to the August 19th, 2025 regular meeting for school board Independent School District 622. Um, first up is 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. Thank you. Um so we first have to uh do the approval of the agenda. Could I get a um motion and a second? So move >> second. >> All right. Moved by Livingston, second by U. Martins. Um any discussion? Okay. Um all in favor say I. >> I. I. >> And all oppose say nay. >> All right. Um so that is approved. Um and so we have um next up is our public comment. So this is an opportunity for public to comment on items. Speakers shall register by completing the public comment signup sheet. State their name and will have between two and four minutes depending on the number of speakers to speak on a topic. The public comment section of the meeting shall last no longer than 30 minutes. And we do have a person on the list today. Um so we have is it Greg? How do you say your last name? >> Shiffler. >> Shiffler. Yep. You can come right up to the mic. Um, and this is Greg Shifller, um, our our public comment speaker. >> Hi, thank you so much, uh, for speaking to all of you today. Um, I have had, uh, a number of issues with the swim team and the athletic director in general. Um, I'll start this all out. Two years ago, my son was choked at swimming and nothing was done. Literally, I know the principal was never contacted. The superintendent was never notified. I know all of you have a no tolerance pol tolerance policy. So does our entire school district. Um and nothing was done. This student never missed a day of swimming. Nothing. I brought it to the athletic director and nothing was done. We addressed the fact that the coach is on her phone consistently through the entire practice. Nothing has been done two years later. So now we're fast forward to today. I got notified at 2:30 today. My kid is leaving out of state for a swim meet overnight and they notified me under 72 hours of this event. This is uncalled for. One, as a school district and as a state, we're required to have these policies in place and these notifications in place and nothing. Uh I I don't know. This is this is two occasions that this athletic director has completely broken policy and I have I would ask you to terminate him. I would ask you to terminate any coach that would allow violence in their sport and not penalize any person for that. They shouldn't be a coach. That's not coaching. This person has never gotten in the pool with students. She's not educating them. She's not uplifting them. This is we've got 12 years of losing. And I'm I'm being honest, we are terrible. Like, no offense, fire her and hire somebody new. Maybe a little culture change will change the whole environment. I'm telling you, if these things are happening to my kid, they're happening to other parents. I spoke last night. We had a a bre or um picnic and the coaches refused to have the conversation about the meat. They wanted to talk in private. They didn't want to discuss any of this in front of other parents. They said I was aggressive, made people uncomfortable. I hope I made people uncomfortable. I do hope I made every athletic person that was going to take my kid across state lines without telling me about it very very uncomfortable and I hope that they lose their jobs over it and I ask that of you. I wouldn't want this to be a representative of our students or our school. It's not something that we want to teach them. It's not a method. Like I said, it's a teacher that is on their phone their entire time. Their coaching teaches my kid when he goes to Walmart to work, he's going to be on his phone the whole time. He's going to lose his job. But you know what he saw swimming every day? His coach could do it. His coach would be there for 3 hours a day on their phone not caring about what they're doing. She wrote up on a marker board before they showed up the swims they needed to do and she doesn't pay attention to them after that. These are the things I asked our athletic director to look into two years ago. in two years has gone by and nothing has been done. So, I find this to be something that is I'm asking you to do something immediately. We can't be doing this with our students. You're going to lose popularity in the sport. The kids are not going to want to swim for her. We were We thought we were going to get Tartan's coach and he quit. And that was my son was with him last year and he loved him. He loved this guy. He thought this is okay. this is who's going to be our coach next year. He's gone now. This is his senior year. He's dreading it. He's literally thinking, I don't want to swim, but I'm going to do it. I've been here for 5 years. So, he's going to take the punishment. He's going to swim the crap. He's going to swim between 1,500 and 2,000 meters for practice. You tell me that's practice. That's just putting kids in the pool and telling them to swim. That's not educating them how to dive into a pool, how to turn, how to practice their strokes. They're doing none of this. They're not educating your kid. They're just taking the money and sitting on their phone. So, I thank you all for taking this time and listening to me. I please I I hope that in some way something can be done because I've got a daughter that's in ninth grade and has to go through this for another four years and I really am not looking forward to that for her but she loves swimming and I'll do it but doesn't mean I'm going to do it quietly. So thank you so much. I do appreciate it. >> Thank you Greg. >> And a member of our team will follow up with you. >> No problem. Thank you so much. >> Hi Sam. >> Hi guys. >> Hello everybody. Um my name is Sam Rosemark. Uh I'm here to just speak in support of the levy uh that will be being proposed. Um so for some background 2017 GRD um I'm here to speak in support of the both the uh special the the capital projects but also the um operating levy. Um as a 2017 grad um you know I've experienced multiple of these levies being attempted. Um I wish we would have passed more. You know, I think as a as a Tartan grad, I I experienced, you know, less and less um uh counselors and other support staff um and the district has been getting leaner and leaner and leaner and leaner to the point where um we really need to do something to make sure that our students, our teachers, and all of our staff have the support and services that they need to be um successful so they can be future graduates set up for success. Um, and uh, with that with inflationing constantly increasing and our funding not being able to increase, you know, that gap is just getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Um, thankfully the the legislature has tied inflation to, you know, the the normal funding, but there's still that gap that persists. Um, and I think, you know, I think we're in the bottom 25% of funding in terms of all the metro districts. So, 75% of all the districts in the metro receive more funding than us. Now, walking in today, I saw there like they're doing two days and whatnot out on the football fields. So, I'm a Tartan grad, so I'm not going to say anything bad about the Polers. Uh, we did we did beat them. But um so when I played football, if we were losing that much, not losing, but if if we were doing less than 75% of all of our other all of our teams that we were facing, that would not be good. If we were losing to Mona, if we were losing to similing, that would not be good. Um so I really encourage folks to um to support the levy both in the community here as well. Um and investing, you know, I think it's a $4 increase net increase if this new levy passes. that is thinking about the return on investment for our kids and for our teachers um that will go a very long way. Keeping our local dollars locally, multiplying that within our community um really will serve a a great uh purpose for for our kids um and make sure again that our our our kids and um the teachers have the support that they need to continue to do the work that they love to do. So um that's all I wanted to comment on. Thank you. Welcome. >> Thank you, Sam. All right. Um, next up we have the consent agenda. Um, this consists of routine items are acted on in a single consolidated motion without board discussion. Board members have the option of pulling items off the consent agenda if they wish to discuss them or consider them individually. Um, would anyone like to pull anything out? >> Can I pull up ID awards, please? All right. So, um, Swore asked to take out I the grant awards. Um, so do