third grade is an interesting year because that's the first year they take the MCA and so what is kind of different is them being really used to taking online assessments uh because we do some screeners at the lower level so that they are more comfortable then to be on that device and take that state assessment um I would say we are being intentional just so that the tool isn't the barrier um I don't know if we've necessarily Quantified you know what I mean Quantified it to make the direct correlation on that but we are definitely we've definitely seen a lot of growth since I've gotten here around how we use data and so it's been really fun to watch our our built teams and our plc's and then uh also as we've been you know I know we're not going to ever say we're there yet you look at our data we not but like we've I hope people here are seeing the level of transparency by which we're looking at our data now because I sometimes have people say we like look at our I'm like I know like yes that's I'm sharing it with you so we can be transparent and and talk about but we're we're learning a lot as we're doing it one of the uh it isn't the youly and the the wit and wisdom but an example where that's benefited us was our math scope and sequence in elementary school was missing a number of Standards so our kids were literally being on assessed on things they had not learned and so Dr sunstrom had come in and really laid out a a scope and sequence for our teachers which is great because then they don't have to worry about trying to figure that out but I was in um I'm trying to think of the teacher I was at capos they were doing fifth grade fourth grade class I think they were doing some math work and they were doing an assessment and Terry and I Mr pretoy and I were walking doing just some classroom visits and it's like oh you're doing assessment and and like it was almost like a jinx moment where um um the teacher had shared I was like oh is that one of Dr srm's assessments we kind of said at the same time I'm like oh how's that going he said you know this has been amazing one to know what we weren't covering and to have these assessments provided by our district you know know academic team to say use it and he said that the information he's getting is so much better so like we have work to do still as we're learning and growing with our new curricula and even with curriculum we've had where we didn't realize it wasn't necessarily addressing the academic uh standards that our students were supposed to so it's it's been really energizing and fun to see the work the data digs that she talked about our data Retreats sometimes we've comeone with our our built teams the level of conversation the depth of knowledge and ownership of outcomes that our teachers are having is like amazing honestly Goosebumps it's it's been really fun to watch them learn and grow together and that's really how we're going to get better cuz no one there's no one person who has all the answers it really is going to be that coming together and you see what happen we heard of with our science Specialists across our two buildings collabing we know we're going to see the fruits of that labor so it's really fun but there's some learning still to do around you know with that new curriculum and those assessments well in one of the pieces and this is the second time you've brought this forward to the board I pointed this out last time we were together and really want to emphasize this for our community at large as well but for if you look at our data even further back for the last eight years our gap between the our student achievement in the state has only been growing and over time that is what it occurred um this is the first time the Administration has really brought forward the data in a raw way to the board and really sort of like owned where we're at and clearly as you've identified and as everyone as we want better for our students and for our community um and to be able to show that in the work that we're starting to do that we're starting to move that Gap we can't cure that overnight and I want to make sure everyone in our community really understands that that is not an overnight solution um but the fact that we are being upfront and honest about the achievement and where we're at is a big step inside our district cuz that's not something that had been brought forward to us before and so I really appreciate that level of transparency and bringing that up it's uncomfortable um because we do want better for our kids um but seeing that um through the effort that we take together that we can start making improvements is a really positive message for our students our teachers and our community as well because we can solve this problem and we can we can do better than where we've been before another cool learning since we have student reps with us I won't name names but one of our student reps kind of said that honestly to a certain extent some of the kids haven't always taken the tests is seriously either because they they're not required for graduate for graduation and so we're starting some dialogue around how can we tap into them to help get the word out like this is showing the whole world what Sal St Paul is capable of doing so don't just go ccccc all the way down like yeah you can and it'll get you through the test and I'm not saying most of our kids are doing that but we had heard it just wasn't necessarily that high priority right yeah so I'm really excited to tap into our strong student leaders here to help us get that word out as we approach those assessments and I know I can count on these two cuz they're already like all in on what they're doing and helping us so I think there's just lots of opportunities tucked in within this so it's it's so multifaceted uh but we're I think some other pieces like when I started our our elementary teachers were like we have a super old outdated literacy curriculum we went super fast and got that curriculum in and got it in a year before we even needed to so they're ahead they're doing that core literacy training an yet which said shash is still true it's still going to take some time because you don't just start this massive new curriculum and instantly be expert at it but we're hearing such positive things from our teachers and seeing like just the level of thinking is is tremendous that I'm seeing in our elementary schools and I'm sure uh Mrs Marty could have gone on about that from you know that school perspective she chose other topics but we'll we'll continue to be able to celebrate that because we're seeing great things happening in our classrooms say Amy do you ever get to the point where you set benchmarks or expectations we're not where we want to be now yes we've improved a little but do you ever realistically okay in 5 years if we haven't closed this Gap by 15 we've got to re-evaluate something do you ever set those benchmarks or so right now we're actually focusing around um how to identify like more um realistic Benchmark short term and so like one of the pieces that we're working on right now is actually the Elementary report card and saying what is grade level expectations and how do we communicate and how do we in like get that data uh on a more immediate scale versus waiting till the end of the the year um or waiting until