I would like to call the Monday, March 31st, 2025 school board meeting to order. Lisa, will you please call the role? Director W. Felton here. Claflin here. Cummings here. T. Felton here. And Chair Humeman here. That is five present. Thank you. I'm going to ask all who are able to please stand so we can rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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. Well, I'd like to thank everyone who's joining us this evening in person and through online and TV options. Thank you for your interest in what's happening in our schools. Our community is really essential to our success. You will notice this evening that Dr. Zambino is not with us, but we have Amy Winter here. She is our educa executive director of educational services. So, thank you for filling his seat and helping us kind of fill in details tonight. Thank you. All right. First up, I'm looking for a motion to approve the regular board meeting agenda for this evening as well as the minutes for our February 24th, 2025 work session and regular meeting and the March 10th work session. Do I have a motion? So moved. Thank you, Wendy. Second. Thank you, Ann. All right. Uh the March 10th work session was a very productive evening for the board. we had decided to cover the $1.5 million funding deficit that was caused by the drop in the compensatory revenue. Um, and we're using our fund balance to do that. Tied to this decision, we also agreed that we needed to take actions to encourage the state government to correct the situation going forward for this year and for the future. And we've asked our community to become more involved in that also. So, as community members, you've probably seen an email, um, an article in The Voice, maybe a ton of these postcards. I just want to point out, please, please, please continue to advocate on behalf of our schools, our kids, and our staff. It's very important. Um, if there's anything else to add regarding our minutes and agenda, I just feel that that's a really important point to point out for our community that we've made this decision. If there is no further discussion on the agenda for tonight, the minutes, I ask all those in favor of approving them to please say I. I. I. Opposed. All right. Motion carries. Thank you. All right. Always the best part, quality and action. I'd like to invite principal OAKI and Mr. Nihart up to talk to us about personal learning lab. Yeah. Thank you very much. uh executive director uh school board chair and the school board and the greater school community. My name is Chuck Ochaki and it's my pleasure to be the principal at South St. Paul High School. Uh and it's my pleasure to be here tonight to talk to you about two things actually. Uh in tonight we're going to talk about helping our students and hearing from our students. And so first I'd like to introduce Don Nihard who is our PLL teacher. Personal learning lab is a class uh we designed to help students get caught up uh during the school day instead of after school or during the summer. And so I asked Don to talk more about it because he is our personal learning lab technician, I guess, right? Come on up. Fair enough. Uh yeah, so I was happy uh to put together a little presentation and come in and share what we've been doing uh last year and this year in the personal learning lab. Uh so thanks Chuck for inviting me to do this and thank you uh chair Kim and uh members of the board. Uh thanks for having us here. So, um just uh a couple things that we're going to highlight. The program description, uh some data on our enrollment and credits attempted and earned, and then benefits to our students and families uh as we have seen them. Uh there's our classroom. Uh we've set it up uh in a way that um creates a little bit of a private study space for students and then has uh some out in the open testing tables there. Uh we'll talk more about those in a little bit. Uh we've got uh program description. Uh a wide range of factors have led to students needing to uh have the opportunity to make up required credits in order to graduate scheduled and earn their diploma. Uh personal learning lab allows students to work towards recovering credits during the normal school hours. Uh courses in math, science, individuals, and societies. language and lit as well as other electives are offered uh via a platform called uh Odysseyware. Uh a little bit more about the description of the the program. They can also earn an elective credit while they are in the classroom through schooly. Uh, Schooly is a second platform where uh we've created uh two assignments on a daily basis that students complete uh something called a bell ringer which is uh made up of a short video uh that we find with topics such as organization, note takingaking, prioritizing their daily tasks, uh avoiding procrastination, uh things that are definitely worth thinking about. That video has a couple of questions tied to it that they can only answer if they they watch the video at the start of each hour when they get to class. Uh then they have a reflection question or two at the end of the hour also through schooly. Uh we'll share just the um the reflection p uh piece, excuse me, I got ahead of my slides. So uh next slide here just uh talking about what Odyssey Wear looks like. uh they consist uh the courses of pre-ESTs, lessons, projects, quizzes, and tests. Uh at the beginning of each unit, they have a pre-EST and that pre-EST uh assesses their prior knowledge to determine what assignments, what lessons they'll be assigned. Uh then we have uh something that allows us as the teacher to monitor students screens called Aristotle. uh that is uh certainly helpful in helping maintain academic integrity. Uh students know that when they get to a test or a quiz that they have to work with just a single tab opened on their computer. Uh we assess or we monitor the assessment uh via that Aristotle and if a student is where they shouldn't be during an assessment, we would go and close their assessment on them. you would see their screen and they would uh know that they were doing something they shouldn't be doing and uh they would lose credit for that assessment. They'd have to retake it at a later time. Uh couple more items. The uh about the pretests. Uh we just have some private spaces throughout the room set up for working on lessons and projects. They can use all the resources they want to to get through those lessons and projects. when it comes to tests and quizzes, they work out in the middle of the room where they're out in the open and we can monitor a little more closely. Um, just uh one piece, in order to earn a credit for any Odysseyware course, they have to complete 100% of the material at a 60% score or better. Um, I think I'd share just that when it comes to uh enrollment, our counselors and our administrators are at