welcome and good evening I would like to call the Monday January 27th 2025 school board meeting to order Lisa will you please call the role director Weber here W Felton here Claflin here Cummings here Duffy here chair human here that's six present all right and I ask all who are able to please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all all right well welcome we've got a great group I'm excited to hear from the middle school but at this time I'd really like to welcome our two newest members to the board Ryan Duffy and Paul Cummings our first business meeting with our new board set up I'm really excited about the work that we're going to engage in over the next two years and uh and I'd like to say how impressed I am already with how much effort Paul and Ryan have put in with trainings through msba to get to this point so that they're ready to just hit the ground running I just want to thank you guys for taking it seriously and now we'll get down to business all right first up is the approval of our meeting agenda and minutes so I am looking for a motion to approve the regular board meeting agenda for this evening as well as the minutes for the following November 25th 2024 work session the December 2nd 2024 special meeting the December 9th 2024 work session and regular business meeting and January 13 2025 work session and special business meeting do I have a motion so moved second all right any discussion a chair human do we need to remove an item from the agenda uh I don't think so we did make the change before the meeting started fantastic um and I'd like to just mention why we have so many um minutes on here is because we didn't have a second meeting in December because of the holiday break so it just kind of all Stacks up so um all right if we have any other discussion on that I'm looking for all in favor to approve these to please say I I I hi opposed all right motion carries to approve minutes and agenda all right the best part quality in action uh the school board is excited to welcome uh Leah Borg the Middle School principal and we'll be hearing about goal-getters yeah thank you so much for having us um you can see that we brought a huge crew with us today more than typical because so many students are so very interested in this new program that we have have um I am not going to be here long with you I'm going to actually put um our our um staff and students in front of you so that they can tell you about the experiences but Gog Getters was a program that we started last year at the middle school um and we partner with Jerell Miller who's the owner and operator of the the company Gog Getters and you'll get to learn a little bit about that and then Shannon Smith is um one of the school counselors that we have at the middle school um she's going to be here to tell you a little bit about the program and she schedules students in the in the um the data collection that we have around showing us if that program is working and it is and then uh Tessa Walker who's one of the interns from the U ofm um School psych team is with us as well and so um I know we have a lot of kids with us we have five that have planned speaking roles with you um and then the rest of the students are here to answer questions as needed and so I would like to call them up to the microphone awesome hey good evening first of all thank you for having us I'm Jerel Miller I'm the founder of the organization called gold gears Academy the mission of this program is to empower teams to overcome challenges establish themselves as thinkers entrepreneur entrepreneurs and leaders of productive members of society we started this we contract with South St Paul Middle School last spring um we've seen that it was a need that um to come in and just help students build relationship and kind of keep the momentum going and um that's when I kind of it was a family friend um Leanne why she kind of introduced the connection and um brought me into to this family to this school um it's been great it's been great to see the students is here um I definitely give a huge support and shout out to them and respect for them the courage that they here to Talk Amongst you all um it takes a lot of courage to do that so um I really want to give a special shout out and special thank you to the students behind me um pretty much let them do all the Talking pretty much about what's going on next I'll pass it over to Miss Smith and as she can introduce her students thank [Applause] you uh before we introduce the students uh my name is uh Shannon Smith and I'm the eighth grade counselor and I've had the privilege of working alongside Jerell Miller with our Gog Getters program that started last spring and so just a little bit about the history of the Gog Getters Academy um last year it was funded by the C St Paul Education Foundation and we had approximately I think it was 60 students we'll get to that in a later slide but we had three days that were allotted for Mr Miller and the groups and there were about seven to eight students per session and we ended up having a small amount of sessions before the end of the year we didn't get it up and running until about April and so it was seventh and eighth graders that attended last year so that's a little bit of that history and then the funding for this year is um through the Ani plan and that's how it's funded through this year and it's for two days a week and so we've been able to increase the number of students that are participating even even though we've decreased the number of days that are available for us and so that's where the funding is coming from this year uh here's some of our impact data uh last spring we had 62 students that participated and with the data that we did pre- and post we did Baseline data based on attendance tardiness no credits or NC's and academic performance we had 71% of the students that decreased the number of tardies from quarter 3 to quarter 4 and this was only about seven sessions with Mr Miller and so that was really helpful um and then we also had a 61% decrease or maintain of the current uh grades for the students of those 31 7th graders and then if you look ahead to e8th grade we also had 31 students that participated 87% of them decreased their number of tardies from quarter 3 through quarter 4 but that's pretty phenomenal being that at Springtime they're eighth grade and they're looking ahead to n9th grade and so the fact that they were able to decrease 87% was pretty remarkable and then 70% of the students either decreased their number of NC's or maintained where they were not necessarily NC's just in terms of grades so that's the spring data and then if we look ahead to the data from right now that we just pulled live um we have 79 students in our groups right now and we have all grad sixth seventh and eth grade we have 13 different groups and each of the groups roughly has about six to nine students in them give or take Mr Miller also does some one-on-one with a couple of students as well um and they we've had 11 sessions so far this year so in these 11 sessions keep that in mind we've had 40% of our eighth graders that have reduced their number of tardies at this point of the year