That's >> I'm uh >> All right. >> Welcome and good evening. I would like to call the Monday, September 22nd, 2025 school board meeting to order. Lisa, will you please call the role? Director Duffy >> here, >> Weber >> here, >> W. Felton >> here, >> Claflin >> here, >> Cummings here, >> and Chair Hume >> here. >> That's six present. >> Thank you. >> Now, I'm going to ask all who are able to please stand up for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right, at this time I want to welcome everyone who's here. I'm really excited about this group over here. Hello. But first, I would like to swear in our new student school board reps. So, I'm going to have you each one at a time come up and and do an >> Oh, me all the way around. >> You go first. >> Yes. Sorry. Get it in the mic. So for all of you, it is an honor that you were selected to serve as a liaison between the South St. Paul School Board and the students at South St. Paul Public Schools Special District School District 6. As you recite this oath of office, you assume responsibility in carrying out the duties and expectations of a student school board member. Furthermore, you will play an integral role in working together with the school board and the superintendent to continue making South St. Paul public schools a safe and effective place to learn and grow for all students and staff. >> All right, you ready? >> Yes. >> Okay, you can do you want to just read it or do you want me to repeat it and you can recite it? >> How about you repeat it and you >> Okay. I hereby publicly affirm >> I hereby publicly affirm >> my commitment to the oath of office >> my commitment to the oath of office >> I swear that I will faithfully complete >> I swear thou will faithfully complete >> the duties of the office of student school board member >> the duties of the office of student school board member >> of South St. Paul public schools >> of South St. Paul public schools >> special school district 6. >> Special school district 6. >> To the best of my judgment and ability. >> To the best of my judgment and ability. >> Congratulations. >> You got this. >> I guess same option. >> Goodness. >> Chloe. >> Hi. >> Hi. >> So just read it >> if you want. >> Okay. Okay. I hereby publicly affirm my commitment to the oath of office. I swear that I will faithfully complete the duties of the office of school student school board member of South St. Paul public schools special school district 6 to the best of my judgment and ability. [Applause] >> You want me to do it or you going to do it? >> I got it. I hereby publicly affirm my commitment to the oath of office. I swear that I will faithfully complete the duties of the office of student school board member of South St. Paul public schools special school district 6 to the best of my judgment and ability. [Applause] Well, I am so glad that we have that official business out of the way. Welcome and thank you for being here. And welcome and thank you for being here to everyone else who's here and people who watch on Towns Square television or online. It's great to have an interest in what's happening in our schools. Okay, first up, I am looking for 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 August 25th, 2025's work session, August 25th, 2025's business meeting, September 8th, 2025's work session, and September 11th, 2025 special meeting. Do I have a motion? >> So, second. >> Thank you. Thank you. All right. Any discussion regarding the agenda or minutes? Okay. All those in favor, please say I. I >> I opposed. All right. Motion carries. 60. Thank you. Okay. Now that we have sworn in our student schoolboard reps, I am going to invite you up first for the uh quality and action and reports to please introduce yourselves to the community and share what's happening. [Music] Okay. Hi, my name is Fanette and I'm interested in medicine. So, when I go to college, I plan on majoring in premed. And my biggest goal for the future is to own my own business. And what I'm excited for this school year is the health internship in the second semester for Tri District. I'm excited to see the process behind school board decisions and how they affect us in the school district. >> Thank you. >> Okay. I'm Chloe again. I play softball and I'm kind of secretly really good at bowling. And next year I plan on majoring in criminal justice and minoring in psychology. What I'm most excited about this school year is prom at the US Bank Stadium. And then I'm excited to hear more about what the board does behind the scenes as a student school board representative. >> Thank you. >> My name is Monty Whitaker. Uh my favorite subjects are chemistry and history. And this year I'm a captain for both debate and knowledge bowl. The thing that I'm most excited about this school year is graduation. And the reason why I'm most excited to be a student schoolboard representative is just to get get to hear new thoughts and opinions that I wouldn't have been able to otherwise. >> Thanks. Got it. >> All right. Uh, this month is Hispanic Heritage Month and CDLU had a recent week where we had to dress up as certain themes. I think most recent was jersey day that I remember. >> I think so. >> Per chance. Yeah. And then we have teacher appreciation for soccer September 16th. The gold awards program tomorrow bright and early. Oh, homecoming royalty coordination is September 29th. Voting first begins um this Friday for the homecoming court and then volleyball pinkouts October 1st and the homecoming football game will be October 3rd and right now our football team is 4 and 0. >> Woohoo. >> Yeah. Yeah, that's it. >> Yeah, that's >> all right. Thank you. Good job for your first one. We look forward to big things from you guys. It has been a real privilege getting to meet with them and learn more about them and the things that they're bringing to um well Lisa and I have been at the meetings um to our attention we wouldn't get from just being at these meetings. So it's really great and we appreciate the work that you're going to do and and bring forward for us. Okay, next the next big exciting quality and action I'm going to invite Terry Britoy up to talk to us about the tree planting project. >> Yes. Good evening and in honor of uh schoolboard appreciation month, I just want to say thank you for your service too. Um we have an absolutely wonderful school board. You guys are fantastic listeners for one and that's when I look across the panel here and I've had interactions with each and every one of you and the the thing that sticks out to me is that you are so interested in making this a great place that you first listen uh with both ears. So, we thank you for that and, uh, thank you for your service from now until the end of your tenure, which hopefully it's never or at least for the next 3 to four years while I'm still here. Okay. Um, so, uh, good evening, Dr. Zambbrino and the school board. Uh, I'm here tonight to I love quality and action, and that's another thing. Not a lot of, uh, school boards do quality and action. It's such a cool thing. You get a little glimpse into what's going on in each site. And this was an easy one to select. We get two of these a year. And sometimes I'm like scratching my head for like how can we do this show and tell even better every single time. And I think we've done it this time. Uh you can see on your screen that we had last Tuesday a day called plant a tree day. And it's it's a very simple title, but it was a very complicated process to get to where we were last Tuesday. And I have uh the Caposia community here which is filled with staff, community partners, and families. Uh, and they're going to explain a little bit about how this came from an idea from what I hear from Leave It to Beaver, which I can't I can't wait for you kids out there. Leave it to Beaver was a show back in the 50s and 60s. Okay. Might be on It's not on Nickelodeon anymore or anything like that, is it? And I'm sorry I just offended you by saying Nickelodeon to you. You don't watch Nickelodeon. >> It's on MTV. >> It's on MTV. Yeah, sure it is. Yeah. Um, it's or Aubrey might still have rabbit ears, I think, and he's getting it that way. But anyways, our mission is to engage, educate, and empower. And this is a wonderful example of how we've engaged our entire community. There was education on that day from every aspect and hopefully empowering and inspiring our kids to build a better community when they're uh much older. Okay. And so if I could have this team of Caposia, the Caposia community come up. So we would ask everybody to come up, families included. We have Miss Jill Krunquist who is one of our inter intervention teachers. Bridget Frell who is our science specialist at Caposia. Aubrey Wright who is an interventionist. Um and I'm going to skip one, but Rachel Schindler, she's the one in the green cap in the picture there too. And she largely was our partner from Tree Trust. She's going to talk a little bit. Karen Zumach is here as well and she's going to explain her role. And then I didn't have a picture of Mark Fenton, so that's really Mark Fenton right there. Okay. Um, >> come up, Jerry. >> So, I said he didn't have to speak, but uh, I did want to include a picture of him. And then several members of our Caposia community. So, if I could have like I I just heard this Leave it to Beaver story earlier. And Aubrey said, "I will come and I will show my face, but I really don't want to speak." And don't ever tell me that because um he uh Aubrey Wright who has been uh one of the founding members I believe at Caposia and and may very well have his own wing of the building named after him uh or the field a certain year here. But um this idea came last spring and I can't really explain the Leave it to Beaver connection. Would you just share it with us please? >> I will not. No. Yeah. Could you please? >> Um so I anyone who knows me knows I love Leave it to Beaver. I watch it every morning before I go to work to put me in a good mood. And uh there was an episode where where uh Beaver was uh in his classroom and they were talking about trees and the love of trees. And so he really internalized that and and the premise of the show was that um he really loved a tree that they planted. He loved it so much at his old house that he dug it up, brought it to his new house. And that was kind of the premise of it. And it got me to thinking, you know, um I remember when Washington School was