001We're going to work on the lights. All right. Welcome and good evening. >> [laughter] >> I would like to call the Monday, April 27th, 2026 school board meeting to order. Lisa, will you please call the roll? Director Claflin? Yes. T. Felton? Here. Duffy? Here. Weber? Yes. W. Felton? Here. Chairwoman? Here. That's six present. Thank you. And now I ask all who are able to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Okay. Well, at this time, I want to welcome everyone who's actually here with us in person and folks watching online or Town Square Television. Thank you. First, I am looking for a motion
002to approve the regular board meeting agenda for this evening, as well as the minutes for March 23rd, 2026 as work session, the March 2023rd, 2026 business session, and the April 13th, 2026 work session. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Thank you. Uh any further discussion about agendas or minutes? All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Opposed? Motion carries 6-0. Thank you. All right. Quality in action. I am happy and proud to invite Chloe, Finn, and Monty up to give their penultimate student school board rep presentation to us. Yes. The best part, one might say. The most entertaining. I've said it many times. >> [laughter] >> Okay, so far we have spring sports have officially started. Softball started off to a two and four start and then our next home games this
003Wednesday against Hastings at Harmon Park across from Kaposia if you know it. And then we've also got baseball started, girls flag football, boys tennis, boys and girls track, boys and girls golf, and boys and girls lacrosse. And then big shout out to our dear friend sophomore Sophie Heart. She made she broke the new school school record and placed second in last week's Hamline Elite Meet. And I just found out Hamline Elite means like all sizes of schools, so she placed second with schools that are twice our size. And the record was 37 feet 8 inches in triple jump, which is a lot if you picture it. >> [laughter] >> Wow. Uh so I just want to give a quick shout out to senior Jackson Schultz. He received a scholar athlete award from the Minnesota chapter
004of the National Football Foundation. That's a pretty big deal. Uh there were only eight people in the state who received that award, so we just wanted to give a big shout out to Jackson. Yeah. And then also starting on Monday we've got our IB exams at the secondary building. Uh it's going to start the HL history exam on Monday and it's going to be bad, you guys. It's >> [laughter] >> No time. Uh yeah, I think especially Chloe and I we between between May 4th and May 22nd we've got like we're going to be at school for like three days total. Six IB exams total. >> [laughter] >> Terrible. >> Yeah, it's not going to be good. But We're getting sevens. >> Yeah, yeah, we're all getting sevens. We're all getting sevens. >> will do
005great. Yeah, it'll be awesome. We'll see about the math one. But yeah, just uh It's bad. But yeah, good luck to our juniors and seniors. Um yeah. >> [laughter] >> Um last Friday juniors and seniors attended prom at WhirlyBall in Bloomington. It was very fun. Do you guys know what WhirlyBall is? Okay. >> [laughter] >> You know that that's not a picture of WhirlyBall. >> No. It's It's played on bumper cars and you have like a racket and you pick up a whiffle ball and try to shoot it into this floating basket. It's just It's absurd. >> How many times were you hit? And people would start whacking each other with the plastic rackets. >> [laughter] >> It got People are competitive nowadays. It's crazy. I'm pretty sure a quarter of us didn't even play
006WhirlyBall. It And the cars were so difficult to steer. You guys have no idea. It was just like a stick that you had to maneuver in some way. It was terrible. But it was really [laughter] fun. I think at the end of the year we should do a group trip to WhirlyBall. Everybody here? >> [laughter] >> A trip to WhirlyBall? Absolutely. You said 10 people, so you got the seven of us, three of you. Yeah, exactly. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. Is that it? That's it. All right. Yep. Thanks. One question for you. Yeah. So given the historical year we've just lived through, do you think the students in like 2042 will also have a very difficult IB history exam? IB history >> [laughter] >> Yeah. No, I mean we're worried about all of them, but
007IB history too is I mean there's just so many possibilities for it to be on. >> [laughter] >> There you go. We We live in historical times. That too. And we're going to wish you all the best as you get through this month and then you can tell us surviving it at our next meeting. >> Yes, oh we will. Thank you. Thank you. All right. >> Thank you. >> [laughter] >> Okay, the tough act to follow, but I would like to invite our nutrition services team up, Director Dory Pavel and Assistant Director Maggie Schmidt to uh give us some updates on what's going on in the world of nutrition. All right. Well, good evening school board members, Dr. DeMarino. Thank you for having us here. Um again, I'm Dori Pavel. This is Maggie Schmidt and
008we're here to represent nutrition services. Uh these smiling faces are our nutrition services team. Uh we are a group of 28 remarkable, dedicated, compassionate people who feed the students of South St. Paul breakfast and lunch each day. This team takes great pride in what they do. They get to know students by name and provide them with not only food to help them learn, but also offer smiles, words of encouragement, and that that let them know that we are glad that they are here for the day. To use one of Dr. DeMarino's terms, they are a small but mighty team. >> [laughter] >> Yes, they are. Um as of April 17th, I'm sorry this is not more current, but this is just the easiest way to do it. Uh the nutrition services team has served 156,000
009462 breakfast, and 268,728 lunches, and 10,980 after school snacks. To do this, you we utilize a fall, winter, and spring menu cycle, which provides a variety of different foods throughout the school year. The after school snack program provides a light snack for students in the elementary stu- schools that are in the after school activities and as well as the after school program. Each year, we get the unique opportunity to do a taste testing with the student advisory students. Um it is a very fun day where we get to come in and provide a bunch of different um foods for this group to try. Um they get to taste the food and then provide feedback on new items that we're looking to put on the menu. Some of the items that have become fan favorites that
010we have tried at this taste testing are orange chicken, oven roasted broccoli, tortellini salad, and the chicken tender wrap. This year we tried things like a hot honey flatbread, um homemade enchiladas, and some items that scored very well that we are excited to say will be on the menu are our French toast breakfast sandwich and the beef pot roast with roasted potatoes. The bonus with these kinds of items is that they are very flavorful and they are much lower in sodium, sugar, and fat than you might think. We have also had some fun with fresh fruit this winter, bringing fruit smiles, sunshine, and some extra vitamin C to students with bright and tangy citrus fruits. Working with our produce vendor, we were able to procure some a variety of oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit, and kumquats.