three years down the road we're actually creating a system to give us internal data so we actually can predict better we can actually adjust and respond better to that before it's so after the fact I mean I would say um it is definitely always um do we have the complete picture I will tell you I I tend to lean more towards multiple measures not just one and I think this is one important one and I also want more data to have a complete picture about what's working and what's not but I do think we need to be responsive to our data and if the data is telling us our kids aren't being successful yeah we do need to respond to that um but I think right now we're focusing more on um creating internal checkpoints um that's going to give us uh I think more relevant data to Pivot when we need to but on that that's a great question director Felton we do each one of our schools does put together a school continuous Improvement plan so when you hear us say skip they do have to set annual goals and that is stating a a percentage proficient it might be on MCAS there's other measures as Amy said we have fast bridge and others that we use so there's multiple measures which is always better and I'll talk about it in a minute when I do my update but part of our work was student education this year we're working on our strategic plan then what we'll do right on the heels of that is we're going to develop what are called scorecards which go very transparently very publicly forward facing here's the goals we've set here's the strategies we're going to use and here's how we're going to hold ourselves to account so you'll see that as a major portion of the work we're going to be doing so we we're already doing the skips and those other pieces and the data digs uh but we are going to be again fully transparent about what we're setting to do and how we're going to hold ourselves accountable to meeting those measures so it's it's going to be exciting work to do well and I also want to recognize the work the teachers are doing around that like teachers like feel a great deal of responsibility around student achievement and when it's falling short of that I know what that feels like and that's hard um and to kind of pick yourselves up by the bootstraps and really put in the work to make that Improvement that's a big lift and so really appreciate the efforts that the teachers are making through that process too so excellent thank you so much thank you all right up next um couple highlights from uh other things um first is public listening session submissions at our last meeting at the district office which is the first meeting of the month at 6:30 we have public listening session in which students can come and make comments to the board um they can also submit that via the School Board website um commit those forms we had five people come in in person and one person submit online um most of those comments were around things related to amaz Works um those who were expressing concern about the curriculum um pretty specific elements of the curriculum that they had concerns about how gender was being presented um some who were speaking in support or we had one speaking in support of that curriculum and then one um encouraging the board to stay in the role of governance and um to have these decision ISS at a u management level and so we had a few people who had come in and um those considerations were passed on to um our curriculum team and our Administration as well and next I will turn to Vice chair an um Claflin for highlights from our work session which was busy thank you yes uh the work session just before our business meeting tonight we went through uh the audit report for the district we'll hear that in a a bit more highlevel um description later this evening uh but we've discussed that uh as a board and also as a finance committee earlier this month at the um previous work session on the 14th we had also heard this presentation that you just heard from Amy Winter and Dr B Burkhart on the accountability measures and discussed that in a bit more ad depth as well and heard a very similar presentation from them but from a slightly different perspective uh through the world's best Workforce program uh and part of that is having an achievement and integration plan report and they covered five different goal areas that we have for being ready for school addressing some of the Early Learning uh concerns that we have making sure that students get screened and are ready to start school uh and the just like we heard in our last presentation the steps that the district is taking to improve upon um achieving those goals making sure students are reading at grade level um closing some of the racial and economic achievement gaps that we also saw highlighted tonight making sure students are ready for career in college and uh graduation and uh yeah we've had a lot of long discussions about these I'm glad to bring it to the public tonight excellent all right thank you uh next I'll turn it over to superintendent Zan brino for some highlights from around the district I'll try to be brief since I know we have other presentations yet here tonight but I'm going to just uh piggy back on what we heard out of our our colleagues at Lincoln Center like what a great start to the school year it has been I you know you just keep hearing it wherever you are and it's been our secondary building this morning super positive great start I talk to staff on both sides and you know it's been fun to hear people say like normally when we get to mea I'm kind of gassed and it was kind of like a bonus like I just made it all the way great to mea and like and now it's you know this longer weekend versus like the rest and Recovery weekend that sometimes it has been in the past for and I've been there too so I I can totally understand that but all the kudos to the teachers and staff in the buildings again I was at you know Lincoln and kosia multiple times kids are doing great teachers are doing great um and and they're so kind I read to Janelle Johnson's CL we talked about sharks she asked me to come and talk about sharks so I did a little slideshow and put it together they sent me the coolest thank you note that's hanging in my uh office so if you ever need your bucket filled just talk to any South St Paul Student because they are amazing but like I said just a shout out to our our teachers and and our administrators and other staff I know Chuck had shared in his weekly how uh tardies are down significantly on excuse absences are down significantly while we're not there we're up in math reading science attendance graduation rates um we just got a really good audit we're sitting in a pretty good financial position so like yep we got work to do and I'm really proud of the work that everyone our team in here and in our buildings is doing to make just really everything come together so Packer Pride should be running really high in the community I want to make sure I cover that also wanted to thank our fall uh coaches and for activities and Athletics like really wow I I see br ker over here did we even have any rain outs this whole fall I mean like it was like the best weather we've ever you don't have to answer that legit but like there was like the best weather you could ever have for fall sports like I I know sometimes