at Capoia on the Caposia site. You know, we've been a school there forever. And I remember as a kid growing up in that neighborhood and enjoying all those trees until we lost them from Dutch elm disease. Uh but it was really fun and uh just hanging out with the trees so to speak. >> And um long story short, >> Caposia came along. We had beautiful trees there and we've lost them through disease and >> and weather and whatnot. So um I happened to see Should I continue? Tree trust please. >> Yeah. Yeah. So uh saw tree trust in my neighborhood. I I live by Caposia and uh I found out we have like-minded tree lovers here and we thought, hey, why not give the kids an experience and get some get some uh color back and some beauty back in the neighborhood. And uh the really cool part was I'll pass it over. >> Yeah. Is um when I when I called up when I called up Rachel, um she knew of Caposi, she goes, "I was in your neighborhood." And yeah, that's the school. It's kind of like a desert. So um so Rachel was phenomenal. I really appreciate all her talents and so I guess I'll pass it over to >> actually yeah I wonder if Jill could come forward and and maybe Bridget and just your connection with this because I know your connection with the environment very right close to your heart and being our science specialist too she had another connection with someone in her family >> I think right um and and I tell you what Caposia whenever we uh whenever I give tours I'm so excited to show uh people not only the inside of Caposia but the outside of Caposia and and we have taken a hit on trees and shrubs over time. And uh in conjunction with that cartoon character down there, Mark Fenton, um these guys actually asked for a few meetings in the spring to bring Mark in to say like what can we do here because this is a beautiful place for kids to go to school and we want it to continue to be a beautiful place. So could you just maybe just share your connection with the story too? Go >> ahead. Sure. So, um I guess my brother's school, he works in St. Paul and they had Tree Trust out. So, I kind of talked his ear a little bit to figure out um what how this might work. Um and then my husband, he's a map maker and so he helped make the first iterations of where we thought trees could go. And so then we brought that to Tree Trust, which was great. Um and then I guess planting day I got to have my mom come out, which was really fun. >> It was great. >> Pretty wonderful. Um, so yeah, a lot of as Mr. Bretoy said, a lot of steps went into just this one plant a tree day and it's it was wonderful. >> Mhm. Thank you. >> So my connection with Tree Trust was that when my own children were in elementary school, my husband wrote a grant for their school to receive trees. They went to a um environmental magnet in St. Paul and he actually had to do a lot of the work for writing the grant. And then when I found out that we didn't really have to do the grant part, we just had to, you know, help with the logistics kind of thing, like that was like so much better. So, um, and as soon as I found out that we were getting the trees, I told my husband, I said, "You're taking September 16th off because you're coming to plant trees." He's in the video. So, um, we kind of like trees in my house or Yeah. in my family. So, >> wonderful. Thank you. And if we could just kind of roll through some of the slides, Lisa, and then we're going to um talk to our folks from Tree Trust, too. So, you see, uh each time we had a meeting, there was just another connection that was made that just made this plan even better. And so, this was uh the end result of where uh the trees were going to be planted. They are all indigenous species as well. Uh and a lot of different types of trees uh and and shrubs that we have there as well. And so if you have the chance to drive around Caposia, you instantly see it just looks different. Okay. And our hope is that when kids grow older that they can look back at the this experience and say, you know what, I helped create that place right there. Um and so this was just kind of the first look at it. And then we had several volunteers come in that received a training and it was so cool. Like recess is going on and we have this tractor out there and this is how much kids love our playground. I don't even think they noticed the tractor to be honest with you. Um, but the day before they came out and put all the trees down there and then and then filled those holes and then if we could keep going and every single classroom was assigned a 45 minute to an hour period of time in which they could go on and they actually helped dig the holes. Uh each volunteer was became a teacher and taught about every part of how to uh prepare and plant a tree. Of course, there was a big pile of mulch. So, who doesn't love to go play in the mulch pile, right? And uh also water and you can see there is Jeff Krunquist right there who had more fun with the water, I think, than the kids did. Um, but they were also very serious about taking care of these trees and making sure that they were planted the right way. And of course, the planting and every kid took a part in planting the tree that they were assigned to. And that is Bridget's mother as well. >> All right. And and the last one here. And if you can just play the video here. >> Right here. Perfect. >> Two spooks. Nice. Good job. Handle the hand. >> Perfect demonstration. All right. There you go, Victoria. You can do it. >> Yep. Step on it. >> That's a good job. >> Good scoop. >> That's one. >> There you go. You got it. >> Another one for Victoria. >> Very nice. All right. >> Good. >> Oh, that's a good one. Hand it. Hand it bearing. Nice and gently. Look up, Belly. >> Perfect. You guys are great listeners. >> We always drink as dress as pink cowboys, too, when we plant trees. Uh, it just happened to coincide, I think, with one of the high or one of the Hispanic Heritage Month days of dressing up like a cow person or whatever it was. Um, so it was super cool. Um, so, uh, where was I going to get to? Oh, they got to name their trees, too. >> And so, uh, some of the names I'll just tell you right now, Um we have one one class we have nicknames at Caposia kind of helps them identify with their school community or their classroom community. So one uh name was the unbelievable bee tree which was clever. Um the wishing tree shady makes sense. And then my favorite is just Jeff. They just named a tree Jeff. So um super cool. And again, lots of ways to connect to uh the community basically. I've invited a couple chaperones who were there that day and their kids just to talk about like how fun that experience was or what it meant to them too. So maybe Satie, do you want to step up with your mom Laura? >> Yeah. What was that day like? Um, I think planting with Tree Trust was so fun and I personally love planting and I think it's pretty cool for all the kids to get to experience that. Overall, I think it will be awesome for everyone to come back as adults and see the big trees that they planted years ago. >> Very cool. >> Thank you, Satie. >> And Laura, you helped with your husband, right? >> Yep. Um, yeah, it was great. Great. I got to help with a fifth grade class, Sades class, and then a group of kindergarteners. And yeah, Tree Trust was awesome. They really engaged with the students and asked them to kind of think about all the benefits trees give us. And I just hope it inspires more time with nature and love of science. It was awesome experience. >> Wonderful. >> Yeah. >> Would you take fifth graders or kindergarteners? >> It was It was cool to see the difference. >> As tall as the shovel. >> She's a pro. Yes. Exactly. Uh and Austin, come on up with your dad AJ. And you guys were there planting that day, too. What was your experience like? >> So, it was fun to learn to learn all the steps to planting the tree. Even while we were helping our community by planting the trees, we were also learning how what all the steps that trees need to grow like the water and the and the roots. And then they need the dirt to grow. >> Very cool. And what was that like for you working with your son? >> Um it was it was really it was a fun time just seeing all the kids. Um they really got into it. They nobody was, you know, staying off to the side, not wanting to do it. They all wanted to get into dirt, get dirty, and >> um it was just it was awesome. Like we said two scoops for everybody and they kept lining up. I I want to dig more. I want to dig more. So, it was it was a good thing. >> Those holes could have been really big holes by the time we were done. So, thank you guys. And and thank you for taking part in this. And you can see like the memory that it may create for families, too. Like you remember that when we were in fifth grade and we planted a tree at Caposia. Our theme this year is unplugged. And so we're um working with kids to talk about all the different ways that they can get off their device, their phones, video games, and what a perfect way to kick off our fall down there at Caposia to show kids that they don't need these all the time, right? That they can get out and do something with their hands and get dirty and and make their environment great again. So, I just want to thank these group, this group of uh community members and the staff at Caposia that kept this alive. And quite honestly, I didn't do anything. It was just what do you need? When is it happening? And they did it all. So, I want to thank the Caposia staff for that and all the Caposia community. I do want to introduce uh the folks from Tree Trust though because we had our experts there as well and they were so highly organized that we didn't have to do much except for show up and it was really nice that after the training like our our parents became teachers. I had said that before and they were teaching the kids not necessarily tree trust. So, Rachel, you want to come up with Karen and maybe just say a few words? >> Hi, thank you for having us. Um, yeah, this this program uh is based in basically uh community feedback and involving the kids as much as possible. So, um each classroom got to plant a tree with their classroom teacher and then name it as a class. Um and we have these little name tags that are weatherproof. So hopefully they come back, you know, 5 10 years from now and they can find the name tag and see which one they planted with their class. Um there is also currently a traveling museum exhibit that is um in the classroom of the science teacher here uh that teaches the kids all about the benefits of trees in urban settings specifically. So uh it's called our town trees. It was developed with the US Forest Service um and was there another partner? >> The science museum. >> The Science Museum of Minnesota. Um, so not only is it, you know, a learning moment, but, um, having that map that, uh, was already drawn up before I even showed up was great. And, uh, knowing that the community really wanted these trees and we'll take care of them is amazing. >> Well, I'll just say that thank you to all of you for showing up. Uh I know this program is we've been uh running the it's called the learning with trees program since 1992 and delivered this programming to schools all across the state. So uh just because you've already done it once in South St. Paul doesn't mean we couldn't come back again. So, we're really lucky to have generous private donations that come in to provide funding for this program, and we're really excited to see all those trees grow. And thank you for getting a little tear here with uh, you know, having the kids talk about those benefits of trees and recognizing that this is an impact on your community. Uh, and we're so grateful to be able to be part of it with you. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any questions, you guys? >> I have a quick question. Good work. >> So, where where do you get your trees from? Like where do you source the trees from? >> So, uh we source from a few different nurseries in the area. Um but largely Bachman's, Wilson's, Wilson's, and Bailey's a few of the nurseries. >> I want to ask Austin and Satie, what did your class name your trees? >> We have a name yet? I know we only have half of them named. >> Oh, my class didn't vote for the name. Not yet. >> Okay. >> Too busy with wit and wisdom right now. So they'll get to >> my house. There was disappointment that Trevor didn't win. >> Trevor. Yes. >> Yes, I appreciate. >> And then Oh, please, Wendy. No, I just wanted to say I look forward to driving by there in the next few days and seeing those trees planted. The main reason is because I grew up right across the street from the school. So, I'm looking forward to seeing the planting of those trees. >> I think I might have missed it or I didn't count on the map fast enough, but how many trees did you plant? >> Yeah. Uh, just short of 30. I think it was 29 trees. >> Wow. 26. >> 26 trees. >> Oh, that's that's a lot. >> On all sides of the building. And, you know, uh, part of it was like we have this awesome playground. We don't have a ton of shade out there. And so just putting trees in strategic places for kids to enjoy the playground as well. Uh because we know it's a community playground too. So um yeah. So nice job team. Way to go. And uh yeah, take a take a trip around Cap and see what you see. Okay. >> So thank you so much. >> Thank you. Oh yes, Paul. I just I guess I just wanted to say uh a sincere thank you to our students and to our faculty and our staff uh and the community for for rallying around this. This is um changing the trajectory of our community for generations. And I know it's a very small thing, but it's it's such a huge thing. And so I uh uh this is a really really big deal. And I um also wanted to say thank you to our administration. I wanted to say thank you to Mark. I know I have worked on tree planting projects in state government and administrators in your position have said my job is to take down trees. It's not to plant them um because it's easier to mow lawns. Um and so uh I know this is a commitment um from the administration to ensure that there are um healthy trees um and to listen to the um activism and the thoughts and um of our students and our staff and our faculty and say how can we make this work? I think it's fantastic. And so just thank you to all the people who made this work and thank you to the administration for listening and and making it a part of of who we are in the future and and South St. Paul's going to be a better place to live in 10 and 20 and 30 and 50 years. So thank you >> leaving a legacy. So thank you. And we did not hit a sprinkler line. Not one sprinkler line we have. So and if you've seen like 50 kids wielding shovels around the parking lot, it makes a not parking lot but around the grounds, it makes a administrator nervous. and nobody got hurt in the whole thing. So, so I want to thank this group once again. Thank you for your time and attention tonight and have a wonderful night. >> Thank you guys. >> Well, that is good news. >> Well, Director Cummings, that was really well spoken. Thank you. >> All right, as we uh wrap up quality and action, I hand it over to Dr. Zambino. >> Yeah, what a great quality in action. And you know, I was so heartbroken when I saw all the trees coming down around town after I started. We had quite a blow for a lot of trees. So, it's fun to see our our students and staff having an impact on bringing that back. Really cool. Um, talk about having an impact. Our school board has a tremendous impact. And I'm sure you all love being flattered with the tension, but the reality is, um, a lot of people don't understand how much work it is, uh, to be on a school board. You're listening to stakeholders. You're engaged in some very big decisions. and I know it'll come up later, but we're talking about the finances of our district, the academic outcomes of our district. Uh it's a lot of responsibility and um I'm very thankful to have you all to share that with. I know our administration and staff see it, too. I think it's part of our blessing of being in a small community is that we all know each other. Uh but sometimes boards aren't always there to really see the uh the best happen in a school district, and I can say that that's true about our board. I also love that it's a very diverse group. You all have very different interests and angles that you approach to work, which is really essential, too. We we don't just do one thing, right? We don't just do athletics. We don't just do academics. We don't just do activities. We do all of it. And we do it from birth to earth as we engage, educate, and empower our community. And so, just wanted to say thank you. We're not doing it on camera, but we did have some some treats earlier to to celebrate that. Um, but you know, you probably don't hear it enough. I know you hear the concerns and we want to hear concerns, but we should also hear the good things. So, thank you for for your support of me and our team and our staff and students. It means a lot. >> Thank you. >> All right, moving along. I would like to invite um there's a whole crew of you, uh Dr. Candace Burkhart and Amy Winter and team to uh give us an update on Minnesota accountability performance report metrics. Jennifer Danielson. What's up? >> Jennifer Danielson. >> And Jennifer Danielson and Scott. It feels like there's like so many people. >> All right. Good evening everyone. Thank you for giving us a few minutes. We are uh putting some attention and giving you a highlevel overview around just some of the Minnesota State Accountability uh results that we did get over kind of late spring into summer. Um, I'll just kind of preface that this really is almost like a two-part presentation. This is just going to be a little bit of the surface stuff and we're going to unpack it a little more in our next month one where we're going to talk a little bit more around um how we've kind of responded to some of the results and some of our takeaways and kind of steps moving uh into this year. So, we'll go ahead and start um with Jennifer Danielson around our um attendance and then we'll move into graduation and then we'll talk about the MCAs. >> Perfect. You want to talk about the topic? >> Oh, yes. I get to talk. >> Um again, you know, like kind of how I had over uh talked about this is just a highlevel overview. We're not getting into individual sites. We're really talking about the district and a snapshot um on how we're doing as a whole. And I do want to ground us around just some kind of um key approaches or thoughts that we had when we were uh prepping this presentation. Number one, we um when we look at this data, we really look for trends. We're looking for patterns over time. Um even MDE really talks about not using this data at a very individual level. Um it also we talk about like lagging and leading indicators around data since state assessments are only happening once a year. It happens at the end of the year. Um it gives us a a data point but it doesn't necessarily give us the complete picture. Um and this is really where we want to start merging data to kind of get a complete picture of what's going on. And so that's where attendance and other formative assessments um will start unpacking to really get into action steps. But uh when I was a a school administrator, uh we don't always have our agame every single day. And I know also students have opinions about assessments and doing mandatory assessments sometimes. And so I don't always think it uh is an accurate reflection of kind of what's going on um for the entire year. It's one snapshot at one uh moment in time. Um I would also say that this information doesn't necessarily track growth uh because again it is just um at the end of that school year usually generally around the springtime and then you will see a little bit of data that is um broken down. We really do want to see what are the patterns happening across um all students but also um in some of our subgroups um to really unpack how do we be responsive to needs that are showing up across the organization across the system. All right, now I'm turning it over. >> There we go. Good framing up. >> All right, so speaking about attendance then Lisa you can advance. So, an important piece to remember about the attendance data is a attendance data is very complicated and there's factors students that are counted, students that are not counted. Lots of different layers to it. This data is from the 2324 school year. So, it's it's old data. It's not from last school year. It is the data from the 2324 school year. So, that's an important piece to remember as well that it's it's a little bit older than some of the MCA data that we'll talk about. But overall, you can see statewide we increased as a state in our consistent attendance, which is defined