011Doing this type of fun food promotion allows students to try and learn about different foods that they might not see on a regular basis, and it also makes for some home fun home conversations. Um as um well, we get a lot of questions about locally local grown items and less processed foods. Those are questions that are coming up nationwide. Um the easiest way for me to answer this is to give you some examples of things that we are currently serving and how it looks on the plate. For this fiscal year, we are on track to spend about $165,000 to purchase domestically and locally grown fruits and vegetables. These are one of the easiest places for us to do this, um so it it it's it's just something that we kind of hit as bad saying,
012but low-hanging fruit. >> [laughter] >> Um we continue to work on purchasing more items such as meats, grains, and that are local and less processed. For example, on the slide you will see um we We some bone-in chicken wings. These are locally produced in Wells, Minnesota. They are grown in that area, brought to a manufacturer and processed there. And we roast them on site. Um It's a very, [laughter] very popular day. The other items you can see on the tray are the coleslaw, which we also mix in house. We make our own dressing, so we can control the amount of sugar and sodium that goes into it. Um we make calico beans in house. The cornbread and the orange make up what is considered a complete meal. No, we can go back. Not yet. We're
013not done yet. You got more? >> [laughter] >> Yep. Uh we thought it would be fun to bring you a sample of some of the items that we currently have on the menu. Wow. Pass those out now? Um unfortunately, we could not do the chicken wings. I'm sorry, we couldn't keep them hot. >> [laughter] >> Uh but one of the what we did bring to you is a small sample of one of our more popular deli items. Um it is our layered taco dip, which contains cheese from Wisconsin, lettuce that's grown in Medford, Minnesota. Um Thank you. This item came from ideas from student from suggestions from students and staff that we put a combination of those things together to create this dip, and we have watched it become more and more popular. Um there
014are some chips that go with it, so I can hand out the chips to make it easy. You can do the next slide. So, we hope you enjoy this. And I'll let Maggie talk. Oh, wow. Um summer meals. We um in June and July of 2025, the nutrition services team um with the help of the Open Door mobile lunchbox, we were able to serve 4,523 breakfasts and 6,043 lunches in the four weeks that we had summer school. Um we are actually partnering with Open Door again to um distribute meals to the community on a wider basis. Uh all students or all kids I should say, not necessarily students, from 1 to 18 can come and partake in the food that we offer over the summer whether it's coming into the schools or coming into the
015to the mobile lunch box. Um between the summer meals and then we have the Sun Bucks Excuse me. [clears throat] Uh Sun Bucks Summer EBT program, the food pickup program at Central Square, and the the programs like Neighbors, we actually can reach a large variety of families. So, it's really really helpful. Um go ahead to the next. And then this Friday, please come and say hello to our nutrition services staff. Uh it is actually National School Lunch Hero Day. It's across the nation. Um everybody we try to lift up our teams and say and recognize our nutrition services team members um and thank them for nourishing the students and supporting learning and making a difference every day. So, we would love for you guys to say hello and thank our teams. All right. That's it
016for us. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any questions, comments? I have always had rave reviews come home with my kid about the food. And I made coleslaw at his request last week and it was not as good as yours. >> [laughter] >> I This has come multiple times. Your lo mein is better than mine. Now it's the coleslaw. [laughter] So, you're doing really well. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Kids love it. Thank you. Have you Have you gotten over your staff's raw chicken aversion? Like where are we on the progression of people you said were really nervous about cooking raw chicken? Are we we getting better? We're working on that. Yeah. It's it's just a matter of training and getting some confidence for them. So, that's that's something that we will be
017working towards. Um one of the things when we did our chicken enchiladas is we used a chicken breast in it and what students and people wanted to see was a chicken thigh and we agree that would be much more flavorful and if we could cook them in house and you know, marinate it and get all of that done that way, it would be a much better product. So we'll work towards it. Get there. >> [laughter] >> Oh, awesome. Oh, wonderful. Just two quick comments. One, what you guys do is super important cuz I could not tell you a lot of my teachers in high school, but I remember the lunch ladies. They were and I could tell you who they all were. And number two, this is refrigerated, so we should probably eat this pretty
018quick, right? Yes. Maybe turn off your >> [laughter] >> Yeah, mute your >> If you hear crunching during the meeting, you'll know why. >> Turn off your microphones. >> [laughter] >> We will get through this meeting and then you can have your snack. Okay. Thank you so much for all that you and your teams do and and for coming tonight. >> Yeah, thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. All right, next I'd like to invite our buildings and grounds director Mark Fenton along with um some partners from Wold and Market and Johnson to kind of talk through some of the proposed projects tied to our hopeful bond passing. I'll let you introduce your folks. Well, good evening school board and Dr. Zambrano. Um I'm we're here to share uh the buildings and grounds quality in
019action. So, I thought this would be a great opportunity to talk about the upcoming building bond referendum on May 12th. I'd like to introduce our partners. Uh Ben Berry with Wold Architects and Eric Pev- Stevel Perfect. with Market and Johnson. Um they'll be partners with us through you know, uh upon successful um approval on the referendum. Um our responsibility and my responsibility as the director of buildings and grounds, um you know, Saugus Public Schools has served this community for 136 years. That was That was That's very impressive. Uh the the district's family or the district facilities support learning activities and community use. Maintaining buildings is a core responsibility of our to our community. And I'm going to pass the the presentation to Ben. He can walk us through some more. Great. Well, thanks for having
020me. Um and we're going to we're going to step back in time just a little bit and kind of talk uh how we kind of got to this point. Um and these are kind of the four bullet points we'll go through. Um it started with uh facilities review, understanding your buildings and where they're currently at. Um it also involved community input in terms of a community task force, um and then led to a community-wide survey, um and kind of the fourth step in the process was of course uh board discussion and board action on the process. Uh so, that facility study that started That was a We started that in 2022. Um and that was a maintenance study, um and it looked across your facilities and tried to understand the current conditions of things, um
021and attempt We put budgets to all those items. It landed about 150 million um projected in need over about 10 years, um and we put all those things in priority order. Now, it doesn't mean that all of those things are going to break and be deficient in 10 years. What we are doing is trying to project based on current condition uh when uh replacement would be. Of course, many items you can't let get to failure state uh because it impacts your facility, so you need to be proactive um in in getting replacements done. So, we put them in priority order looking at different priorities, things that were immediate need, um and that was actually relatively small, and that's not a surprise because uh you're operating school every single day, right? You You're going to take
022care of those big immediate needs to help you keep uh keep moving forward. Um, priority two and three, that started to grow a little bit. We saw bigger categories there, um, and then started to consider what's going to be coming down the line in that 6 to 10 year range. Now, this study uh really kind of looked at uh your current assets. So, what that means is if you had carpet in a room today, we evaluated the condition of that carpet and projected a replacement for it, but it didn't take into account uh programming or additional needs that you might need. And to do that, uh we launched a series of input meetings with district administration staff, um, principals, um, to try to document, okay, what's coming down the line in terms of programming. Um,
023and so additional needs were identified both in terms of athletics and learning spaces. And let's talk a little bit about uh the funding side of facilities, right? Um, because that also kind of sets the table for where we are today. Um, currently the district receives about a million dollars annually for maintenance projects on the facilities, and uh that actually only started in 2015. So, it's about 11 years old um funding source. Um, that million dollars uh allows you to do items that are like for like. So, again, I'll use my carpet example. If you have carpet in the room, you can replace it with carpet. Uh when we look across maintaining buildings, um, the kind of the rule of thumb that we use is that you If you want to keep your building up to