the beginning of each trimester assessing where students are at creditwise. And they would assign them typically at the beginning of the trimester, but we've added students all throughout the year. So, we're able to add a student if they just recently enrolled in our building and they come in with um, you know, some deficiencies and credits. Uh, I'll just share a little bit about numbers. Enrollment. We've had 70 students be enrolled in the personal learning lab this year between trimesters 1 and two. Um, 53 individual students. Uh, 17 of them were students that were in trimesters 1 and two. So, totaling 70 students, 16 of them were juniors, 54 were seniors. Uh, we've had a total of 99 credits attempted. uh 73 have been completed and uh some of those credits have carried over into trimester 3 right now which is um a good handful of those. Just the last little piece here is benefits to students and families. Uh I think uh ultimately some students have found themselves with serious credit deficiencies and when they do uh they may feel like they're overwhelmed and unlikely to graduate and uh likely to throw in the towel and I think the opportunity to earn multiple credits in the personal learning lab uh with good attendance and the right motivation allows these students to kind of see a light at the end of the tunnel and uh we've had many students just from my first year last experiencing this. Uh there were a lot of seniors that were really thankful and um happy that they had the opportunity to to to make up those credits. Uh a couple other benefits, I think some students who have moved from other districts and had irregularities in their transcripts uh just due to different type of scheduling at a different school district uh we've been able to get them back on track quickly uh in the personal learning lab. Uh also uh students that uh might seek to work after school uh as many hours as they could or need to um for themselves or for families are allowed to do so uh and get the credits recovered that they need to during the regular school day. Um I think last point here uh over half of our students that are in the personal learning lab of those uh 77 students they're a part of either a co-curricular activity or an affinity group. uh if credit recovery during normal school hours was not an option, uh a lot of those students would likely missed out on a big chunk of time in those uh valuable learning experiences or not participated at all. Um so I think that's that's a big deal. And that is it. I don't know if that went long or short, but uh uh that's what I had to share. So uh open any questions if you have any about the personal learning lab, but thanks for listening. So you mentioned that they're identified and then assigned to personal learning lab. Is it like during a certain set of the day? They just come to you or is it kind of flexible? So we have five class periods. Uh typically 8 to 10 students, 8 to 12 students in the room at a time. Um I will say that there hasn't been necessarily as much flexibility in their schedules to get a nice balance throughout the day. We've had a few that's probably every classroom throughout the building I'm guessing. Chuck could talk more about that, but where we'd have less students in one hour and then a really large group the next hour, but um yeah, they get assigned for one period of the day. Yeah. Yeah. We usually look at their schedule and say what are the ones credits they have to have and what are some of the elective credits and then we have a conversation with the student and say right here are your options. Summer school, after school, personal learning lab, but if you do personal learning lab, you're going to lose something here. And nine times out of 10 they go let's do personal learning lab because our students after school are working taking care of siblings or participating in activities in athletics or um and when it comes to summertime a lot of our older kids or juniors and seniors are saving money and so that becomes their primary force. So one of the things that we saw was a decline a couple years ago in our kids wanting to do credit recovery after school or during the summertime and we just said we have to figure something out. we still need to get these kids across the stage. I, you know, how do we keep them in the building? What do we do differently? And personal learning lab uh came along and and I asked Don if he would be willing to do it. And Don will never toot his own horn, but he is phenomenal with kids. Uh he's a real motivator uh and gets kids who some people have said, "I don't know how you got it. Got them to do it, but you got them to do it." And it's just he's calm. He's cool. It's kind of a cool place to go and hang out because you see kids working really hard individually, right, to get their stuff done and they're they are really grateful at the end of it like thanks, you know, and and Don is a he's like he's like a dad to some of these kids where he's pushing them through and helping them and encouraging them. um especially when they are you know they look at it and they're really far creditwise and I'm never going to make it and it's just one credit at a time and and you know and they they continue to work at it. So I am appreciative of Don for saying yes when I asked him about this crazy idea I had back at you. Yep. Thank you. Other questions? Yeah. So these students have to have like an open spot in their schedule to come in there. assuming right now we yeah we make an open spot in their schedule. It is it actually is a class. It says PLLL personal learning lab on their so it's not just robbing Peter to pay Paul somehow they're not missing out on something and then are they able to work at their own pace like if they've got a hours worth of work but they can finish it in half an hour then what do they do or exactly? So, uh, the way that the courses are structured again with the pre-EST, uh, pre-ESTs can only be taken in the classroom as well as tests. Um, but then when they take their pre-EST, they have a list of maybe three or four or five assignments and they can keep going until the end of the hour. Uh, when they get done with a course, if they do need an additional credit, then we load them up into the next credit that they need. So, some students get two or three credits done in a one-hour window of time throughout the course of a a trimester and some students struggle to get through one depending upon all the factors that they're dealing with in life whether it's their attendance or it's uh motivation. But yeah, uh if a student ever prioritized uh the fact that they had a credit uh like a language and lit assignment that they had to get done for Mr. talking. We're flexible at times. So sometimes they get done with their Odysseyware course for the day or their lesson for the day and we would say, you know, this