uh good evening everyone I would like to call our March 25th uh school board meeting to order Lisa could you please call the role director labery yes I mean here here Weber here W Felton here clafin here and Cher rash here that's six presents excellent thank you um if we could rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right I will ask for a motion to approve our meeting agenda for this evening as well as our work session minutes from March 11th 2024 do I have a motion so moved second any discussion all in favor please say I I hi opposed with that the motion carries and as we kick off most of our meetings with quality and action uh I'm going to invite some visitors up um for um some discussion around nutrition services welcome so good evening chairperson Rous drors and brino board members thank you for your time today um I'm Dory pavl the director of nutrition services this is Maggie Schmidt the assistant director of nutrition services and we're excited to be here tonight to highlight some of the great things going on in our department um the first thing we're going to highlight is our staff in nutrition services we have the unique opportunity to see a large number of the student population every day and we have a the very rewarding job of getting them the food they need to nourish their minds and bodies a core part of what we are able to do uh or I'm sorry a core part of why we're able to do um some really great things in nutrition services is because of our staff they are on the front line in creating a community with our schools because as we know food is what brings us all together the staff all take pride in what they do and they do it well they are not only serving meals but they are involved with students by participating in school spirit days as well as offering special and they love to offer special desserts like homemade pumpkin bars for Thanksgiving um cookies for the um before winter break or Hall um Valentine's Day sorry and at the end of the school year they always like to do something special in appreciation many of them are also involved in community events like the Lion's breakfast and the holiday meal and the scholarship banquet they want their kids to know that they care about them and they're proud of them next the next piece is student involvement while there are many factors in bringing new foods to the menu one of the most important pieces is student involvement we are doing this in a few different ways one is to sample items to the students during the regular lunch times we have done this in a cou for a couple of different items one of them being our homemade wild race chicken wild rice soup we got a me we got a recipe from a school foods website and we served it out to the kids based on that recipe staff and students went we don't like it so we brought it back we tweet a few things we gave it to them again they said it Still's missing something we took it back again we made it right they loved it we launched it at the secondary school it went so well that this fall we decided or this winter we decided to bring it into the elementary schools and surprisingly the kids ate it like there was no tomorrow another way we're doing um student involvement is with the superintendent student advisory Council in this in this meeting we get the opportunity to sample um items directly to the students and to the adults and we're able to get direct immediate very truthful feedback always last year um at this meeting we sampled a couple of things I'll give you an example we did jumbalaya we did overnight oats chicken tinga and a breakfast item called cinnamon dunkers each student was asked to rate rank the samples on a tally sheet and say whether they wanted to if they liked it and if they wanted to see it on the menu from this feedback what we found out is they did not like the jumalia the chicken tinga was not like the stuff my dad makes it's way better and that the cinnamon dunkers are okay but the overnight oats are super yummy and we want to see them on the menu based on that information we did launch those overnight oats in a fruit an overnight oat fruit parfait and it took off amazingly at all levels um the last way is through student requests um we occasionally get students and some adults that will request items that they would like to see on the menu sometimes it's as simple as a spice last year we got requests for tahen and to have hot sauce with the rest of the condiments this type of request is pretty easy for us to accommodate so now you can find both tahen and the hot sauce on the cter bar at the secondary building very cool the free meals for students there's a lot of talk about this and we are going to give a big thank you to uh the state of Minnesota for understanding that kids deserve the right to have a free meal and that we know that by taking that stigma out of it only kids who get free meals eat um by taking that out we've seen a huge increase in participation well of large increase in participation I guess it won't say huge um now that all students have access to free meals um as you can see the numbers it it's helpful for all we can we know that 43% of our students across the board are eating breakfast and about 67 and a half% of the students are eating lunch that's about a 10% increase over this time last year well we have served breakfast free in our district for the last five years we had a significant significant increase in the number of students participating this year again we took the stigma out uh we believe that the increase is not only because the meals are free but because we' made some changes to the items on the menu things like