as students attending 90% of their school days or more. And in South St. Paul, we've greatly increased that percentage um from 2021 to 2022 to 2023. So, a good increase. Yes, we're on an upward trend for attendance. It's a big focus area um for us this year, but so some good growth and more than double or almost more than double the growth of the state for us. So, um, some breaking down of the different subgroups here. So, a piece with this as well is some of our subgroups when you break it down further, the numbers are really small. So, it makes it hard to compare, um, to the statewide average where it's several several more students in that, several hundreds more. Um, but overall, we're kind of we're below some of those areas for our white students, for our students of color, um, our free and reduced population, special education, and then English learners. So, this is something to kind of look at for us to see why are we lagging in some of those areas and do we have differences across? One of the things that I've seen with this is we definitely have better consistent attendance for our younger students and as students get older, that consistent attendance drops off. We have significantly more students that are out of school at our high school level than we do at kindergarten and first grade. Right? And there are a lot of factors that go into that. um and something that we'll be taking a look at deeper this year. So with that, some strategies. If you haven't seen some of the Packer Pride or some of the strategic plan things, we do have a goal related to attendance. Um what you'll notice is the data that's in the goal is different than some of the data on the slides I just showed you, right? Because our data that's in the goal is based on our 2425 data for our baseline. So, it's not the official MDE information, but it's what we have in campus and kind of what we're using as our baseline so that we can pull that data each month to see if we're making progress. We also added an attendance in student engagement specialist position at the secondary building. So, this is someone who will connect with students who are struggling with attendance, catching them kind of early on there to see who are students that are kind of running into that pattern. What are the barriers? What are they struggling with? Is it struggling with transportation? Is it because they have to care for a younger sibling? Is it because they're anxious about school? Like what are those patterns so that she can help and intervene in those? Um we're also looking at how to increase our communication to families about the importance of attendance. It's important to be at school, it's important to be at school every day. But then there are also things too like if you threw up the night before, we don't want you at school, right? So sometimes there can be mixed messages about attendance. We just want to make sure that we're communicating with our families um and continuing to build partnerships with Dakota County. So, I actually have a meeting tomorrow with Dakota County and truency. Um, and just continuing to build on that partnership with Dakota County. Um, and then monthly meetings with staff with attendance as well. And then we'll look at revising our policy this year. So, a lot of work around attendance. And I'll turn over to graduation. >> I'm going to take some time to highlight graduation here. This is uh the blue line is the state and the graduation trend there. The red line is here in South St. Paul. You'll notice that this year we did take a drop. We had a 70.6% graduation rate. Something else that you will notice is you will notice that this is 2024 data. Um similar to attendance, they lag the data you're behind. Um and so we don't necessarily get that information uh publicly um at the end of the school year. It comes a year delayed. When you break that information down by subgroups again that you will see that we do have a gap between the state average and what we are showing up. Um and you will kind of see that that does mirror um down most of our subgroups. We are lagging behind what the state is showing up. Um obviously one of the um I think more prominent data points that you know we have been unpacking is obviously our English language learners. Um that is obviously not uh a number that we want to be okay with. So when we um unpacked it a little more and again like I said I'm giving you a district-wide overview. We will do some more unpacking of this at next month's presentation. But some things to summarize that we are tackling is um working around proactively progress monitoring. So tying it a little closer so that uh we can actually be responsive to the data that we see. Um and so this year the high school's reviewing grades every six weeks and intervening using win uh before a student fails a class. That connection point is actually a little tighter this year than we've done in previous years. We're also doing a more rapid response to course failure. Um when we looked at data and when students are starting to fail classes, how we respond and how quickly respond, we are um closing that gap on what are some next steps that we can do with them to keep them on track. Um we're also doing data informed curriculum and coaching. So really looking at those course passing rates uh and reviewing that alongside curriculum and resources and along with coaching uh credit recovery planning. Students behind on credits are identified prior to 11th grade and offered guidance. And some of this guidance may include um having much more targeted support over at our CLC. You know, one of the data points that we are seeing is that by the time a student realizes that they're behind and decides to maybe transition to CLC, they're so far behind in credit that they actually it's just just unachievable to actually stay on track. And so, how do we again tighten that window so that they're getting the support they need to stay on track? Um, and then improving grading practices. the high school has made some adjustments around their grading practices to better support student success. And then uh support for students with um maybe more personalized services um and making sure that our grading practices are equitable um and targeted and in particular around our English learners. So those are some areas that we have already been making changes and again we'll unpack that a little more next month. but just kind of a overview summary um in particular around our graduation rate. >> All right, I'm going to talk about the MCAs, which is the state assessments. Um the purpose, they're statemandated assessments that measure student progress toward the Minnesota State Academic Standards. The reading takes place in grades 3 through 8 and in 10th grade. The math in grades three, three through eight and then 11th grade. and then the science assessment grades 5 8 and then in high school um corresponding to life science or biology when students take that course we use the MCAs to identify systemwide strengths and needs inform curriculum and instruction planning support school improvement goals meet state and federal accountability requirements. It is not for individual student decision-making. It's more a systems check. We don't use that assessment with teachers as Amy talked about to look at growth. Um it's more a systems check. Here is our reading data um since the 2020 2021 school year. And as you can see, we're doing better and better. And so our net change is 6.1% where the state has seen a decrease of 2.9%. So that's good news. Um as you're aware of we've adopted a number of new curriculum in in um reading. So in elementary we have UFly which is our foundational literacy program in K2 that is in its third year. We're in our first year of functional morphology, which is for grade grades three through five, our foundational literacy program, and then we went through curriculum review for um ELA, English language arts in the middle school, and they're adopting arts and letters this year. So, a lot of positive changes are happening in reading and our results are indicating that. And then for math, a similar trend here. we're going up um at a positive rate 5.8% um is is the trend over the last few years here where the state has gone up um 1%. So again, we're heading um in the right direction with our math scores. They're not where we want them to be quite yet, but we are um heading in a in a positive direction in math. Science, there's no data this year because we had new Minnesota state standards in science. So that when that happens, we take the MCA, but it's almost like a trial period where those scores we're not we're not looking at yet. But again, the district is seeing positive growth um in science, whereas the state um has gone down in the last few years. So across the board, the MCAs were seeing some very positive trends in the district with our data. We've desegregated the data again. And this is really helpful when we're working with administrators, when we're working with instructional coaches, when we're working with teachers to look to see how we're doing across the system in terms of how students are um are students are doing. And similar to what was presented earlier, I think one of the areas we're really um wanting to improve on is our English language learners. So, how we can better support um English language learners throughout the system and then also our sped students, students on IEPs. And if we look at the math data, very similar trend um where we were below the state um in terms of MCA scores and then when we look at the desegregated data, it's a similar story of how students are performing when we break apart the data that way. And again, this informs what we're doing across the system in order to make changes. So, some key takeaways, we've increase again in reading and math. Year before in MCAs and science, we also increase this year. We don't have the data. Um, but upward trend with the MCA data, some improvement strategies. I talked a bit about um our literacy programming. um year three of wit and wisdom you fly year three functional morphology we had a pilot last year so this is our first year and then arts and letters in the middle school this will be their first year and so um some of the data can be lagging when we do um a literacy curriculum it takes multiple years um for teacher practice um to influence um student results and outcomes we're putting