it's just a coin toss if you're going to get things and our football team did great and made us proud our our uh volleyball those girls are really coming together uh under Tyler L Ro's leadership so shout out just to everybody who's makes that because that's the stuff that we hear kids say routinely we've done so many focus groups with kids got those participating in our clubs and activi sitting here with us tonight luckily didn't have to run in from the shower to get here tonight which is nice but we know that's a piece that really draws our kids in so just want to say thanks for all that great work and we're just going to continue to build on all that I do want to remind people I think everyone knows we got elections coming up but please do not miss through all the general election noise that we have a very important Board election so we've got three seats open and six uh great people running it looks like for those so we'll see what their Community has us uh working with as a board but excited to see those results come in and we will have elections going on at kosia we'll have extra staff and myself and our SRO on hand I don't anticipate any concerns because that's just not who we are in South St Paul but we will have elections going on there so we'll make sure to have extra hands on on site there uh I did mention stter education that's uh who we've been working with on the Strategic plan a super big thank you to everybody we had so many people participate in our focus groups and that's students staff families and as you see in this picture Community um give a shout out to Lisa for all the logistics behind the scene because every one of those things takes so much time to plan so Lisa brand Decker's been essential in that but it was so great to to get to sit in those spaces and and hear uh the feedback lots of great things happen and and lots of work to do and that's why we listen to people uh this this picture here is from the very last focus group we held which really was exciting for me I had reached out to the city to say hey we're doing this uh these focus groups would you guys be willing to come we held one just for them you can see basically the entire city council there Ryan Garcia uh Chief Wiki couldn't make it so commander Sal me came Deb Griffith and then the woman on the far right that's Tina posnanski who's our studor coach uh and she's been very well received by everybody like our like Terry btoy and I went to their conference last week he had said it before but he said again to a stranger that we met there so I know it must be true that he said it's the best professional development he's had in 20 years and and and you know people like Terry deserve that because he's been here for a long time he's committed his career to South St Paul and he doesn't he's like everybody else he wants to be a lifelong learner and grow and so our principles have really received it well so what we'll be doing next is taking all that data from the the focus groups it's all Anonymous but it's a lot of data and there's lots of overlapping themes actually between all the groups uh and and so that's going to go to our steering committee so they're going to go through that to look for some common themes and then that'll help us identify like pillars that we want to build for our strategic plan so that's going to take uh some time because we're meeting actually meet next day tomorrow Wednesday I after the election the day after the elction day after the election coming coming quick next Wednesday um so I'll be there to join them and and that that meeting itself the steering committee went through the same process of providing feedback on what's going well wrote you know what's not and things that they're hoping to see words that would describe us if we were the best um and there were tears in the room so this the group of people who showed up ready to do this work again very representative uh really were leaning in and very excited and depending we may have a new Mission Vision and definitely action steps that'll come out of that uh so that'll be brought to the board for they'll make the recommendation to the board to approve our strategic plan and as I mentioned uh when director Felton asked his question then the next step from there is how are we going to deliver on so that's where we'll build out scorecards with metrics to measure and hold ourselves accountable and being transparent about where is it going well where do we not quite get there and I know in the past those have been developed and never really used and so uh they will be for anyone who's been involved in that process and didn't get to use those we will and that'll be our forward- facing document so very excited about that work um we've done a lot to on that idea of stakeholder engagement a lot of work to uh build in engagement opportunities trying something a little different different based on feedback from last year so we're having a family advisory committee rather than doing an academic advisory committee a calendar committee uh Tina Moses trying to get with them for Tech we're going to have one standing meeting and then roll those topics through that group so we can have it's streamlined for them and then they have that opportunity to provide input across all areas and we don't have to keep reaching out to our principles say we need people for the calendar committee we need people for this so uh we had a nice thing where parents could use a QR code to uh sign up if they want to get involved but you can see our website there has the link if you want to uh still sign up we'd love to have you as I've said before on the worst day our kids are the best and they are the best of the best and here are two of them very excited about this questbridge opportunity so questbridge does national college scholarships I don't have the list of universities but they have partner universities and whoever gets picked gets a full full ride fouryear scholarship and so we have two finalists out of the 70 almost 300 that were named so 20 over 25,000 applied we have a couple in there and there's only 12% of them that came from the Midwest uh and we have a student who got one and was on it this year so Jamie Shepard's son I don't think she' mind that most of us know about this and uh what a lifechanging thing for their family and so I'm hoping we can continue uh to build this I believe Allison uh Terrell brought this partnership in at the high school so excited that um that's happening for kids so so fingers crossed Prayers whatever you do do it your way and send them the the good thoughts or whatever you do so hopefully we can come back and report that they they got through uh mental health as you know is a major uh topic of conversation really in all areas but especially in education and we had some leaders in our district that were recently featured on a podcast so principal Borg our new assistant director in student services and then Dan Hodge who's the psych at the middle school are interviewed to talk about you know the warning signs of a student struggling how we can foster that mental health part of our Safety and Security work that we uh did coming into this year was to build out a risk assessment process so a couple years ago when I got here there if the student was using threatening language or we had