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. >> Okay. First up is the approval of our meeting agenda and minutes. I'm looking for a motion to approve the regular board meeting agenda for this evening as well as the minutes for July 28th, 2025's work session, July 28th, 2025's business meeting, and August 11th, 2025's work session. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Any discussion? >> Quiet. >> Okay. All those in favor, please say I. I. >> I. Opposed. >> Motion carries. 5. All right, now it's the really exciting part. Quality in action. Okay, so a reminder, we don't have our student school board reps in yet because school starts next month. So September, I would be super excited to have them kick off things for us. Um, but I am happy to invite all of our administrative leaders and program leaders for all of our buildings and programs because it's the beginning of the school year and we want to hear all the amazing work that you guys are doing. So end mass or one at a time, however you want, and I'll hand it over to you. >> Hello. My uh we're starting with the youngest learners, so I get to go first. Uh my name is Kristen Summerano Weeks. I'm the early learning coordinator. Um so we'll start with ECF because those are truly our youngest learners. Um, we had uh stay in plays, drop, they used to be called drop in plays, now they're stayin plays every morning, every Wednesday morning in the summer. Um, they were very well attended. We had 14 families at one of them on a rainy day. So, that was lovely to have that full of an attendance. Um, we also this summer hired a brand new parent educator, which we're very excited about. Her name is Bethany Panko and she's very eager to get started and meet the families and get classes going. Um we are through community ed continuing to send welcome packets to the families who have just had babies. Um onesies and books going out and information about the ECF classes. And then finally the big news is that we made a big move out of the family education center and into Caposia. So we have come home to the elementary schools and we're excited to get families into the schools earlier. They get to see the facilities, meet the staff, be in the space. Um, it's a beautiful space and windows and we're the ECF staff have been amazing over the last few weeks moving things and we also want to say a big thank you to the facilities staff because they've been a huge help. So, um, it's very exciting and we have an open house on uh, Wednesday, September 3rd from 4 to 7:00 p.m. at Caposia. So, families can come and see the new space. And then in preschool, uh, we are filling up. We've got three full classes of all day four-year-olds at Lincoln this year and two full classes of full day classes at Caposia. The thre's classes are nearly full. So, it's really just those half-day four-year-old classes that have spots left, which is great. We're so excited to have so many preschoolers coming in this year. And the teachers just today as they came back had training on our new online tool that's going to make it so much easier to tie the curriculum to assessment. and um they're getting really excited and they're grateful to have it and they're excited to explore it and really use our curriculum to full capacity. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Awesome. >> All right. Good evening everyone. Sophia Bosard, principal at Lincoln Center Elementary. It was my first day with all of our licensed teachers today and it was truly welcoming. Um it's been kind of the feeling that I've gotten from the district and um from my colleagues here and today yet again it was represented. So um some highlights for us the team approach when we talk about well-rounded education. We truly have a lot of support at Lincoln Center. Um I was able to present our skip today which is directly tied to um our scorecard for the district and a lot of our built members actually presented instead of me which was really nice to see as they did a lot of that work alongside with me in summer. Um so really celebrating my team and getting to know them and them getting to know me and all the opportunities we had today were awesome. We got to share some ice cream with a ice cream truck which was really nice and also celebrate the outdoor garden. So we have an outdoor classroom which is really a garden and it's something that uh previous administration and and current teachers and um staff really worked on. Um so I don't take the credit for it. I'm just lucky to be able to to share that space with our kids. But we do have an outdoor space. So that's our outside classroom that our um prek5 friends can utilize and it's really beautiful. There are raised beds, there are flowers. So come in and and check it out and you're welcome to come. We also get to celebrate um art and in addition to art, which is one of our specials this year with a therapy dog. So our art teacher has a therapy dog, which is another fun element for students and for teachers. Um, and it's really a great dog and um, he's very well trained. So, our kids are really excited. Um, we also got to welcome Dash. Um, so part of 917 into our building. Um, so far we have two kiddos in it. We're really excited to share a space. As you know, Lincoln Center is a huge building and it's beautiful and they're a lot of spaces. Um, so Dash is the new program um, within our building and we've welcomed them already. Um we also have open house um but it's Thursday and it's 10 to 6. It will be um open house style this year. So families are welcome to come as they wish. Um that way we're not really keeping them to a schedule and if they choose to they're able to reach out to their teacher um any teacher and schedule 20 minutes of um individualized time. Um and the rest of it is passport activity and being able to kind of travel around the school. So, I'm excited to be there um and see them. Um and that is all I have for you all tonight. Thank you for listening. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Sophia. It's so nice to see that we're already uh collaborating and coordinating across district. >> I never wear pink. This is the first time I've ever worn pink. So, uh so collaboration is in the air. Uh yes, we welcomed back staff today. Uh we had a lot of fun and Kristen kind of stole my first point that we welcomed uh ECF into the building once again and it's really sad that you were excited just for windows. >> It really was. Yes, we have heat in the winter and we have air conditioning in the summer too by the way. Um but it's super cool to have them join us. We are so excited. Uh, I had the calmst summer that I've ever had as an administrator here in the district right up through about second week in August when we decided we're going to move a whole program over to Caposia. And uh, in working with Jean Zender and with Kristen too uh, and the district office, we made this happen and we're so excited that we get our littlest learners into the building with their families uh, after school classes and also on Saturdays as well. So, it's it's great to have them there. Today we also uh talked over our skip plan as well. We have very similar plans in the elementary. I think one of the things that you're going to hear over time is the coordination and kind of the common expectations that we have in the elementarymentaries because we do think that Caposia kids and Lincoln kids who are all packers uh will funnel into a a middle school and a secondary program and we want them to have similar but not exact experiences. So we do have similar plans there. Another piece of excitement is uh Caposia was selected for the fourth year in a