and we've had 72% that have demonstrated consistent academic progress and 33% that have improved their progress just since the beginning of the year we started this program about beginning of October second week of October so that's e8th grade data if we move ahead to seventh grade data um again they've had 11 sessions as well uh half of the students reduced their number of taries in seventh grade and 81% of those 22 students were consistent and another 31% um improveed their academic progress decreasing their number of NC's and then sixth grade this was our first year with sixth grade so it's been a little interesting knowing how sixth graders will do in a small group sometimes we don't know and so with we have 21 that are in our groups now we had 28% of them reduced their number of tardies and then we also had 57% of those 21 students were consistent and 23% actually improve their academic progress so that's our sixth grade data and then just overall again we have 79 students right now 40% have reduced their uh number of tardies to class since the beginning of the year and then 92% of them have been consistent with 30% improving in those number of NC's in their classes so now we get to hear the real stories and the real faces that are behind all of this data we have six speakers one is a returner from last year Marley and then we also have B Marcy and we have TK Kylie and Oliver so I'm going to ask first I'm going to ask Marcy and I'm going to ask bibe to come on up hello hi hi guys can I bring this down yeah okay so do I just say Okay so gogs has been a safe place where I can go we can all express ourselves in our own way we all feel connected and accepted I have learned how to communicate about things that matter and things that are important to me go-getters gives me courage to speak up about what's going on around the world things happening at school and how things can impact you it allows me a space to let it out hear other other um opinions and learn from others I feel empathy for others when they speak about things that bother them I can share my opinions without anyone feeling mad or upset and hearing me out and that's why Gog is a good place for everyone to feel safe and accepted thank you okay so the group is a safe place that help me control my emotions and explore my feelings I have gotten to know people better Mr Miller has been through some things that I've been through so whenever I need advice I go to him this group has helped me express myself and I have learned to use my voice more thank you thank you [Applause] um gogs is a place where I can express myself and I get to hang out with my friends and I just get to have an opportunity to express myself and how I feel and how other people feel thank [Applause] you I'm kyli I'm Kylie and um I get to hang out with others who maybe I don't have class with it helps me get to know them better and also meet new people Mr Miller helps us by explaining to us how certain things work he also listens to us and teaches us how to self ass self assess ourselves Mr M is a really good [Applause] person uh I'm takari and this group has taught me to be calm and uh create more friends I've have learned a lot of social skills uh and the group has been a safe place where my voice can be heard uh and Mr Miller is a very nice person you know he feeds me with knowledge and food you know oh that's it um hi my name is Marly and um go-getters is a group where we are getting to express our um feelings with a safe community community that we created um go-getters is a place where we can learn how to control ourselves in an environment that could be hard to be in it also helps to commun to communicate with each other just um to know how we feel thank you thank [Applause] you thank you to all of them it's such awesome public speaking experience which we know is so important in all grades of Middle School especially eighth graders going into nth grade um as we move forward a couple things um you have some different testimonials in front of you you have copies of them uh we also have those on the slideshow as well and so we were able to create some opportunities to get voice from some of our members that aren't here tonight and so you'll see some different testimonials from 8th grade uh seventh grade and a couple sixth graders and so that is very important we also have a couple photos in our slideshow um I think they've been working on vision boards uh this past two weeks weeks they were going to show them but many of them aren't done with them yet so we hope to display them somewhere in our space in the secondary school and so that's one of the things they've been working on and then I think there's one more slide of our end of the year pizza party these are some of our current nth graders um that were in our program last year and so our eighth graders this year we have 17 out of our eighth graders of 36 that actually were in the program last year so we have 17 returners which is really nice for our students one more picture of our ninth graders I'm sure the girls would love this picture with face that's all right my daughters would kill me that's it yeah so this ends up um end of the presentation again thank you all for your time on allowing us to come go ahead um how are the students um selected or recruited into these small groups so we work collect and Miss Smith will come in and help me out so I work Collective with Miss Smith and the counselors there and they identify um the students by their protocol in the school system to pick out what students identify for the groups Miss Smith can she shees she the school official so she'll be able to discuss the school language on that we we use different factors we use uh tardies and with our campus data we use Behavior we use academic data and we also use mys saers and Miss Tessa can talk a little bit about the mys saers screening that we do with all of our students and what that is measuring and then we also use like anecdotal information you know that is associated with like Aces and different uh family input teacher input counselor input administrative input um and it's It's Tricky It's tricky because we know that this program works for all students but we also know that we don't have Mr Miller here more than two days a week and so we are always striving to hopefully get him here for longer periods of time so we can impact even more students so great question how do you form the groups I mean if there are six to nine kids in those groups are you putting common experiences together or just availability for what class you're pulling them out of or sure great question um so interestingly enough even in middle school we allow the students we kind of group them based on who some of their peer influences are positive peer influences and what we will do is we may put a group of like two or three students together with another group of two or three that are friends and then we monitor that and sometimes yes we have to swap groups around because as we know social pressures kind of go up and down in Middle School um but for the most part students do a really good job kind of self- selecting once we do a skeleton of the groups on who they're with