concerns about self harm we didn't have a formal process we adopted a nationally evidence-based um system so we're really still learning but really getting stronger in this area to identify whether or not you know there's something we need to take action on but you can listen to the podcast and hear how our team made us proud representing South St Paul in that conversation always fun when the new uh musical comes out so the fall musical we got Willie Wonka coming up here which I think we all know R doll story about uh Charlie and getting the golden ticket so it's going to be fun to see that play out on our stage and so there's performances coming on November 15th and 16th at 700 and then Mata performances on the 16th and 17th at 2 I'm excited to hear the feedback every time it's always glowing so I'm sure it's going to be a fun fun show to see all right Packer pride and action homecoming uh what a great homecoming week we had I mean I don't think you could have asked for better uh in terms of just the the way our kids rallied around each other seeing our older students come into the uh elementary schools and rally up and build excitement for the littles that they just man you just see the way they look up to the kids when they come through and uh I see some familiar faces on that royalty there Amal um Cooper Brook and help me out someone I'm blanking on the last name Bridget Brady thank you that should be an easy one with all the bradies in the room Brady and Brook twins yes yeah and you know fun kids I mean every time I see Brooke she just makes me laugh I saw her mom with a big cutout of her at the game the other day for at the soccer game so obviously a very fun family so great choices there but great to see a big win last year we had rain delay where we were all locked in the pack for however long and then had to finish the game the next day not to the outcomes we want so I just don't think we could have asked for better the weather the week of Celebration um you know and then of course the big game so pack of Pride again fun thing that principal btoy does I'm glad he kind of switched it up so it kind of had throw me off a little bit but every October there's a day called Unity day October 15th where I we're encouraged to wear orange and make a statement against bullying uh and so in the past they've done a big PE sign so it's kind of fun I was sad I was not able to go cuz I go up on the roof with dette when she's taking the pictures and the kids kind of get a kick a seeing you up there and I was not able to join but I love that they took the k for kosia and kindness uh and it's just so much fun you see the staff and the students and then they blow this thing up poster size and stick it on the walls and the kids come by and find themselves so just really cool uh way to say that we just don't tolerate bullying here that's not who we are in South St Paul and if it's happening please let us know lots of ways that families or staff or students can report we have our help me app we've got our counselors our administrators anyway we don't tolerate it so it's great to see that fun positive spin on that our trid district caps moving uh great things for our kids again there so caps is um center for advanced professional studies and so we have different uh programs within that this is a picture of a group of our students in the transportation and trades program so they got to actually make a sidewalk extension at Two Rivers High School so again the trid district is our district South St Paul with West St Paul and Inver Grove Heights so when you see why would they be doing that there that's where a project was able to be done handson in real life so super cool to see kids being able to explore like the fundamentals of concrete work learn about that but also hearing like there's the Hands-On work but there's also leadership opportunities within all these fields so great that they're learning from Professionals in Industry so thank you uh to South Dakota State University ststone and gressler companies for supporting that really great opportunity again we've talked a lot about stakeholder feedback in our last few meetings and one of the big things we learned last year when we were having conversations around academic Pathways we heard it over and over and over again from high schoolers that they did not feel like and this is no dig against anyone else we didn't have the position but they didn't necessarily know how to choose the courses or plot out um their path and so uh and our counselors are working with many many kids and so we were able to bring in a College and Career advisor this year uh lel's his name and he's doing a great job coming in helping kids figure out where do you want to go after graduation like knowing what options exist like no one sat with me to say here's all these different possibilities um so I don't know that anyone would have said look at Superintendent at that time but you know who knows but that's the thing right you want kids to have lots of exposure and lots of opportunities so he's already had kids at College and Career Fairs and having recruiters to the school so kids can come right in there and and hear from the colleges straight themselves so really again listening to our stakeholders here's a gap filling that in so the kids have this opportunity to really explore and know that they have an adult that they can go to to to ask questions and very very excited about this we talked a lot about some of the challenges around our academics and you know we have some students who have some challenges but when you look at our data for example you look at our lowest achieving student are students who are learning English I mean back in the day and No Child Left Behind they they defined LEP is what they used to call limited English profession meaning that the kids aren't going to be able to perform well on the test and yet we test them and I do think we should um but we also know we have kids who really need a push an advanced push and so I'm very excited to have Jake canos join us this year he is U working with our elementary students and teachers so this is part of our new Advanced academic programming so it's um not gifted and talented where it's so narrow like you have to pass a test but really A broader sweep knowing that we know our students best and who's ready for some push and some challenge academically so we're starting with reading circles we'll be moving to math and looking at a telescope math for students who are ready to to do math a little more quickly so right now they're doing book club style uh literature expirations I love the looks on their faces some thinking hard some having fun but they get to meet once a week with Mr canal and uh reading you know dis deep discussions of books and these reading circles will change every couple of months we can rotate kids through again our long-term plan is that this will build up into the secondary and then we'll have offerings in both literacy and Mathematics so again that was something we've heard that people often shop around and we haven't had and so excited that our families I never want a family think I need to leave sou St Paul public schools to get what we need and this is part of our our plan to address that as our pathway work's been going on all right and I'll wrap