row to receive uh a Waler Subaru donation. And so uh Walls or Subaru was there today. And each teacher got uh kind of a school supply kit along with what's coming is a $10,000 donation for our teachers to make sure that our kids have what they need throughout the year as well. So, uh that was really exciting. Um, you've read all the stories about how classroom teachers don't have what they need through public education and we we do our best, but we have some great community partners and Walls or Subaru is one of them. Carol Leven was there today, too, but I did not even ask when it a section's going to be on about us, but they normally send me a little something and I'll send it to the board so you guys can see it. Um, we talked a lot about Pride today and South St. Paul Pride. I shared community feedback from our survey. Um, our community absolutely loves these schools and I had our teachers just kind of read comments. It was like, uh, you know, when they like on some shows they read the mean tweets. These weren't mean tweets. These were awesome things that people are saying about our schools. A and it's true. And we need to lean into that narrative. And that needs to be our narrative that we need to shout off the mountain tops that people love our schools. Every school district has issues that they're working on, right? But by and large, our community absolutely loves our schools and I wanted our teachers to know that today. So we also kind of constructed two bulletin boards together as a staff. And one was um South St. Paul Packers are I want to make sure that our kids know that there's a secondary building here that eventually they get to go to and they get to play sports and do activities and learn all sorts of fun things at. And I think sometimes on the south end of town they don't always realize that. Um so South St. Paul Packers are. That's our pride board and our commitment statements to each of the students. So, we share with them what we'll do to make sure that they're the best South St. Paul Packer that they can be. Our theme this year is also unplugged. Um, it's so funny. We watched a movie today. It was about 55 minutes long, but our theme was unplugged. So, anyways, look past that. But it was all about how uh kids these days are on devices way too much and how we need to find ways to promote better balance with our kids too. So things like reading, getting outside, doing alternative things than uh a video game or being on your cell phone. Uh it's going to be a theme all year. So we watched a movie that our PTA bought a subscription uh to this year called Screen Aers. And boy did it really get the crowd going as to what we can do all year long to make sure that our kids experience life unplugged. We also have a family connection day on Thursday as well. We'll have a food truck there and an ice cream truck and just a whole bunch of fun thing for kids to do. It's also picture day. I believe it's picture day in both buildings. So we want to make sure that uh kiddos come and get their pictures as well. Okay. So lots of fun stuff and lots of fun stuff in both elementaryaries. >> Sure. >> So thanks. >> Thanks. Thanks. Mhm. >> Hello board. I'm Leah Borg. I'm the principal at the middle school and I'm here to tell you how the middle grades are shaping up the school year. Uh we had our first license day like the rest of the district with with uh licensed staff started today. Um but we were in the building last week. Um we were looking and in and the week before looking at our um our school continuous improvement plan looking at setting some goals to align with the district scorecards and um getting some new curriculum uh onboarded. So our science and um English language arts teams are going to be using some new curriculum this year. um science is using a curriculum called Amplify and um the English language arts team is using a curriculum called arts and letters and that's a runup the middle school version of the wit and wisdom that's being used in the elementary schools. We have two goals in our skip for the year. One is on attendance and increasing int uh uh positive attendance by 3% or 3% of our more of our students will have positive attendance. And then one is on um passing grades and making sure that at least 87% of our students have uh passing grades across the board. Um possibly more. Um and we're going to set our sights really high. And we had a conversation with our staff today about how that's not just pushing the pass button in the grade book. That's making sure that we are clear with our um standards, making sure that we're clear with what we are teaching and what we want students to be able to know and do at the end of a unit and making sure that they're proficient in those standards. Um we're going to get to those goals in a number of ways. Um one is we're going to work on having more effective um content level and grade level team meetings and making sure that those meetings have really clear um objectives. They we are starting on time. we have people that are doing the work in the meetings and before the next meeting. We're going to make sure that we have a positive climate and culture for both staff and students. One of that is continuing to use those catalyst strategies that we've been training on over the past couple of years. And one is to make sure that we continue um with our um strong academic standards and using things like that lesson plan framework, making sure that we have um clear summitive assessments at the end of every unit. Um it was a great day in the middle school today with the staff. I'm looking forward to having students. Um we had a little preview of students coming in for our back to school days. Um the the previous two weeks there's two nights that they came in, they got their pictures, they picked up their schedules and everyone seems really relaxed. Parents and students feel um like they're ready to start the school year. They're not anxious um which is something that is um new to middle school. We usually deal with a lot of anxiety. It seems like that that's been dialed down this year and students are ready to come in. We do have um our connections teachers, our advisory teachers are meeting with our students and families this Wednesday and Friday. Um the families got an invite through parent square today and they signed up for a time to come in and meet. Um and those times are Wednesday and Friday and we look forward to having everybody back in the building next week. So thanks so much. >> Thanks Leah. school board, superintendent, uh, greater school community. My name is Chuck Ochock and I'm the proud principal of the high school. And, uh, I'm going to start off differently. Like, this is just exciting. Can we just like summer, it's sad time. People are sad. Summer's over. But the energy today in the building, the energy last week when our students came back to start uh, activities and athletics was just uh, amazing. And I'm super pumped to have our parents come in on Wednesday or Friday, walk their kids schedule, meet their teachers in our family connect day. So really excited about that. Uh first day of school, just so our families know, uh is September 2nd for grades 91 12 and all of our new students. Uh and it's the 3rd of September for grades 10 and 11. And then then we'll just roll in. So we've made some changes at the high school uh since 2022. Uh, I've had the opportunity to work with staff to discuss concerns and issues we've had in the previous year. We survey the staff. We check with our site solutions team. We create what are the changes that we want to see for the next year. These committees examine the issue, study possible