024date, you should be investing two to 4% of that value, a replacement value, in the building uh annually. So, uh just real round numbers on this, right? If it's a $100 million facility like a high school, um, which is actually probably $200 million, but a $100 million facility just for round number sake, right? That's $2 million $2 to $4 million in annual into that one facility alone. District-wide, that probably totals somewhere between 8 and $10 million that you would want to be reinvesting to keep the buildings up, if you would. So, that gap, that $1 million that you receive versus kind of where you want to be investing creates this gap where you have to defer items out and really prioritize just the most immediate needs. And it's not to say that you haven't been
025investing in facilities. In fact, they look really nice. They've been upkept. Large part again to LTFM has been a great funding source for you prior to that. You know, school boards before you were appropriating operating capital to help keep up buildings. You've also had support from your community in the past for different facility initiatives, including the 2013 bond was the last time the district went to the voters. And that helped, you know, reinvest in your buildings and take some of those maintenance needs off the list. But those maintenance needs never go away. That's kind of the cycle we're in. It's not dissimilar to your home. You know that if you did a roof today, you're probably going to do a roof again in about 20 years on your house. It's kind of the same idea
026and all of your equipment and facilities are in different stages of that cycle, right? So, you know, things that have had the that were in the 2013 bond don't need reinvestment right now, but things that maybe haven't been invested in since 2000 or 1990 is is time for reinvestment. So, that was the facility study. Now transitioning to the task force process. So, we took all that information about your facilities and formed a community task force. There was about 32 community members. They reviewed all that information and uh, came back and really reached consensus on, "Hey, we should be looking at investing in our buildings. Let's keep them up." That was kind of their key takeaway. "Let's deal with our our big maintenance needs. And if we can address some of those programming needs along the
027way, we should do we should do that as well." Uh, they look we looked at lots of um, options with them. Uh, and we talked about financing. We talked about tax impacts. We had the district's financial consultant come and present to them. Um, and they landed on um, uh, with Well, they highly recommended a community survey. That was a critical piece of their feedback. Um, but they thought that based on what they knew, um, 30 million was very doable and 50 million is probably in our wheelhouse if we can really demonstrate the needs um, of the district. Uh, so that community survey happened. It went out um, uh, I think 400 households were called to represent it was 400 to represent a voter pool of your community. Um, and the information came back was uh,
028fairly supportive. Um, it showed you know, a that tax tolerance between that $10 and $15 in your community. Um, and showed good support for projects. Um, uh, it made a lot you know, maintenance was something that everybody kind of understood and had good support behind. Uh, similar to uh, taking care of some of uh, the other items on the list. We looked at like learning spaces as one and highlighted a few of those in the survey. They all came back with pretty um, good support. Uh, which of course led to board discussion over several months and ultimately um, the board voting on the resolution. Uh, so it's uh, broken up into two questions and question uh, two, I think that'll be talked about uh, here later tonight. We'll we'll kind of stay on question one
029for the purposes of this presentation. Um, but that is that a million bond referendum and that's to invest um, in a number of items across your buildings. At the secondary building, it's about $30 million is the investment there. Again, makes sense. It's a big square foot, a big footprint in your district. It's core focus is on replacing outdated electrical, mechanical, electrical equipment including power infrastructure. And if you're not aware, but you you own the transformers, they're inside your building currently. Most modern buildings, the transformer is owned by the utility and it's outside the building. So, we'd like to kind of tip that back to the utility as one of the main projects there. But again, going across aged ventilation equipment, aged finishes, things like that. We had the locker rooms were also identified from ADA
030accessibility standpoint, increasing accessibility, but also they're just worn. They're just aged. The finishes are worn, lockers are worn, time for reinvestment. Outside at at Injured Field, a focus on the bleachers and the press box there. Um Yeah, portions portions of that area date back 1930s. And I know the press box actually was built in-house by district staff in the past. So, pretty cool that it's lasted as long as it has. But it's getting to be a challenge maintenance-wise. Also, need to improve ADA access both for viewing and access to the fields. And here's just a quick schematic. I know it's kind of hard to tell cuz you have bleachers there today, but uh looking at replacing the bleachers with a more modern metal system, I'm the seating at the top for uh wheelchair viewing. Um
031along with that comes the press box uh cuz it sits on the bleachers. Uh looking to expand the footprint a little bit. Uh and then also it's really hard to see but where the tunnel comes out currently um there's a hillside path down to the field um which um we'll look to pave and smooth out and lengthen to get a little more gradual slope. Obviously a highly utilized facility for lots lots of um activities not just sports but community events as well. Uh at the secondary then we're also talking about some learning spaces. So we're looking at uh the industrial technology lab. Again there was um uh some investment in that space in 2013. Was used for a long time. Now it's time to tweak. It's more like a a tweak and kind of reestablish
032that space adding some new equipment those kind of things. Uh consumer science lab so um that might also you might not know the term facts lab or home economics lab. Um But really consumer science lab is intentional here. It's about kind of updating those skill sets to the professional environment. So um uh improving uh those spaces. Those are the small kitchen areas things like that. And then business entrepreneurship um is another identified space. Uh so currently um uh that the production and learning goes on in a kind of a lab classroom space and then down the hall around the corner there's a temporary pop-up stand where all the items are sold and then they take it all back and move it back down in the classroom for security uh purposes and so trying to uh
033create a purpose-built space for that program. My understanding is it's been a very popular program um and trying to get it some real frontage in the building. So, one of the spaces that was identified as potential for this uh would be the lecture hall, um, which is the kind of large sloped built-in space. Um, and that has kind of gone by the wayside as a learning space, um, in today's age, not just your district, but everywhere not really building lecture halls anymore. Um, and so looking to create a more flexible environment and give a purpose-built home for this program. And here's just a concept of what that could look like. So, this is if you're kind of standing at the high school, um, office and looking across at the lecture hall, you can see the
034stairs just to the left that lead upstairs. Um, so this is just a concept of again about giving that frontage and exposure to that really cool program and giving it, uh, a home. Uh, This is a good opportunity to point out this is just an idea and a concept, right? This is what kind of built the budgeting and whatnot, uh, but we're going to gather stakeholder input, um, in the design process should it be approved to make sure we're doing it exactly right for your community. Um, the tennis courts, uh, that was also identified. Um, if driven by, uh, lots of cracks going on. There's been kind of a lot of band-aids on them, um, over the years to try to keep them playable. Reaching a point of replacement and I think we're going to
035play a short video here for you just to listen a little bit. This is some of the communication that is going out as part of the bond referendum. My family is My wife has been part of the tennis program for I think 26 years now. My kids have grown up in the tennis program. We've got pictures of them when they're babies being wheeled around over the courts and it's it's got a community feel to it. We have a lot of a lot of pride in that program. The girls program in particular has It's very successful for quite a while. And just it makes me sad to not have a good place for them to play. The current condition of the tennis courts are rough. They are on the verge of unplayable. There's pieces of the
036courts that regularly are popping up. Before I go to my kids tennis matches, I typically bring my leaf blower and the broom to clean the courts off cuz there's so many loose pieces. There's huge safety concerns. The the the chunks of the court like literally are peeling off. And I've seen I last year I think I saw at least a half a dozen kids slip and go down during a tennis match. There's cracks that are large enough where kids have stepped in the cracks and rolled their ankles. Obviously, the match itself is disrupted if a ball hits the loose spot or the crack, the ball goes somewhere else and they have to stop replay the point. The tennis courts have the typical routine of resurfacing them every X number of years. We can't do that
037anymore. Like they've been they are they're asphalt. They don't they don't last forever if they're concrete. This has to be a complete teardown, rebuild. And I would be excited to see the coaches of the doubles program, the boys program, the community, the administration coming together to make a good plan of how this is going to last for another 20 to 30 years. Thanks for playing that. Um so just on a kind of you know, in our climate asphalt, you know, we say it's about a 20-year 20-year lifespan. We were trying to figure out the age of them. It I mean it's 26, 27, 30-plus years old. Um so you've really gotten a lot of mileage out of them. So you it's been a good you know, it's been a good place for the community to