it up here here with just some dates to remember we've got Halloween coming up someone brilliant on the calendar committee said let's not have school on Halloween for grades K pre through 5 so they don't have to worry about all that stuff but just want to make sure that people know that's that's happening uh we have a profession or conferences and things happening so no school uh for all students on the 1 got Thanksgiving break coming up right around the corner which blows my mind I can't believe we're almost into November and Elementary have conferences the 30th and the 1st and then on the secondary side we got choir concert bance concert coming up on the 19th and 21st fun to see our music programs starting to really Thrive and hoping that fifth grade band that we put in after the referendum will start to really drive that interest in music I know the kids have said they love it in elementary school so that's been really fun yeah end a triwana is coming on November 26th and then we've got a we're rolling over I said thanks to everybody for the great work on our fall season but uh we're rolling here we've got gymnastics Boys Hockey girls basetball BB starting on November 11th and then boys basketball and wrestling starting on the 18th yes girls wrestle and yes our girls wrestling program is awesome and has an awesome coach I know sometimes people are surprised when they hear that but so many great opportunities here and one small But Mighty District that is on the rise so again thank you thanks the board for all your support I think about all the things we've been talking about and working on there's so many great things and yet more work to do so excited about our our future absolutely Ely thank you so much yeah thank you that's great information inside there all right up next we have our consent agenda items which are Financial claims Staffing and personnel and a part of the board packet that has been uh presented already to us um I am looking for a motion to pass our consent agenda do I have a motion so moved second any discussion all favor please say I hi hi opposed that the motion carries all right buckle up we've got some business items Lisa is going to call me out if I miss a resolution along the way as we sort of work our way through um but up first looking for approval for the South St Paul school board to approve the resolution of the governing board supporting form a application to the Minnesota State High School league Foundation do I have a motion so moved second and for discussion I get to call you up Brady Krueger you've been patiently waiting so uh every year the Minnesota State High School league Foundation um takes some of the money that essentially the the league has been doing very well financially and they're using some of that money to give back to schools in the form of Grants um so we are applying for a grant um and they we are encouraged to use these grants to encourage students that may have a financial need to participate in our Athletics and I activities programs um obviously most of you are well aware that we have the stride for pack of Pride which is done by the Schultz family which has been a tremendous help uh providing scholarships for kids in need um that want to participate in athletics and activities the money that we use from this grant would be used to help supplement that um obviously we're not going to take that away but y just just able to help us meet more kids where they're at absolutely any comment or questions a great effort on that uh Lisa will you please call a roll call vote on that director human yes Weber Yes W Felton yes Claflin yes La birie yes T Felton yes and chair rash yes that's seven years motion carries all right don't go far um I'm next looking for approval for the South St Paul school board to approve the boys swimming Cooperative agreement with between South St Paul public schools and two rivers beginning the 2425 school year do I have a motion so moved second and discussion I come back to you Brady Krueger uh so I I don't think it's been a secret I've been here a couple times talking about Cooperative agreements um and we're really using these Cooperative agreements to make sure that the kids at South St Paul are still able to participate and benefit from uh participation in athletics and activities and our boys swim program um has just simply been on the decline to the point where we we aren't able to run the program independently ourselves um and so I have been working to try to find a Cooperative partner um to Rivers which is a tri District school School neighbor um to us has um graciously offered up the opportunity for our boys to swim with their program um so again it gives our kids the opportunity to participate in swimming benefit from all all the the things that swimming can provide um and it just ensures that we have uh a diverse set of programs for our kids to participate in love that any questions or discussion just want to acknowledge and appreciate that effort you uh continuing to work for our kids so that they can pursue the activities that they're passionate about uh all in favor please say I I opposed with that the motion carries thank you so much Brady all right have a great night great work all right up next we're looking for approval for the South St Paul school board to approve scheduling a special board meeting Tuesday November 12th 2024 to Canvas election results do I have a motion so moved second and and for discussion I'm going to turn to Lisa who's become an incredible sort of expert on uh elections as we've had to navigate some special ones on our way through but this is core requirement for us to be able to certify the election that happens any details I'm missing um no just we just need to canvas the election results within um three and 10 days of the election and with the next Schoolboard meeting after that is not until the end of November so we need to have a special meeting just to Canvas those election results and offer the elections uh certificate of Elections as well so perfect y thank you for your work on that uh Lisa you you have saved us in many occasions as we continue to navigate the system and when the rules have changed around the elections as well and um I appreciate your efforts in that at what time will the meeting be held um we're going to probably do a five o'clock meeting and then we've got the regular um work session right after that and just as a reminder on T we're meeting on Tuesday of that week because of um Veterans Day on that Monday we canot have meetings um that evening so we've shifted our meetings to work session and that special meeting do Tuesday the 12th excellent um all in favor please say I I opposed with that the motion carries next we are looking for approval for the South St Paul school board to approve the acceptance of gifts report um do I have a motion so moved second and discussion I'm going to call up Brady Hoffman to acknowledge uh the incredible support our district continues to get from our community yes good evening uh we have three donations this evening uh the first one is from the sou St Paul lions for middle school planners we have a donation from the wus company for the Lincoln safety patrols and then we have a donation from Woodbury Lutheran Church for the kosia family fund night so uh grateful for their