solutions, and then create the changes we believe our school uh will make our school even better. This summer, we examined attendance tardies, win Wednesday, our current grading practices, and the connections class. And today we rolled this all these new changes out to our staff. And what was really cool is it was our staff members who serve on the committee sharing it with their colleagues. So attendance and and tardies really uh you've probably heard right we are really concerned about attendance and so we're really hitting attendance hard. We want our kids in school and one of the big things is we want to reinforce the value of in-person learning. Challenging that student mindset that you can get anything on schooly, right? emphasize that not all learning can be replicated online and that our teachers, case managers, and staff are much more effective supporting students when they're actually in school with us. So, we have some consequences, but really what was exciting are the incentives. We never say thank you to the kids who do all the right things ever. We just assume that they're going to continue to do it. So, this committee came up with some incentives for us to uh for tardies. For example, students who have zero tardies in a week will be entered into a drawing, right? Where they can skip the line for breakfast or lunch. They can get a free homework pass. They can get into an activity for free. Uh and there's some other incentives that they can do. We've also incentivized coming to school for absences. So, we're excited. Uh and I'll explain why. We're super excited. Win Wednesday. uh the win Wednesday committee me met uh and it was really amazing because uh there's always this feeling about win Wednesday and I showed them the data because I surveyed students, staff and families and guard parents and guardians and there is universal support for win from students, staff and parents and guardians. Uh what we did need to do though is make some changes. And the big change that I I've been sharing with our families is when Wednesday actually won't start until the seventh week of the trimester, weeks one through six, all kids are going to be in class. There's some internal stuff that we're going to do differently uh to ensure uh that our kids are passing because just like everyone else, passing classes is really important um especially in the the high school. our grading committee met uh and actually talked about we're doing 7030 summitive formative assessments. Uh but the really exciting thing for me is we're going to ask our students to do a post-summitive assessment reflection and really asking them after they've taken the test, written the paper, done the project about their learning of taking the test, taking you know writing the paper, doing the project. And that is something that's going to be new for us at the high school, but we're really excited about the kids learning about their own learning. And then connections, uh we needed to make a change in connections. And so the connections committee met uh and the changes that we're making are really exciting. Uh we'll continue to do grade checks and connections, but we're going to use Zello uh to help us with our career and post-secary planning uh and connections. And so our students are are going to take a survey on the 9th to let us know some things about themselves and then they're going to actually start working on their Zello lessons. And so Zello is a tool that will help our students in grades 9 through 12 figure out what it is that they want to do after they complete grades 9 through 12. Uh I'm super excited about this. Uh families will be able to take a look at it. I spent about 25 minutes trying to figure out what it is that I want to do with my life. Uh it was super cool. Uh and it's really fun. The other thing is we have this class called connections and it's really designed to make connections with kids, but our staff didn't feel like they were making connections. And so every week we're going to pause and they're going to do rounding conversations with one or two kids. So twice a year they're going to have a sitdown conversations with the kids in their connections class to get their feeling about how things are going within their school. So the other big excitement we have is the principal advisory uh committee has changed. Uh I will be asking for nominations for every connections class and I will meet weekly with a different grade to figure out what's going well and what we need to continue to work on. So one week I'll meet with all the ninth graders of connections class the representative 10th 11th and 12th. We talked about today uh our skip plan which is also about passing classes and being in school. uh and you'll see that everything that we've done this summer actually leads into uh us achieving that goal. But we actually talked about today roots and South St. Paul and the roots that we create in our kids while they're in the high school and how important those roots are just like in a tree uh to helping them be successful. And so we're going to spend a lot of time really planting our roots for our kids, making sure that they have a good, secure, settled high school where they feel they can be who they want to be uh and be as successful. So thank you very much. Any questions? >> That was so much information. >> We were told two or three minutes and I didn't I didn't make it. So yeah, and I cut a lot out. So Robin, >> thank you. Well, I can just say they did so much cool stuff that I'm just either doing it or I'm replicating whatever they just talked about right here. Um, I'm Robin Schwab. I get the privilege of working with students from kind of across the district at all the different sites, but the site I'm going to talk about today is the community learning center. Um, this is for our 11th and 12th grade students, and we serve up through age 21. And we've done a lot of things. When we welcomed our staff back today, we spent a lot of time, like the other sites, going over our skip goal and matching up with the scorecard. Our goals are aligned with a graduation rate and attendance. And we really had some conversations today about what makes a grade, what makes a credit. Um, as we've been kind of planning the last few years, we've done a lot of work with standards and putting the curriculum and mapping. And so, we took that further and we all kind of did showand tell on how gradebooks should be set up. and we have a consistent grade book. So, the parents as they're looking should be able to have a good read on where they're at. We will be having our welcome back night on Wednesday that will run as an open house. We will have the station set up so parents can sign up for their transportation or their food service or pictures, all of those pieces that they would need or look at the building, connect with us. And then we are spending our time on Friday and Tuesday next week meeting with families to go over their continued learning plans to make sure everyone is on board and knows what we can do to support the students and what their goals are for graduation. Now like Chuck said about Zello, we have that incorporated in our work at the CLC too. Our theme for the year and this was voted on by the kids, created by the kids, it is called grown 101. So the whole year has themes about what they need to do to figure out how to be adults and that theme will be covered in some of our exterms in our just con connections curriculum as we have Zello introduced and played out. Um some of you know this some of you don't but Thursday Monday through Thursday it's a sixth period day with connections. So they do have a 15minute