and before we start we actually have them eyeball the group to make sure it is a safe space for every body in the group and it's also and it's also too we the reason we do that too is Kaka as a team they work together as a team they know each other and they help each other for their success in school their progress in school to growth quite a few of the kids mentioned that it was a safe place to share and to talk about the news can you kind of walk us through how the group meets or do you have a topic that you lead them in or how the structure works yeah so I have a it's like a 50 6 week session curriculum that I developed um for the business that and it talks about pure anxiety um social anxiety it talks about they do vision boards to manifest as you know manifesting believing The Vision on you know whe they want to be professional athletes doctors lawyers um they have to believe it they have to believe in themselves that it happen so we do the vision boards that's like one thing they really love to do to manifest that and I mean at the end of the year we give them a vision voice to see which goals they can knock out which goals they accomplish or also the roll until the next school year or the nth grade as well so it's a lot of sessions that we talked about also coping with anger coping with emotions coping with feelings and that type of thing great are there any other questions from the board thank you so much for coming tonight and what an amazing program you mid thank you all right Dr zambino I will turn it to you next unless yeah Leah did you have something you were coming up to the front I don't want to I don't want to no that's okay I just wanted to thank Shannon and Tessa and Jerelle um they really ran with this presentation getting the students ready um and then they wanted to open it up to as many students as they wanted to experience the school board meeting and so um all of these students here met at the school at about five uh quter to 5 they had pizza um and then they walked down with Tessa and jelle and Shannon and it's been a a really nice evening of kids um kind of getting ready and even learning about what a school board does and what what's happening at this meeting and so I just can't than um those staff members enough um and I also just really appreciate jerell's um really communicative with our staff um making sure that he's helping students be successful in their classrooms um and and really collaborating with with all of the student support team but the teachers as well and so I just I can't speak highly enough of his um company and I also don't want to tell all of my uh other administrators because I don't want him off of our schedule so um I just really am glad that that he works with our students so thank you thank you Leo much all right all right I will jump in I will just say yeah what a what a powerful thing to have these kids here I will let them make their way out we always let the kids get back to their lives while they're coming to be in our space so thank you all thank for coming it's so cool to see the way they're supporting each other and showing up in Mass so I know the board hears me say all the time that we have the best kids and there you go like I don't I don't even need to say anything at that do I they can come back anytime yeah yeah and that was fun because we did some things to kind of get some support into the school last year and this just kind of came out as an aside from lean wise who actually I worked with in Richfield as a principal so she had that great connection and we got lucky to have it land here so well we are also lucky to have a great new board chair and Kim human and I I'm excited with our whole new board I see Paul down there and Monica clapping so Monica congratulations again and uh welcoming Paul and Ryan on the board but what one of the things that I really love about our board and where we are right now is the commitment and the professionalism around the work and so a lot of people don't see the work of the board so I think sometimes it's hard to know uh and it's complex stuff it's policy it's Finance I mean these things take a lot to learn learn uh and really the best tool or or mechanism for learning that is through our our professional association called the Minnesota school boards Association so for those who aren't familiar uh the msba as we call them provides training opportunities uh for lots of people but especially obviously for our school board and they have a um an introductory set of they have phases of learning there are four phases and we do expect that everybody does phase one and phase two so they really learn how like what does it mean to be on a school board in phase one and then you you know the financial piece that's so complex is another one but I love that our board is committed to going uh you know further with that now director uh W Felton as we call I know T Felton's not here but has been a strong champion of participation at amsd and and actually we were just at the conference last week and our uh principal there who was just here Leo Borg was presenting on cell phones and getting cell phones under control but uh one of the things that I love uh one of the leader standards I love the most is modeling excellence and we're thrilled to have Kim at the helm modeling excellence and so Kim received a certificate for completing all four uh phases of the learning to lead uh Workshop series and so you get a certificate and we just thought it was really important to call that out because not all board members in all places share that commitment and this board is is committed to professional learning and growth I think that says a lot because we're here responsible for all these kids so congratulations Kim and thank you for modeling that and you get the Beautiful msba certificate uh we did talk at our work session if you pass that down well we did talk at the work session also about um there are it's it's interesting how am or msba is structured they give you points for participation that's a good way to track who's training and I think I heard a pretty much a good commitment out of this group about wanting to get on some of those special Awards where uh everybody's done those training so we know that takes time but um Ryan was at the conference last week and I know Paul's been doing the trainings as well so just shout out to our new chair and everyone on the board for leaning in on that work it helps me a lot cuz I sure do not have all the answers so the more good Minds we have the better the work will be so thank you yeah thanks for all you're doing okay enough of that yeah it's time you sure you don't want more attention I mean thank you it's time to shift to the reports listed on our agenda um first we will start with stakeholder comments to the board highlights um as a reminder to the community there are two ways to make comment to the board you may either submit an online form through the district website or appear in person to the board if you would like to speak in person the board has set aside time at our um Regular work session the second Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m. so people are welcome to do that