freshly made a freshly made Sunrise sandwich again the overnight oats and this winter at the secondary school we've launched a homemade baked apple cinnamon oatmeal it's really we also have fun things like whole grain mini donuts and mini bed bread loaves from the uh Great Northern bakery company which is located here in Northeast minneap um as you can see it is ALS there's also an increase in the number of lunches usually we see about a 1 to 3% increase so at 9.16 that's pretty significant it's higher than we had anticipated so again um the free meals were a hit but there are other things that we believe are causing those numbers to increase um so significantly and Maggie is going to talk about some of those reasons why um so I am the lucky one who's in charge of making the menus so I keep people happy and upset most of the time happy I'm um but we run a four-week cycle so um that means that we have um I lay out and menu grid for 4 weeks and um we rotated every three times a a year so when the kids come back from spring break they'll actually have a brand new menu to come back to um we keep the Staples that we know kids love chicken tenders I can't take them off um uh but we also are able to um bring in a new recipe once a week per cycle so we have about four recipes that we offer up every every cycle and then in the high schools um we do 10 to 15 new recipes every cycle so it's a lot of work um it's a lot of um trying to keep up on Trends research one of the fun parts that we actually are able to do is we offer um we've been offering these local um new flavors um which offers us a new partnership um one of the really great new items that we brought in is hoo which is a company in Minneapolis that um it's empowers in um uh Somali women immigrants and so it's specific speically they are specifically um hiring Somali women to hand make their samosas and we put them on their menu and it took off like crazy and we offer it with a homemade um chicken stew that we serve over rice and we offer that we set it out with herbs from um like African flavors and it's been very popular and we're really proud of that but that partnership offered us um an introduction to k kbo sorry um which is also a local um argentinan woman who makes um empanadas and we're hoping to get those onto the menu next year so it's been a really great opportunity for us to really grow our flavors um and our our profiles but also exploring local Partnerships um all of the the brands that you see on the screen are all local that we bring in so it's it's really it's a lot of fun and we were learning a lot about our different communities and we're really lucky to be able to offer all of that um um the next slide um we are also offering Global flavors um like I said putting out those spices with the um the chicken stew this is actually a photograph of the sambusa with the chicken stew over a rice um it's delicious um we do offer fresh condiments and um we make our own uh sauces we have our own um uh pickled and fermented vegetables that we do we have kimchi at the high school which was a new thing that we brought in last year and that became really popular we were surprised at how many kids love kimchi um we also make our homemade soups which is a wild rice soup we offer um local wild rice on that one as well so it's not only that it's homemade um we have some amazing sauces that we've brought out um Peruvian spices and things like that um and then just doing our research to follow the restaurant Trends and fusion Flav this year we did a citrus celebration at the end of February um where we brought in all kinds of different Citrus um to offer the kids we have blood oranges Cara Cara oranges grapefruit cumquats tangelos and a lot of kids had never tried many of those items and it was really fun to see I mean kids were taking them and then they were trading with each other and encouraging each other to try some it was a really successful um Endeavor and they apparently love kumquats so who who knew new you know the things that we learn from these kids is really really fun um we have fresh salad bars in the schools we participate in the USDA DOD program which offers us uh regionally fresh produce throughout the year um so it's it makes ordering a snap for us um we roast our vegetables if you've ever had our roasted broccoli if you've not had it come in and have some just on that day it's we go over 80 pounds of broccoli alone just on that day wow it's popular and it's delicious um we offer all kinds of fruit different fruits and vegetables every day to the kids they can make a whole entire meal just based on our salad bars and the last part is positively changing our school meals um there are so many things that go into positively changing the meals at school um as you have heard we've added a lot of new items and a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables which the kids are actually eating and but that's not the only thing we're looking at um at the secondary building last spring we looked at how the kids were coming into the serving area and we noticed that they were really bunching up at the cashiers and it was very crowded and it was hard to get to one of the serving lines so we we took we took that we talked to a few students and we discovered that if we just changed the way they came into the serving area and had them come in where they were going out originally we could open up two new cashier lines and that we could get the students through a lot faster and it didn't block any of the serving lines so that was a you know that's one of those things of when you look at it that's positively changing the way we