all of the pieces in place Um, another thing that we're we're doing is working on our MTSS um, processes. And so multi-tered systems of support, responding to student needs at all grade levels is something that we're working on. Um, student services department had um, a grant that they went for and that they got. So, we have an MTSS specialist in our district um that's helping us with a guide book to create these systems and to have systems in place as folks lead the system and enter the system. We have a system for MTSS um teacher PLC's that's their professional learning communities um have been a way to um you know really dig into the standards to um better outcomes on the MCAs. We have a coaching model. Um, equity and instructional coaches as well as peer coaches that work with teachers. And then our teacher evaluation process are all part of that continuous improvement. Um, strengthening our intervention model that goes handinhand with MTSS. One of our big projects this year is improving intervention so that when um students get an intervention, hopefully we get them to grade level by giving them more individualized support. Supporting data literacy for leaders and teachers to better identify students with needs. And so um the data literacy piece is a huge part of our work this year with teachers so they better understand the data. And now that we have new curriculum, they have to understand those assessments. They have to understand um all the moving parts um in order to both progress monitor along the way and then also understand summitive assessments and what they need to do to retach throughout um the school year. And then finally co-eing as part of our EL model. We have more and more EL students. So, what are we doing to support those students in both a push-in model, ELEL teachers pushing into general ed classrooms to support students, and then what does that pull out model look like for more um intensive um service? >> All right, any questions for us >> on the the graduation rate for English language learners? Are these students like choosing not to graduate? like do they like is it a an active choice they're making or do they just blend off, you know, blend off into um into space? And then my second question kind of related to that is do we differentiate at all how long they've been maybe in country? Like did they come here at 16 or at six? Like is there a difference between the between the models? So I I would say from my like what I have seen I'm not sure if necessarily kids are like actively choosing like I'm choosing not to graduate on time. I think again what uh they're navigating at that time and space is taking precedent and there are barriers you know what I mean as to um like how they can get to a solution base. Um and again what we're trying to put some attention towards is how do we come alongside them? How do we create, you know, points where we can do checkpoints on how they're doing? Um, and when we start seeing them slip, how do we then like have a more collaborative conversation with the family and say, "Here are the resources or what are the right resources at that moment." I don't think any kid is intentional, you know what I mean? But I do think sometimes things are very overwhelming and we give up, you know what I mean, in that time or place. Um, you know, I think there's still some unpacking that we have to do as of what are the root causes, which is why all this systems talk is happening. Um, and what we're spending a lot of time doing is putting like what are is ways that we can look at data from across the whole system and start checking in um to really understand what's going on. If that kind of answers your question. Mhm. And is there a difference between length of time? >> Um, so I would say that like across our state as a whole, we struggle with kids who are like, uh, like long-term English learners. And so, um, there are kind of like five levels of learning a language. And they do say it takes multiple years to learn a language. We many times you'll very quickly move through the levels like one, zero, one, and two. as you start getting into like three, four and five, like the depth of like academic knowledge in like listening and speaking and writing and reading is pretty, you know, expansive. So you it takes longer to kind of get proficient at that. Um and that is the kind of the work of like how do you move them through those upper levels? Um because that is um a lot of students who get EL services kind of sit in that space. um newcomers, we can pretty quickly move them, you know what I mean, through those early levels. Um really the bigger conversation is when they are a newcomer coming in at high school, you know, now you're talking about credits. And so we're kind of like trying to work within the system we have so that we don't create barriers for them. >> Any other questions or comments? Well, I um I guess I just wanted to note that like um improving student performance is at the top of our strategic plan. Mhm. >> And so it is just so encouraging to see continued growth in attendance and MCAs um that it is right at the heart of um the sort of the promise that we're making to people in South St. Paul about what we want to see in our schools and how we want to think about the future of our city. Um, and who the future residents of our city are going to be and how equipped they are um to be um citizens and um and active participants and in the in the city that we all love. As I've been talking to education support professionals and teachers and pair professionals and others, there have been moments in which they've said, "It has been really challenging to learn a new curriculum or I'm trying to get my head around something or this is new." Um and and that has been something that has been challenging, but I think we're seeing the rewards of a lot of that work that have been put in from our students and from our teachers and from our par profofessionals and from from you all um in our district office. And so I wanted to just say thank you um and know that uh from us this is really important work and you clearly recognize that and we're clearly seeing the the result of of a lot of the interventions that you're doing and as you're show showing us we don't even know the depth of everything but you're showing us that you're not taking a onein approach. You're taking a multi-pronged approach to so many of these things and so thank you. we're noticing um it's very much appreciate appreciated. It's on the right trend and um it is the core of what we're looking for in terms of the next five years is continued growth in this area. So, thank you so much for your work. >> Thank you so much for your kind words. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, nothing else. >> We look forward to the second half. >> I'm bringing a bigger team next time. So, >> all right. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. Next up, item 4E, stakeholder comments to the board. As a reminder to the community, there are two ways to make comment to the board. Uh you may either submit an online form or appear before the board in person. If you would like to speak to us in person, we have set aside time at our first meeting of the month, which is the second Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m. at the district office during our extended work session meetings. Uh, no one came to speak to the board at our session on Monday, September 8th. And we also received no online comments during this time. So, I now turn things over to Vice Chair Claflin to give an update on the work session. >> Thank you. Uh, this evening's work session was packed full of a lot of really great information. Uh besides being able to welcome our student reps and get to know each other a little bit more, uh we heard quite a bit of information from Mark Fenton and Roch and some uh support staff from Ellers and Wald who came to remind us about all the work that we've done over the past few years looking at our facilities and long-term planning trying to figure out what should we come back to our community and um ask for their continued support of our facility. ities and our ability to have these great educational programs in our schools. So, as we are trying to figure out how to approach our community and ask for uh additional tax funding in the coming years, uh that we had a little reminder of what we've done and preparation for that conversation going forward. Um and then we heard uh the proposed levy for this coming year. We'll hear that again uh briefly uh before the board at the business meeting and some uh updates about the insurance plans for our staff. Uh quite a bit got in there this evening and uh previously we also had a work session where we uh did a lot of work on our superintendent and board evaluations for the next uh year and making our plan for the next two years of board work. So there's a lot going on. >> Thank you. All right, I'll hand it over to Dr. Zambbrino for the superintendence update. >> Sounds great. Uh, really fun seeing the new brand showing up on these slides, isn't it? The the colors pop and the designs. It just adds a fun element as I've been sitting here soaking it all in. But, um, what a great start to the year we've had. Um, one of the things I love being in a small district is you get into the buildings a lot and I've been in all the buildings and they just feel great. And I think we see that here today with what we saw with our Caposia peeps that were here and um just been a great start and we want to welcome back our students and wish them great success this year. Fun seeing the picture here. I see a former student as superintendent, student advisory council member and some CDL uh CDLU leaders and just fun to think about how much engagement we get to have with our our students and um our kids are the best. You know, actually even when just I know and I'll talk a little bit more about the data points in a second, but um I appreciate Dr. Sunstrom mentioned the word systems a lot. system systems and that that really is the best word because when I came um to the role about three and a half years ago and saw the outcomes I mean we're coming off the pandemic it was a challenge and I very quickly learned that we have the best kids and we have the best staff and if you have the best kids and the best staff and you're not getting the best outcomes that tells you the system isn't