we do ask that you register online ahead of time if possible to make sure that we uh plot an appropriate amount of time um but as I said we had comments on January 13th we had three individuals attend we had someone come to support first we had someone come to speak with concerns regarding the amaz works curriculum in our schools we had a second person who came to support the Amaze Works curriculum in our schools and we had a third person come who um spoke to a greater need for South St Paul programming across the city to work together for the betterment of our kids so it was great to have the opportunity to hear from the public and to have the year of the entire board uh now I will turn things over to Vice chair Claflin for an update on this evening's work session thanks um and besides this evening's work session I'll cast our memories back a couple of weeks to the 13th where we had a work session as well it was an organizational meeting for the board uh to welcome in our new members uh we swore them in as members of our school board and we discussed the Committees and all of the other work that we divide up among ourselves um and our student reps gave us a preview of what they will talk about tonight later on and then before this business meeting at our work session we also discussed um the upcoming agenda the policies that will be reviewing later how we go through that process of discussion hearing them mulle times and um having the opportunity to discuss amongst ourselves as well as a number of events that are coming up um scheduling a board retreat for ourselves to uh really build as a team amongst ourselves uh and um build those norms and I think that's about it we had a number of updates uh from committees but we're just getting started with the new year thank you all right we'll go back to Dr zambino you're next on the agenda with our highlights from the district okay well thank you chair human well um as we said we did have a meeting earlier but I do want to say this is our first uh meeting of the year on camera so happy New Year to our incredible students families uh staff the wonderful sou St Paul Community um really you know we were joking as we were walking across from the the work session to he about we live in a lot of different years as a school system we have a school year we have a calendar year fiscal year all those things so I'm going to focus on the calendar year since we just put a a pin in 2024 like what an amazing year we've had and then the first half of the school year just it like it's amazing the things that are happening in our classrooms our hallways and of course Beyond with all the activities Athletics and things that are are amazing staff and other volunteers help make happen so I'm very excited about that as I said excited to have new board members joining with us as we come into the new year and then this week is uh we're celebrating PA professional Appreciation Week our or esp's education support professionals who just want to give a shout out to our esps I um often say they are kind of that glue that that sometimes holds it all together so thank you for what you do for all of us uh as far as updates uh we like we said we got great new board members coming on so with Paul and Ryan jumping in and Monica continuing it puts us in a really good spot with a a mix of some good experience and some good new eyes like it's great to have New Perspectives and I'm very excited about that um as we roll forward here it's like this is where we start talking I I think I put on my Friday up to the board this is time of year where a lot of us are just constantly looking down the line down the line uh cuz we're just at that transition point so tomorrow and Wednesday we're so excited to have kindergarten kickoff a lot of work behind the scenes going on with our principes and our liaison and other staff who are going to support that event uh both of those are at 6 o'clock and we did do those on separate nights so we can have more staff available to support families with language needs or other other kind of technical advice or things they might need so kind of trying something new there which I appreciate the flexibility of our team to be available that way it's not always easy to roll from one night to the next of the night but our staff always go above and beyond so thank you to everyone who's prepared for that if you're looking for information you can hop on our website and look at the enroll and and kindergarten in particular I know we do have some preschool open houses coming up and some other things and we're working on uh transition supports for elementary to middle middle to high so lots of great work happening and I how much do you love that picture welcome to the little Packers this is so fun we we started this this year and we are going to continue this tradition cuz it is so stinking cute I'm sorry I don't know a better way to say it when he's like to see these little Kinders all lined up in their shirts and just the pride of being a packer we know we always say once a packer always a packer so great to start that with them young so looking forward to seeing people at the kindergarden kickoff uh as I said the preschool open house right around the corner we did have to shift that a little bit so I apologize for any inconvenience that may have caused the initial one was on the day that it was like 30 to 40 below wind chills so um apologize that we had to move away a pivot there but appreciate the flexibility I think that one was a little easier because snow is hard because it really depends on where you are when it's 35 below it's 35 below just about everywhere so that was a little easier than we've had in the past but excited to welcome in our preschool uh we see time and time again the value of that prek learning that preschool learning uh the School Readiness and um just how the kids are able to make that easier transition to kindergarten uh they just Jump Right In they know what they're doing and really want to give a shout out even to our preschool staff they've uh really under um Jean and Kristen and and Amy Winters leadership Jean Zender and Kristen s Marano weeks they're really just cranking up the the professional development for them so they've been implementing new literacy curriculum um getting p uh professional development and classroom management strategies appropriate for that age group so they are like really leaning in and it's been fun to see them like I had just a parking lot conversation with one of the prek teachers who's like thank you this is so great that we're I don't get just a give credit thing I didn't plan those sessions so shout out to our our leadership that's supporting them as well so really great uh Collaborative Learning going on there so some Packer pride in action we had a legislative visit appreciate Senator kleene and representative Hansen coming to the secondary building so um chuo chaki is pretty well connected in What's called the Minnesota Association of Secondary School principles and they had a call to say hey let's get the legislators into the building which is something I always like to see happen and so it was appreciative that principal chaki