have our school meals um again each elementary school has a a fresh salad bar every day allowing the students who might not want Choice One or Choice two as an entree they can make a fresh salad every day take their fruits and their milk and they can get through that line and that's a free meal so it's a great way to introduce them to those things and it's also a vegetarian option every single day um another positive thing that's happening is that we are seeing more adults eating when students see their teachers and other school leaders eating school lunch it's one more connection that we get to make with those students and adults um we're trying to create an experience for students um from the smell of delicious foods as they walk in to seeing the foods all of the bright colors textures and using SP spices and sauces to make it what kids want to eat um food is a way of connecting people like nothing else and we in nutrition services are lucky enough to be part of it thank you awesome wow impressive absolutely do you still do toasty dogs or Italian dunkers we do not do toasty dogs but we do Italian dunkers yes so I mean all that food sounds amazing um and I work from home just about a half mile from here so invite me to lunch anytime you're welcome anytime and cuz that sounds amazing but like how did you develop the skills within your team to like produce all this food like did you have trainings is it selftaught like how did you learn how to do this we've done some trainings we' brought some people in and taught kid you know taught the adults how to use knife skills how to cut up the fruits and vegetables in certain ways we've also purchased um things like sun-kissed pitot fruit slicer that just makes it super easy for us and we can buy different blades that you set in it and it's simply pull the lever and cut fruit comes out um honestly we have really talented people um the chicken the African chicken stew that homemade chicken stew we actually have a staff member who said no try this try this try this I mean it's part of her culture and she was able to give us a fantastic idea on how to do these recipes so we have a lot of talent within our group and then we just as we move on and we see that we need more things we we reach out to do training so excellent excellent I have a lot of regret not eating prior to this meeting tonight that's a good thank absolutely thank you so much you know John if I mayash I would just say you know I've been in this 25 years and over the career lots of times you hear people say you got to do something about that lunch you know when I was principal or otherwise and that's something I never hear here and I I agree with you I say food is love and they they served out hundreds of thousands of meals but like I look at those plates and think like if you walked up to a food truck you'd be paying 10 bucks for a lot of we just saw there and our kids get that every single day which is awesome and your passion for it is evident so thank you quarter million lunches served already this year that's pretty remarkable thank you so much for what you're doing absolutely thank you thank you excellent man I definitely should have eaten prior to this board meeting tonight all right um moving next um we did not have um any uh public listening submissions um prior to this meeting um do want our community to be aware that we have changed um the time and location that we are doing um our public listening submissions um you can always do that directly through our website at any time um but if you do want to come and address the board that is at our first meeting of the month um and that is at the district office at 6:30 and anyway anyone is welcome to come in and um share their thoughts um with the board as a whole um next I will turn to Vice chair uh an Claflin for our committee of the whole report and that's going to kind of be from two meetings now with our new structure yeah this is a longer update of our work session work um the minutes from the March 11th meeting also give a really thorough overview of what we covered at that work session um but just to uh give everyone an update the finance committee had been meeting to talk about the quarterly update uh we presented this uh Brady brought this to the work session and um the point of the quarterly update is really to look at how each fund is progressing over the course of the year are we spending more money in one area less money how the timing of Revenue and expenditures similar or different from other years so um mostly on Pace with previous years and gives us some awareness for where there are some differences um nutrition services was a piece that we had talked about um mostly because there's a difference that's happening in where our funding is coming from uh with this extra demand for the meals in schools we are still getting the funding for that it just depends on if it's being paid for by the state or the federal government and that's um based on folks filling out educational benefits forms and we still need to get those forms filled in it gives families a lot of other resources as well um and it will help get more money from the federal government rather than the state government to cover those lunches um we also took a look at our 2024 25 budget um how to do some Talent developments within our schools uh looking at the kids who are accelerating faster how to uh really give them the challenges that they need um also in our new budget there will be um an assistant director of student services hired and this is a vacancy uh that's very desperately needed filled within our school um just the number of students that are um