is a priority. Now you're going to work on that assignment for Mr. Bach. And so it's been a little bit of a study group room, study hall kind of thing essentially when when necessary. Um, but Odysseyware is in it just it keeps going. They don't have to stop unless they get to the end of the course. So when they're in there, they're working the full what 50 minutes or whatever it is. Yeah, that's that's the idea. That's what we're trying to keep happening. Yeah. Yeah. Any other questions or comments? Right. Well, thank you so much for giving us that update. Thank you. Awesome. So, that was just part one of our project, right? Part two is uh hearing from our students. And so, uh it's my pleasure to bring up You guys all know Jackson, right? Uh Jackson, why don't you stand on this side? Yeah. All right. Awesome. uh Jackson and Amal wanted to really uh take a look at the culture and climate of the school uh as the student school board reps. And so they uh designed a a um a survey. We sat down and designed a survey, ran it through the pack, the principal's advisory committee. They added some questions and we gave it to our kids. And so Jackson and I guess me and I are going to kind of share those results with you. So, first off, we're going to kind of recap spring break real quick. So, it was a homework pre-break, which was great. And all spring sports have started. They're in full swing. Uh, but I want to look at our Europe trip a little bit. It was a lot of fun. We went to Paris, Milan, Florence, Pisa, and Rome and learned a lot. Had a lot of fun. It was great. And also after that we are after spring break we're going to be starting the MCAs and IB testing. So yeah. Yeah. Now we'll get into the survey. Yes. So we had 216 people respond from the high school which is the most we've had so far right out of the surveys. Uh yes and this was jam-packed in between a couple of other surveys. So there was uh the student survey survey that we were doing and there was a third survey that some of our teachers were doing. So 216 of our kids said, "Yep, we'll take this survey." Yep. So the first question was, "Do you think that the atmosphere at Sal High School is good?" And 75% said yes. So I mean it could improve, but that's not bad. Yeah. At all. It's actually better than we thought it was going to be. Let's be honest, right? Yeah. Okay. It's kids. Yeah. Um, and this was a question, how do you communicate with teachers outside of the classroom? And a lot of people said through email or through or just talking before or after school or through schooly, but I'm sorry. Not too many through parent square, which is what we kind of want to get going, isn't it? Yes. Yeah. So, yep. That's something we can improve on. Yeah. And also we found that a lot of kids think that we're promoting diversity and inclusion pretty well, which is a positive for surely. Uh yeah, and this one's kind of split. Uh I mean, kids don't a lot of kids don't think that they don't get to see, but you'll see that in uh things that we need to work on at the end of the the slideshow. Yeah. Yep. And 91% of kids have an activity or a group that they feel safe and welcome in. So that's really positive. They have somewhere they can go to communicate or talk about their problems and issues, which is really good. And 83% feel respected by their peers, which we can get up, but that's not bad. I mean, we have room for improvement there for surely, but it's pretty good. And our teachers are following the the phone policy, so that's a positive. That's cool. That one made me really happy. Yeah. Yeah. I was pretty pumped about that. Uh, yes. This one was an interesting question that came out of our tri district. Uh, so the Dakota County is working on trying to get kids back into school and they asked the tri- district medical career kids to look at this question about how do you get kids back into school? And one of the groups there actually suggested we move away from computer-based assignments and back to paper and pencil based assignments. Uh, that way our kids are saying to us, I don't actually have to come to school because it's all on the computer. So why would I need to attend? Which I thought was really interesting. And so we thought we'd ask our our kids uh the the students at South St. Paul, how would you rather you do your assignments? It's still a lot of computer-based, but I think there's room to grow on that paper pencil type thing. Uh our kids want to have Win Wednesday every week. I don't think I'm not sure if that's really possible, but I mean it would be nice. Well, we'll be talking about it again this summer like we do every summer, right? Uh do you want to talk about what win Wednesday is? Sure. So win Wednesday if you have a C plus or above. Yep. Is that it? You get to stay at home and complete your assignments from home on Wednesday and and if you have a below that you get to go in and get help from your teacher and to get caught up in the class and you can go in there anyways to study or get do work, which is good for sure. Yeah, it's our way of individualizing what our students need. Um, and our kids really I I got an email over break asking when the first win Wednesday of trimester 3 was going to be because they look forward to that time. Either I I'm going to get the help that I need because the class, you know, my class of 30 kids will only be a class of 12 to 15 kids. So, I can ask those questions um or I will be able to take a breath uh and be able to do my work from home, which is a real incentive for a lot of our kids. So, um, we asked if kids had an adult in the school that they could connect with and talk with to about issues to them, and 75% said yes. So, that's pretty good. I mean, that's not always necessarily what kids want either to talk with an adult in school, but that there's 76% saying that they have that connection, that's a positive. Yeah. And what's really interesting about this question is we had a long debate about it. The word uh do you have an adult? It start off do you do you have an adult uh a teacher and actually we wanted to open it more widely based because some of our kids talk with our paras. They talk with our student support. They have great relationships with our lunch ladies. Um and so it was really do you have an adult? And it was uh it was an eye openening conversation to have with both Jackson and Amal, but also with the principal advisory committee like not just teachers, but all adults count. All adults in the in that building count. So, okay. So, I know that we put a Lisa has put a lot of work into the help me app and a lot of people have, but it's just not people aren't really aware of it yet and we really need to work on that. Um, yeah. And hardly anyone has used it, so probably because they're not aware of it. Yeah. So, we need to get going there. Yep. So, things that we learned, right, the