touch point with their connections teacher every day but Fridays every week is a support for the students. They come 45 minutes, meet with their connections teacher, and they build a plan for the day. And that could be if they need support in a class, they could use that time for credit recovery. And as part of that, we have different supports sprinkled in for different speakers that come in from the outside community, talk about different um pathways for work opportunities. Um we have the career counselor come over. Mr. Booth comes and does some different things about FAFSA or scholarships. So students really do come Friday pick their path and work with their connections teacher. So they really do get that extension if they need it. They get um that support that they need in class. And so we really just firmed up what that looks like. We're changing some of our lunch schedule and those pieces to give kids more opportunities as well. And we just really wanted to make sure that we were intentional because we are switching some of our online software for credit recovery. Um actually all of our software. So our teachers spent the afternoon digging into that and we want to make sure that it's it's mapping correctly. So those are the big things and we look forward to welcoming our new neighbors on the first floor. We have tri district moving in for the health um careers p or program and we just look forward to all the different changes and we are still enrolling a lot of new students. So that's what we have. Any questions for me? I guess I'll open it to the board. Any questions or comments for our whole team who's presented tonight. >> Thank you all for coming and sharing. >> Yes. So much information that you shared with us. I'll probably email you questions later. Yeah. >> Thank you so much. I think this time of year is all excitement and the execution of the preparation and thank you so much for all the work that you're doing. >> Thank you. >> All right. Anyone else want to before they leave? Okay. Okay. Have >> a blessed year. >> Next up, item 3B is stakeholder comments to the board. As a reminder to the community, there are two ways to make comment to the board. You can either submit an online form or appear before the board in person. If you would like to speak in person, the board has set time aside on the second Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m. during our regular extended work session meetings. I will report that no one came to speak to the board at our meeting on August 11th and we also received no online submissions during that time. I will now turn things over to vice chair Claflin to give an update on our work session this evening. >> Thank you. Uh earlier this evening we met and uh most of the discussion was focused on enrollment updates. There is quite a bit of planning that goes into setting up all of those classrooms at those schools and estimating how many students are going to be at each one is a challenge. You want to get the right number of students in the classrooms and the right staffing. Uh so they have some estimates of how many students they're expecting, but uh October 1st is the official count that everything is benchmarked against. Um we heard about how some of the adjusted pupil units are calculated. One student isn't always one pupil unit. And it's interesting to understand how um that funding is dependent on students actually attending every day at at school. And uh this all leads into possible budget revisions if that's necessary. Some changes have already been made because of um enrollment at uh Caposia adding another section. We also discussed our public relations and community engagement schedules. There's quite a bit of activities that happen at the beginning of the school year with the walk-athon coming up. A lot of opportunities for the board to be out talking with all of the members of our community. And you can find us at a lot of these events, uh, football games and all sorts of different community events. and hear more about our schedules later. And um earlier this month at the work session um one of the really interesting things was the discussion of the brand refresh and I think we'll see more about that later this evening. >> Thank you. All right. Now I will hand things over to Dr. Zambbrino for the superintendent update. >> Great. Thank you, Chair Hume. Wow, what fun energy in the space today. I uh it was so fun getting into the buildings and watching our principles and program leads just working with the teachers and um the excitement, the collegiality, the collaboration. And you know, you kind of heard it here. There is a just a nice sense of calm coming into the year, which it tells me everyone's feeling like they've got it pretty well in control. I will say it's always a little nerve-wracking this time of year. Did we miss anything? And so if we did, please be patient. But you can tell um just the care and thought that goes into it. And I use the term district leadership team. That's our term is really our directors and those, you know, in the back of the room, directors, coordinators, principles, assistant principles. And you always hear me repeat myself, the small but mighty team. But I would pit our team against anybody's team. Like the talent that we have coming into this year uh to just continue to do great uh great work and do right by our kids. We've seen our kids growing uh and that's because our teachers continue to learn and grow and um I just can't wait to see what we get done this year. So, welcome back to our teachers. Today, we'll have uh the district kickoff tomorrow. So, hoping everybody comes to that. We have food trucks and some fun just to kick things off and get everybody grounded. And then our ESPs are back Wednesday and of course we start rolling the kids back in next week. So, uh very exciting time. I know as as we heard, it's a little melancholy when summer comes to an end, but I think deep down everybody's ready. The kids are so excited to be back in with their teachers and their peers and their friends. um you know the single most most I at home the their first teachers are always the family but outside of that the single most important person in a child's life is their teacher and the next one after that is their principal who are really providing that experience for them and we have the very very best so excited about what that means for this year. Uh but it is that time to kind of go through some of the things we've got to get done. So we have um we call it our annual census update. Essentially the simplest way to put that is we need current information. So, please, please, please make sure uh you can log into Infinite Campus or you can if you're not sure how to do that, just check in at the school during the open house. We it's super important that we have the right contact information uh and emergency contacts because sometimes things happen and uh parent or family members not available. We want to make sure we know who's next on deck if we need to get a hold of somebody. And we have some really great tools to support language. So, we want to know language preferences because we can communicate now with some great technology in multiple different languages. So, uh, families, please make sure to get in there and update that information. So, if we need to get a hold of you, we can do that. Um, this is also the time of year where we push hard, uh, for families to fill out the application for educational benefits. This kind of ca uh came up a lot last year as we were looking at our compensatory aid, uh, situation, and we got some great support from our local legislators and others to to keep that