support and supporting our our kids in our programs in our schools I'm always impressed with what you are able to bring forward any further discussion other than just thank you to all of those groups who continue to support um our students um all in favor please say I I opposed that the motion carries I thought I messed that one up for a moment cuz gifts used to be resolutions okay next we are looking for approval for the South St Paul school board to approve the June 30th 2024 audit report do I have a motion so moov second for discussion Bray Hoffman uh you also have a guest with you today yes uh school districts are required to have an annual audit performed each year and so this evening that is coming to a close for the 23 24 fiscal year so we have Aon neelon here with us from mmkr he's the audit partner and he's going to go over the audit results thank you thank you welcome appreciate your ongoing relationship with the district as help with our audit report each year absolutely well thank you for having me this evening I appreciate the opportunity before the meeting this evening to go through the results of the audit a little more detail at the work session uh we would we're going to flip through the results of the audit just to share with the public what we've reported and just some higher level comments to share with you so get ready to it with the results of our audit we have issued what is known as an unmodified or a clean opinion that the financial statements as of June 3 30th and for the year then ended are fairly stated um as of that date uh We've also issued our reports on internal control and compliance with government auditing standards as you can see we had just the one comment with the limited segregation of Duties uh as we said that's been common for the district and districts of your size with a limited number of individuals involved in the audit process and the financial reporting process but we're pleased to report we had no instances of non-compliance Report with regard to those results uh the next slide we have we share the results of our single audit so um we're pleased to report that the results of the single federal audit Federal Awards this past year we presented that they're fairly stated we had no instances of non-compliance to report this year and then the last area of compliance that we tested is the Minnesota Office of the State Auditors legal compliance manual uh as I mentioned there's seven broad categories with lots of individual tests and compliance and within each one and we had just the one comment um with regard to timely payment of invoices and it was one in our sample of 25 for that specific component that we identified and talked about how that can occur with the requirement to make sure all the checks and balances and approvals have happened with an invoice but a good reminder to share with the board and to share with the staff and make sure uh continue to work with that I did want to make one comment uh last year you may recall we had one finding with our single audit testing and we're pleased to report that that was corrected in the current year and so you can see we did not have any findings in that area uh the slide we have before you now shows uh historical information about the adjusted ADM or average daily membership and then the resulting pupil units for the waiting of the students where they land in the uh grade levels and as you can see and we talked about the district has been experiencing a declining enrollment in recent years this past year uh that represent a decrease about 3 and a half% looking at ADM for 24 compared to 23 our next several slides focus on the general fund which is the primary operating fund for the school district the largest uh for activity by far uh we show several years of the financial activity of the general fund and you've maintained a healthy or stable financial position for many years uh absence from significant ups and downs I would say when you've had changes for instance when covid came through um changes with improved uh levies and changes with as approved by taxpayers uh there's always been an answer and and included Incorporated in the budget process so as you see when we move to the next slide uh we dive a little deeper in the fund balance components and we talked about the various uh categories within the general fund uh what I did want to share is that the district has again continued to meet your fund balance policy goal of that unassigned fund balance level that you have shared that you want to maintain a couple more for the general funds so we look at the general fund revenues uh it really shows the concentration of the sources where districts are funded uh for your general fund State sources common to all the school districts we work with the primary source of resources to educate the students of the district uh as you can see this past year State sources made up approximately 69% uh followed by property taxes making up about 21% uh the other comment I wanted to share with the public that we talked about is uh the revenues in your general fund U making up about $ 54.6 million this past year so just to give you a gauge of the size of the overall operation for your school district and those results coming in better than anticipated in the budget and uh with an increase over the prior year has planned in the budget a similar graph with expenditures we show a budget to actual in comparison to the prior year salaries and employee benefits making up the focus of spending within the general fund which we see at the districts all districts we work with um making up about 77% of the districts general fund spending this past year um for that focus of Education um the total expenditures for the district amounted to about 50.3 million and we talked about how close the district came to budget so coming in just under budget uh as anticipated overall uh and then an increase over the prior year as had been planned with the budget process just a couple comments for the Food Service fund we talked about the uh both of these operations the improved operations specifically with the community service fund over many years to get that into a stable financial position um both of these uh funds experiencing an increase in participation levels and activity uh as we've gotten through hopefully the the co pandemic and further along where people are comfortable participate in the programming for community service and then uh what the state's plan to fund all me for students and increased participation in that area and then just a couple comments on the entity-wide financial statements we spent a little more time to it um on the board and as you're presenting and budgeting you really do focus on the individual funds this is the one area where I say you also get a long-term perspective so we discussed the increase over the prior year a lot of that tied up in specific areas where it didn't provide additional funding beyond what we talked about in the individual fund basis which I feel is fair to discuss and what you have to work with the net investment and capital assets where you're spending or paying down the debt on the infrastructure your buildings at a faster Pace than they depreciated uh some of an increase in restricted Resources with the improved financial position uh of the