we discuss that now or go ahead and >> you can vote on the other ones and then do the separate conversation. >> Okay. All right. >> Okay. Um, so could I get >> Sorry, that's >> Yeah, that's later. Yep. Um, so could I get a motion um to recommend the consent agenda items listed below except for I to be approved as presented? So, >> right. Moved by Anderson, seconded by Martins. Um, any additional discussion. All right. Um, all approved say I. >> I. >> And all oppose say nay. All right. Um, and so, um, Katie Swore, do you want to talk about the I, um, grant awards that you pulled out? >> Yes, thank you. Um, I just wanted to call attention to the Minnesota Department of Ed Native Language Revitalization Grant. Um, the American Indian Ed team worked really hard on both applying for the grant, modifying the grant when they were notified of award too late to start it last year. Um, and also how hard they work to find someone and find a way to make this work for the kids in the district. Um, so what'll end up happening is that it'll be part of flight for the middle school students and then um we just approved the uh the person who will be the sort of language and culture teacher. Um, but then there's also going to be enhanced um monthly family gettogethers. Um, and I'm just I'm really excited about this both for uh for my son personally and for all of the the families in the district. This is really unique um and a really great opportunity. All right. Um, can we go ahead and motion to approve that now? Okay. Um, could I get a um motion and a second to approve? I >> second. >> All right. Moved by Sor, seconded by Martins. Um, any discussion. >> All right. All in favor say I. >> And all oppose say nay. All right. Um, so that one passes. Thank you. Uh next up we have our reports. Um student school board representatives are not yet back. So we'll move to our assistant superintendent um secondary side. >> Did you memorize the Exactly. >> I think I have to come to the computer to move the slides, >> but I get to move over here. Okay. >> A little song and dance. So, um, cherry, members of the board, uh, Superintendent Tuio, thanks for the opportunity to share a little bit about our work so far with Levby 2025 and, uh, shared some of this with you the with the work session. It's great uh to be here to be able to share a little bit more with the community and more to come. I think as we build up towards the start of the school year and we get closer to that November 4th date, there will be more and more information coming uh to the community. So, first this is uh essentially um what we're calling kind of a road show. uh the information that we would provide to the community as we went uh to school sites if there was a meeting happening at one particular site, a community meeting at the Rotary. Um working with the superintendent to put this language together and our finance director to be able to put together this information to share kind of the facts and and what we're asking for uh in November. So, some basics about our school district and I don't need to go over all of this, but essentially um you know that our school district um with the realignment was aligned with schools that are aligned and metriculate to North High School and we are those are our schools that are in red and those that are in blue metriculate to Tartan High School. And we have district-wide programs at um at early learning and certainly our transition programs. And we do have one elementary school that has that split that goes to both um uh goes to both Tartan or sorry middle schools both the John Glenn and to Sky View and that's Justice um Justice Alen Page. So basically we have two questions that we're asking. There's two questions. One is related to the operating levy which funds um all of our general programs and it funds our salaries and staff for um all the programs that we do for kids in our in our community. We're asking for an increase in our operating levy. We haven't asked for that increase since 2016 and we are asking for a portion of that levy to be revoked and replace with a different dollar amount. The second question is a capital projects levy which funds um essential technology essentially for learning and for safety and security. Both of those things and we think both questions are critically important for us to be able to continue to run our schools. One of the things you'll see in the news is is that many many communities around the state of Minnesota are asking their voters for increases. And so we are not alone. And why is that happening? It's happening because uh the although state funding has gone up and you can see that bottom red line here on the graph, it has not kept pace with the cost of running schools and inflation. So you can see over 20 years a widening gap between the funding that has come from the state and what is needed to fund schools and the cost of salaries, the cost of utilities, the cost of materials, uh the cost of any uh building resources, all of those have gone up and the pace of that funding from the state has not kept pace with um those costs. Um there's a video embedded and I'd like to share it with you tonight and maybe with the community. It's really well done and I think it explains um why we're seeing so many communities going to their voters for local funding. After headlines across Minnesota declared record school funding in 2023, you may be asking yourself, why are so many school districts making budget cuts and going to voters for more funding? >> Here are the top reasons Minnesota schools are struggling to balance budgets. Number one, inflation. Families aren't the only ones feeling the impact of rising costs for school districts. The costs of labor, health insurance, property insurance, and school bus transportation continue to rise. The 2023 inflationary increase to the general education formula is a step forward, but it doesn't make up for decades of underfunding and failing to keep up with rising inflationary costs. Number two, unfunded and underfunded mandates from the state. When it comes to some of the most costly things schools have to pay for, it's the state legislature, not the local school board, who makes these decisions. From implementing new instructional strategies to increasing curricular requirements, to providing unemployment benefits, there are decisions made at the state level that local districts must follow. While the state may offer one-time funds to help pay for some new requirements, the ongoing costs are often the school district's responsibility. And number three, the changing role of schools in our communities. The needs of students are different than they were 10, 20, or 30 plus years ago. From mental health support for students, specialized learning assistance, family resources, and career programs to help meet workforce needs, schools have taken on additional responsibilities to meet the needs of their students and community. When you add rising safety needs, aging buildings and technology, and declining birth rates, it's clear why Minnesota districts struggle to balance their budgets. School funding is complex with the majority of funding coming through the state in the form of general education aid. Schools also receive funds for specific categories that can only be spent on certain items. Additional needs are then covered by property taxes. In other words, just because the state is providing us with more dollars doesn't mean we can use those dollars wherever we like. Each year, we tackle the challenge of balancing these funding sources with our increasing expenses to build an effective budget that meets student needs. When our student needs exceed state and local funding, we may seek additional support through a referendum. As you can see, there's more to the story beyond headlines of schools receiving record funding, inflation, unfunded mandates, and a changing role for schools. Funding schools is an investment in our students, community, and future. Please reach out to your elected officials and share your story so they can help do their part to make sure our students and our schools are receiving the resources they need for success. Visit our website to learn more. >> I did it. Okay, successful without even tech support. >> Granger knows that if you're a lineman in charge of keeping the lights on, you go to great lengths and sometimes heights to ensure the power is always flowing. Which is why you can count on Granger for professionalgrade products and next day delivery. So you >> uh YouTube >> you know actually a story at one time I was doing that I showed this very compelling video to staff it's very powerful and so on and I continued to talk to him and it jumped to the next video and I wondered why everybody in the audience was started to laugh. It was because of the next video on YouTube. So anyway all right so um essentially I want to make sure I I go back and talk about our priorities. Okay. Um, our priorities historically have been about maintaining class sizes and keeping them low. We've invested in early learning, rigorous courses like college in the schools, AP, transportation for students to be able to get to career and tech programs. Um, we've invested in school nurses. Um, we have RNs at all of our schools, which is not typical for many school districts. Many mental health supports through Project Aare high-tech safety systems. all the construction, all the work that we have invested in, secure vestibules, cameras, um communication systems, um to be able to address safety threats that are online or safety threats that could be uh in our schools, visitor management, all the things are investing that we think are priorities here. Transportation zones that we feel like we can have a broad enough transportation zone to get our kids eligible for for busing. We have all of our classrooms districtwide that are airond conditioned that will come if you've been outside today. Can be a little nasty. So, luckily we have air conditioning for to make our kids and our staff comfortable. Career and work experiences. We invest in clubs and activities and sports and uh clubs and fine arts. Um extensive summer programs and we still invest in afterchool uh activity buses. So kids can be in flight, they can be in sports, they can be in theater and have transportation home. Now with all of that, we have been investing in those things. As you saw, that gap between state funding and our our expenses continues to grow. So over the last two years, we have made significant budget uh reductions in order to balance the budget because that that is our responsibility is to balance the budget and you have been part of that as a school board. So in 2024, $4 million was cut from the budget and this last cycle, $7 million was cut from the budget. We really feel like um we have done everything possible to maintain all of our priorities while still staying within our budget and it's just getting more and more challenging. So question one, what we're asking is to revoke and replace our existing operating levy. It revokes $26 of our current levy and replaces that portion with $1,152.83. And why are we asking for this increase in the operating levy is to maintain our class sizes which are are in good shape um in comparison to many surrounding communities, protect essential student programs, retain and hire high quality staff, and opportunity to strengthen elementary art experiences. We think this is something that we don't have right now that we would like to invest in. if we had additional revenue. So, the total operating levy right now is $1,19 per pupil. If question one passes, that would increase to $1,965. On the website, there will be a tax uh calculator, an impact calculator. Just for your information, people that are listening, question one, if it passed, a $300,000 homeowner would pay $22 more per month. That's what question one would cost and that's what we're asking for. Question two is a capital projects levy. It collects $2 million annually for the next 10 years for technology infrastructure. Why are we asking for these dollars? To fund critical technology and security infrastructure, classroom hardware and sophomore and technology staff that support all learners and the staff in our buildings. Now, it's important to know that we will continue to invest in technology for security and learning in this district. Whether this question passes or not, however, right now, without this dedicated capital projects levy, it makes it very difficult and we draw from the general fund to be able to pay for those things. We'll continue to invest because they're critical for learning and safety for our students and staff. If question two passes, the tax impact for a $300,000 homeowner is $4 a month net tax increase. So, the two questions together, $26 a month for a $300,000 homeowner. But specifically for homeowners or people that are watching, that tax impact calculator will be on the website. You can check that out. Um what it would mean for you as a as a homeowner. Um just to give um an example up here, this is a graph of the cost and the collection of per pupil dollars um around a number of metro schools. The orange bar is the operating levy and the blue bar is the capital projects levy. Okay, it's very small. I had it highlighted before, but North St. Paul uh Maplewood Oakdale is in that bottom half right now. It has a orange line which is $1,19 for our operating levy and it has a zero for our capital projects levy. So you can see between surrounding schools that per pupil spending combined where we compare to our surrounding districts, Stillwater, South Washington, White Bear, Mamemita, etc. And um I think what we're asking is to continue to be competitive um and be able to fund the things that we need to support our students. some really great news that came out. Um, whenever you go out for a referendum, we work with consulting firms and Morris Leatherman is the gold standard, I think, with talking with school communities about how their community feels about potentially asking for a referendum. And we went out this April and got very good feedback uh from our community members surveyed and that is both parents and community members that don't have kids currently in our system. And they gave us feedback that said 62 is meeting learning needs of students. They spend our resources effectively. Investing in 62 is a good investment. They trust district decision-making. 62 supports community involvement. It has spent previous referendum funds responsibly. So in general, high trust, strong approval of the work that our teachers do and our administrators do and the school board. So we're in position. and we think uh to be able um and a positive uh position to be able to go out for this levy. So why this matters and again this is for everyone listening. Strong public schools are the foundation of strong communities. Okay? They protect property values. They attract families and businesses to our community when they have strong schools and they reduce long-term social costs. 622 continues to spend our dollars very wisely. We have been running very lean and we spend every single nickel on kids and staff that are serving students here. And despite a widening gap, um we continue to run high quality schools and provide an excellent education for the students at 622. And then we have talented educators. Okay. Uh we our teachers are highly regarded by our community. They are outstanding. Our support staff, our school administrators are outstanding. We want to be able to stay competitive um to both hire and retain that staff. So, um election day information, early voting for people that are li listening, you can get out and vote as early as September 19th. Early voting in both uh Ramsey and Washington County and election day is November 4th. And again, all of this information is on our website under uh levy 2025. and you'll continue to see more in the community both in public mailings and certainly for parents that are listening through um our website, school newsletters and so to and get more information. You're welcome to contact the district at any time, myself, district communication to be able to get more information. Okay, what questions do I have? Can I answer from the board tonight? And now I can look this direction. >> Uh thanks Andy. Um really solid information. I uh just wanted to say the way I think about it is that uh the state of Minnesota does not give us enough money to run the district the way um students deserve and the way um families deserve what and what they expect. So we need to make up the difference and um and we're not alone in this. everybody across the state um I mean every district across the state has that is meeting you know facing that same expectation right um uh how many do we know how many other districts in the state um you know have um an operating uh levy or operating in levy in place currently >> um I think many of school districts have an operating levy in case almost everyone. There are some few school districts that don't. They just