in place. But essentially, the application for educational benefit, it used to be what we call that free or reduced price lunch application. And we now know that everybody gets a universal free meal, but there's still a lot of benefits to our kids and to our families and of course to the entire district that families can get that form filled out. And so um for for families, they can get while lunch is free, there's also discounted fees for athletics and activities. Internet providers provide opportunities. Um we get um reduced price uh or even free field trips for kids based on our um we call that our FRL, our free and reduced price lunch status. Our technology, we get an E rate which is the price we pay for technology services. Um so like again it benefits families at home in terms of memberships and activities. Uh but it does bring a lot of revenue that we use and it all goes right into our school. So these are dollars that go right to the classroom to support our kiddos. So, I know it can be a little annoying when we keep calling you to get the form in, but if if you can partner with us, we really appreciate that. Another important one coming up, it's no fun for us, uh, but it is the state law that sometimes if kids don't have their shots in, they can't come to school. And so, we, uh, I know Dr. Burkhard and our student services team has worked hard and our schools to set up immunization clinics and make sure that our kids can meet compliance with the state law. U,, but we we want to make sure that that we have that in place. We can work with families if there's like a conscientious exemption. We still need to get that documented. So, one way or another, we got to get documentation on immunization. So, again, if you need help getting a vaccination, the Dakota County Health is hosting a vaccine clinic in partnership with us on uh Wednesday the 27th, so just a couple days from now from 3 to 6:00 at the secondary. So, you can show up and they'll have uh the shots and other resources available. We want to make that as uh seamless and easy as possible. But like I said, we definitely don't want to get to a place where we have to tell a student they can't come to school. So, please partner with us on that and making sure that the children get their immunizations. Um, some of the the shows already been kind of played out here. We heard a little bit about our new early learning location and uh it is a beautiful space as Kristen mentioned and and Terry uh Principal Bretoy and his team have been so welcoming. Um, you know, we've always had a welcoming experience for the families, but the facilities just kind of weren't the best. And so, um, we really wanted to make sure that when we're onboarding our our students and families, they have the best experience. And Caposia was really built for that. Um, so there's really child child- centered modern facilities. There's a playground specific for the littlest learners. Um, we see that as a really a great natural bridge into kindergarten to make that stress for families and students less. um and and just building connections from the start. And so, uh we heard they're having their open house on the 3rd from 4:00 to 7:00 and I'll be down there hopefully get to see a lot of the families, but it is a great bright just safe conducive learning space. So, we're appreciative of the team. And again, I'll give a second shout out to the facilities team. They moved a lot of stuff in a short amount of time. And so, uh just a really great team effort between building leadership, district leadership, and then the staff who make it all happen. So, hopefully everyone enjoys that new setting. Um, as far as other back-toschool resources, I mentioned the annual census, uh, all kinds of information is available on our website. So, if you go to spps.org and click on, uh, school year, you'll see there's handbooks. So, I know a lot of times families want to know more information about the school and expectations. So, our handbooks are listed there. School supply lists. I had a I had a parent at open house last week say, "I wasn't sure if I could find it." We hopped on the phone together and found it really quickly. So, that's that's the great one-stop shop. transportation links and information. Um, little early, but yes, we share information about e-learning or emergency closings and things like that. So, uh, again, our website is loaded with information, but this is a great time to hop on there and just click on that school year link to find out what you need to know. And then just some key dates to to note here. So, we heard a little bit about the family connection days. So we've got on the 27th and 29th for the middle school and high school CLC on the 27th and then Caposia and Lincoln have their family connection day and kids choice open house on the 28th. But again, lots of information coming at you. Please refer to our website to uh stay up to date with those. And then uh we do have that rolling start that uh principal kind of mentioned. So the first days of school, so Tuesday right after Labor Day, we'll have grades 1 through 6, 9, and 12. And then anybody new to the secondary uh we want them to come in and and get that experience. Then on Wednesday we'll bring in kindergarten 7 8 and 10 and 11. And then our littlest learners our our fours and threes come in that Thursday for fours and then the following Monday for threes. Uh so lots of information coming at you but again our website such a great place you can learn uh information about our board. So you can follow up on board meetings and materials there. But again, tons of resources linked in there. If you're struggling to figure anything out, please reach out to your school, your teacher, your school office. Everyone's here to help make sure that we have such a great launch. And you can just feel the energy and excitement in South St. Paul Public Schools right now. So, it's a great time to be superintendent, very proud here. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Zamrino. All right, moving on to consent items. I'm looking for a motion to approve the consent items on tonight's agenda, which include financial claims, bills payable, and staffing as presented. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Perfect. Any discussion? >> All right. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. 5. All right. If you look at the agenda, the next section is policies, but we don't have any policies up for review this evening, but the policy committee will resume regular meetings in September. So, watch this space, okay? >> It'll start filling up >> and we'll move on to business items. We have two items before us this evening. First, I'm looking for a motion for approval for the South St. Paul School Board to approve the brand refresh logos and executive summary. Do I have a motion to approve? >> So moved. second. >> Awesome. Thank you. And I'd like to invite Lisa and I think Danette's here to help you out to uh speak to this process and present to the public. >> Well, thank you for letting us um formally present to you. I know you have seen this presentation from us um twice already. So, this is the third time coming before you, but we're really excited to have it on camera tonight and kind of start our unveil with um our staff and our communities. We're officially going to do it with our staff tomorrow hopefully um if we have the blessing of the board tonight. So, um we'll just get started and talk a little bit about what a brand refresh is and oop let me do this so you can kind of >> help me too. Um so what a brand refresh is really a visual and strategic update on how the district presents itself. So