atmosphere is okay. And you'll hear us say it was it's okay. It's not great. Uh, and it's a an area for us to grow on. Teachers are uh accessible. The we are promoting diversity and inclusion and our students feel safe and welcome uh and respected by their peers. And the phone policies are getting uh practiced by the teachers and a lot of students have a connection with the staff member and we do want win Wednesdays every week if that's possible and interestingly kids still want to do their assignments on computer. Yeah. So uh growth areas for us students want uh more say in the decision- making process and so just figuring out how to build a system so that they feel like they have more decision making pro you know uh ability to make decisions in their school and then students don't really know about or use the help me app and so uh what do we need to do and how do we figure out how to really create a student campaign about the help me app. So, next steps, research, pilot, and implement ways to allow our for more stu even more student voice and then create a student campaign about the help me app. There we go. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for presenting. Do any of the members of the board have any comments or questions to ask Jax and Mr. Oaki? Well, we got them. C can I just say that this um was I thought a really great exercise and I um I think it's extremely helpful to the board. I also hope it's helpful to um our school administrators and um I'm hoping that next year's student representatives can take your lead and continue the type of surveying of our students um because I think it's only going to make our our school better. So, um, thank you for pioneering that and thank you to our administrators for all of your help in making this work. Yeah, you're welcome. And we're actually sharing this with, uh, our staff. On Wednesday, we have a staff learning meeting. So, we're going to roll this out because there are some things there that we want we've been working on and, uh, it's great that 75% of our kids feel like they have a connection, but we I'd rather have that be 100%. And so, what do we need to do to to clear that? And that's actually the conversation we're going to have on Wednesday morning. Good. Good. Well, thank you again for presenting. We've been waiting for months all of the weather cancellations that had finally got so it was worth it. Thank you. Thank you guys. All right. The next report is stakeholder comment to the board. No one came to our March 10th meeting to speak to us. Um but as a reminder to the community, there are two ways to make comment to the board. You might either submit an online form available on the district website under schoolboard or you can present in person to us at our first meeting of the month which is on the second Monday of each month at 5 not 5:30 at 6:30 public comment 6:30 second Monday of the month. All right. I will now ask Vice Chair Claflin to give us an update on this evening's work session. Thank you. Um we covered a number of topics this evening um that we'll hear mostly about later in our agenda here as well. Um we have heard from our Native American parent advisory council in the past on a vote of non-concurrence that we are not um fully meeting our uh Native American students needs. And the board has acknowledged this and responded. Uh we signed that letter tonight and uh we have hired a full-time cultural liaison for the rest of this school year um to help um improve some of the outcomes for that student group. We've got a preview of the upcoming calendar for next school year. That was quite a bit of work that our staff different bargaining units and families all put into creating this calendar that works for everyone. Um and probably like many things doesn't make any particular group perfectly happy. Um calendars are very difficult to make work for for everyone. We heard some more from our student board reps um and discussed our plans for student board reps for the next year. We'll be um looking for applications from students who will be juniors and seniors next year. It's a great opportunity to bring that student voice to the board. Our student reps have done a great job this year and we're looking forward to continuing that program and we've discussed our community relations activities. Student student teacher appreciation week is coming up in May and uh we're going to uh support all of our staff during that time. Um, we'll be having a ice cream social with the senior uh center with community education. You can look for us in the Caposhia Days parade. Again, we have to plan this far in advance. Um, and we will be having a special meeting on April 22nd to do some more board work um figuring out our plans for the next year. And among committee updates, we had many updates on different events that are happening throughout the city. And uh I'll leave those dates for uh the superintendent and executive director's update. Okay. Well, great segue. Thank you, Vice Chair Claflin. Obviously, Dr. Zamrino is not here, but I ask Amy Winter to please present us with the update. Thank you so much. So, I'm just going to take a few minutes and do some highlights from around the district. Um, Dr. Zamino is out and um I am his substitute for tonight. So, one of the big things that we wanted to share out is letting um families know that we are doing kindergarten open house at both of our buildings. Um in Caposia, the event is on April 15th and at Lincoln Center it's on April 16th. and it gives you an opportunity to come get in the buildings, tour, meet the staff, and just learn about our programming for kindergarten. In addition, we also have um opportunities for our preschool uh students. And so that's open for three and four year olds and classes are available both at Caposia and Lincoln Center. And we'll continue to accept registrations until the classes are full. to kind of transition for all of our learners who are here currently in the district. We are getting ready for summer programming and that includes cake camp for our uh incoming kindergarteners to get them ready for the school year. We have elementary summer learning academy for grades 1 through 5, Packer Preview to get our incoming sixth graders ready for the middle school, and then middle school summer learning academy for grades seven and eight. uh coming a little closer in the calendar than summer is we are getting ready for spring uh state assessment and that is our MCAs. Uh this we offer every year and it's for grades 3 through 8 uh and 11th grade for math, 10th grade for reading along with that grades 3 through 8. And then science MCA is actually new this year. So this is our first year um looking at the science MCA across the state and that will be grades 5, 8, and then uh in life science up at the high school. And again, this is uh an opportunity