take just that state those state dollars. The variation, however, between the amount that they collect from the cap. There's some school districts that collect collect >> up to the cap of what they can >> and um there's some that are have smaller levies and again that's where we are right now because we haven't gone back to the voters in a long period of time uh to be able to ask for an increase. >> Right. And um you know it's our duty really to do this. Uh obviously it's not pleasant to ask people to raise their own taxes but um I feel like as a school board we'd be derelct in our duty if we didn't at least ask. So yeah. Can I add a comment too? If I could add a comment too, I think that's important to remember is that not all states in the country rely on local taxpayers as much as Minnesota does. Um, many do, but many don't. And so I think in Minnesota, it's important to remember that the expectation is that part of school funding comes from local property taxes. And so it's unfortunate, but it's definitely the world that we live in um here in Minnesota. And so, um, that's one of those things we have to periodically go back to and and renew and and update for current times and current costs. Also, want to thank you and this is a really impressive uh, slideshow. Gives a lot of information. I think will answer a lot of questions and um, hopefully help people understand why this is important and also understand how uh, how to vote. Um, and I lost my train of thought, which is very sad. Oh, I did I did want to note that one thing Minnesota does have is a property tax refund. And so I would just also like to remind uh everyone in the community that um come I think August uh I think you apply in May and then you get your refund in August. And just want to make sure people are aware of all of the different opportunities to kind of help um alleviate again whether or not this passes that is available. But um I do agree with Nancy that there are a lot of important things that we have done and continue to do and we want to still do and then the things that we can add um for our students and our community um if these pass. So thank you again for the good work. Thank you so much. I think that's it. Um, next up we have >> Trisha's gonna do policies. >> All right. Thank you, Cherry Yang, Superintendent Tuio Sorio, and directors of the board. Um, as you're all too familiar, this time of year, we have the opportunity to revisit some potential revisions or recommended revisions to our policies based on either statutory changes or or other district recommended changes. Um and as part of that, we require three readings to um review those revisions and answer questions. Tonight will be our second reading for the policy revisions that we're bringing forward. I have 13 that I'll review with you this evening. Um and so I will work, excuse me, walk through those, provide a brief summary of what those um recommended revisions are and be happy to answer any questions if you have any. Um so our first is policy 414 which is the mandated reporting of child neglect or physical or sexual abuse. Uh the recommended change here is strictly an update based on statutory language changes that have taken place. Second is policy 418 the drug-free workplace drug-free school policy. And this is again um out of statutory language change adding provisions for um individuals who may be enrolled in the tribal medical cannabis program as well as the statutory requirements for having a cannabis and substance abuse or use education for secondary students effective the 26 27th school year which our department of teaching and learning is actively working on at this time. Next is policy 501 which is the school weapons policy. Um this change it reflects changes to definitions within the policy. Next, policy 503 is regarding our student attendance and this reflects a change to update the excused absence procedures. Let me know if you want me to slow down on any of this. Um, next is policy 515, which is the protection and privacy of pupil records. uh updates within there or recommended revisions are updates due to statutory language as well as directory information. Next we have policy 516 student medication and teleaalth. And these changes um recommended here are just uh in relation to definitions and changes in that policy. Policy 621 the literacy and read act policy. the changes in incorporated there within are in alignment with the new Minnesota or the updated Minnesota redact state statute requirements and also updating language to be um consistent with current coming school year timelines. Next is policy 416, which is the drug, alcohol, and cannabis testing. And this is a update to just the statute reference number within the policy. Policy 425, staff development and mentoring. And this is um a language that removes language that only pertain to the 2425 school year. Um policy 606.5 library materials. This is an update and actually this was after conversation we had at our first reading last week to further clarify the who has the final authority on selection of the materials um for our uh for library materials. And second to last I have policy 613 which is graduation requirements. This is a update to statutory references as well. Sorry. Policy 620, credit for learning. Again, a reflect in the change of the statute reference. And lastly, policy 624, online learning options, which again is an update reflecting the statute referenced within the policy. Those are the recommended revisions. Um and as being the second reading, there is no action required on that this evening's third. Any questions? >> First of all, I want to thank you again for all the work of reviewing the policies, matching them up to new um statutory language and um just getting that all organized and making it easy for us to see what the revisions were. Um and then again the the work to take our comments into consideration. I just wanted to make a note on 418, the drug-free workplace school. Um, one thing we talked about in the um, study session last week is that there's going to be a requirement for the 2627 school year that all this um, middle and high school students will have to have available the comprehensive education program on cannabis use and substance use. And I was really glad to learn that that won't be a huge change for our district because we already incorporate that um material and um the >> in our health. >> Yes. In the health curriculum and they have that opportunity and and they get that learning. So um always great to hear that we're ahead of the curve. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you so much. Um, next up we have Superintendent Tuigio with back to school readiness. >> I'll do the song and dance over here as well. Let me make sure. Oh, good. >> Thank you. Make sure this is turned on. Okay, great. Well, uh, I'll do the little song and dance as well. Um, we're going to just I'm just going to review a few back to school readiness updates for you. And of course at this time of year we do them peri pretty pretty regularly and so we'll do these again in in September after school started with some additional data around back to school information. One thing I wanted to mention right away is that um families students and families should be looking for a postcard that's going to be coming out in the mail. If they haven't already received it, they should be very very soon. And this includes a link to the student and family handbook. So, of all the policies, you just heard some policy revision proposals coming through. Those that directly relate to students and families are highlighted on this postcard. And so, we used to mail out a a thick booklet and now instead we have this postcard with a QR code on it so people can get the link to look up these policies. And we just want to make sure that everybody's paying close attention to those. Um, and there's some information on the back as well about signing up for educational benefits. Um, many people think of that as the free and reduced price lunch forms, but those forms don't just qualify you because we do have free lunches nowadays in our schools anyway. Um, but they do make sure that if you uh qualify in terms of income for reduced rates on all kinds of other fees within the school year like athletics and clubs and things like that. So, we just want to make sure that everybody takes time. Don't don't let this land in your recycling bin without taking a quick look at it when it arrives. So, all right. All right, I just want to share some overview