think um it's really an updated look and feel. So think logo like what are our district logos? Maybe um it's been a long time 2008 I think about is when we last um took a look at our logo. So really getting those more modern um colors um fonts, messaging and tone. So like how we present oursel, how we talk or share things um is really important and improved consistency across um material. So strengthens our brand message. It aligns visuals and updated our mission vision. So think um printed handouts, email signatures, building signage and things like that is what um we we're taking a look at. So another thing is so it also builds on exactly what we are. So we're still going to be the Packers. That's not changing. We're still going to have the maroon as um part of our pride, which we know that runs very deep and here in our community and we'll have the bull or a bull as our mascot as we'll show you here in just a little bit. So, think of it as like getting a fresh coat of paint on your house. So, we're just trying to kind of just do some subtle changes and really um update and be more modern in kind of how we present oursel. So, why now? So, as you know, we just finished our strategic plan um this spring. And so, then the next natural step, what districts typically do is start to look at kind of their brand. And so, we really want to align our brand to our new mission and vision and kind of um what we're doing there. The other piece that's really coming into play is ADA compliance. And so by 2026, we need to have um we need to meet some color compliance. So we're really close on a lot of the colors that you'll see that we've had used in like our um core values and things like that. Our secondary color palette um which Danette will talk to um a little bit here. But by 2026, we need to have more of that ADA compliance. So how we use um the colors. So what colors can be used on top of other colors. So maybe like white on top of a yellow or white on top of a maroon. There's different font sizes and there's just a lot of rules that we need to follow. So this is going to really help us simplify and um be more um accessible for all of our community. >> The other piece is just marketing. Um families are shopping, staff are shopping where they want to work, and so we need to be competitive and first impressions count. And so we need to really be putting our best foot forward. and we're hoping that um what you see tonight is going to help us um start that work. So since um April, we've really been working hard and getting stakeholder engagement. So we have talked with staff, we've talked with families, community members, um we took all of the data that we used in our strategic plan, which was um hundreds of comments to really learn about what South St. Paul what um uh what who South St. Paul is and what we're proud of and what we really want to showcase. So, we really learned a lot of that. Um, we came back and we came with some um logo samples and then we brought those before our coaches and advisers just to kind of do a temperature check to see how close we were to what we heard and um before we actually brought it to our coaches and advisors, we had some several back and forth. So, we weren't quite there, but then we kind of got close and we thought, "Okay, let's check with our coaches and adviserss who use our logos probably the most outside of Danette and I um and our communications team." So, um and I feel like we were close. They had some really good feedback and we gave them a couple couple um samples and they really wanted to focus their energy on one direction on the bull. We had a couple different bull options that we gave them and they chose one to say it's not quite there, but we really um can see what this could be. And so they gave us some feedback and then we came back to the drawing board and we really kind of worked through those. And so we're excited to kind of share what um how their feedback really shaped the logos that you'll see tonight. Um some things that we did hear from the group is that we really had little attachment to the apple that we're currently using in our district logo. And there's a really strong love for the south and south St. Paul, which we all know. We always get confused for St. Paul and we want to really make our statement that we are south. We're south St. Paul um Packer Pride is alive and well and there's really the desire for um tradition, right? And also to welcome in new families and new students and new staff and so just to be inclusive of um everybody in our community. So I'm going to turn over to Danette Childs who's been very instrumental really in um helping us get to this point and so she's going to talk through um some of the pieces that we're going to showcase tonight. >> Yeah. So, while we get to the exciting stuff, the first thing we're going to show you is our refreshed color palette. Um, as you can see, we're keeping that maroon. Um, we did change it a little bit. Now, it's more of a true maroon, whereas before we were more of a burgundy, so we're going back to that true maroon color. And we also wanted to get a little more out of our primary colors. So, we've added in that rich gold next to it. Um, and the gold is actually a nod to our history. Before about pre990 or so, um we actually had gold as one of our primary district colors. And around that time when they rebranded, they got rid of it, went to the maroon and white. So, we're going to add that back in so we get a little more pop of color. Um we did try different tones of gold. We um kind of went more of the lighter one with the um U of M and then we did this darker one and kind of settled with this more darker rich gold. um as just to make it our own. And it also comes into play with that ADA compliance. The um brighter gold, there's a lot more restrictions on if you can use it over different colors and when you can use it with white. This one we can use anywhere. So, we'll have more color options with it. And then below those are the secondary colors. These um we use in our mark marketing materials that help us just stay consistent. They won't show up in our logo anywhere, but you will see them in different accents like in our core values. They're reflected there. And all of these colors are also ADA compliant to be on maroon, on white, and um easily accessible. Okay, so this is our current logo. Um, one thing that we heard in the focus group that Lisa already mentioned is that there really wasn't an attachment to that apple. Um, people felt that the Apple seemed too generic for just education in general and it wasn't SSP and it was also designed back in 2008 when we were becoming an IB world school district. So that's why the globe is reflected in the Apple and now that we've kind of drifted away from that, we want to um come back to being Sal St. Paul. So drum roll, here's our new logo. Um, the focus uh to of not being confused with St. Paul was brought into play with this one. That gold is at the beginning. We really wanted to highlight the south in South St. Paul. Um if you notice between the S and the P, uh we bring in those bull horns as a nod to Sal St. Paul and what we're known for. Um we're it brings us closer to our mascot and being the bulls. Um and we can be more flexible with this design. It's a lot more simple. We can have one color options, two color options, or this is the full color option. And the simplicity of the lines will make it much easier and cheaper for us to get um to use on apparel and other swag items like that. Okay, so this is our current mascot. Um we kind of touched on this a little bit, but it it it looks a lot like the Chicago Bulls. And back