038use. You've got a lot out of that initial investment. It's been resurfaced, but you can see with the cracks and everything on there. It's time for a rebuild. Again, this is maybe maybe not surprising, but the rendering here kind of looks um uh similar layout will have an input process again, but I think it's a good moment just to take away um you know, really what the bond is asking for is you know, it's not we're not talking about new buildings and and reorganizing the district. This is just about fixing up what we have so we have good safe facilities. All right, transitioning over to Lincoln then um about $15 million investment there. Again, we're going to go after um age mechanical systems, electrical system is similar to the secondary building. Um we are talking
039about restroom renovations there. You can see a picture of a current restroom and you can see um the stalls are about the same size, but again uh for accessibility purposes, you should have one larger stall that facilitates wheelchair access. Um and you know, those uh those bathrooms probably looked that way for a really long time. And so uh you can see why it was identified for the list. Uh going along I mentioned all this site we do have budget set aside um to address asbestos abatement um from health and safety perspective as we encounter it through your buildings. Uh Central Square um kind of the central theme there really is um you know, a pool environment is just hard on a building. Um that chemicals and chlorine that are in um uh that are in
040the air uh accelerate need for replacement. So going after some of the mechanical systems uh that that support that space. Um again, the renovation restroom renovations for ADA accessibility that's in the lobby. Um again, asbestos as we encounter it. Uh so that's kind of question one on the bond, the fif- 50 million. Let's talk about uh the tax impact. Um so uh uh there's a the chart here shows $300,000 is about that's about the mean mean home value in South Saint Paul. Um and it comes down to 139 annual or $12 a month. Um as you know, that's uh that has led to calling for that special election uh coming on May 12th. I mentioned it's two questions. You'll You'll hear more about question two here later tonight. Um and question one being the bond
041referendum to address critical facility needs. Um and then lots and lots of information on the school district website regarding uh this bond referendum. Uh just I'd we point out um that uh for this election um all voting's going to take place at the Dakota County Historical Society, one location. With that, I'll we'll open it for any questions. Or any comments. I hope at this point the board doesn't have many lingering [laughter] questions. I guess my question is you brought Eric along. What are you going to say? >> [laughter] >> I just had to show up. We're from Marketing and Johnson's perspective extremely uh honored to be a part of this. So we're all uh we all have our fingers crossed in in the office. Obviously, uh once design starts, we'll be working closely with Wold
042with uh budgeting aspects of it or at least trying to understand phasing, site logistics, components. And then obviously when the fun starts, uh when we're we're starting construction, that's where we'll really get heavily involved. But no, I just wanted to be here, part of the team. So Yeah, I think I think one of the values that Eric brings is in design. Um so one just phasing, right? Your your schools are occupied. In fact, we used to call school used to have a summer construction season. Well, that doesn't that's not even a thing anymore cuz you use your buildings year round pretty much now. And so um the value I think Eric brings is, you know, being able to think about, okay, if we go here, we can maybe we can move these people here, we
043can get them access this way and keep everything working. Um but he really needs detailed design to get going to start having those discussions. And then the other value he uh in the design process um that he brings is just, you know, really another set of eyes with Mark and myself to say, okay, what if we move this mechanical unit over here? That now opens up phasing or what have you thought about we did this mechanical system over here? Have you thought about this brand? And that brand might save a little money. And so he can really kind of bring that expertise and perspective to the table during design. Um so, anyways. And then not to mention the construction phase where he's actually in the building uh managing all the subcontractors uh putting the work
044into place. Yeah, that makes better good summary. Any questions or comments? >> If If anyone wants to see more videos, there's 13 more on the website. >> [laughter] >> Awesome. Yeah, uh how comfortable are you guys with your estimates of things? I mean, I'm sure you're going to say you're pretty comfortable, but let's say all of a sudden 50 million goes into just the high school HVAC and and asbestos and all that. And then people will be awfully disappointed if there's no tennis courts, no football field, no locker rooms, no industrial technology space, all of that. I mean, have you really poured over the numbers and you're pretty confident? Yeah, yeah, so I'll I'll answer that, but short answer is yes, confident in the numbers uh to the scope. Um you know, we we factor
045things in like what we think inflation might do um and like that into the budgets. Uh you know, the bond question means that um we'll have we'll have to satisfy the obligation to the voters. Um and so taking the tennis courts off the not funding the tennis courts to do all of the high school is really not even an option. Right, we're just going to have we're going to have to manage scope across because that is part of the question to the voters. So, um, that has to be satisfied. So, feeling confident uh, in the budgets. Um, uh, you know, the bid market is the bid market, right? And so, things can happen and it does happen on projects. Um, but we're all good at managing scope and understanding ways to do things and make
046sure that we satisfy the obligation on the bond question. Sure, human if I may. One um, one of the reasons we went with Market and Johnson too, um, they really align with our core values. They're a small but mighty organization, too. There are some really big um, organizations out there in construction management. Um, they really take pride in coming in to your question, Director Felton, at or under budget, which they have a a long history of and that's part of why we wanted to partner with them. Uh, also the model that that we use here, uh, allows for Mark Fenton, our team, to maintain control over any change order. So, we're not giving up any of our autonomy, but we have great support. So, we have Wold and Market and Johnson to help us. And
047then anything they find along the way, if there are those unexpected things, they're going to come right back to us and and sit down with us and and work that through. We don't expect much of that, but um, just the the overall model I think really works well for who we are as a district, our size, how we work in collaboration, really trying to maximize our taxpayer dollars. We want to give people a super great return on investment if we're asking people to give us their tax dollars. And so, this model with Wold, who's worked with us for longer than most of us can hard to know how long that court's been there. Hard to know how long it's been a long time we've partnered with Wold. Uh, Eric has worked with us on the
048CLC project. We had great success on the CLC. So, it's not um Eric's first time in the district. So, that also felt good to us. But, just so people know, it's it's really nice match between our size, their size, our values, their values, and and making sure that we are able to um deliver on everything we would uh promise our our taxpayers, our community. Yes, one more question. Um, this might be putting the cart before the horse. But, should we all be successful um and get the funding I'm into the district, what will be board's level of responsibility be in approving contracts that go out to bid? I mean, is it going to be like the PAC Center where we had to approve the contract um for the bidder? Like, what level of oversight will
049we have be have over contracts? And then, obvious question that I'm sure you know, but then at what level of um guarantee you're going to have to make sure prevailing wage is being followed and all any other contract provisions. Sure. Um, so I'll start with what the minimum requirement is. Um, so minimum required is yeah, the school board will have to approve construction contracts. So, that's kind of the minimum requirement. Um, that said, most districts don't follow to that point. Um, there is usually something like a bond oversight committee uh which is usually a subset of the board that helps uh oversee and manage the bond projects. Um, but that looks a lot a lot of different ways in a lot of different districts. So, um I'd encourage you to maybe have a little discussion
050amongst yourselves as board members and with Dr. Zambrano and how exactly you like you would like to be involved. We're open to any [clears throat] and all of it. So, um it like I said, it looks a little different in every district. But, there's usually some sort of subset of the board. I know you already have a standing facilities committee. So, sometimes it falls uh on the shoulders of that committee. Um, but there's a lot of different ways to do it. And it it most likely will happen in the finance committee. Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you for giving us another opportunity to hear about what can be done if our um if our community supports passing this bond. And thank you for coming and standing with the team. >> [laughter] >> Thank you. Thank you.
051Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Now we shift to the reports listed on our agenda. Uh first I'll start with stakeholder comments to the board. Uh as a reminder to the community, there are two ways to make comment to the board. You may either submit an online form or appear before the board in person. If you would like to speak in person, the board has set aside time on our reg- regularly scheduled second Monday of the month at 6:30 p.m. during our extended work sessions. Uh no one came to speak during our stakeholder comments to the board session on Monday, April 13th, and we received no online submissions. Our next public listening session is at 6:30 p.m. at May 11th at the district office. Uh before I hand things over to Vice Chair
052Klafflin to recap this evening's work session, I would like to share about our April 13th work session beyond how the minutes summarize it. As folks who may follow school board happenings could be aware, at our public comment session on February 9th, seven students from our secondary building came to speak to us supported by additional students and advisers from our CDLU and BPO affinity groups. They spoke on behalf of themselves and their fellow students and shared experiences of how Operation Metro Surge changed their lives and made the daily activities of going to school and living in South Saint Paul change from being normal and routine to fear-filled question marks about what the future holds for them. They told the board they were afraid and that they needed reassurance and support. As I just shared earlier in
053the meeting, public comment is a time when anyone can come to speak to the full board. It allows a person a few minutes to share their thoughts and concerns. However, it does not allow the board to respond. Since our school board is composed of seven individuals, it takes time for the seven of us to consider what we heard and then discuss with each other what actions we take as a board. The process is slow and intentional to allow the board to make thoughtful choices. And this slowness can be really irritating when you expect action. As a full board, we meet twice a month and our meeting times are publicly posted and can be publicly attended and the process is slow. At our February 23rd meeting, we discussed what we heard from the students and we
054considered whether we can make a public statement or a resolution to respond to the concerns they shared with us. And we realized that our words could cause further confusion or tie our hands in legal difficulties and we decided our next step was to follow up with our legal counsel to answer some questions. At our March 9th meeting, we discussed what we heard from our legal counsel and heard alternate suggestions from a director who had attended an affinity group meeting with the students to hear more from them. We contemplated whether a resolution was helpful or supportive or if making a comment on social media would be better. We considered what our individual views were and they how they compare to what we can do as a board. And ultimately, we decided that we needed to hear
055more from the students and be able to engage in dialogue with them. Our next meeting date was March 23rd, but due to it being an on-camera business meeting, uh we felt it didn't give us the time the conversation deserved. So, the invitation was extended to the CDLU and BPO students to join us at our April 13th meeting. So, now we get to the actual recap of that meeting. Okay. On April 13th, we shared pizza dinner together in the secondary building cafeteria and moved to the media center classroom in order to speak face-to-face. The board and the students were joined by many leadership team members from the district office, Principal Ochacki and Principal Borg, and the affinity group leaders from CDLU and BPO. Before that April 13th meeting, Amy Winter connected with the students and their
056leaders and with me on behalf of the board to design an intentional conversation format so we could come together in a safe and respectful environment to ensure all speakers had the opportunity to share and be heard. The agenda and questions were shared in advance to allow for thoughtful responses. And then the group sat in a large circle and after the agenda and intentions were reviewed, we went around that circle six times. The first time allowed all of us present to make a basic introduction and provide one word describing our mood that we felt in the moment. Curiosity and hopefulness were themes heard from both the students and the adults there. The second round was directed to the students to share what experiences motivated them to attend and to speak with the board. The students shared
057their safety concerns and how ICE continues to be a presence in their lives. They spoke about feeling ignored and belittled by adults in their lives. And they spoke about wanting a better, safer, and more welcoming environment for their younger siblings. The third round was directed at the adults to be able to ask what they wanted to understand more about. Themes focused on understanding more about their safety concerns and what we can do to create a greater sense of belonging. The fourth round allowed the students to provide us more information. They touched on safety, but mostly spoke to how they wanted to feel heard and to see their concerns being followed up on. That silence is loud and that we need to communicate, even if that communication is sharing that we can't change things. And that
058adults need to be more open-minded and less judgmental when we're listening and engaging with our students. The fifth round allowed the adults to respond with what they will carry forward from this conversation and what responsibility they feel moving forward. Themes of thankfulness to our students for engaging with us and pride and how they demonstrated leadership were shared. Along with a theme of being willing to connect in relationship building and to consider how moving forward we commit to listening to student voice and creating a system that allows students to better see the follow-through. The final round allowed the students to answer the question, "What actions would help build trust moving forward?" Most answers focused on strengthening our connections with each other, to build greater community and accountability toward each other, and providing staff specialized training to
059develop stronger cultural awareness. This time with our students provided the board with a greater understanding of their concerns and allowed them to hear from us as individuals. It does not change, however, the slow and intentional way that the board works. But it does show us the reason why we need to continue the work. Yet this conversation is already helping our administrative teams work to create more welcoming environments in our buildings and to consider what adjustments we can make going forward. These students represent what we want to see out of our students. They're engaged, they're committed to each other and to to the world a better place. They're focused on relationship building and recognizing that bringing people closer together is how we change and move forward. And they felt empowered to enter the greater world and
060refuse to be silenced by systems that seem to stand in their way. I would like to thank the students who joined us on the 13th. As a board, we are committed to listening to student voice and are proud of the tradition of leaders that come from South Saint Paul. And I want to thank the staff who do the day-to-day work of being in relationship with our students and creating environments where they feel safe and heard because education goes beyond lecturing and making sure kids can do math and know how to read. It is about preparing them for our future. And now, I will hand things over to Vice Chair Clapham. Thank you. At the work session this evening, we heard from Rachoth about the budget planning process. Uh we are in uh the fourth quarter
061of our fiscal year uh 2026 and planning for fiscal year 2027. Uh I'm always in awe of keeping all the different fiscal years and school years and calendar years straight. >> [laughter] >> I have a lot of years written down here. Um Rob gave us an an overall summary of uh the process as it's played out over the past year. Uh The budgeting process goes on through multiple steps and to help connect the work we do outside of these televised meetings in our work sessions and in the finance meetings, uh we've established guiding change documents that describe how we will make budget decisions and what our priorities are. Um We track changes in legislative funding, the requirements that the legislature is putting on our school districts. We track that over the course of the year
062and when Rob comes back to make this presentation to the board to vote on our adjusted budget and the the plans that we have in place for the next year's budget. We'll see this presentation on May 28th. We will know a little bit more from the conclusion of the legislative session what our budget will look like at that point. And we have been considering this really since January. So connecting that broader arc of the work that we do besides just meeting to meeting, there's quite a bit that happens behind the scenes in our work sessions and in our committees. And we also discussed briefly what we'd like to do as a board coming out of this discussion we had with a lot of our students and continuing that plan into the future. Thank you. All
063right. Dr. Zambrano, you're next. It's a busy time. Give us some highlights. All right. Yes, it's always a busy time, but it's spring is so much fun in South St. Paul. There's just like I look at my calendar every week it's like opening up a present. There's you know, honors ceremonies, banquets, so many great things going on. Too much to highlight all at once, but I'll just say shout out to our staff, our students, our family and community for all the things you do to contribute to our school district to make it such a great place to be as I like to call it spring spring extravaganza where we have all of these great things going on, but it really goes by fast. So I know we're just about knocking on the door of May,