information with you. This is just our district or chart, kind of the departments that exist within our our district headquarters here. Um, I won't read all the details to you, but at least it's there for everybody's reference and board book as well. These are the program leaders that we have this year. So, school principles, assistant principles, associate administrators, and deans. Um, and you can kind of see the overview of of who's supervising each of our programs. um not just in our traditional school settings but in our non-traditional school settings as well as special education settings, care and treatment facilities, etc. Now, uh this staffing update is as of last week, August 15th. So, you're going to see more information coming your way in the next week. Um, I will tell you our HR department has been hopping every day as they finalize everybody's um, on boarding that's coming on board. So, you'll see more information coming to you in the coming days as well. But, as of last Friday when we published board book, this is the information that HR sent me. And I did ask our HR director Amy Lee Yang to include of the new teachers, educators coming into 622, what kind of experience do they have? And it's really important. We had an amazing welcome back event or get started orientation week with our new educators this week. Um, and the energy in the room was amazingly positive. It was so much fun on Monday. We got to greet them all and and they've been busy at work all week here. But it's important to note that of those who are new to 622, the vast majority are not newbies to teaching. Um, in fact, we asked in the group and there were even more than this that we're onboarding by Monday even. and how many are brand new and the vast majority are coming to us with lots of experience and we're so grateful for everyone who is you know making a lateral move to come to us from other places bringing all of their experience gifts and talents with them. So um we're very excited about that. Uh I mentioned to our I mentioned to our board at our study session, but I think it's really important to highlight as well. As you may recall, um last year we hired for the first time international teachers mainly to help support with our special education teacher license licensed teacher shortage in the state of Minnesota. We have quite a shortage of licensed special education teachers. And so last year um we did hire 11 teachers internationally from the Philippines. Every one of those 11 returned again this year. They're really turned out to be fantastic teachers for us and another they are joined by another nine international teachers this year. And so it's been so positive um the enthusiasm and energy. In fact, we had an orientation day for our new arriving international teachers last week and the veteran international teachers from a year ago actually came of their own free will to join them and welcome them and spent the day in orientation training at their sides just to make sure they felt welcomed and supported. So, that was pretty exciting. As of right now, we have well, this is as of last Friday and I will tell you that number has gone down quite a bit even since then because a lot of these were pending offers. uh we were still as of last week looking at 106 employee vacancies. For context, we have about 2,000 employees overall. So that gives you kind of a sense of how many within that u I'd have to figure out what the percentage is. Um but uh that's actually gone down even since then, but this gives you a little bit of a look. It looks it's pretty comparable to where we were last year at this time. Um, but again, I'll have some more updates for you in the next coming days as far as when these where we're at with these numbers, but I know that even as of this morning, there's a lot more of those have been filled even since last week. So, we'll keep giving you those updates every week as we go forward. But, um, we are getting closer and closer to being fully staffed and ready for the start of school. And as a reminder, our first day of school is the day after Labor Day. Just giving you a little quick look here. Uh if I can even click on this. Um this is our 622 district calendar for families. When you look up our district calendar on our website, one thing that I find helpful, you can look, if I can get this to scroll, um if you scroll to where it says print calendars, that can give you sort of a big picture overview all at once. And so that's sometimes helpful for people to just keep in mind. And so you can kind of see all the key dates on there. Um really important. Our calendar committee is just getting started now to put together calendar recommendations for next school year. So, you'll be seeing information about that coming up as well. But, um, please pay attention because our first day of school, the day after Labor Day, we actually are starting classes that day for grades one through six and grade nine, just like we did last year. this for our middle and high school students. It allows those new sixth graders and those new ninth graders to have a day in the building with all the staff supporting them and having their orientation before the rest of the students arrive. We've done that the last few years and it's worked out really really well for making smooth transitions for especially those important grades where we have a lot of transitions happening. Um, I mentioned already our new educator week that's happening right now. And if you click on that, you can kind of see there's a lot of detail in there. Our teaching and learning department has been really busy at work all summer getting that ready. And then welcome back week, which is our when all the rest of the licensed teachers show up next week. And this is kind of their professional development calendar for the whole school year. So you can kind of see some key dates in there as well. Um, but I will tell you this time of year we reach a point where every available space that can be reserved for meetings and orientations and gatherings is booked out because we are pretty busy around here right now with everybody coming back. And last week we had our clerical welcome back with all of our um office coordinators and school receptionists. And what a a positive group. In fact, that group a very large group of people. Well, I know there were over 65 people in the room and I said, "How many are new to 62 this year?" And one hand went up. I was like, "Look at that. Everybody coming back. It's been so positive." This is our current enrollment counts again as of last week. So, um you'll get some updated numbers. These are very very preliminary. So, um we always talk about our enrollment numbers those first opening days of school. Um, we have had even since this time where we took this role an enrollment count, our enrollment center, if you walk by here at the front entrance of this building has been packed with people every day. In fact, today was just all day, all day, all day, groups of families coming through. So, that'll continue to go up. And when school begins, um, in fact, Andy and Trisha are are really great about this, but every day we actually take a count, uh, day one, day two, day three. Um, how many students actually showed up, how many meals did we serve, because that's another way to cross-check numbers and see where we're at with things. And I will tell you, we're always building. You know, when we talked about this a lot last year, we built all of our um staffing allocations based on our traditional class size targets in district 622. And we aim to kind of balance classes as well as we can, but as we know, sometimes students show up the first week of school that weren't already pre-registered or some who were registered didn't show up. And um we always say that like in our middle schools, kids don't show up in even packages of 150 students. So sometimes you get little bubbles in the mix. We are constantly, as we call them, hotspots, monitoring the first day, the second day, the third day for hotspots. Wherever we might see a class size that's getting larger than expected or one that's lower than expected, we start doing our work to try to see how we can better balance those. So that's the art of the first few days of school, actually weeks for that matter. Um, and when we have our September 23rd schoolboard meeting, we'll do a full another report with you about student enrollment and staffing numbers and all of that, so you can kind of see where we're at. Uh, I wanted to include in here a