designed to get the outcomes because it's not a people issue and so it's been so fun to work with the people. Our kids are resilient. They're strong. their parents show up and and support them and our teachers uh and other staff just really deliver on the daily. So, thank you to everybody and welcome back again. Um, one of the fun things we got to do as we started the year and we got to do this last year. Uh we really want to make sure that our kids feel connected and you heard that how Terry uh Principal Breto talked about the classrooms have names to bring the kids in and and kind of focus around that and uh we really want to get them set off on the right foot. Started off on the right footing and so all of our kinder kindergarteners uh last year and again this year were provided with Little Sal St. Paul Packer shirts. We did not have the brand official yet, so it is the old logo, but it still looks great on them. And want to say thank you to the educational foundation for supporting that. But in particular, uh Dr. Dave Mson and the Labirdies, John and Nikki really helped make that happen. So we got to go classroom to classroom and uh give the kids the shirts and watch them light up. Uh so much fun. And uh John had a lesson for all of them. He said, "I'm going to make sure you know one thing that I want you to remember for the rest of your life." and he taught every class once a Packer, always a Packer. So now all of our kindergarteners are wellversed in what it means to to be a Packer. But uh the foundation's such an important partner uh all the time, but really a fun way to welcome the kids into the school year and help them feel that connection to school. So like I said, just been a great start. Uh exciting news for our our colleagues and uh teachers and staff at Lincoln Center. They were named a Minnesota school of excellence by the Minnesota Elementary School Principles Association. And so, uh, that was something that was started, boy, I want to say like a couple years ago. They had some some projects they had to do to, um, to qualify for this. And, uh, the MESPUS, they're called their acronym, uh, looks at a few things. They look at leadership, student learning, teacher collaboration, community engagement, and growth. And so, they, um, look at researchbased standards. And I know um from talking to principal Marty at the time, they were doing some things like a strategy around uh a way you greet kids when they come into the classroom and different things that they were gathering data and and collecting that on. So it was kind of an all hands-on deck effort there and we're really excited uh that they got that distinction and certainly um our schools are the best. So it's great to see them get recognized by MESPA for that. I won't go too deep into that, but we had a little look at that. We'll go deeper with it next time. super excited about the outcome so why not say it again. We saw across our organization math up by 3.2 points and reading about one point. Um there's ups and downs within that and remember as we saw Dr. Sunum showed that not all tests happen at all grades. Uh but the highlights kind of that came in this year were Caposia being up uh about they I think they were 3.9 about four in math 4.3 in reading the middle school up again 2.7 points in each of those areas and then the high school up 8.4 points in um the math scores the year before Lincoln Center had a really great year. So as we average that in over two years we're sitting at like 4.9 and 5.3 points of growth. You know, the reality is we'd love to see 10 and 20 points of growth. That is actually not realistic. Um it it takes sustained hard work to to build that positive trajectory and it's really exciting to see that since 21. I hate to see the state going down, but I sure love seeing us going up. I don't know where the sweet spot is. Again, tests are not everything and I don't want anyone to walk away thinking all we care about is test scores. That is not our case. and we firmly believe we should be able to compete with the state of Minnesota here. So somewhere near that state average is probably realistic when you take into account our poverty rates, mobility, and some of the factors that aren't affecting other communities but might be affecting other communities more than us. Um but all all accounts uh point to things are on a great trajectory. I was had a meeting today with our teacher union president and just said, you know, how impressed I've been with our teachers and how they just leaned in. Like we shared before, we had the science of reading training. A lot of them jumped into that before it was required. And when we put together options for them to get trained, the vast majority of them jumped into the summer option so they could come into last year ready. Our uh upper elementary teachers are already in. So again, Scott, Dr. Sunsh mentioned we're in year three of Witten Wisdom and UFly. The state is actually really officially in just starting year two. our teachers have already identified the gaps and that's why we've brought in the functional morphology curriculum. So that's what's so neat to see with our staff leaning in and being so forward looking. We're actually really I think far ahead of where we could be. So uh huge shout out to the families and kids for what they do at the homeront and our staff here. Really exciting to see the outcomes coming along and I hope our teachers are feeling that cuz man they work hard and nothing feels worse than working hard and not getting the outcomes you want and I'm uh really thrilled to see that. I won't go too long on the tree planting. we had that slide in there and of course Terry came to with the team to to do a great presentation on that. But again, I was so sad when I saw all the trees coming down around town. So, it's fun to see the ways that we're going to get creative to get them back. And then, of course, the lessons learned if you looked at that map, how diverse the trees are. So, we're not going to have one disease come through and take them all out. Hopefully, no diseases come through and take any of them out. But really neat to see that sustainability approach and having the kids really be part of that. and I I think it's going to be something they're going to talk about for years to come, especially as they come back and see those trees growing. So, shout out uh to Tree Trust and Lincoln Center. Uh Tri District Caps, we had one of our students reps talking about uh her interest in CAPS. I did get to see Finette present. So, what's kind of cool at the beginning of the year, all five programs of the CAPS come together and they're trained in human- centered design and they come up with um design challenges. And so I got to watch our healthc care uh CAP students present theirs and taken on some really great topics. So uh how to prevent drug use within teens, how to prevent vaping was a big one for them. Uh which excites me because there's just nothing I I just can't stand the fact that they're marketing these to our our students. But our students are smart enough to know they are. So they're ready to take on those challenges and combat them. So it's neat because that's a chance for our kids and the two rivers and similly kids to be together across the cap. So now they go out into their different caps programs um to you know work on these ideas and bring them further to fruition. Uh the the uh internships that FET had talked about are just life-changing. So very excited about our tri- district caps and uh that we continue to have that. It it's a good lesson and you can get further together than going alone. And so, um, I know we still want to beat them dearly in football games. Uh, but outside of that, we want to be great partners with them. And we are 4-0. So, I'm just saying, uh, we'll see them on the football field here again. Um, this one came later, but very excited to share. Uh, Vivian K earned a full ride scholarship at the University of Southern California through QuestBridge. And this is a kind of a pet project that our dean of students at the high school, Allison Terrell, brought in. she had a a good connection to that organization and we've been seeing um about a kid a year getting a full ride four-year tuition, housing, food, books, supplies, and travel. And as the father of three, one in college and two on the way, that sounds pretty awesome. Uh and so that that matching process happened over the summer, which is why we weren't able to share that before, but we want to give a shout out to uh Alison Terrell for making that happen. And congratulations to Vivian and her family. What a life-changing opportunity. Just some important dates. We got homecoming week coming up here, the 29th through October 3rd. Have that Hall of Fame uh banquet as well on the homecoming night. Uh MEA, no school the 16th and 17th of October. So, just want to make sure people hold those on their calendar so you're not caught off guard. Uh Halloween, no school. It's a staff professional development day. What a wonderful idea to not have all the candy in the schools on that day. Um, as a former principal, I always wished Halloween was like the last Saturday of the month so we wouldn't have to have it. Filling our schools with sugar charged children. So, good idea there. We'll do some professional learning and hope the kids have a very safe day. We are of course always at the great Halloween get together as well representing the district. And then on the elementary side, Caposia PTA meeting on the 7th at 6, the Lincoln Center PTA on the 13th at 7. And then Lincoln's got retake day on October 22nd. I know that's an important one for a lot of kids who didn't feel like they got their right picture. Uh October 3rd is the retake day for our secondary. And then conference is right around the corner. 