needing extra Services is increasing it's about 21% of our student population and increasing across all of our schools so we really do need to fill that position um and we're going to be facing some of the same challenges that other districts are facing where that continuing declining enrollment from declining birth rates means our district is shrinking um that's going to have some budget impacts and we'll start seeing that more and more as we go along uh we also discussed our facilities um and started planning ahead for a new bond that we would take to voters in um in probably a few years there's a lot of deferred maintenance that needs to be addressed we wanted to look at our space utilization make sure that we're using all of our buildings uh to the best of their capacities um and how we align what those uses are with our needs um such as the CLC building just lacks facilities for those students to participate fully in things like physical education and it's uh more disconnected from the the high school and some of the other services that are available um there will be Community task forces um and many Community conversations around facilities as this moves forward um but we're trying to figure out what this time would look like so that there is no impact to the tax um that you would see uh levied on your home um we also discussed some staffing changes where um just within the process of the year um we need to look at where we have Staffing changes to make fixing some typos and holidays uh we'll hear more about those later um um this evening um as just as a whole within this structure of the work session we were able to accomplish and have some really great discussions about all of these topics rather than being rush through um we're also able to have updates from our cabinet members Tina Moses was able to come and speak to us about the recent cyber security incident and I'm sure things have progressed so much since then um that I don't know what the latest update would even be but um Tina Moses reflected to us just how uh efficiently all of the IT staff had gone in and gotten the district core Services back up and running how quickly teachers were able to print again uh those little things that are so critical to the everyday functioning and then working on addressing this um larger cyber security incident um it was a long meeting we got through so much almost three hours right it was long uh we discussed how we can be more engaged with our community and uh have some role in advocacy and recently um superintendent zambino and Cher rash had been at the capital um testifying on a bill that Senator Klein had introduced that it would help our community U because we have a lower commercial tax base we really need to also have support from the rest of our community because this bill wouldn't just be about school funding it's really about the uh tax base of our whole Community uh it's not a a school funding issue um and how do we create that Community advocacy um to really help push for things that benefit our whole town um among some of the committee updates that we heard um let's see the district 9917 has um hired some new teachers from the Philippines it sounds like an uh just amazing opportunity to get some new teachers in helping a program that needs some additional Staffing and a lot of other uh items came up uh one that we should highlight is a a request to change the name of the football field and there's a naming committee formed and there's going to be some process for deciding how that moves forward uh that was just the last Committee of the whole or work session tonight's work session also covered some of those same topics of Staffing uh how we're going to adjust our staff um balance for the next year um and there was quite a bit of discussion around what our priorities should be um also discussed the policy review cycle we'll have policies come up later this evening and um just the process of going through those how quickly we're able to with our new system as well um having the business meetings just once a month and finally set the stage for doing a board evaluation of how we're doing our our work and um what changes we uh would like to see made in the way that we are functioning as a board so that was tonight's work session and I think that covered everything that was we we've really done a lot in those work sessions and I appreciate the opportunities to have conversations in that new system of having the longer work session and again just for the public information those work sessions at the district office are open to the public absolutely excellent that was a lot yeah we might be on spring break right now but man we uh certainly have been busy at the board level uh next I will turn it to uh superintendent uh zambino to provide some highlights from around the district great thank you Cher rash yeah we have been busy it's been uh it's been busy even though it's quiet we are on spring break so hoping our staff students families are are having relaxing fun and safe spring break we know we've got some trips going on overseas even and so sounds like those are going well I look forward to hearing from the students and and anyone who chapero knows how that's gone I think we got DC and France and a lot going on so uh classes do resume next Monday April 1st hard to believe it's April 1st students no ideas for April Fool's Days please let's let your teachers ease back into the classrooms uh we you uh thank you for covering that on the board structure it is it has been a shift we've made really to create more space for conversation the and the depth of work we have to do and so uh