when we got this mascot, that was okay. But now that everything is so public and it's really easy to find things on the internet, um we run a much greater risk of receiving a cease and desist letter. So we um are kind of getting ahead of that before we could ever um be put in that situation. And the other thing that was surprised us is um in those focus groups, especially with the coaches and the adviserss, we learned that they weren't really using this mascot. We thought it was showing up everywhere. you you see it on like the walls and things, but nobody was using it in their apparel or on their uniforms, that sort of thing. So, that was a little surprising for us. And now we'll look at the new one. This is our new bowl. Uh we went from the front-facing bowl to the side facing bowl. Brought some of that new gold in and made it a little more dynamic. Um, so we originally started the journey with a front-facing bull and um, went back and forth a lot and we just felt like we weren't really hitting the mark with it. So we decided before the coaches meeting, we're just going to throw in this sidefacing bull. It was very plain and generic, but we just kind of wanted them to see the different types that there could be. And um, we were pretty surprised that everyone kind of went with the sidefacing bull and ran with it. the energy really seemed to go that way. So, we um switched our attention from the front facing bowl to the side facing bowl. And um this is what we came up with. Uh it will this is the full color version, but there will be a one color version too, so it's easier to put on things. And there's a look at them side by side. And then this is just an example of how they could show up. We're not saying this is how they always will show up, but just an idea of what it could look like on um in one color on shirts with the bull. And um so one thing we wanted to do with with this is we wanted to have a logo and a look that our teams could be proud of to wear, but we also didn't want to limit their creativity and their freedom. So the one thing that we really wanted to do was have this logo that everybody will want to put on things, but let them make it their own. Um, we just ask that the logos aren't altered but and show up somewhere, but really designs and everything are are pretty flexible. >> One thing we heard um from a lot of our teams is they have kind of their own identity. So I know like um Ryan will talk about they've got like this um S on their hat and so that's something that they didn't want to lose and we know that like our wrestling team has a a certain logo that they like and our soccer team and so we don't want to take that away from them. We certainly want them to still have that. Our um piece with the brand refresh is that the we just ask that our logo either the SSP or the bull and some sort shows up on their um jerseys or their apparel somewhere. And then they can certainly add in the other elements as they want. So we want to keep their creativity, keep their identity, but just also make sure that we know South St. Paul Packers were all consistent in what that look is. though. And so really, just like I said, consistency is key. So we're all showing up the same. And so what we have seen kind of throughout the last several years is really just how that's changed. People had been taking our bull and just modifying it and just doing it in different um ways. And so we just really want to be consistent in how we show up. So we're always showing up as the South St. Paul Packers. And when we show up, people know, they can recognize us quickly. And so we really believe that this brand kind of brings us back up to more of the a modern look of really who we are. Um so our hope with the blessing of the board I think tonight would be that we can launch this with our staff tomorrow at our opening days and then um we'll kind of start working behind the scenes to kind of do that roll out because we really want our community and our staff and everybody really be excited about this um and start marketing. And so we're going to meet with apparel partners and all of the booster and advisory groups because we want them to be excited about this. We want them to have access to all of um the files that they're going to be able to put on their apparel and things like that. Um the one thing that we really want to stress is that you're going to start to see this stuff come out digitally first, right? We the digital world really that we live in um we're able to roll things out like on our website and things like that much sooner. um print materials, maybe game programs or flyers or posters or things like that will happen. And then more of the signage and um uh courts and all that stuff will come just natural replacement cycle jerseys and stuff. We're not asking our coaches to kind of change jerseys overnight. That's not what we're asking. Just as their natural replace next time they replace that, that we'll kind of take a look at that. So, um, so I know you've heard that before and we're just really excited to kind of bring it now to, you know, our community and showcase that. So, questions, comments, >> any questions from the board? >> Go ahead, Wendy. >> I was just wanted to um say a couple things. First of all, the uh the you know the things that we have um as symbols of our school district are very important. And so as you went about this brand refresh, Lisa um and others really wanted to say thank you for the amount of community involvement and engagement that you had with both community members, with our coaches and faculty and staff and administrators and parents. um that provides the needed credibility to ensure that this will be successful into the future. So, I just wanted to say thank you for that. Um and it provides confidence to me as we're voting on this tonight um that this is something that will not only be used but also be part of u who we are as Packers. Um, and one question I had was, um, is the new mascot, are they also named Sirloin or is that >> I don't know. Maybe we'll have to go through a naming like I don't know if we want to. >> That's a great name, though. I don't know. >> I know, right? I guess maybe that's something we could leave up to our kids. >> More to come. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> All right. We're gonna have to ask our student school board reps. >> Okay. Thank you, Paul. >> Any other questions or comments? I want to thank you so much and just as director um Cummings had shared like so much work went into this and um I'm just excited to see where it takes us. Thank you. >> All right. If there's no further discussion, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> All right. The motion carries 50. Great. Next item. I'm looking for a motion for the South St. school board to approve the continuing teacher contract contracts as presented for 202526. Do I have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Thank you. Second. Thank you. And I invite Dr. Zambino to speak to this. >> Yeah, thank you. It's a it's a fun one. It's exciting one. And we'll be celebrating this tomorrow with all of our teachers who achieve a continuing contract. Uh sometimes you hear the word tenure, but it actually in statute is is called continuing contract status. And so that means that they've uh completed either their three years of probationary teaching or if they had done that somewhere else, they've completed one full year successfully with us. And then it's when they started today actually that they uh achieved tenure or continuing contract status. So congratulations uh to our teachers who are achieving that milestone in their career. It's