to kind of see how we're doing across an organization as a whole. So to kind of get a little more specifics of some celebrations and things to highlight across each of the sites, we had um a teacher of the year semi- finalist uh Megan Fronzen, second grade teacher at Caposia, and she was one of 31 semi- finalists uh across the state for Minnesota teacher of the year. And then 10 finalists will be announced in the coming weeks. And then the final winner is announced at a banquet on May 4th. the South Metro metro fire uh ECFE visit uh came and they came to visit our early childhood family education classes and families and children learned about fire safety and planning and we're always very appreciative with our community partnerships and partnering uh to really kind of make learning uh interactive. Up at the secondary building, we had multicultural night and this was uh supported through our student um organizations and it was opportunity for students, families and community members to kind of share their cultures uh with everyone who came uh for the event. And there is a picture of uh participants showing off their traditional fashion and they also shared cultural dishes that night. This is a picture of Caposia Elementary and the Lego League. And they had an open house uh to share their learning with uh families and staff on uh they're usually given like a challenge or a problem and they can um like share how they solved it uh using the Legos. And then up at the high school, uh the theater program performed All Quiet on the Western Front. And if you're not familiar with uh that, it is about um a play around the brutal realities of World War I, and it's through the eyes of a young German soldier. The next upcoming uh play is a spring play uh Ramona Quimby, which is May 16th through the 18th. Here are some additional dates just to uh remember with upcoming events, ways that you can get involved. Uh we do have an upcoming um no school day on April 25th. And then there are uh the PTA meetings at the elementary and then again those kindergarten open houses. And then at the secondary level, uh prom and conferences and then also an opportunity for families to come take a look at the middle school. There's tours there and then there's lots of athletics and activities I know going into the spring. Again, just a reminder that all of this information is available on our website. Thank you. All right. Now, we're moving along to the consent agenda. I'm looking for a motion to pres approve the consent items on tonight's agenda, which include the financial claims and bills payable and staffing as presented. Do I have a motion? So moved. Thank you. Anyone looking to second, please? Second. Thank you. Any discussion regarding the consent agenda? No. All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. 50. Thank you. All right. Policies. Section five of the agenda. District policies play a critical role in the governance work of the school board. All district policies are available on our website under the about us tab located within the schoolboard section under SSPs policies. This evening's policies were initially reviewed by the board policy committee on February 5th. Then the full board did a reading on February 24th and then tonight is their third and final review. There are policy 627 academic honesty 307 emergency closing procedures 401 equal employment opportunity 404 employment background check policy 536 student information technology acceptable use policy 101.1 Name of the school district 101 legal status of the school district 103 complaints students employees parents other persons number 501 school weapons policy 502 Search of student lockers, desks, personal possessions, and students person. 505, Distribution of non-school sponsored materials on school premises by students and employees. 512 School sponsored student publications and activities. 526 Hazing Prohibition. 528 Student Parental, Family, and Marital Status Non-discrimination. 801.1 Naming of District Facilities. and 903 visitors to school district properties and facilities. Okay. At this time, I'm seeking a motion to approve the policies listed on our agenda for this evening. Do I have a motion? Some moved. Thank you. I'm looking for a second. Second. Thank you. All right. Since last month's review, policy 512 did receive some minor wording updates based on the MSBA model language and uh correction was made to policy 801.1 aligning it to the changes that were initially recommended by the committee in February but were not corrected in the public posting on the February 24th reading. Um any further discussion regarding these policies? Um, Madam Chair, I just wanted to note that um, you know, I've mentioned this before, but um, ensuring that our employees or other people who are um, on the front lines trying to administer these policies, it's really important that we receive their feedback. And I know that there's many examples and and when we've seen that happen and the policies become stronger or they've changed over time and I'm just encouraging our administration to continue to do that. I know that one example of that happening was that um Joel, our director of human resources, has begun um uh adding this to agendas um for the times in which we're talking to our uh labor representatives. And I know that for this um group of policies, he has mentioned this to our president at um our local in education Minnesota and has um added this to future agendas as we're talking to employees. And I just wanted to um express my appreciation for that and um I think it's uh very important. I think it helps our policies um ensure that they are um something that people feel bought into and that they're able to live out. So, I wanted to thank our administration for their outreach and uh and hope that that can be continued in the future. Thank you. Any other further discussion? I will ask all those in favor of approving the final reading to please say I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. 50. All right. We now move to section six, business items on the agenda. We have four business items in front of us this evening. The first couple are really just about us. I am looking for approval for the school board to approve a special work session with teamworks on April 22nd, 2025. Do I have a motion to approve? Some moved. Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you. Um, so this special work session is an opportunity for us as a board to work again with Ray Queener from Team Works. We are going to be um digging into building evaluation tools that align with our new strategic plan that we should be presented with so that we can make sure that we are um following the goals that the strategic plan are saying our community wants us to focus on and making sure that our um we're also want to continue building out our two-year agenda. So, we're using that time to do good board work. Lisa, is there anything else I should add to that? Nope, that's it. Thank you. Yep. I just have a quick question. I originally believe that that that session was at 5:00. It's been changed to 5:30. Is that correct? 