we will have our typical similar to the structure we've had before like we're doing tonight on the fourth Monday but that other one will be at the district office the second Monday um again open to the public but just a little more time where we don't have to hustle to get across the hall and get back on camera we're looking to continue do all the great work in the business of the district but a little more space for for this board to do the important work you all do and you're all working hard so thank you for that uh related to our board we are at that time year where we're looking to uh refresh with our student board reps there's a picture of rata who's been doing a fantastic job as one of our student reps um she is on that trip overseas too so that's why she's not here with us tonight but uh we we know how important student voice is we heard that from our nutrition services team I'll tell you I would pit them against anybody that um the work they do and the whole team of course that's just the face of it there but um we do want that student voice to continue so we're going to work to recruit students we're going to look to have a couple and they can be in grades 11th or 12th next year so we're getting that information out at the high school to get students to apply so excited about that this time of year also brings in our silver Apple Awards so uh this is the last week to submit nominations for the rockand silver Apple award I've gotten to do that um a few times because when I came in at with that early start I got to do that this that spring and last year and it's very emotive you know as you can imagine to to get an award like that as a staff member from U from the kids and and so excited to see who who wins those Awards this year last week we had our second annual South St Paul job fair so we did that in partnership with the with the city and did that at our secondary building uh just nice to have an opportunity to to Showcase what's out there especially we know there's seasonal jobs but uh always have openings with this job market and so appreciate Joel mil here our HR director and the whole team I know I'm looking at Lisa was there and others that are in the room and appreciate U chair rash and um Kim Human coming to say thanks to the team it means a lot when they're putting in that 12-hour day to have you present so thank you for doing that then some highlights things going around uh the district so we as part of our uh equity and integration funding we have to have an integration partnership and so uh we do have that with some neighboring districts and we have three of our high school students representing us on uh youth Equity as youth Equity ambassadors and so they're getting uh to meet once a month to build uh community and learn leadership skills and share about cultures and traditions and so if you want to learn more about that you can hop on our website and and look in the news section had a opportunity last week I was with principal Borg we have uh some standing meetings where we check in and it coincided with uh a day they were spending with their seventh graders with youth Frontiers so youth Frontiers I've worked with them both with students and adults and in this case they were working with students so coming in uh to help inspire you know the development of character and Community it was a full day retreat they had games and different things and then they had high school students as student leaders so it was really fun because as um we've had that uh student uh superintendent student advisory Council that's a lot of words to pack into one title uh a lot of the kids who participated in that were the leaders as well of those of the group so you can see how those leadership experiences really help shape and develop the culture of our our buildings and I'll tell you I always say our kids are are the best so it's fun to see them in that space together speaking of the best students middle school has been uh up in the game with the honor role and so congratulations to our middle school students who made the Honor role uh they had a ceremony but what I love is kind of bringing it up a little bit and having the certificates but hoping to see more of those magnets out there so if you can see it says SSP or sorry proud of my SSP Middle School student honor honor student and so those uh we were debating do you do bumper stickers seems like people don't like bumper stickers too much anymore because they're hard to come off although those are ones you probably leave on anyways with so much pride uh but fun seeing those pop up so as we have more of those ceremonies we'll see uh a lot more of those magnets popping up around town to about our kids also had a chance to see this one in action too so Junior Achievement North was at Lincoln working with SE uh second and third graders so it's a nonprofit that helps students with Hands-On Financial learning so they usually have a theme where kids have a a project like your city manager a business um so they learn a lot of skills uh real life Concepts around finances career Readiness and Entrepreneurship and so uh nice to see that with the kids at the younger age we have been hearing through uh our increased student engagement how they really want to learn these life skills we heard that a lot at the high school around job skills and life skills so nice that we're starting that early uh through Junior Achievement and then very fitting space to have this at our capoa element education center so third and fifth grade students had a visit from an author Tara Peron blue hummingbird woman is a local Native American woman who wrote the book t a