reminder of our school start times. In district 622, we actually own most of our school buses. They are 622 employees. The drivers are. The buses are owned by our district. We're very proud of that. I think it's it's allowed us to maintain um a very much lower level of turnover than probably some of our thirdparty contractors. So that's really uh we're proud of that. We do still have some outsourced uh routes through first student and others. I will tell you that our tiered busing system means that our drivers, they do four four rounds of bus drop offs and pickups and that doesn't even count the pre-k routes in the noon hour that some of our drivers also support with. So, as you can see, um it's pretty packed together and back to back to back as we get going in the mornings, but for families, just a reminder, those first weeks of school, they can be delayed a little bit. Buses can be a little later than usual as drivers are learning new routes and students are remembering where they need to go and routines are being reestablished, but we have an app that every family can track their child's school bus on. It's called My Ride K12 and people can scan that. There's also links on our school website as well where you can log in and and track in real time where your school bus is in the moment. So, that's a really handy feature, especially too like on a snowy morning where there's a little bit of a delay because there's snow on the roads or whatever. It's a good way to kind of know when your bus is coming and and if it's a little late, where it is, how far away it is. I just want to remind everybody as well that our school buses all have uh cameras on them on the inside of the buses and the outside of the buses and even our smaller buses and vans which transport smaller groups of students also have cameras on them. So if anyone ever comes home and has a concern about something that may have happened on a school bus, call the school. We can pull the video and see what happened. if somebody says somebody was picking on them or, you know, something happened that was disrespectful, we can always and we do pull the videos and investigate what happened. So, just want to remind everybody about that technology that does exist because, um, all of those things are in place to help keep our students safe and we want people to be aware of those options. Um, construction updates, as you know, we have had many years of construction going on in district 622. I think Tartan High School has overall been our largest construction project, renovation project. And as you recall, the last couple years at Tartan have been really, really heavy lifting. Um, all of last school year, we had to enter through the back side of the building because the front side of the building was under construction. Um, it is so exciting how well that is coming together. and um oh my goodness, the students when they walk through the doors are just going to be amazed at the changes in their school. So, we're very excited about that. We also coming up this year are working on a new upcoming addition to Cow Elementary School. In fact, we also have a neighborhood meeting to kind of talk through and explain the proposed additions at Cow. We had one scheduled earlier um this summer, but due to some mailing glitches, those postcards didn't reach the neighbors until the day of the event, which is not acceptable. So, a second um event has been scheduled, and that's happening tomorrow evening at Cowin Elementary for those who live in the neighborhood to kind of get a good understanding of what the proposed plan is, what the timeline is. Um, but it's going to be basically uh a small addition onto the building of Cowern Elementary School to try to alleviate some of the um some of the overcrowding and needs that we have in some of our elementary schools um just to make sure we're balancing out uh our enrollment assignments. I will tell you the reason we were able to add Cowan on is because our overall budget from all the construction projects we've been doing in the last eight years was under budget overall and we it's hard to even believe but we really got ahead of that before uh the supply chain shortages happened with the pandemic and so we really um managed to get a lot of work done before a lot of those costs and inflationary increases started hitting. So we're very excited about that. I'd also like to mention that because we're nearing the end of a really long period of construction in our district, we will be having a big facilities open house right here in our boardroom here in the district education center. that's taking place on Thursday, October 2nd from 4:00 to 8:00 PM. And it is going to be really neat because every building in our district is going to have a table set up with uh a Smartboard or projection screen attached to it and a running slide deck of photos of the progression with the construction then and now and and some information and maps and layouts of what those buildings look like. Now, each of those tables will also have a clipboard, a sign up where people who are visiting and kind of coming through this. Think of it like a gallery walk in a museum, if you will. Um, people can also sign up at each of those stations if they say, you know, I used to work at Tarton 20 years ago. I really want to see that building in person. There'll be a place where people can sign up uh to be invited. If you're interested in a physical tour of that building, we'll collect people's signups as well at this event. So, it should be pretty cool. We're trying to really think outside the box in this because we know how long it would take for people to drive around to 20 buildings in our school district and see them all at one time. So, this is a way to give everybody a virtual tour. So, that again is going to take place on October 2nd, which is a Thursday, right here in this boardroom from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. And it's not a set presentation time. It's a drop in as you can kind of opportunity. So, that'll be really fun. I want to point out as well that um Trisha and her health services team have been working hard to put together um some vaccination clinics for our students. And here's a schedule of where those are taking place um for kids to make sure they get those sports physicals in and other vaccine clinics and get their vaccines up to date. And of course, everything we do is continuing to be anchored to our strategic plan which was passed in 2024. And we still have the five buckets or goal areas that we've been working on for the last few years and will continue to do so. Academic achievement, graduation and post-secondary readiness, safety and security, social emotional learning, and equity and inclusion in our schools. And so, um, all of our school improvement plans that we have to submit to the state every year and the board gets copies of all of those, all of those are anchored to our strategic plan. And, um, the evaluation of employees are tied to this strategic plan. And so, um, we're going to keep on reporting to the board. As you get your series of presentations this year from school principles and program directors and leaders, you'll get to hear uh throughout the whole school year how everything everybody's doing is connected to these five buckets within our strategic plan. With that, I'll take any comments, questions you have about back to school readiness. I feel like I need pompoms or so. Like it it's exciting to listen to you give us our presentation on this and just the excitement in your voice. I think it's being reciprocated from staff coming in um tartan almost being complete is amazing. I feel like the um phases that we've gone in and done tours. So that will be really exciting for um students and staff and families to see that. So, I'm excited about that. And while we're ramping up for the new year, which is really exciting, like amazing staff this summer who have done all the work. This is our last week of AC. And so, I'm like, "Oh, no." But like that just kudos to the staff. I got the email for the bus app and I did it today. I maybe had my kids's ID wrong, so I actually had to email and staff was very receptive to my um fat fingering the numbers for his thing. But um thank you for the presentation and I think it really goes to show the the magnitude of what our district is and all the work that goes in and the staff that come back and they're exciting um excited about it. So um I just so excited for it. It's coming. Like, squeeze out the last bit of