got them in I had a chance to visit with them and talk about a number of things but they got to do the tour and then you know they figured if we're going to come let's make it meaningful so then visited a high school Civics and economic class talk about their role in government and you know give give our kids a chance to see what you know what they're living with dealing with I don't think they probably talked about everything that's happening at the capital right now um probably not modeling Excellence yet but we'll get there um but it really fun and I did have a chance to talk to uh representative Hansen when he was there and he talked about his own experience with the school and he said wow like wow is this going like incredibly well and he didn't say it was bad when his son was there but he just said you can tell the difference that the kids have really bounced back from the pandemic and it's just feeling so good in the building and that was one of his observations as well so excited to have them come thank you for that visit thanks to principal chaky for hosting that um I unfortunately was sick so I did not get to see this this is one of the best events we have uh a couple times in the year or once a year at least we'll see this I've seen it a couple times in the past I should say uh but the trid district caps entrepreneur kids they do a shark tank style so they come up with a plan A business plan and then they present it in a shark tank style presentation and then whoever does the best has an opportunity to earn a $500 grant to get seed money to start their business and I mean the the idea is these uh Young men and women have come up with I'll call them that cuz their ideas show that they are uh really cool so Xander here won a scholarship for developing a hockey scoreboard app so and like I said I didn't get there so I'm excited to see it so I got to follow up and see Mr gustillo invited me to that we'll make sure to get you guys those invites in in the future as well but super super fun uh and that's in partnership with rev Academy so we have that partnership that we've had for a long time so thank you to rev Academy for hosting that and then uh we also had some students in the Business and Entrepreneurship U pitched their idea for a scholarship so six business ideas were pitched from seven students and the winner uh was Michael with his stealth hunt so redesigning a um archery bag and I'm going to own I loved shooting bow and arrow when I was a kid I think I was okay at it but I don't know anything about what goes into that bag so here's a young man who's seeing a need for a product that wasn't there and is now bringing it uh to bear so really excited that um the kids are able to do that so this one has like multiple bags combined into one so you can hold arrows and um things that you know you just couldn't do otherwise so shout out there as well so really cool event and again shout out to Mr gustillo and everyone in that trid District caps for for making that happen um one thing that is so great about our district is just how inclusive the spirit is and so a lot of people don't necessarily know so we talk sometimes we certainly talk about it at our committee updates our partnership with mediate district 9917 and so for those who don't know when you're a small District it's difficult to um offer specialized uh services for students whose disabilities or needs go beyond what we can serve or there if there's just one student we don't have the scale to meet their needs and so then we belong to a partnership or a Consortium that is uh intermediate 9917 and they have programs throughout the Metro or or Dakota County really because it's mostly Dakota County District and then some of them are hous in other of the um the member districts like we are a member district and um really fun that we have that partnership with them and they have a deaf hearted hearing program at Lincoln Center and it's really cool because you wouldn't really know that 917 is another District because they're just not treated that way in the building and so these kids are in all the classes like I love when I go to read I always have to remember to put on the microphone cuz there's someone with hearing needs and different you wouldn't even it's so seamless when you're with the kids but what's so great is years ago their teachers came up with a way to recognize our teachers for being so inclusive of the kids in their classrooms and so um we did get I got to join that this year with Drew Johnson and Kristen spangers at Lincoln super fun the kids get so excited to see their kids get an award and it's just a really emotional event um Drew had some amazing words they all did but just talking to the kids about really it's their award not his which is again like talking about modeling Excellence this is you know it's his award let's be frank but he said no no no there's no way I could have an inclusive classroom without you guys making that happen and then Amy p uh Peabody got that down at Capia so just a shout out to all of our teachers really because it's like I always say when you pick three out of a basket of 300 amazing Educators that's you know it's hard to get everybody but appreciate 9917 calling out and recognize our teachers for that uh the last couple years we've been building a a really nice new partnership or renewed maybe I'll call it with youth Frontiers so they do a lot of different types of Retreats I've done them with my staff when I was a principal and then uh with students as well uh I know we've heard from the middle school they did the Retreats and I um Lincoln Center had done one kosia as well here so the fifth graders at kosia participated in a kindness Retreat so youth Frontiers nonprofit organization that you know cost a little bit of money but we've had great support from like Educational Foundation for supporting these um so the kids go into a retreat style event and they get to talk about like what's working well what's not in your school Community they set new norms and they agree to them and then that way it's a co-created opportunity for them to say this is the school we want to be uh and rooted in kindness uh we were talking about the msba conference ending in you know leading with love and so we see that with our own kids leading with love right there in their own building so very excited and then uh our strategic plan steering committee we've been moving that work down the line so the board will be getting I've been giving you all updates but we are um this is really one of these things like I've been clear with this committee it is not my strategic plan we need a new strategic plan but is ours it's all of ours ultimately you all as a board will approve that but we have had the best conversations about our district what what it means to be a packer um where we've been where we are and where we want to be um we had collected uh stakeholder feedback from students from families from staff I mentioned before we had the session with our city council members uh and the mayor and some of the city staff so lots of voices that went into Gathering the data now we're have this steering committee to help us pull it together and