612 conference is on October 9th. Athletics and activities. I mentioned the Hall of Fame is the same night as homecoming. So that's at 5:00. The football game starts at 7. And then on the 20th is our opening day for our dance team, girls basketball, and wrestling. Um, just rolling here. Can you believe it? Like so much going on. Lots to keep track of. We have an awesome website that is always been awesome, full of information. Now it's even better to look at. So, please take some time, hop on our website, but you can track anything going on with the district, our school board, all of our meeting agendas and minutes are available there and uh all those great quality and actions if you want to go back and watch one you missed. >> Thank you, Dr. Z. >> Thank you, Chair Hume. >> All right. Next, I am looking for a motion to approve the consent items on tonight's agenda, which include the financial claims and bills payable and staffing as presented. Do I have a motion? >> Second. >> Second. >> Thank you. Uh, any discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I. >> I. Opposed. >> Uh, motion carries 60 and consent agenda passes. All right. Um, next up is policies. We have no policies up for review tonight, but the policy committee resumes regular meetings on September 29th. So, look forward to exciting action in this spot in the future. >> Yes. >> All right. Business items. We have three business items before us this evening. First, I'm looking for a motion for approval for the South St. Paul School Board to approve the 2025 payable 2026 proposed levy. >> So moved. >> Thank you. Second. >> Second. >> Wonderful. And I invite uh Rod Toth up to speak about this annual process. [Music] >> Thank you so much, Madam Chair, Madam Vice Chair, members of the board. Um just want to give a brief update here on the 2025 payable 2026 proposed levy. This is an annual process which a lot of public schools entities are conducting around September because we have a statutory obligation to our county auditors by September 30th. The proposed levy amounts here will deviate just a tad bit because of MDE right now still doing their calculation doing their final runs. Uh part of this process will also lead into December. or I think we pencil in already for the true fan taxation December 8th. Uh by statute, it has to occur for public comment after 6 p.m. here. So, this is just a proposal. This is one of many steps here um after this review. And um if there's any questions that I I can help answer, I will um send out the forms to the county auditors and also um get the TNT going here for the proposed levy. >> All right. I just want to double check. Does it need to be It's just an approval. It's not a resolution, right? >> Correct. >> Okay. Do we have any further questions for Ra? I will let the public know. He covered this in our work session earlier this evening and it is an annual process that we go through. So, it's not a major money. Okay. If there are no questions, then I ask all those in favor to please say I. >> I opposed. >> All right. It carries 60. Please submit our information to the county. >> Thank you so much. >> Okay. Um, next I'm looking for a motion for the school South St. Paul School Board to approve the transportation contracts. >> So moved. >> Thank you. Second. >> Second. >> Excellent. And Ra, I hand it back to you. >> Well, thank you again, Madam Chair. I just want to say that it takes uh quite a lot of folks around the community to run a school district. And I just want to thank the governance, the community, um operation, finance, academics. Of course, it takes a lot. You know, there there's teachers on the front lines and also there is the bus driver um driving our kid safely to and from school. Having said that, we um initiated um conversation over the summer for negotiations between our current transportation provider and I worked it closely with catalyst sourcing here who I worked at from a previous district to analyze data here and um come up with a win-win solution for the district and also um dealing with our constraints and parameters with the budget. Having said that, uh in front of you right now there is a two plus two uh year agreement with our current um provider Safeway to um have some safety languages in the contracts. Uh we we have u laid out languages. We have laid out um rates to make it more clear. And uh with your um approval tonight, if there's any questions or or anything, please let us know. Me and Ryan are here. We we can stand for any questions. >> Any questions from the board? >> I want to thank you for the work. I know when we listen to the news, transportation costs is like increasing everywhere. And so obviously it's recognized that we're going to have to pay more in this contract, but I appreciate the work that went into making sure that this is um reasonable as far as our budget works and respectful of our partner at Safeway. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Um, if there are no further comments or questions, all those in favor of approval of the transportation contract, please say I. I. I. >> I. >> Oppose. Nay. >> Carry. 60. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next item. I'm looking for a motion for the South St. Paul School Board to approve the 2026 and 2027 self-insured health insurance contracts with Health Partners. Do I have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Thank you. Second. >> Second. Wonderful. And I'd like to invite our new HR director, Charlie Cookup, to to speak with us >> and raw. >> How's it going, too? >> Hey, team. >> So, I just want to say thanks for having me up. This is my first school meeting at South St. Paul. So excited about it. and um we're going to kind of dive into the insurance the 2026 2027 self- insurance um health insurance contract. So with that um as required by the health insurance transparency act um we need to go out for bids for self-insured because we're self-insured health insurance plan effective January 1, 2026. Six carriers submitted proposals with the lowest and most competitive bid coming from currently um health partners which is our current provider as well. So what we're seeking is um for an acceptance of that going for our insurance committee. Our insurance committee also um recommends this. Our insurance committee is made up of a lot of our employee groups when it comes to clericals, ESPs, teachers, district office staff based on um that way everyone kind of has a say when it comes to what we're looking at based on the actual claims. Um we're looking at an 8% increase in health insurance premiums and a 3% increase in dental insurance premiums. No change to life or LTD. And then some miscellaneous changes is removal coverage for GOP medications for purposes of weight loss and then increased communication with the district to reduce c uh to reduce costs. So wellness um prescription mailings mailings things like that would go from there. Again, this is a topic that was presented to us this evening at the work session, but if there are any further questions or comments the board would like to ask at this time. >> Well, can I just I I'd just like to say that the um the health and wellness of our employees is of of top concern. Uh to ensure that people can come in and uh be safe and healthy to the workplace and be at home um is of of primary importance. And so, um, and I I wanted to thank, uh, Rah and Charlie for, uh, the work for, uh, quite a bit of time to keep, um, these costs to a minimum in the past, especially for our employees. Um, and as I have been told, uh, for, uh, in comparison to other districts, uh, we actually have kept the costs, um, extremely low over time. Um I will say um I know that this may be like shouting at the wind um related to um what is going on within health insurance and the cost of health care but um you know this is a significant increase in health care costs year-over-year that is not born that is not um due to anything that has happened with the insurance group or with Charlie or with RAW or anyone like that is a it is the state of health insurance um but those costs will be borne worn by employees. Um and and that um and so that you know and then we'll see other um reductions that um that will have an impact that could have an impact on their health. I know that that reduction in uh removing GLP1 um that is a serious uh gigantic cost. It is a gigantic cost driver. Um, and it also um has shown to improve the health of of some of the people in our district. And so I um I wanted to say thank you for your work. I wanted to say thank you for your engagement with the insurance group. Um I wanted to um thank you for doing all that you can to get the best deal possible. And um and health insurance is an industry that is um is the costs are rising way too much and they're being borne by employees and that is a regrettable thing. But I with all that said I know that you have done all the best that you can to keep our employees well to keep them um safe um and to keep the cost down. But um an 8% increase is much higher than inflation and that that is a cost that will be borne by our employees um that do so much for our district. So >> thank you Director Cummings. I would also like to remind our community and our staff that they haven't borne an increase for the last do you say five years, >> right? >> Yeah. So when we take into account how inflation has moved in those years, this is still very reasonable increase. Due to your fiduciary magic. All right. All those in favor of approval of this, please say I. >> I. >> I. Opposed. >> Scary 60. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Oh, we are reaching the end. As our final agenda item this evening, I ask our school board members to share updates on committees they serve on or highlight any recent district activities or events that they may have participated in. And I'll start with Director Weber. So, as you may have noticed, the district has undergone a brand refresh. Um, and in that, um, our wonderful, wonderful friends and partners at the South St. Paul um Educational Foundation put together these sch snazzy new shirts that on the first day of school all of our staff um had um had these new shirts um with our new logo and our new motto of engage, educate, empower and they got the lovely that's other side the lovely South St. Paul Educational Foundation um right there. So, just a sincere thank you for the many, many, many, many, many, many, many different projects that the educational foundation um helps um in the classroom, out of the cl, you know, in the classroom, in the community. It just the whole the whole kitten kaboodleoodle. Um they do a wonderful job and we are so lucky as a community um to have them to have them involved. So, that's my shameless plug for the t-shirt that that I got. Um, I also can't wait for On the Road again, the first weekend in October. It's one of my favorite events I think that South St. Paul does all year. Um, come we will have um a school table um school district table. So, come say hi. Um, I'm sure you can find out more information on the brand refresh. I'm sure we'll have some swag um to give away um with the new the new brand refresh. Um, and so that's always one of my favorite um favorite events of the year and I can't wait to go. >> Thank you, Director Cummings. >> Well, since I've talked so much tonight, I I will be brief. It has been great to see um a lot of our student athletes. Um I've tried to go to a few. I'm hoping to go to a few more. Our football team has done incredible. I saw them play against Richfield. Um and um our cheer squad was awesome. >> Yeah, >> we have such a great cheer squad in South St. Paul and so I hope you get out there. Uh was able to see our girls compete in in swimming this year and um and our volleyball team um doing all they can and they're these are just really great community events to go to. So, um, please check our, um, student athletic schedules, um, and our arts and, um, lots of great things going on and they will continue through the fall. So, yep. >> Thank you. >> Come on, support us. >> Vice Cleaflin. >> Oh, thank you. Uh, I have to really thank all of the folks in the front offices at the schools. the communications to parents this year have been fantastic and certainly highlighted with the new um logos and design from our communications folks as well. Um but the information going home to parents has um been very very helpful and informative and timely this year. So uh thank you to all of the staff who are helping to support our teachers and the administration. um you often are doing unsung work and uh definitely have a impact in making the start of the school year go very smoothly. Um parents are probably your biggest headache. Um I'm looking forward to all the activities that are starting to uh fill up our calendars with the walk-athon later this week and on the road again coming up. Um there's quite a bit that's starting to really come together with a lot of different events and I I was very disappointed not to be able to go to the tree planting and I'm so excited for those kids to have that opportunity to come back to their school and see the um impact that they've made for it. Uh there's a tree that was planted the day I was born and it did actually move from our first house to our house here and it still is standing on Fifth Avenue and I can go past it and see how much it's grown. So those kids will have that same opportunity and I'm so excited for them. Sorry to have missed it. >> Nice. >> Director Duffy. >> Uh yep. Uh football's 4 and0. It's been great. The kids are excited. Um and seeing Caposia come in here today and talk about their tree planting. Uh really good thing Mr. Bretoy brought up uh just uh leaving a lasting legacy and what the kids get to do. And uh I'm just going to we unfortunately lost a young man who I had the privilege to coach. Um and you talk about a lasting legacy. He uh uh he's an integral piece. I don't know if our football team would be 4-0 without some of these kids watching how he went about his day >> and seeing uh the effort he put in on the football team. So, it's been it's been a little hard hit for our community. Um and I just uh my heart goes out to his family uh and what they're going through. Um but uh I don't know if our program would be where it is today without people like Matthew Lee and what he's done uh for our program. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Director Duffy. >> Okay, good. >> Director Felton. >> Yes. Hi. There's several things that I'm going to mention. Most of these I have already talked about. Of course, the first one this Wednesday only a couple days from right now, which is the walk-athon for the education foundation at Lincoln Center. Looking forward to that. Starts at 4:30. every student in our district has an opportunity to come do a financial support for the education foundation. Looking forward to that. And also as has been mentioned about the on the road again which is on Saturday October 4th I will be there also for about four hours working at at our table. So please yes stop by and see us. And as I have mentioned also at the senior center at Central Square coming up. Well, of course it's it's a month away. It's Wednesday, October 29th, which is our senior center fashion show. This fashion show we do twice a year. Of course, I do modeling. It starts at 11:00 in the morning. There's a $20 fee which pays for Oh, the wonderful lunch that we are having a catered lunch from the coupe. So, it's a really, really good chicken dinner. So, if you are interested in coming to that fashion show, you have to reserve your spot in advance because we we do have a approximate about 75 people that we can have in there to attend this event for the space that that we have ready for them. So, if you are interested in coming to that, please re make your reservation at Central Square. And then the the one that's coming up that's really looking forward to also from the education foundation coming up on Thursday, November 6th, which is our our friend of friend of the foundation gala annual event. And I have a a sheet here that I'm going to read which was issued to us at at our last meeting from directors Beth Squura. I'm going to read this letter to everyone. There's a lot of wonderful informative information on it. Dear friends of the foundation, we are celebrating our annual Friends of the Foundation gala at the Men Dakota Country Club, which we also did last year on Thursday, November 6th. This event raises essential funds that support the South St. Paul Educational Foundation work of providing lifechanging scholarships and programs for the students here in South St. Paul public schools. In the last year alone, the foundation was able to award $616,250 in scholarships to 141 South St. all seniors and more than 25 program grants that impacted every single student in the district with field trips, books, equipments, etc. that they would not have otherwise had access to. This event includes a silent and live auction and we are seeking donations from the community. Some items to consider including tickets to sporting or theater events, artwork, weekend getaways, classes such as cooking or painting, children's activities, and unique baskets of related items. Cash donations are always welcomed and greatly appreciated. As well, the South St. Paul Education Foundation has a taxexempt number. All donations are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by the law. So please, if you have any questions about this, please contact Bethqua at the foundation. And on this form, it also has a space on it. It says that you can bring or send the item to the foundation office on Marie Avenue or you can contact them at the office if you need to make an arrangement to have your item picked up which they would be willing to do or you can always enclose a financial donation. So, I have several copies of this this paper and it it does ask for any donations, contributions, please return the them by October 20th. So, if you are interested in doing any type of a donation for this event, it is a wonderful fun event. I know personally since I have attended it for many many times, I always purchase several of these items. I always get a lot of Christmas presents there. A lot of wonderful variety of items that are on their um on their on their fundraiser. So, it is a lot of fun. So, consider attending that event. It it is a very very nice, enjoyable event. Thank you. >> Thank you, Director Felton. >> Um, I would like to share back on September 3rd, which feels like forever ago now at the beginning of the school year. I was able to attend the open house for our early childhood family education program. I know we've talked about it here at different meetings that they made the decision this summer to move out of the district office building into Caposia Education Center which is a really perfect fit for their programming for the space and welcoming our um families of their youngest kids into a school setting right away. The open house is amazing. Uh Jean Zender told me over 27 families came. So, I just want to say thank you to everyone who showed up and who supports these programs and and to people who aren't aware of what they are. I want to remind you it's amazing programming offered to our families. Um, it's not income based. It is like for anyone who has little kids who aren't quite school age yet. They have programming for new parents of tiny babies through just before school age kiddos. It's an asset for families, an opportunity to connect with people who are at the same kind of point that you are in your lives. I know um I hear regularly people who talk about their ECF class experiences and the lifetime friends they've made because their kids are kind of at the same touch points and they have a lot in common from having that shared experience. So, I want to encourage our families to look into that. Um, if you're more interested in hearing more about this, you can just Google ECF and SSP and it will take you. The first top like eight hits were our district website. I tested it out also in the cognto mode. Um, and if you're already a big fan of ECF programming, I would like to make a shout out that the Early Learning Advisory Council is looking for members. I told them I would say that. So, please consider joining uh ELAC as they call themselves. Um, if you Google ECF SSP, you will find their information, how to connect to be a part of that. I'd also like to thank our partners at the city. Um, again, schools starting feels like forever ago because we're really rolling into it, but the fact that the construction on Marie Avenue kind of tied up in time so that there wasn't busing disruption for our first day for our kids at the secondary building is really a gift. and I want to thank the city for our work to make sure that that worked out for us and um and the partnership we continue to have with them. I have to also shout out that ReadAcross South St. Paul will be starting up very soon. That's also a city program and if anyone's interested in that, contact Deb Griffith. Okay, that's all. Um I hereby entertain a motion to adjourn our Monday, September 22nd, 2025 school board meeting. >> So moved. Thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any discussion? No. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. Opposed. >> 6 for closing the meeting. We are adjourned at 7:30. Nicely done. And thank you.