summer because we're gonna be here in two weeks. >> So, true. >> So, thank you. >> And as a reminder, at our September board meeting, you'll also hear a presentation to give you the overview of all the programs that happened in the summer, how many students attended, that sort of thing. So, we do that every September as well. >> Um, yeah, I think we are the biggest employer in North St. Paul, Maplewood, Oakdale, 2,000 employees. We have a $200 million plus budget. Uh we're a big operation with um many many um people involved. So this is just huge to get this uh up and running again. Uh and uh so thank you to all your team for for for all that they've done. And uh the energy is building. I'm I know that I can feel it uh in my own family and my grandchildren and uh you know back to school uh to go back being made left and right. Um so um yeah, we're all looking forward to it. So um hopefully the humidity will go down some so we uh you know it's just a little more comfortable and I think it will. I think that's the forecast anyway. And every single classroom in 622 is now airond conditioned. >> That's really I mean really when you think back where we were 8 10 years ago that's unbelievable. >> Yeah it is. It is. It's huge. So um so yeah we're all looking forward to it. Also the uh the welcome back at Woodland Hills um in the morning with uh all the staff assembled. Last year I don't think we had it because of >> Well, we had it at Yeah, you're right. You're right. because of the read act last year we had every minute programmed for that >> right but that's always a very uh um you know high energy affair uh and um so looking forward to attending that say thank you >> I have a few questions um um so we talked about like teachers and how many were new in the district how many principles are returning we have everybody returning, almost everybody, right? >> We have one new principal in the district this year, and he's not a new principal, but he's new 2622. Um, and that is Arthur Williams, the principal at uh Carver Elementary School. And he comes to us with many years of principal experience in Winona and in South Washington County Schools. And most recently, he was uh the elementary director of teaching and learning for South Washington County Schools. And he's very happy to be with us, and everybody loves him already. So, it's a great addition to our team. >> Yeah. And I think that's amazing because for my kids going through, you know, elementary school, middle school, it was really nice to have the consistency of that the school leadership. So, um I think that's amazing that and it's telling of our district. So, >> um I know last year for our international teachers, they had the come teach in Minnesota bonus that was discontinued by the state, right? >> Yeah. The funding from the state um ran out on that program. Um, so we don't have that, but um, we've managed to work out with a lot of our international staff about helping them. Um, and our equity uh department and our teaching and learning and our HR teams have been amazing at helping navigate ways to uh, for example, help figure out how to get deposits paid on apartments before they get their first paycheck, you know, and so um, some of the recruiters that we work with uh, through uh, the Philippine Connection have been amazing in problem solving those issues along the way as well. >> Okay. Um, and then Tartan parking, >> it's all opening up and ready to go this year. Go ahead. >> I'm sure that it will always be smooth. Um, but new, um, new bus drop off, new parent drop off. Some of that information will go out to Tartan parents that's coming up. So, um, everyone will be going through the new front entry instead of the back of the building. Students parking in front, teachers parking in back. Um, but obviously there will be some kinks, but some maps and videos will be sent out by principal descent. >> And no more having to overflow park into churches nearby. Isn't that exciting? >> Yay. Um, and then the the vaccination clinics. Is there a cost for that or >> no? Look at that. No cost. >> Free clinics. >> That's amazing. >> Okay. Yeah. I don't have anything except my kids told me that back to school is a bad word in our house, so I'm not allowed to say it. So, >> I have one little tip for parents out there. I love to share this one. One of the trickiest things when you have kids who've spent time over the summer >> or a teacher husband of yours that's been staying up late at night, too, and needs to get back on schedule. Hypothetically speaking, no, my husband's a teacher and he's um but we joke about that. But one of the things it's really hard sometimes after kids have gotten their schedule later and later during the summer to suddenly have to get up early and be on time. And I always say the easiest way to turn that around is not trying to start by getting your kids to go to bed earlier. It's to start by getting them up earlier. So if I used to do this with my kids when they were little, you know, like, okay, we're going to wake up early at 6:00 a.m. on Labor Day and go to Starbucks. And my daughter, who at her young age loved her hot chocolate from Starbucks, it was like the biggest treat in the world. And I'd wake her up at 6 a.m. and say, "Okay, we're going to Starbucks." and she would get up without complaint because she liked her hot chocolate from Starbucks. Whatever motivates them, but I think one of the things the easiest ways to get people to go to bed early is to first wake them up early. And so I always give that tip to families when you're trying to turn whether it's a little kid or an older teenager or an adult teacher who needs to get back on schedule. That's a way to go about it. It's one way to help. >> It's a good tip. But yeah, um I I echo what Julia was saying too. Just thanks to admin, everybody um holding on the floor over the summer and getting things ready. Um I'm excited for the school year. So um yeah, it'll be a good year. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Uh next up, we just have the superintendent's evaluation. Um so uh we evaluated um Superintendent Tujioso at the June 24th close session. Um and then statute requires that we have to give a summary of that evaluation at the board this board meeting. So I'm going to read the executive summary. Um so the school board met on June 10th for the annual evaluation of Superintendent Tui Tui Osorio. Um, Superintendent Tujioso is a respected and effective leader who continues to demonstrate highly effective leadership in key areas central to the district's success. The board believes her performance demonstrates a clear commitment to community engagement, equity, staff development, and strategic use of data to inform decision-making. Uh the superintendent continues to be an extraordinary subject matter expert, is sensitive to school climate and district matters, cultivates a leadership pipeline, and maintain strong relationships. In reflection of the past academic year, we believe the superintendent's work thrives in her understanding of data, equity, and relationships, all of which benefit our district and its communities and support the work of her team and successful implementation of our strategic plan. In our review of data, efforts, and impact, the board believes data trends are moving us in the right direction. However, it is important to note that we remain disappointed in our test scores this past year. Our evaluation results confirm our belief that our strategic plan and the efforts of the superintendent and her team have created a strong foundation to increase student success for all our learners, increasing academic achievement, graduation, safety and security, social emotional learning and equity and inclusion. The board believes Superintendent Tutio's leadership, commitment to equity, and student success and strategic vision aligns with the district's goals. There is continued work to be done, particularly in improving academic outcomes, and we we remain confident that under the superintendent's guidance, we are moving in the right direction to build on our progress and meet the challenges ahead. We look forward to continued collaboration and growth in the coming academic year. Thank you to you and your team. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um, next up we have adoption. Oh, wait, no. Action items. Uh, first up is finance the acknowledgement of contributions. Minnesota state statute 123B.02 02 permits school boards to receive for the benefit of the district bequests, donations or gifts for any proper purpose and apply the same to the purpose designated. In that behalf, the board may act as trustee of any trust created for the benefit of the district and for the benefit of pupils thereof. Therefore, the director of finance recommends the following resolution. Be it resolved by the school board of independent school district number 622 that the school board accept with appreciation the following con contributions and permit their use as designated by the donors. Knights of Columbus, $974 to Community Bridge. Michael Ta, $50 to Gladstone Meals on Wheels. Kenny Family Foundation, $13,000 to programming for adults with disabilities. Rachel Cavven Cavane, $1,000 to North High band class trip scholarships. This brings the total fiscal year 2025 2026 monetary contributions to $15,024. >> All right. Could I get a a motion and a second to approve? >> Second. >> All right. Moved by Martin, second by Anderson. Um, any discussion? I just want to uh ask about the donation to Gladstone Meals on Wheels that we had um transferred that program. So was that like a pass through? Did we give the money to them? What happens to that now? >> Yes, that would be that donation would have been one that already came through and has been passed through onto the program under the new leadership um with the Mer Center. >> Great. >> All right. Um all in favor say I. >> I. >> And all oppose say nay. Okay. And that pro um that passes. Thank you so much. Um next up we have the resolution redesating polling location. Um so be it resolved. Um well so this is the the changing of a um redesating polling location. So um I'm going to go ahead and read the resolution. be it resolved by the school board of independent school district number 622 um that on December 13, 2022, the school board adopted a resolution establishing polling places and combining polling places for certain multiple precincts and designating hours for the school district elections when no other election is being held in the school district. That resolution designated the following location as a polling place for the city of Oakdale precinct 2 and that was Oakdale City Hall. Um, so the school district has recently been informed by Washington County election officials that the Oakdale City Hall is currently under construction and will not be available for use as a polling location for the school district's special election, which has been called and will be held in November 4th, 2025. Um, it is therefore necessary to change the polling place designation and to clarify the location where affected voters will be voting in the school district's November 4th, 2025 special election. For the purpose of the November 4th, 2025 special election, the school board hereby designates Tartan High School um at 828 Greenway Avenue North in Oakdale, Minnesota as a polling place for school district voters residing in the following precinct. City of Oakdale precinct 2. Um, could I get a Oh, this is um a roll call. So, could I get a motion and a second? >> Second. >> All right. Moved by SW, second by Anderson. Um, any discussion on this resolution. All right. Um, and then may whenever you're ready. >> Julia Martins. >> Hi, >> Nancy Livingston. >> Hi, Caleb Anderson. >> Hi, >> Katie Swart. I >> right. Um with no nays that passes. Um next up we have uh superintendent. >> Yes. >> All right. So you heard earlier tonight we had a second reading of our policy revisions. We with every board policy that's updated, revised, or adopted as a new policy, we have three readings with those. Typically, the first reading takes place at a study session. The second one at a formal business meeting, which you just heard Trisha reading tonight, and then the third reading is when we also review it one more time and have an official adoption of that policy. We do have one policy ready for adoption this evening. Um, and that is our policy 611 homeschooling. This is a new policy for district 622 and you first had this presented to you at the study session in June. Then you had a second reading at the June business meeting and so tonight is the third and final reading um and with your approval and adoption of this new policy. So, uh policy 611 is really intended to help provide guidelines in accordance with state law for parents who might wish to have their children receive education in a homeschool environment. And so, um, as an alternative to an accredited public or private school. And in our school district, uh, we coordinate all of our homeschool, uh, families and and registrations through our office of community education. Genie Lands is our guru of all things homeschooling. But this policy really kind of lays it out even more definitively for families who might be interested in this option. And new this year, we're even put together a homeschool landing page website for families so that they can go there and see the information they need all in one place. And so, um, this program, like you've seen before, this is your third and final reading of it, but it really kind of talks a little bit about the materials, uh, textbook instructional materials, support services available, information around extracurricular, shared time programs, which is when a student might be, for example, homeschooled during the day, but they want to be a member of your local um, high school band, and, you know, there's some shared time involved in that. Um, and so it kind of gets into the details around all of these different elements within that and of course includes all of the legal references uh within state statute relevant to the homeschooling policy number 611. And so um, as I mentioned, this is your third and final reading of this. Um, and I will answer any questions you may have. And if you don't have any, then we can move forward with um, hopefully your approval of adopting this policy. No questions. Um, so let me pull up the resolution. Um, so seeing there's no questions, I'm going to go ahead and read the resolution. Be it resolved that the school board of independent school district number 622 hereby adopts policy 611, homeschooling. Could I get a motion and a second? Moved by Martins. >> Second. >> Second by Livingston. Um any discussion. >> All right. Um all in favor say I. >> I. >> And all oppose say nay. All right. Um and this resolution is approved. Uh and then next up we have board communications. Well, just uh wishing everyone a great start to the school year. Um it's going to be um uh a wonderful year, I'm sure. And u uh students should be aware that their teachers and their uh pared educators and everyone uh might be just as nervous as they are in starting the year. So, but everyone will chill out after that first year and we'll get in the groove and it'll and it'll be all and it'll all work out. So, thank thanks. Uh I uh I I too uh just am excited for uh all the students and our staff um uh get to um come back and I'm excited for all the possibilities that we have this school year. Um I think uh for the kids all the different friends that they might make, everything they might learn u or that they will learn and uh just for the teachers um just the the reward um that they get um personally just seeing those kids uh learn and grow. Um I I'm excited for those teachers to to get to experience that again. Um but um yeah, I uh I'm excited for some of our welcome back events coming up and um I'm excited about just all the uh the well just getting closer to the finish line with with uh more of our uh building projects um because we've we've come quite a ways. >> Yeah, I'll just echo the good wishes for a good start to the school year. Um, and on Monday, if anyone's hungry at Max Diner, there will be a fundraiser, I believe, for North Shaw Choir. Um, and also help them ramp up for The Little Mermaid this fall, which I'm really excited about. >> Um, I don't have much either. I have a ninth and 12th grader this year. So, um, big big years for the two of them. And so, very excited, um, for the school year. Um, again, just want to thank um all the administration, staff, everybody that's gotten ready for the school year and um looking forward to um this next year. So, um all right. Um so, I just need to set the future board meeting dates. Um our next board meeting will be September 23rd, 2025, um here in the boardroom at 6 PM. Um, could I get a um motion and a second to adjurnn the meeting? >> Second. >> Right. Moved by Livingston. Who was a second? Oh, by Martins. All in favor say I. All oppose say nay. All right. Meeting adjourned. Thank you everyone.