identify pillars that are going to hold up our work for the next 5 years so uh our hope is to get that back March maybe looking April just cuz with calendars and the way weather and things happen it may may not be till April but we'll get that in front of you all and obviously then you all can weigh in on if there's things you think we should add or tweak and adjust and and then once that's adopted what's great about that is it sets a vision for us and then we're going to move into creating metrics of how we're going to measure are we meeting our goals and so I'm very excited about this uh because understandably during the pandemic this type of work dropped away and coming in you know it's hard to say here's where we're going when we don't have a strategic road map and so excited to have that strategic road map coming here uh before our board in the next few months and uh thank you to that committee I mean I'm telling you the group is great like the first meeting we had there were Tears like just talking about the district the Lev of care that that group has so again it's hard when you can't put everybody on that committee but I just want to reiterate um it's very representative and they're doing a great job of representing the voices that they heard and not just their own and then just some important dates to remember February 3rd coming right up around the corner we have uh professional development next Monday and then the 17th were're closed for Holiday talked about the kindergarten kickoffs so we have one tomorrow at 6 at Lincoln and the following day Wednesday at kosia and then the following week we've got the uh PTA meeting at kosia and then on the 10th the PTA meeting at Lincoln at the secondary it's spric week coming up so we get to have some fun uh spirit going on I'm sorry that's this week I got to get over there I didn't tell I didn't make it there today I'm excited to see what they're doing and then the dance coming up uh band concerts on the 11th and 13th as a reminder we did bring in fifth grade band as a part of the referendum passing and so excited to see that continue to to grow and build interest and then a choir concert great choir director who's going to have a choir concert on the 20th and then lots of uh great Athletics and activities going on we got show choir sweethearts dinner on February 15th as always you can find our materials on our website to track the great work of the board all the board's contact information is always available I I know sometimes people want to get connected with our board please they're always eager to answer questions and get connected with our community as am I so thank you for some time to say the great things going on around the district all right thank you Dr zamino all right we're going to move to section four consent items I am 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 sub moved second thank you any discussion all right all those in favor please say I I I I opposed all right motion carried Now we move to policy review this evening we have a series of policies on our agenda for review these policies were initially reviewed by the board policy committee on December 2nd 2024 they were discussed again with the entire board at the December 9th business meeting and are now on their third and final reading they are up for approval District policies play a critical role in the governance work of our school board all district policies are available on our website under the about us tab located under the school board section under sspps policies I would like to note if you kept your agenda from December that policy 522 is not on this list it had been originally scheduled to be reviewed but due to recent statute changes it is um being pulled because we need to review it again all right at this time I'm seeking motion to approve the policies listed on our agenda this evening policy 516 513 607 614 626 418 419 437 and 722 do I have a motion to approve so moved second all right do we have any discussion or questions regarding policy yes uh Madam chair there are uh number of the policies that deal with um uh educational practices and teach teachers and assessment and working with nurses and I just wanted to thank Dr Burkhart and Dr winter and Dr zamb brino and others um from our uh senior leadership team that really did a job um making some Outreach to people who are administering those programs in the front lines um to really get their perspective as these policies were brought together and um that's notic and appreciated and um it uh provides a whole lot of confidence to me about um the policies that are coming before the board tonight so I wanted to thank the um leadership for their work in that thank you are there any other comments I'm going to say thank you director Cummings it's always good to remember that these policies aren't just coming out of thin air but we've got people behind the scenes working to make sure that they are going to be what fits best for our community and our district and so it's the culmination of lots of work and I am looking for all those in favor to say I I I I all right opposed motions carry motion carries all right business items moving on to our business items we have three business items before us for approval this evening the first item is the approval to schedule a special board session on Monday February 3rd at 5:00 pm at the district office do I have a motion so moved second thank you uh we will will be meeting on Monday as a board retreat we will be getting some further leadership training from Ray Queener who works with Teamworks who provides the board um extra education training opportunities especially as we're reforming as a new board with our new members it's an opportunity for us to kind of Baseline what we're talking about and the information and how we're working and seeing together so it's a great opportunity for us uh and we have to vote on that yes okay so I'll those in favor please say I I opposed motion carries all right next up I'm looking for a motion for the approval of the acceptance of gifts report do I have a motion so moved second thank you all right I would like to welcome up and introduce our new Finance director Raj choth is here to share with us with the donation before us tonight is thank you so much Madam chair Madame Vice chair members of the board um I want to take this time to thank the Pacer family for hiring me as the new Finance director here so I'm happy and humble and honored to be here um tonight's business item here is seeking the full board's approval for the acceptance of GIF uh we have a very humble but Anonymous um individual that donated $5,000 to the girls um softball team and it is aark for uniform um a little bit of background about this um this person who donated $5,000 instead of um going the fundraising route and there's nothing wrong with fundraising um decided to donate $55,000 in essence of time for the girls softball team so I just want to acknowledge this and thank this community and thank this person for donating to our Packer Family thank you ra and thank you to our Anonymous donor what a generous gift I'm excited to see what the softball players come out right um all those