064but we're going to be at graduation ceremony before we know it. Following up a little bit on what we heard this evening. So we did hear about the special election on May 12th and we talk heard a bit about the bond, which is question one. Um I did want to spend a little bit of time talking about question two. Um as we heard the bond comes with some additional funding with a little bit of an increase in taxes that $12 per month on the median home. Question two is not any additional cost. So, we have what's called a capital projects levy. And that does a number of things for us. And that is going to expire in about 3 years. And so, we're trying to bring that forward now so we can do both questions
065now and then we don't have to come back to our taxpayers anytime soon. So, what the capital projects levy really focuses on first and foremost a lot of things related to our technology. So, our devices that our staff use, our students use. Um allows us to maintain those systems, but also like safety and security in some pretty big ways. So, we have some outdated camera systems we'd like to upgrade. Um cybersecurity is a major um important piece for us. We know that our kids are interacting with the internet on a daily basis. We want to make sure they're safe. >> [snorts] >> We have programs that people don't necessarily know exist that are kind of keep an eye on things and flag those for for administration if they see things going on. Our communication systems,
066our telephone system is is kind of the phones themselves are good, but the system itself needs to be updated. So, again security, cameras, communication systems, the tech infrastructure. No one thinks about the tech infrastructure until it's not working. When you go to get on the internet and you can't get going, that's very frustrating. We don't want our students to experience that, our staff to experience that. Um so, again there's also a lot of um as we look at our curriculum everything's moving to online. So, it's it's no longer textbooks. So, we need to use our capital projects levy to help us with some of those pieces. Um and again like I said, I think the biggest piece I want to make sure people understand it's a renewal, so it's not adding any additional cost. It's
067technology, it's infrastructure within technology, safety and security. I think we all know how important safety and security is. That's like the number one thing. We'll do all the other great work once we know everyone's safe and secure. We've experienced some things around cybersecurity, so we just want to make sure that everyone has that. Also, I just want to clarify a few things. We've had a lot of really good questions coming in about the bond and and capital projects levy, and we love those, so keep them coming. One question was, is it true we only get a million dollars a year in LTFM funding? It's like 1.1 million right now. The short answer is, yep, that's all we get. In fact, 10 years ago, that was a new funding stream. It didn't even used to exist.
068So, people would ask, well, where did you get the money? It's always been go out with a bond and ask the local taxpayers. So, thankfully, the the state did put in a system, and that's how we've been able to kind of keep up with the the day-to-day operations within our buildings and keeping things functioning well, but that is really the number. But I you know, another question, what's the long-term plan? And and that's a fair and great question. Part of what this bond will allow us to do is take care of that high priority list that Ben and Mark were talking about, and then being able to sit down with our community and really engage in what does this look like 5 years out, 10 years out? Because we need to have that plan in
069place. So again, you know, not a lot of funding coming in from the state, so we've got to go out to our locals. But what I really like about it is this is a chance for South Saint Paul to take care of South Saint Paul. No one's going to come in and fix our buildings for us. This is not a reality, unfortunately. But at the same time, fortunately, we can take care of them for ourselves. And so, I'm pretty excited about it. We've heard a lot of positive things from the community. And within those systems and things that we saw, a A of that stuff we won't see, but also making sure people know these are safer systems, they're cleaner systems, they're safer for people to work on, they're safer to be around. Electrical systems
070that are 50, 60, 70 years old obviously aren't going to have the safeguards in place. We talked about moving the transformers out of our building. Those transformers would then become the responsibility of Xcel. But again, that'll also allow us to be more efficient. Everything we bring in will be more efficient, so we'll be saving money on electricity and some of those and heating costs in the long term. So, just a few things that have kind of come up, but I would say if you're still having questions, please reach out. I've had individual conversations with people. I'm sitting down with a community member tomorrow who's had some really good questions to talk about that long-term planning. So, we're meeting with our team. We are very much wanting to be open, honest, transparent. Um happy to answer
071any questions. There's no such thing as a bad question, so I just wanted to share that. But as we move forward, like I said, spring is so much fun. I'm really excited to see some things going on across the district. Obviously, probably the biggest highlight in spring is the amazing scholarship banquet provided to us by our SSP Educational Foundation. It gives me goosebumps every time I think about being superintendent in a district where over 50% of our kids qualify for free or reduced price lunch, which means getting to post-secondary could be a real barrier in terms of cost. And we have an educational foundation that for just 133 of our seniors is offering over $614,000 in scholarships. It is unparalleled anywhere that I'm aware of in the state of Minnesota, not sure nationally, but no
072one touches that number and it's just amazing. And that's not all the foundation does. They do we heard earlier about the field trips that they've been supporting, the transportation costs, and curricular opportunities for teachers to try new things. There's a great interactive system down at Kaposia for the PE kids to do physical movement while learning math skills or science skills. So they there's so much they do, uh but I cannot wait till Wednesday the 13th uh when we come together uh yet again at the cafeteria. There's not uh it's not open to the public because it is by invite and so our our recipients only get two tickets for people to come, but um another shout out to Town Square Television, our um awesome partners there, will live stream that. So for anyone who can't
073come, you should watch it. I will tell you it's a long night, but it is amazing. As you sit there and you realize we're done with the 500 scholarships, the $1,000 scholarships, and they just get bigger and bigger, and you're sitting there and you realize some of the kids that are left in the room and haven't had their names called. I mean, in the past I've seen families in tears before their their their child's name is called. So it it's not an uh exaggeration to say that like literally dreams are going to be made that night. So thank you to the foundation for the hard work you put into that, and of course all of the donors who make that possible. Uh just an amazing thing we have here in South Saint Paul. The community
074ed catalog went out, another thing that's I think uh a strong point for us is how we really work hard to serve our entire community. So as we're out here asking for the community to lean in and support us, know that we take pride in in reaching back out and offering great things for um everybody of all ages. We you Board has heard a lot of times we talk about wanting to serve everybody from birth to earth. If you're in South Saint Paul, we want to serve your needs and and be partners with you. So please check out the summer 26 uh community ed catalog. Lots of classes for all ages, fitness, the youth recreation, gymnastics, um some finance classes, arts, uh early learning support, the senior center socials and trips are really fun. Our
075senior citizens are so much fun, so I I look forward to the luncheon every month and seeing all the smiling faces and just seeing how many of them show up and are there with each other. And so it's just a great thing. If you want to find out more though, you can hop on our website. Registration digital catalog is there at our community ed link on our website. Stride for Packer Pride. We did hear the Schultz name a little bit earlier there with Jackson, but shout out to the Schultz family for continuing the Stride for Packer Pride. It is coming up real soon on Saturday the 16th 9:00. We meet at Central Square and go from there. Course we're hoping for great weather, but regardless of the weather, we know that this really helps support
076a lot of kids. As I said, a lot of our families don't have a lot of extra resources. We want no barriers for our kids to access anything that any other kid can do. And so through things like our open foundation and the Stride for Packer Pride, we're able to piece things together so that all of our kids can fully participate in activities and athletics. And one of the things that's so great about our smaller size is the kids can. I have kids who've been at some big schools where it's not easy to access athletics and activities. So our kids are going to have no problem getting in and being part of it. And this just takes away one more barrier. So if you want to learn more about that event, you can hop on
077our website. I know the registration on the Stride for Packer Pride website is also open. So you can hop on there and if you can't go, you can always just throw a donation and it'll go into the coffers for that. So shout out to the Schultz family for organizing that. As we talked about, the year's winding down, so it's time to start thinking about gearing up for next year. I mentioned this before. One of the fun opportunities we have for our incoming kinders is as K camp or kindergarten camp. That gives them a chance to come in and feel like a little mini version of kindergarten, get into the school. They'll go to whichever school they're going. So if they're going to Lincoln or Compasha, both awesome schools, you're in great hands either way. You'll