Food Service fund the community service fund Debt Service fund and some of the state funded mandated restrictions and then that unrestrict red category with an increase um with changes in Statewide pension obligations which is really the basis of why it's in a deficit position your proportionate share of them so um many districts have that same presentation where there's a deficit at that level you are continuing to make your payments as required so you're meeting the standards uh with regard to that and it's simply a matter of how we have to present that for the entity-wide financials so with that I did want to thank you staff it is a significant time commitment on their part to add to the uh day-to-day activities um and I know they're planning and preparing for new gasby standards all the time we'll have another new one next year with gasby we're up to 101 now for compensated absences so I think we're under 30 when I started so wow it's a substantial increase in just the workload that accompanies at well I know that is the third time that has come for forward to the board but any questions or comments that would like to be made I think I'd like to thank Brady and his team in the district office for the work they do I know you've come and spoken to us before Mr neelen and I feel like you're always really positive about we're doing everything we can to make sure that this is a clean process and we're very transparent about what our weaknesses are like the size of our district regarding segregation of Duty so thank you to the work you do in the office Brady and thank you for the audit thank you I'd like to say when we're giving a boring presentation that's what you want from your auditor we're okay with that appreciate that no fireworks no no lighters no uh nothing to accompany that one so we'll leave that for the science teachers excellent thank you thank you both have a good night all right all in favor uh please say I I I oppose with that the motion carries next looking for approval for the South St Paul uh School Board to approve the revised TDE agreement do I have a motion so moved second and for discussion I come back to Amy witer thank you for giving me a little more time here so last year I um my team brought forward the atps and the TDE plan which is the alternative teacher professional pay system and teacher growth development and evaluation plan and so we are in year one of implementation with this new plan and what we realized as we got into the plan um we needed to adjust the calendar a little bit and so on the very end of the pages there's a timeline on pages 25 through 28 that outline when we should be doing different things and communicating with staff in the process and as we're implementing this new plan we need to adjust the the month of March um just a little bit and so this is an ask to make that adjustment to that plan excellent what you brought forward at our last meeting for us as well so uh any further questions or comments I think a comment that we brought up when you brought it to us is we really appreciate that you are listening to the feedback from the teachers and the leaders that this is a change that will benefit and make this a better plan and I think that that's something that we have to support right we're making it better we wanted to align like our practices and how we communicate and the timeline in which we communicate to our staff and so to have it in writing is actually later than when we actually want to communicate so we want to just match that up Perfect all right all in favor please say I I opposed that the motion carries thank you so much much all right Next Looking for approval for the South St Paul school board to approve the resolution authorizing employment of board member Wendy Felton as a substitute in a classified position in the school district do I have a motion so moved second and for discussion I'm going to turn to Joel Miler now we've got three of these on here tonight so if you could just do a quick quick overview on the one and I'll just keep returning to you on those go through the resolutions great so according to Minnesota statute 123b 195 school board members may be employed by the school district as an employee as long as the amount earned does not exceed $220,000 in a fiscal year additionally employment must be or must receive majority approval at a meeting in which all board members are present the board members on this resolution have been substitutes in the past and would like to continue as substitutes for the 2425 school year majority of approval is required by the school board excellent any questions or discussion okay Lisa will you please call a roll call vote director Liberty yes T Felton yes human yes Weber Yes W Felton yes Claflin yes and Cher Rush yes that's seven y motion passes all right then looking for approval for the South St Paul school board to approve the resolution authorizing employment of board member Kim human as a substitute in a classified position in the school district do I have a motion so M second and discussion remains much the same it remains much the same exactly the same a matter of fact all right uh Lisa will you please call a roll call vote director T Felton yes human yes Weber Yes W Felton yes Claflin yes La birie yes and chair Rush yes that's seven y thank you next looking for approval for the South St Paul school board to approve the resolution authorizing employment of board member Tim Felton as a substitute in a classified position in the school district do I have a motion so moved second discussion Remains the Same Lisa will you please call a roll call Vote Yes right uh director W Felton yes Claflin yes La birie yes T Felton yes human yes Weber yes and Cher Rush yes at seven y thank you so much thank you Joel thank you all right that makes us through all of our business items for the night uh now that we do this once a month it is always a slightly longer list than uh we've had uh previously um but I do appreciate that we've got a little bit more time in our work sessions for discussions and further inquiry but next I'm going to turn to our student School Board Reps for their report this month so if we could invite Amal and Jackson up you guys get to take Center Stage you've been patient through the night [Laughter] finally all right so this is just a quick update um it's kind of similar to last meeting because we haven't started our principal Advisory Board yet we're actually starting this week so next meeting we'll update you on that but to tailor our Student Life to the test scores and data that we received um for cell phone policy update we believe that this policy will help raise student test scores same with the attendance policy when students are in class they will probably do better in school and really excited about the career and college counselor his name is Mr booth and he's done a lot of interactive lessons and college visits with us and even during lunchtime um there's just plenty colleges that come to visit us and it's a great opportunity for us as students and do you want to talk about homecoming yeah I'll talk about homecoming homecoming was great uh we had quite a few events that week we had backyard games along with uh multiple sporting events do we and then we have anything else in home coming dance oh yeah dance and the