in favor of accepting our gift please say I I I opposed motion carries all right thank you director CH yeah um lastly I am looking for approval for the joint Powers agreement between Dakota County and South St Paul public schools for the opioid settlement funds do I have a motion so moved second thank you all right Dr zambino can you share some deals or details regarding this please yes you know everyone I think is pretty aware of the opioid epidemic that's been plaguing um really all the United States but has definitely hit Dakota County uh a little harder than some other places and so appreciative that the county did receive some settlement funds opioid settlement funds and then had the opportunity to redistribute some of those out to uh school districts and so we are um asking you to accept the $5,000 uh stipend or uh Grant I guess from them and we can use those dollars to help with opioid prevention as well as things like the uh naloxone that we need to stock in our school so for those who hadn't heard that uh in the recent legislative changes we are now required to have none in our schools in the event that there's a believed o opioid overdose and so it's not a big expense but it is an added expense that came our way and so excited to be able to use these funds for that but also for some of the preventive work and so I've been in contact with Jennifer Daniels who's our assistant director under uh Dr Burkhart is working with the the school-based teams the uh social worker counselor pych folks to see what like how might they use that so if you all accept that know that it will be in good hands with that team to kind of help us brainstorm how we might use that and then of course our health services where we keep the the knock on as well so um any discussion or questions for Dr Zan bro regarding this all right um all those in favor please say I I I opposed motion carries all right I think one of my favorite parts of the meeting our student Schoolboard representative report um so that concludes the business items now we'll move on first we'll hear from our Schoolboard representative Jackson Schultz and I understand AAL is at a math meet tonight so we wish her of the team to luck uh so we were planning on having our climate and culture survey the results today but unfortunately due to the school closure on Tuesday last Tuesday we weren't able to get the run the survey so we'll have that at the next meeting hopefully uh this past month we've been kind of going over registration and and what that's going to look like we've watched videos we got this packet and I'll dive into that more after talk about these we had counselors who came and met with us in our classes and after at end of the month we're going to register so in this packet we kind of got different uh like Pathways you can go on and that's on page five pathways you can go on and class es that will help you with those Pathways and then later on like on page nine it talks about uh the requirements you need for graduation and uh yeah that's what this is for it was very helpful for kind of seeing what you what was available for sure so yeah and this week is spric week today was Jersey day it's basically like a winter homecoming to recognize winter sports and yeah dodgeball is going on right now A lot of people are excited about that tomorrow's hat day it's just a fun week and here are our activities for the wow next couple weeks uh if you want to see all of these and more you can go to the athletic and activities section at sspps.org uh thank you thank you jackon nice job thank you all right our final agenda item this evening our school board members will share updates either on committees they serve on or highlight any exciting educational activities or events they've participated in just where are we seeing passion in our district uh director Weber would you like to start sure first off I just this is the first time I'm seeing the um the high school registration and to the many people I'm sure that were involved in the design and organization I mean this looks phenomenal so like I hope all the high school you know people and even community members cuz one of the things when I was talking to people this last fall that I talked about was the Packer Pathways which is all all listed out right here again we want all of our students to be lifelong Learners and so whether that means they want to go into the trades they want to go into it they want to become doctors they want to become plumbers whatever their path takes them we can kind of outline this for them starting in ninth grade and I I don't think I knew what I wanted to do when I was in ninth grade but I mean this is just a phenomenal amount of work and so just really really Kudos um to the people um who put this together cuz I know that like the scheduling Matrix is not one I understand but one I'm happy that someone does because it's lots of different moving um moving Parts um so as Dr Zina said earlier we belong to an organization called intermediate district 9917 for which I am the um board member it's basically a full other board with nine representatives from the other nine well eight other school districts we are the ninth there are nine total um different districts and we had our organizing meeting last week and Tom Bennett from Bloomington is our new chair so um congratulations to him I know he's going to do a phenomenal job um I know that the uh South St Paul one act play competition was last week and I believe they are going on to the next level is that that correct so they is that correct you know I had not heard that yet I I saw the kids and talked to them about their practicing right before but I I we will find out and get that out um CU I know that the sub the subsection their first level so there are there's acting competitions because we can make competitions about anything um in this country so like different schools compete with their plays and I believe we made it to the next level of competition so that's very very exciting um for all of the wonderful thespians we have um in our school and other than that I just hope everyone is able to stay warm um and keep your your thoughts and ideas coming thank you director Weber director Cummings um well I just uh throughout the last month uh it's really been um mostly about learning learning how to um be on Schoolboard and and all the things that you do and so I almost feel like I know less things than I did um at the beginning of this um but I hope that's a good thing um I part of that is um working within the Minnesota school boards Association many of their trainings that have been extremely helpful I know that director Felton has has really talked about many of the ways that we can get involved in um the Schoolboard Association and many of the Great trainings that there so that has been very very helpful um with along with chair human I was was able to get a really Baseline knowledge about Community Education and boy do they do fantastic work Gan over at our um Community Ed um has really um continued to make a better and better and better product for um uh people in South St Paul through adult basic education um Adult Enrichment ECFE senior