078have that opportunity and that runs from July 27th to July 30th. You can register for that online. Again, it's just a a to get them feeling comfortable with school, get a chance to get in the door, get a little taste of what it's going to feel like to be a kindergartner, and I've spent a bit of time in our kindergarten classrooms, and we have the best kindergarten teachers around. So, they're going to be in great hands. Um always have a passion for middle schools myself, having been a middle school uh principal and assistant principal. Uh we want to make sure we set up kids for success as they transition to the middle school. So, have the Packer preview for our incoming sixth graders. Uh it gives them again that chance to come in, try out
079the lockers, see the layout of the school since it's a new building, uh practice that switching classrooms, which they'll be doing. I know the kids are very excited. I've talked to our fifth graders quite a bit. They're really looking forward to that. Also, shout out to our our fifth grade teachers and administrators, as well as the Principal Borgon and her team, do a lot of great things to get the kids into the building, to see the band perform, to try the food, to just get a sense of what it's going to be like to be a middle-level Packer. And so, um great opportunity just to get in there and get some comfort built before the school year starts. Uh fourth grade students, we had a little um taste of it here, but this is a
080picture from when we were meeting with uh Maggie and Dory come every year and meet with students and give them that chance to try some of the new foods and um provide feedback. You know, they were soft or understated. They do an amazing, amazing job, and I got to try um the enchiladas that they said didn't turn out that good were delicious. I don't know what that means. Maybe Thais taste better to others, but they were really, really good. The street tacos, super good. That pot roast, that was an in-house recipe they made themselves. One of the things that um uh Dory and Maggie will talk about is there's so many restrictions on what can go into food, but when you buy it pre-made, it really has so much less flavor than when they make
081it in-house. And so, when you try the recipes they're making in-house, I think everybody knows this the spaghetti and all those other things. They're they're really expanding and they're always looking for culturally relevant foods like those street tacos and just a shout out to them for for one taking the time to do this with the kids they did it with our fourth graders as well as our middle school and high schoolers. But they their team really does take pride in what they do and I've worked at schools that literally all they can do is warm food and cut bags and dump it out where they're really making scratch cooking and what they make is it tastes great. So shout out to them. Had fun the other day I walked into the secondary building and I'm
082like wow, there's socks over there in the corner of the entryway. Like that's kind of weird. Luckily, I have an aversion to socks. I don't know so I didn't mess with those to only then learn that Miss Kaufman was doing set it up a little crime scene for the kids to go around the building and investigate this crime and they did not know what the crime was. So it's kind of an interesting take. I hadn't seen that before like I worked with forensic science classes where they know there was a murder and this is where it happened and when it happened. She takes it to a whole new level where they don't even know what it is yet. They have to piece the whole thing together by going station to station, looking at the clues
083and then handing off the evidence to other folks in this you know law investigation process. And so got to talk to the kids. They were really having a lot of fun but they were in you know Joe Burke's Dr. Burke's room and then they were down on the main floor and Kaufman's so just a neat way to have kids out and about in the building and it builds excitement cuz others like what are you doing? There's a crime scene tape so lots of fun. So after collecting evidence, they reflected on the process. You know what could have avoided contamination? Some of those things that real life investigators, you know what what might have Yeah, there were socks there but did Zambrano go meddling with those socks when he walked in or did he just leave
084them? You don't know. You got to check those things. So really cool hands-on learning for them. Another shout out to Jackson. We already heard about that but a neat award for him to be picked as one of just eight seniors who showed excellence on the field and off the field. Jackson's academics are excellent. He also did some really great things with Geo this winter to support peers who are having some challenging times. So, very well deserved, very excited for him to get that recognition. So, congratulations, Jackson. And then just some important dates. May 18th coming up, we have a non-student day. So, we're getting close to Memorial Day and all these things coming up with May 20th district holiday. June 4th is the last day of school. So, not as late as last year. May
0855th, we have the Caposha PTA at 6. May 7th, the Lincoln Spring Fling from 5 to 7. And then their PTA meets at 7 on the 11th. And then May 1st, the high school has their honors program. So, that's just coming up this Friday. Again, super fun to just hear and see the amazing things our kids do and how they really show up as academicians as well as everything else they do. I mentioned Ed Scholarship, Ed Foundation Scholarship banquet coming up. And then May 29th, the last day for seniors. So, they do get out just a little bit early. I know some of them are, you know, doing all the senior stuff. So, please be safe, be smart, have fun. That's what I say to my senior. Every time she's walking out, I say, "Have
086fun, be safe, be smart, have fun, be safe." However you want to say it. That's so. Let's keep that alive as we approach the end of the year. Activities awards banquet 6:00 on May 6th. Again, always really fun to hear the amazing things. And we have such a wide variety. I love that, you know, it's not just athletics, but we have performance and arts and all kinds of things that we celebrate. Along that lines, we have band concert on the 21st at 7 and a choir concert on the 28th at 7. Lots there, but lots of great things going on, lots to be proud of. Packer pride is as strong as ever. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, kind of shifting gears now. Um I am looking for a motion to approve the consent items on
087tonight's agenda, which include the financial claims, bills payable, and staffing as presented. Do I have a motion? So moved. >> Second. Thank you. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Opposed? Motion carries 6-0. Okay. We now we move to section five on the agenda, district policy. District policies play a critical role in the governance work of the school board. All district policies are available on our website under the about us tab, located within the school board section under SSPPS policies. This evening's policies were initially reviewed by the board policy committee on April 23rd. Policy 412, expense reimbursement, 421, gifts to employees and school board members, 422, employee recognition, 612, organization of the school day, 620, credit for learning, 624, online instruction. These six policies are on their final review. They were
088reviewed by the policy committee, and no major changes were made. Most experienced no change beyond the state statute number changing. Policy 416, drug, alcohol, and cannabis testing, and 417, chemical use and abuse, are on their second of three reviews because more substantial changes were made to these policies, they received greater scrutiny, and they will be approved um possibly on the May 26, 2026 meeting. At this time, I am seeking a motion to approve the first six policies that were listed on our agenda this evening. Do I have a motion? So moved. >> Or second. Thank you. Any discussion? Um if there's no further discussion or any discussion, all those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed those six passed six oh. Thank you. All right we have six business items tonight. First I am looking
089for a motion for the South St. Paul School Board to approve scheduling a special meeting for Wednesday May 20th at 6:00 p.m. in the district office conference room to canvass the results of the May 12th 2026 special election. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Thank you and I'd like to offer time to Lisa Brandl here to explain why we need this. It's a legal step in the process and we have so many days with to canvass the election and it unfortunately it falls between our two meetings and not within the window so we need to schedule a special meeting to canvass those results. Thank you. Any questions discussion? No. All those in favor please say I. Opposed motion carries six oh. All right. I'm looking for a motion for the South St. Paul
090Public School School Board to approve the resolution for non-renewal of probationary staff. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Thank you and at this time I'd like to invite Charlie Cook up to explain this annual process. Thank you School Board Chair Human Dr. Zembrino. Each year we must release a number of probationary staff teachers for various reasons including student driven scheduling changes in enrollment budget reductions curriculum changes licensure issues mid-year placements and performance issues. Attached is a resolution to terminate the contracts of a number of probationary teachers. This resolution terminates teaching contracts for those listed at the end of the current 2025-2026 school year with non-renewal for the 2026-27 school year. Do we have any questions or discussion? Um if there is none, then I'll ask Lisa to call the roll, please.