5:30, not 5:00. I have five o'clock. I have five o'clock. Oh, but it said 5:30 on that other sheet. That other Oh, on the the Yeah, it said 5:30 there. Okay, we can make that change. So you want it at five o'clock. It's at five o'clock. Yes. Oh, okay. I got to rechange it at home then. All right. Thank you. So to confirm five o'clock with Ray Queener from Teamwork. All right. If there's no further discussion, I will ask all those in favor to please say I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. 5. Um I'm now looking for approval for the school board to approve a special meeting on April 22nd, 2025. Do I have a motion to approve? 13th. Didn't we just do the 22nd? Nope. That was or Oh, you're right. The 14th. So, at our normal work session, we are adding a special business session in order to be able to accommodate things that cannot wait until our April 28th meeting with staffing and scheduling. So, moved. Thank you. Second. Thank you. All right. Uh, anything else we should add to that description? That's pretty much it. The 28th is very far away. Um, if there's no further discussion, I will ask all those in favor to please say I. I. I. Opposed. Thank you. That motion carries 5. All right. The 2025 2026 school year calendar. I am looking for approval for the South St. Paul School Board to approve the 2025 2026 school year calendar. Do I have a motion? So moved. Thank you. Do we have a second? I will second. Thank you. All right. I know everyone is very interested. I've gotten lots of comments wondering when we'll have it. So, uh, Amy Winter, if you will please talk us through this process tonight. Yeah. Thank you so much. I first want to thank so much all of the people who were involved in this process to get this to this point in time to have a draft. Um, it went through lots of individuals and I'll talk through the process. Um but to also address because I know a lot of people have been asking for the calendar. Uh moving forward we are going to move this process up. We are going to um start the process in the fall and get it approved more in the winter timeline so that people can make plans accordingly. So we are going to adjust our timeline to be responsive to the feedback we've heard. Um but to get this uh proposal through for 25 and 26 um what I kind of wanted to share in the process is that we took a lot of time to make sure we had representation and voices. And so there were um teacher representatives from each site. Uh each bargaining unit had an opportunity to bring a representative and we also then had administrators and department representatives and then families from our family advisory committee to be able to all provide direct feedback to the committee. But also each of these entities sent out surveys uh to their um like colleagues and staff members to get feedback too. And so um felt like there was a lot of communication through the process which to some extent also adds to kind of the intricacy and the timeline um because we want to be thoughtful in how do we um prioritize what's important in our community. So just from the process standpoint, we definitely want to align all of our work and you know as we're doing the strategic work, we want to do that too in the calendar process. And so we identified what priorities um there were and it may include capital projects uh might be specific around um scheduling around holidays um and also any uh legislation that may be coming down that we need to be responsive to. And then we are also in a tri- district relationship and we want to honor that relationship to make sure that our work is um being done collaboratively. So we review those calendars. Also this is just kind of a quick timeline to show all of the different touch points that we had um with different individuals where we know this calendar impacts our community. And so felt like that was um enough time to really hear the feedback and be responsive to that feedback. So, we use a guiding change document to kind of get everybody on the same page. And the reality is is when you bring that many individuals together, uh lots of people have thoughts and feedbacks and um sometimes their priority may not match with somebody else. And so, how do you navigate through that conversation and kind of get to one final uh solution or recommendation? We use this guiding change document to do that. We had some very specific things last year that we wanted to cover and some of those have changed this year. Um, in particular, we were really responsive to professional development that was needed through the READ Act because we did such a good job and a thorough job of getting our staff trained this coming year. Um, we don't quite have those restrictions on the calendar for next year. And so, what I heard from the committee and from the people that they talked with was getting school out on that first week of June. Uh with the upcoming calendar, uh we heard that the rolling start so our newest learners have the smoothest transition was also important. We did look at where to uh put spring break and also talked about really having alignment of days off between sites so it doesn't impact families so much. So if the secondary um is out that the elementary is also out so that's just consistent for our families. And then we also heard that um making sure that we have professional development days for our staff so that they can get their rellicure requirements uh for their teacher relic was also very important. Um otherwise that expectation would be they'd have to go out of the district to get that training. Um I think those are kind of the main buckets that we really tried to make the decision. Um so we do have a proposal forward. Um, some things that you will notice is next year the elementary the fall conferences will be student contact days but the spring conferences will not. So there will be no school on those days. Um, and so that will be a change that we're trying out next year. Um, at the secondary level conferences will stay the same as this year. Uh, like I said, we will get out that first week of June. Um, and then for our families, um, you will see that winter break will go through the 1st of January, um, into January 5th. For our staff, there is a little bit of nuance there. So, thank you. Um, if we don't have any questions, I know we had an opportunity to have this presented to us during our work session earlier. Um, so I give the opportunity if anyone has any additional questions. Otherwise, all those in favor of approving the calendar so that people can make all the plans, please say I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. 