a big deal. I remember it. I got to do it in two different districts. Back then, you had to do three years twice. So, I'm happy that they don't all have to go through that, but we're also really pleased and and proud of those teachers for choosing us to be the place they want to do that. So, excited to have that happen. >> Um, if there are no questions or discussion, um, all those in favor, please say I. I. >> Opposed? >> Motion carries 5. And congratulations to all the staff members. All right. As our final agenda item this evening, I will ask our school board members to share updates on committees they serve on or highlight any recent district activities or events they've participated in. Um so I'll start down here. Director Cummings. >> Well, I don't have much um this this time, but I did just want to provide a shout out to our teachers. Um we um the school district welcomed new teachers last week and and this week um all teachers are back on and I just can remember the name of every single one of my teachers and what impact they had on my life and as teachers are preparing again for another school year. I just wanted to give a shout out to all of our teachers and educators and learners, faculty member and staff who are really shaping our young people in South St. Paul and you know um changing the future trajectory of our community. So thank you so much. >> That is a lovely sentiment. Thank you uh Vice Chair Claflin. >> Uh thank you. I don't have any committee updates uh to share um and for activities and other um things that I've seen around town. I really have to thank our students. I've had quite a few conversations with kids going into all different grades and I'll ask them what they think about starting school and how do they feel about it. I try not to ask too much of a leading question there. And every kid is so excited to be coming back to school. I'm so glad that they have that uh excitement that they look forward to seeing their friends. They look forward to seeing their teachers because they're all remembering every teacher they've ever had. Those uh back to school nights they've all got to go and visit every other teacher they've ever had. Um but our students really are um looking forward to the start of the year and they're not uh all nervous. Um of course some have concerns there. it's a new school that they might be going to. Uh but just knowing that school is a place that our kids look forward to coming to. Um that's really why I'm here doing this work. So I'm glad that those kids are excited to be coming back. >> Thank you, >> Director Duffy. >> Uh yeah, no updates. Um I actually I guess one committee update. uh the Open Foundation. Um they've do I don't know if I'm at liberty to say who yet, but they did find a recipient for the Carrie Petraki award that will be presented on September 12th at the football game. Football season starting. That's exciting. And uh so a lot of exciting things happening around uh the football season kicks off on Friday night. Uh the Packers will be on the road at Camden. But uh really exciting things. The the kids are really having a lot of fun. There's a lot of excitement going on. Uh the the first football game before school starts is used to be one of my favorite ones and weather cooperating. It's starting to feel like fall already, which is pretty abnormal. Um but it should be a fun week. I know soccer's already started and kicked off uh in volleyball. So really fun fall. A lot of great teams. Uh I'll give a shout out to coach LaRose. they had their um media day and the whole coaching staff on the volleyball team had some had a lot of fun with uh with their pictures as a staff. So that was pretty fun. So if you haven't had the opportunity to see those pictures, you should because they're pretty pretty comical. So >> thank you. >> Yeah, it's great. >> Director Felton. >> Yes. Uh the first thing I have is that you know that I am the representative on the educational foundation and we have had the discussion started now for two of our fall events that will be starting in about a month as their part of their major fundraisers. The first one which is Wednesday September 24th it's their walk-athon which will be held at Lincoln Center. It starts at 4:30 in the afternoon. It is a great opportunity for all students, elementary, secondary, all of our students can go to the walk-athon. As I said, it is part of their major fundraising event. So, think about it. Wednesday the 24th. And the other thing, their annual event, the Gayla, which will be held on Thursday, November 6th at the Mendota Country Club, which is also serves as one of their major fundraisers. It's a wonderful event. I have been to both of these events several times. and at the Men Dakota Country Club, many opportunities to purchase items if anyone would like to donate any any items to the foundation and they they put those on for sale. And there's also a catered meal at Men Dakota that you can have. And I I've been to this several times. It is a wonderful opportunity, of course. And I always buy many of their gifts that they have out. It's a great time to be even buying Christmas presents, which I do. Yeah. And the other thing kind of on a more personal thing, and I know I have mentioned it already in the past several times, coming up next week, believe it or not, I am a South St. Paul graduate from the class of 1975. We are having our 50th class reunion next week. Starting on Thursday, September 4th at 6:00 p.m. until 11:00, we will be having a nice dinner event at Lost Spur Country Club out in Egan. Thursday night, wonderful event. And then Friday evening, September 5th at the high school, we will be attending the football game which will be held at at 7 o'clock at the secondary building watching our Packers play. That is great. And then also on Saturday, September 6th in the morning at 10:00, there will be an opportunity to many of our classmates. We've got almost a hundred already that will be attending this event. There will be a tour of the secondary building which has changed quite a bit in the last 50 years from when we graduated there. So we look really forward to Mr. Glenn Bernsteaggle who will be doing the tour for us. And we are to enter on door number seven, which is the entrance door that is connected to the parking lot facing east. Door number seven. If you plan on attending that Saturday morning, make sure you come to that door. And also, I just want to say a major thank you and looking forward to to our staff members that are back. We welcome all of our new staff members and students. So exciting to have the kids back in our in our school programs. So, we look forward to that. So, I welcome and thank you all for coming back. Thank you. >> Thank you, Wendy. >> All right. Well, what can I touch on that hasn't already been like encapsulated? Um, as Director Cummings mentioned, last week we had our new staff orientation and um, like him, I had the opportunity to be there to welcome people. There's so much excitement and potential with our new staff and I can feel it just in our community. Like the kids, as as Anna's mentioned, the kids are just so excited to go back. So, you know what? embrace all of the excitement of fall, of change, of new starts, and um enjoy this last week of summer vacation. Right. Um that is all on our agenda this evening. I will hereby entertain a motion to adjourn the Monday, August 25th, 2025 school board meeting. >> So moved. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any discussion? All right. All those in favor, please say I. >> I opposed. The motion carries. 50. The school board meeting is adjourned at 7:03 p.m. >> Thank you.