big thing the dance yeah uh coordination as well and it was a good good week for sure it's fun yeah that's kept us very busy um and just some other events to keep watch for um tomorrow cdlu will have a Dia de los moros event um on October 29th uh you can ask Bridget for more details but um we got to rep in the audience right now yeah but it's a really cool event um I went to one last year and my class actually got to be a part of it um but it's just a really good way to appreciate apprciate latinx culture and to learn more about di Los moros so you should definitely go to that um another thing on the agenda is SSP theater and they present the Wily Wonka um Musical and that's November 15th through 17th uh starting up right now and in the next couple weeks will be winter Athletics uh boys and girls basketball swimming boys and girls hockey and boys and girls wrestling as well and yeah it'll be a fun season looking forward to it mhm great excellent and then that's just a website for more info on our activities in athletics um a lot of other activities are starting up as well um I do math team that's starting up same with um debate they're getting into their season and there's just a lot that's starting up again so stay tuned all right thank you thank you so much all right next I will be turning to board members for reports on their recent committee assignments and activities that they have been a part of and where they have seen a passion inside our district and I will start with Kim human all right um well the community ed Tri District meeting is going to be next week Tuesday so I don't have an update there but I did have the privilege of going to the senior center um uh lunch that we hosted as a school board last week Thursday and it was super fun um had a lot of fun discussions with people um a lot of disappointment that it was only A&W root beer but you know what we do it we do great to be able to be a part of that excellent thank you uh Wendy Felton yes um one thing I am truly looking forward to coming up in in November as it has been mentioned a few couple times already the Willy Wonka theater play which is our fall musical at the secondary building truly looking forward to it on that Friday Saturday and and Sunday thing so I musicals are my favorite so really looking forward to it and you've heard me mention many times already about the Education Foundation gala which is coming up Wednesday November 13th starting at 5:30 at Mota Country Club and also if anyone is interested in making any donations to the foundation they are having a live and silent auction that you can donate something that can be auctioned and you you can attend it it is it is a lot of fun I I've attended it every year especially silent auctions because I buy a lot of Christmas presents there so it's always it's always great so they will gladly accept and any donations that you would like to make that they can have part of the auction program and then also like Kim had mentioned the senior center luncheon which was last week which was financially supported by our school board I was attending there also and a couple other things coming up there at the senior center which is at Central Square the Thursday on November 21st is a turkey Gra dinner and then coming up on Thursday December 12th is our Christmas holiday potluck luncheon which which is very nice we're all members of the of the the senior center members bring things to share for the lunch in and I personally want to wish all of our families students children in Sal St Paul have a safe fun enjoyable Halloween couple days away thank you excellent thank you Tim Fon uh Cher rash I do not have anything this evening all right an Claflin uh thank you maybe I oh the door just closed on Jackson I wanted to recognize Jackson's participation in the audit discussion we had earlier uh because an audit is maybe not the most engaging thing for our student reps to be listening to but uh he was taking really detailed notes and asked some great questions of how um our budget has changed over the past 10 years so our our student reps are really learning a lot here perhaps there's an accountant in the future there uh math is just fantastic um and accountancy is a great career um I also want to thank all of the students and families that came to the kosia family fun night it was amazing to see all of these young kids bringing their parents into their school showing off what they spend their days excited to introduce family to their friends uh see each other go back and visit previous teachers and just show all that Pride that they have in their school where uh they are building their community and they were really uh letting all of us adults know that this was their place uh that was just a great event um glad that families are invited into the schools to participate and see that um it's sometimes hard to understand what our kids do all day when they don't tell us much and that's a little glimpse into uh the lives that they spend away from home uh and looking forward to seeing a bunch of those kids later this week at Halloween excellent excellent thank you Nikki lber um I have nothing this evening okay Monica Weber um I also had a great time with all the Halloween events or the homecoming events soon to be the Halloween events um the theater boosters had a great taco feed over the weekend always exciting to all the various booster clubs for all the various activities it was fun to see the the theater people out in force um would especially like to thank this the Central Square staff and all the senior center staff um we had over 90 people come to our October Fest event um just extremely well well attended and I think it really shines a bright light on how our school district really means it when we say lifelong Learners and how everyone in our community from our lists and ECFE all the way through our senior programming are really a part of our school um Community um I have been out talking to lots of different community members due to the time of year that it is um and the comments that I've heard is a lot of excitement about our career Pathways and about just the various like so many households I've been to where they're like wow I wish I had someone and when I was in ninth or 10th grade like show me that there were different paths to go down in life and I kind of had to just figure it out um so that was exciting um the sunsetting of IB and then allowing for the introduction of the science curriculum came up um with some people and then I had a very long conversation about the condition of the grass at the football stadium and the different types of grass that maybe we should be using but we don't want artificial grass because that's bad and we want and this person like maybe we should get on a Facilities Management task for us cuz they had a lot of opinions about grass on the football field so that was interesting it takes all kinds to get feedback um within our community um so just thank you to everyone who I've been able to chat with and we move on excellent all right thank you everyone with no further items on our agenda I am looking for a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting so moved second any discussion all in favor please say I I I oppose that the motion carries our meeting is adjourned at 7:34 thank you everyone