50. You have a calendar. Thank you for all the work you've done on that. Okay, this is exciting. I am looking for approval for the South St. Paul School Board to approve the agreement with International Union of Operating Engineers Local Number 70 Collective Bargaining Agreement for the contract period of July 1st, 2024 through June 30th, 2026. Do I have a motion? So moved. Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you. All right. I'd like to invite Joel Miltier up to share some more details about this tentative agreement. Thank you. The school district has reached a tenative agreement with the International Union of Operating Engineers local number 70 for the contract period of July 1st, 2024 to June 30th, 2026. Operating engineers voted in favor of the proposed contract on Thursday, March 27th, 2025. The proposed agreement is within the parameters established by the school board of education. The components of the settlement have been provided to the school board. The agreement includes increases to base wages of 4% in year 1, 3% in year two, a change to the district's 403b contribution to a 2.5% district contribution for all members of the unit based on the individual's employees salary, and addition of stipen for specific licenses that are required to operate various equipment and a change to the pay structure for required weekend and holiday work. This is a group of men and women in our district that work tirelessly day in day out to make sure that our district is operating for our students, for our staff to be able to get the education that we provide to them. So, I just want to take a second to recognize those men and women. They're here on the days when it's snowing outside and the rest of the district is working remotely. They're here removing snow and making our district a safe place for everyone to come back to. So, I just want to recognize them and and do a shout out to them for their time and their effort that they put into this district every single day. We are recommending the approval of the agreement with the International Union of Operating Engineers local number 70 collective bargaining agreement for the contract period of July 1, 2024 to June 30th, 2026. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions to ask Joel? All right. If there's no discussion, all those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed? Motion carries 50. Thank you. All right. This concludes our business items. You're now on section seven of the agenda. I was like, are you escaping us? I have a question. A little jet leg. I think we're from the Can I ask the one question? Yes. Okay. So, this is typically where our student board reps give their presentation and I really enjoyed having it at the front end of the meeting and so I was wondering in your opinion, Jackson, as a student board rep, what do you think about that? Uh, I would say I like having it at the beginning as well, just because I just kind of get to get right away, get out of the way, and now I get to go home. All right. Thank you. Know I love being at these meetings, but thank you for being here. Get some sleep. You need to be good at school tomorrow. I appreciate it. All right. Well, I really love hearing student voice up front. I think it can show our priorities and um it's something we can talk about for the agenda in the future. All right, have a good night, Jackson. All right, we're at the end here. I'm going to ask each of our directors to give um any reports, committee updates, or moments of celebration that they would like to share with our community. So, let's start with Director Cummings. Uh well, there has been so many delightful things that have happened in the district in the last month and um one of them was talked about in the superintendent update which was a multicultural night that I saw many of the directors at and um was really happy to be there. It was a really fun night. Um I also went to the theater production All Quiet on the Western Front. Um it was actually a really sort of moving play and they did it such a fantastic job and there was um uh one of the uh people from our church there and I had no idea that she danced and she did a fantastic job um in that production and um I will also say that I went to the quarterfinal game for our men's basketball team against Roosevelt and it was a super exciting game and they won. Um I did not make it to the Senate semi-final game that they unfortunately lost, but um they were having such a blast and they were dominating that night. So it was really great to see. Um more on the financial side, I know that u Madame Chair um you have really stepped up in um your role in advocating for um the finances for our school as a school leader and that is much appreciated. And one of the things that you have um done is um really um uh advocating to our House and Senate representatives. And so earlier this month u between now and the last time we talked about this, we um you and I and Superintendent Zambbrino u met with Senator Klene um Representative Hansen as well as um Chair Kunesh in the Senate and Chair UI in the House to talk about the issues that are going on with compensatory aid. And I noticed that there were some times in which there were breakthroughs. Um it also provided real um opportunities for them to understand the impacts of what that would mean for our district. And um providing those examples on on the ground examples and what that would mean for many of the things that they have fought for um and how that would impact our schools was very powerful and so that was um very thankful for that work. Um I also want to just say that you know in the last month we have also seen the national environment change related to education. There has been an announcement about the complete dismantling of the department of education on the federal level. Um while only about 1% of the finances come directly from the federal government about 10% of our finances um comes through the state and to our to our schools. And losing 10% of our budget would mean dramatic dramatic cuts um to services that our students depend on to the type of educational opportunities that we um claim to represent that we talk about and it is not a problem that is far far away. It is a problem that would happen right here within our blocks. So that is something that obviously we we will be watching. Um but the cuts from um education if there are cuts would be devastating and um and hopefully we can do our job to also reach out to our federal partners to make sure that those cuts don't happen just as we have done at our state level. Thank you, Director Cummings. Director Felton, uh nothing to add. Thank you, Vice Chair Claflin. Thank you. Um, I was able to join folks at that multicultural uh celebration and it was fantastic. I don't have many opportunities