programming um other types of community outreach uh really does quite a fantastic job and so I I was able to go and watch um you uh chair human as working within the community ed um Tri District um work and that has been um honestly inspiring so wanted to thank um superintendent srino and chair human again for spending quite a bit of time with me throughout the last month um to talk through just a number of issues that has been very very helpful to learn more um at we are at the beginning of the legislative session and so know that you know we do have issues that um need to go before the legislature this year um including um problems with our compensatory Aid um formula as well as our Equalization formula that um trying to be creative about ways in which we can talk about that and create the um illustrate the problem that really exists there uh for many poor districts across the state um property poor districts um um tax-based poor districts um like South St Paul um I la at the last uh Schoolboard meeting I am now on the long range planning and finance and facilities and so really um looking to learn more about the condition of our facilities here and many of the needed improvements that need to be made there are um there's lots to do and um there's lots to protect both of the history but also creating a really compelling environment for students to learn all across our state um and I hope to be involved in more um community events I've been sort of uh at home recovering from a medical procedure but I know tomorrow night I hope to be at the women's basketball game which I'm very excited about um and finally I just wanted to say that um nationally um it's a really exciting time for many people but for other people it's a really scary time and so I just want to send a message out there that if you're feeling scared or um if you're feeling like I'm not welcome anymore I just want you to know that in South St Paul you are and that we're going to do everything that we can to ensure that you can show up as your full self um to sou St Paul schools and be supported in those environments so thank you director Cummings Vice chair Claflin thank you um I I really have to Echo and thank director Cummings for those words uh we want our schools to be safe places for all of our students and I want to thank the administration and the teachers for the efforts that they've made to um communicate what will um happen with protocols and let students know that school is our our priority your safety at school uh your ability to learn here that's why we're all here um I've also seen a passion uh within our elementary schools we've heard a lot about High School uh activities but the young kids are just as busy those teachers are pulling together all sorts of great enrichment programs for our kids and uh there's some really fun stuff happening there with Lego leagues and geography clubs there's Minds in motion happening after school and all the kids are having so much fun with this uh they're learning guitar they are excited to play math games and just having the best time at school and that's really what I love to see kids loving school thank you thanks director Duffy oh yeah um director Weber to your point I believe uh the one act play will perform in the section finals uh Wednesday at 4:40 at Egan high school so they did move on um but yeah uh a couple things if you want to see some passion I guarantee there's a lot of passion at that dodgeball tournament as former three-time champ of that I can attest um that's a big deal for those kids Jack are you not on a team or I'm not okay took the year off but um yeah uh this past weekend uh the C St Paul wrestling team hosted a tournament uh the veldman Invitational uh and it's uh our wrestling room is named after Pete veldman a former administrator here in C St Paul a long-standing family uh and really uh went off without a without a hitch uh really well-run tournament and uh if you've ever watched the rest of meet there's a lot of passion in the corners from the coaches it's a really loud gymnasium and uh seven mats two in the cafeteria I heard a lot of great things about our new cafeteria from kids from other schools um and then uh using one mat in our multi-purpose room across from the comp gym uh so a lot of fun and seeing that and it looks like a really busy schedule in our Athletics and activities Department coming up this week so hopefully we can get a lot of people there to support our youth thank you Dr Felton yes I just want to have a short discussion about something that has been mentioned already a few times that uh on Thursday January 16th the four of us Kim I Ryan and Dr Zan brino we all attended the msba conference in Minneapolis Convention Center and it is a great opportunity for all all of our members our whole school district to get some recognition and as was already mentioned of course I want to do a huge thank you and congratulations to Kim for getting her leadership development certification and if if you are receiving any type of of an award your name is posted on the brochure so the entire state of Minnesota sees your name and our school district posted accordingly if and when we receive an award so that's that's with that and also the other most exciting thing that we have I know Miss Borg is is sitting in the back there Leah Borg she was invited to participate at as an instructor in a session that us members can attend because we can attend several different classes at the convention and we can pick our own and of course we attended this one with her and this was called a school and public health perspective on the connection between cell phone policies and well-being yeah our Middle School principal Miss Borg was a major major wonderful presenter and even listing here it includes South St Paul Public School District our district name is included on there and and what this was it says this session offers insights from a middle school principal which is ours Miss Leah Borg which is about the phone free school and Public Health experts to explore effective practices for implementating cell phone policies that promote student and staff well-being so I want to thank and congratulating Miss Borg for doing a class she she was invited with a couple other members that were there also attending so for me that was a true honor to to be attending a class with one of our person was packed she had stand yes oh yes it it was it was wonderful so all right so thank you very much and happy New Year to everyone all right I just feel like it's been like a fire hose of getting information and seeing amazing stuff happening in our district that it's hard to like pinpoint what I want to share but I did go to the one act festivals the other weekend and I'm not surprised that our kids have moved to sections because I cried during it so um I'm just really pumped to see that and uh that is the agenda so I will hereby entertain a motion to adjourn the Monday January 27th 2025 school board meeting and I'm looking for a motion so moved thank you Monica second thank you H any discussion all right all those those in favor please say I I I opposed uh the school board meeting is adjourned at 704 p.m. thank you