walks with blue moon girl and so she came to to read and share stories about the Dakota ways and language and culture and then just sharing about her family's tradition so love that that was happening uh at the sacred ground that is kosia and so appreciate her coming to spend that time with us we as I said are on spring break we have some non student or non-school days April 26th May 24th and May 27th um some dates to remember we have Open Door food distribution happening on April 17th at kosia and they got a big Chuck-E-Cheese uh fundraiser Jose who's the head of the PTA down there is very fired up about this want to make sure everybody knows to come to Chuck-E-Cheese so uh April 19th from 3:00 to 9:00 that'll be happening and then I was actually at Lincoln when a parent called and said when is spring picture day so I just heard this when I was there last week April 23rd they're doing a spring picture day so Mark the date at the secondary they have uh secondary student family Connect 4 to8 on April 25th and then here we go all the fun in in Spring prom on the 26 so always fun to see the kids just dressed up in those beautiful suits and dresses and things that they choose to wear with Athletics and activities we have a middle school track starting when right when we come back on the 1 and then the Banquets again so much going on in the in the district in the spring on May 1 the Athletics and activities awards banquet so always an emotional night when you're kind of hitting that Capstone of your time here in South St Paul and again I've been there now this will be my third time and it's amazing the accomplishments of our kids they are incredible uh but it also speaks volumes about the adults the the parents pushing them and and Guardians and Elders in their lives and of course the staff who are are pushing them along through all those great things as always our meeting materials available on our website and you can track all the things our our board is doing excellent thank you lots of things going on Lots going on love that all right we now shift to our consent agenda items that are typically Financial claims Staffing and Personnel in nature and have been presented in our board book um and this also includes uh adjustment to District uh holiday uh schedule retirements um leaves all of those are sort of inside of our consent agenda agenda I am asking for a motion to approve our consent agenda so moved second uh any discussion all in favor please say I I opposed with that the motion carries up next we have a wealth of policy items that are under review um and in our coming board meetings you are going to see many many more um as we are in the height of our review cycle uh but I want to um turn uh over to Kim human to also kind of summarize a little bit around some of the discussion around um what has come this is the first reading um of these policies they will be on the next two agendas before we vote for them but maybe just kind of highlevel summary of um some of the items that we have been looking at so we have eight policies that are under review uh this meeting for a first reading the first one we discussed at our policy meeting that's listed here is the uh number 307 emergency closing for schools this is just um bringing the wording more in alignment with what now the legislature says regarding the requirements for when staffing has to report when our buildings are closed and how we pay those staff and also it gives us the opportunity to find when we close it doesn't have to be the most difficult weather situation possible we have a little more we it could be just difficult so I think that's a positive change uh number 403 workload limits for certain special education teachers and also number 608 instructional services for special ed um there were no major changes it was just time to be reviewed we review all policies in a three-year cycle uh do you think we renumbered one of them so it was in alignment with what msba has it coded at just so it's easier for us to refer back to those policies um we have two policies regarding mandated reporting that we reviewed 414 and 415 this was just further defining mostly what is abuse um they're not super fun reads but it's important and of course these feed into the training that our staff and teachers get every year so that we're making sure everyone is taken care of the best they can while they're with us um policy 615 basic standards testing accommodations modifications and exemptions for IEP Section 504 accommodation and lap student this was really just cleaning it up it referenced things that are no longer happening in our schools so we just want to make sure that our policies reflect the testing and the requirements that our students have uh policy 621 the read toensure academic development act or the read act I'm sure a lot of people have heard a lot about it it was pushed last year through the legislation and we just wanted to make sure that we had a policy that was easy for our community to understand because it is State legislation we're going to follow it whether we have the policy or not but we want it to be accessible for our families and our students and finally policy 902 the use of school district facilities and Equipment just kind of mostly cleaned things up from when it was last updated made sure that our local sports groups and other local community groups that use our facilities are not being overly charged with um kind of an error when we made the last adjustment and also allows for um ongoing changes to like how our different facilities are used to be posted online instead of built into the policy so that we can make sure