to be in the high school. My kid is still in elementary and seeing the older kids. My sons came along with me and the younger kids look up to those older students so much. He was thrilled to see the older siblings of his friends there and um I the food was amazing. So, thank you to all of the families who contributed to this and shared your culture with us. Um it was really a wonderful evening to to share. Um seeing the younger kids up on stage dancing with the older kids was just so much fun. I did not join in the invitation to dance. Um but but thank you for that invitation. Um I also saw just the um overwhelming enthusiasm and pride that our students have in their schools when I was at Caposia or conferences uh for a few days in the lobby area helping out. And our kids love bringing their families to show them where they go to school, where they spend their day, and they're proud of where they go to school. They love seeing their past teachers, uh, passing the hallways and making sure that they go to visit every single teacher that they've had in the past. That shows that they have so much pride. And while we had the survey showing that um about 75% of our uh secondary students have an adult that they can connect with in the school, uh that's also very important for the younger students as well. and from seeing how those students uh look for adults and again it's adults of all types, the folks who staff the lunchroom and the the folks who maintain the buildings. Uh everyone in that school has such an important role to play for those students. Um, and then I finally want to thank you to our student representatives for their enthusiasm when we were discussing the budget issues that we were facing with this uh potential loss or even just a delay in the compensatory funding and the impact that that means to our school. The student representatives enthusiastically took it upon themselves to reach out to other students and share that message. get more of these postcards signed. Um, it really goes to show that they want to share what's important to them. And I want to reiterate just how important it is to have those student voices present at the table. I am so appreciative to all of the students and all the families, staff, uh, who have signed those postcards supporting our district. Um, their voices really do matter. Thank you very much. Thank you, Director Felton. Yeah. The first thing I want to put a a major thank you out to Mr. Holen, our theater director, as I attended the All Quiet on the Western Front play that was just a a few weeks ago. It was very, very good. I totally enjoyed the music and they did some dancing on the stage and the technology is wonderful there. So I truly thank all of our students that are participating in our theater department. And also in this past Sunday's Pioneer Press, our high school girls will be having a flag football team, which it was in the Pioneer Press newspaper. I clipped this out to bring it. And there's 51 high schools that are going to be competing in this. and some of our local school districts that we are familiar with. Of course, Simley and Inenver Grove, Tartan High School, Two Rivers in West St. Paul, North St. Paul, Cottage Grove Park High School, just real close in this area as part of the 51 that will be participating in flag football. And also a thank you to Mr. Niheart who was here earlier will be participating as the coach. So that that is really great. And also um just a reminder I know I have mentioned this in the past coming up on the first Wednesday in May at our senior center. It's our fashion show. If anybody would like to attend the fashion show, it starts at 11:00 and there is a $20 cost that helps to pay our catered lunch, which is chicken meal dinner from the coupe. It's it's a very fun event. It goes on for approximately a couple hours. So, please contact Central Square and let them know that you want to register for the senior center fashion show. It it is a fun event. And also for the last couple months, I have done the read across South St. Paul. I read read a a book a couple times to a couple classes at Caposia Education Center. So I thank them for letting me come and do that. And one more thing which is truly an honor for South St. Paul School District at as was already mentioned in the past a couple months ago. As you know, we are members of MSBA, Minnesota School Board Association. Yeah. And every school board member in the state of Minnesota receives this monthly book. And in it, as was discussed in the past, there is an MSBA honor role in which members of of school boards who have earned awards get their names. Sometimes their pictures are posted in here as mine was last year. But I want to highlight again our board chair, Kim Hume. Her name is registered in this brochure as being under the earning the leadership development certificate. So we congratulate and thank Kim for attending all of her classes and earning that award. So thank you Kim. Thank you Wendy. All right we're getting to the end but I just need to celebrate our community for really stepping up. We've asked you to help us advocate regarding compensatory funding. We still have lots of postcards if anyone wants to stop in pretty much any of the school offices or the district office. It's very easy. You just kind of fill in um your name, if you have any individual comments you want to make to our reps and mark your connection to our district. Are you a a parent, a family member, a community member? This isn't just about students and parents. This is about our whole community. This is valuing the education that our community gives and represents our community. I I it's so important. So, I just want to thank everyone. This envelope is just chalk full of them that have already been filled out that I'm going to hand down to Director Cummings because he's going to deliver them for us to the capital. We're saving postage. Um, and I just want to thank everyone who's already participated this way. If you haven't yet, it's not too late. Please, please, please. This million and a half dollars is small potatoes compared to what potentially could be happening in the future, but it really is important. It's up to 30 staff members. And um it's just it's so important for our kids. It's so important to have those valuable adults that they can look up to. Okay, enough of that. That is the end of the public agenda for this evening. I am looking for a motion for the board to move to a close session per the open meeting law Minnesota statute 13D.03 for our office and professional employees negotiations. So moved. Thank you. Second. Thank you. Um if there is no discussion, I ask all those in favor to please say I. I opposed. Motion carries 5. Thank you to everyone who joined us this evening. The board will now move across the hall to the conference room for the closed session.