that the information is available to the public and reflective of what's most current excellent great review um and we'll have many more coming and I'm assuming we'll sort of do a review on the first reads um for these going forward in our uh public meetings um so those are available and we will vote on that um in two meetings from now um that brings us to our business items um for the n and up first looking for approval of the South St Paul school board to approve the resolution for discontinuing and reducing positions do I have a motion so moved second and for discussion I will turn it over to Joel Miler good evening this district is proposing a resolution for the dis discontinuance of educational programs and positions to align Staffing with projected enrollment for the 2425 school year the district will need to make reductions in the following areas dean of students at the middle school and classroom teachers as we continue to work through the Staffing planning for the 2425 school year there may be additional need to bring further reductions to the board later this spring to ensure we were being fiscally responsible while working to maintain low class sizes for students we are now asking the school board to approve the resolution for the above noted position eliminations and reductions for the 2425 school year thank you any questions or discussion this was brought forward and discussed in our committee of the whole as well um so there has been some previous discussion on this Lisa will you please call the role director human yes Weber Yes W Felton yes Claflin yes labery yes and Rush yes have 6 days thank you um up next I'm looking for approval for the South St Paul school board to approve the resolution relating to the non-renewal of probationary teachers do I have a motion so moved second and for discussion Joel Miler is already in place thank you each year we must release a number of probationary teachers for various reasons including student driven scheduling changes in enrollment budget reductions curriculum changes lure issues midyear placements and performance issues attached as a resolution to terminate the contracts of a number of probationary teachers this resolution terminates teaching contracts for those listed at the end of the current school year 2324 with a non-renewal for the 2425 school year we're seeking the approval from the school board tonight for this resolution to non-renew these teaching contracts for next school year any further discussion or questions as before this was also brought forth to us at the committee of the whole as well um Lisa will you please call the role again director human yes Weber Yes W Felton yes Claflin yes labery yes and chair Rush yes at 6 a thank you all right next for a business item looking for approval for the South St Paul school board to approve the acceptance of gifts do I have a motion so moved second and for discussion I turn this over to Brady Hoff good evening we have a few donations on the agenda tonight uh the first few are for the all night Senior Party from Dakota Electric Association Key Community Bank santax USA and the South St Paul Lions charitable gambling uh the South St Paul open foundation made a couple donations for wrestling and basketball salaries and then we have some classroom Supply donations from the students achieving volunteering Excellence so once again uh these donations support our schools and we're incredibly grateful for these organizations um and the support they provide absolutely absolutely I have never seen a district who has the level of community support that we have and um very grateful for that all the time uh Lisa will you please call the RO on that again director La Liberty yes human yes Weber Yes W Felton yes Claflin yes and Cher Rush absolutely 68 thank you all right well we will not have a board student board rep um report tonight um I would pass the message to make sure Rado was given a hard time for not being in uh at tonight's meeting but um I think being at St Michelle and uh France maybe outweighed being here with us tonight so um I will turn to our board members to provide maybe a little insight to some of the committee work that they have been up to um since we were here last um and I will turn it over to Monica Weber so on um I'm a the board representative for South St Paul to um intermediate District 9917 um we um I think at the last meeting we approved um superintendent favor contract um he has been the superintendent this is be the end of I believe his first contract so entering his next um contact contract July 1st um so we voted to approve that we do have some new teachers um who are who are starting who in are in an exchange program with um the Philippines and so that's very exciting um to welcome some new teachers into that district and trying to think um other topic just you know talking about you know enrollment in teachers and Staffing and budgets and the same thing that every other school district goes through um at this time of the year and then with the um Association of metropolitan school districts um first committee deadline for the legislature has passed um and so we continue to you know go through the end of session and there are a number of different educational bills that are being discussed um I would like to Echo um board member Claflin who talked about um contacting um the legislature and asking them to support Senator clein's Bill which would be some property tax relief um for the members of our community again this doesn't just impact the school district this impacts the entire community and um I think it would be a a great bill for the legislature to consider um as we move forward and that was um Senator Klein has um authored that bill excellent Nikki wber um I have nothing at this time okay and Clon uh let's see the next local issues meeting will be this Wednesday at the library at 8:00 a.m. and the last one uh the February meeting was held at the high school it was a wonderful opportunity to invite a lot of folks into the uh High School many of them had not been in in quite a while and kept saying how much it's changed it's good for people to see how our schools have changed um and at that meeting I gave a brief overview of what we're talking about in the finance and long-term planning facilities uh committee that that's U an issue where we're really looking at the budgets and have to think about how we're moving forward um and then a few events that were shared by other groups at that meeting were the read across sou St Paul program if you are interested in that you can email Deb Griffith and have that opportunity to go into one of the elementary schools and read a book to a classroom uh the books are all chosen by our library um there's an environmental resource Fair coming up April 5th and the park master plan is open for comment and will be available at the March 30th egg hunt um and I wanted to um mention all of the families that I saw at the Capia Spring Festival uh last week last Thursday it was just so much fun to see all these kids so proud of their school so excited to show off and feeling so at home um you you saw the kids come in just like no this is their place um they were the ones giving their parents directions on this is where we're going to go this what we're going to do they knew it um and it was really fun watching them uh get engaged in all of these different projects that were around the gymnasium and show off the artwork that was decorating the hallways it was a lot of fun excellent thank you uh Wendy Fon yes I I've been attending a couple things in support of our schools I first of all I thoroughly enjoy at at the high school in the secondary building I did talk to Mr holsen about the play that was just held a couple weeks ago they always do such a such a wonderful job so I thanked him so much for for doing the the plays and then I also did attend a taco feed at the Croatian Hall which was in support of our kosia school student support so that was excellent I really really like their tacos it's really good and just and one other thing that I have done personally for several years there is a fundraiser available to help our South St Paul baseball teams this is a fundraiser I purchased two of these coupons they're they're $20 each they're wonderful wonderful coupons all of these are available on this card so if if you'd like to support our baseball team re reach out to them and they will gladly Supply that to you it is it is really really nice and as a reminder as I serve on the senior center board of directors we are coming up May 1st is our fashion show and it there is a a $20 cost on that that does pay for our lunch which is provided by the coupe with chicken mashed potatoes gravy vegetables salads all kinds of really really good stuff desserts so if you're interested please reach out to Central Square to make your reservation for that and the last thing on a personal note I was quite surprised last week when I got my mail as you know as you've heard back in January I did receive the msba board of directors all all state school board award from them unbeknownst to me when they mailed us out there I was on the front of this this journal magazine so I want to thank them and like I said it was it was a wonderful surprise so thank you very much excellent thank you uh Kim human all right um Community Education trid District did not meet in March because of spring break with the various schools in our system so next we meet on Tuesday April 9th uh last was it Monday the 18th is it just Monday I um participated in mba's day at the capital there were about 75 School Board representatives from around the state who were there it was interesting an opportunity to listen to a couple panels one a house panel and one a senate panel with representatives from the education policy committees from each of the houses um I felt really reassured the things that they want to focus on are things that we want them to focus on too so that is great great news for us hopefully the work gets through as uh monik has kind of indicated everything is unknown until it's done so there's that and I also like an had the opportunity to go caposa for the spring festival and I think my favorite part is they had a draff and some of the most popular prizes were the opportunity to um spend time with the teachers one-on-one I my kids put so much money honestly tickets right into having ice cream with like old first grade teachers or having lunch with teachers and I think that's just really speaks to our esta and their commitment to our kids that our kids feel that and even outside of class time want to be able to spend that time with them that's great thank you very much um I want to again thank uh nutrition services for coming in on spring break and um sharing all that they do for our schools as well and express a great deal of appreciation for everything they've done cuz they've certainly gone through a lot of changes over um the last two years um in terms of what nutrition services looks like inside of our schools um with no further items on our agenda I am looking for a motion to adjourn our meeting so moved second any discussion all in favor please say I I I opposed that the motion carries this meeting is adjourned at 6:52 tonight everyone have a