091Director T. Felton? Yes. Duffy? Yes. >> Weber? Yep. W. Felton? >> Yep. >> Klapwin? Yes. >> And Schurman? Yes. >> That's 6 A's. Thank you. And now I'm looking for a motion for the South St. Paul's Public School School Board to approve the resolution for non-renewal of long-term substitutes. Do I have a motion? So moved. Thank you. Second? Second. Perfect. And back to Charlie. Another annual process. Yes. Um in compliance with Minnesota statutes, we're required to terminate the teaching contracts of the district's long-term and limited contract substitute teachers at the end of each school year. A long-term substitute by definition is one who has worked all or part of the school year replacing a specific teacher who has return rights to his or her position. The contracts of the long-term substitutes must be terminated at
092the end of the school year. Failure to terminate these contracts could result um in two teachers having the same position. Any questions or discussion? Uh then Lisa, will you please call the roll? Director Weber? Yep. >> W. Felton? Yes. >> Klapwin? Yes. >> T. Felton? Yes. >> Duffy? Yes. >> And Schurman? Yes. That's 6 A's. All right. Thank you, Charlie. And our final business item this evening, I'm looking for approval for the South St. Paul's School Board to approve the education identity and access management board resolution that designates Superintendent Brian Zambreno as the district's identified official with authority Iowa. Okay. >> [laughter] >> Can I get a motion, please? I motion I move that. Thank you. Second. All right. And uh if you want to explain what being the Iowa is, I guess I'll hand
093it off to either Celisa or Brian. >> Yeah, I know that's uh great, Chairwoman. So, essentially within the state system, we have to designate uh various people. So, like I'm looking across the at our folks at the room like if it's finance, I would go into the system and Mark Raw is of having access to those and that sensitive information we wouldn't want others to have. If it's learning or special ed, it would be Amy Winter, Jennifer, you know, Lisa does some things for the board. So, it just gives me that opportunity to go in and give the proper access to the folks who need to do the work for us. All right. So, it's a routine we do it every year and now we do it again. Um any questions or discussion? Please call
094the roll. Director Duffy. Yes. Dep uh Weber. Yes. W. Felton. Yes. >> Klafflin. Yes. T. Felton. >> Yes. And Chairwoman. Yes. That's six yes. All right. Well, we're reaching the conclusion. We're this much closer to eating our multi-layered taco dip. Um but before before we start crunching, I would like to um ask the directors to share any highlights from their committees or um recent events in the district they participated in with the community and I'll start with Director Weber. Um Well, one of the funny thing is so I have my my Go Packers Packer Pride bracelet that I just wear everywhere um with me and I was in a meeting um with some people I didn't know um who were from out of state and they saw my bracelet and they're like and they're like,
095"So, you support the Packers?" And I said, "Yes, the South Saint Paul Packers. We were Packers before anybody else might have claimed the name of the Packers and then I got to explain to them all about this cool little community that we live in and like what you know what our past was and what our future is and the school that we have created and the community that we have created um and so it was a a funny moment to be on my soapbox with these people who lived in Virginia. Um and they were like okay. Um but it just is a real sense of pride which and when you have pride in something you have to take care of it. Um and so I encourage everyone to go out and vote for the bond
096levy and to know that um again nothing nothing is forever if you don't take care of it and that you know houses need roofs, classrooms need clean air, um tennis courts need a solid surface to bounce a ball on. And so I really would just encourage everyone to be able to see our community assets um so that we can be around for another 100 years of Packer pride. Thank you. Director Felton? Uh nothing other than the open just handed out pretty much the last vestiges of their money all but $600 and the last amount went to the flag football team for new uniforms. So we look forward to replenishing the coffers this summer with the golf tournament. Thank you. Mr. Claflin? Thank you. Uh besides all the end of year excitement that we heard about
097happening over at the high school uh I've been part of some of the elementary celebrations that are coming up. Um all the fifth graders are very excited about their transition to middle school. There's going to be a great class going over starting next year. Um they just had a fundraiser for their celebration and they were very motivated to go out on a high note and some of our fifth graders were even competing on their very first math team competition. They're getting out there and sampling what middle school and high school are going to bring. And it was such a contrast to see where these kids are going to grow up into when we heard from the high school students. You can see the direct connection that these high school students were really concerned about not
098only the environment that they are going to school in, but the environment that kids are going to come into. And um they are trying to make things better for future generations of South Saint Paul students as well as take care of their peers right now. So, I I really was so grateful to hear from those students. They were um fantastic spokespeople for their community now, and they've definitely made a difference for students coming in in the future. I'm excited to see where they go on to in their next steps, too. Okay. Director Duffy? Um go watch one of our sports teams, softball, baseball, golf if you want to go uh catch a few holes of golf. I think they golfed today. Oh. >> Um in the rain. So, they golf rain or shine. Um but
099um yeah, uh a lot of things going on. I know baseball, we have three games this week. Two will be home Tuesday and Wednesday. Tomorrow is against Simley. Um so, yeah, a lot of passion there, a lot of good things happening uh within our spring sports realm. So. Thank you. Thank you. Director Fulton? Mhm. Uh I just want to let you know that our recent Reader Cross All Saint Paul, which we we did our last one for this school year was done on April 10th and it will be starting over again in the fall at Kaposia or Lincoln Center if you want to do reading a book that they get from the Kaposia library. You can certainly check into it in in the early fall. And next, I want to congratulate one of our senior
100graduates, Miss Sarah Willy. Her name and information was posted in the Pioneer Press newspaper as she was the winner of our Athena Awards for this year. Um it says Sarah Willy, South Saint Paul School. The sports that she's involved in, soccer, track and field and does weightlifting. So she was the award from our town for the Athena Award program. So that's congratulations to her. And just last week I did something really interesting, something I've never done before. I totally totally enjoyed it. I attended what they call it's a meeting called South Saint Paul Local Issues meeting. It was held at Central Square. I was there with Dr. Zambrano and Paul Cummings also came. And there were 21 people there at that meeting. It we was wonderful. What we did us, we of course we explained
101our upcoming election information for our bond and levy. And there were several major other representatives there, our County Commissioner Miss Joe Atkins, our State Representative Representative Hanson, several community members here from South Saint Paul, Mayor Francis, Council Lori Hanson, uh some fire chiefs, Parks and Rec, the city administrator, and it was uh it was a very interesting event. Also, community Deb Griffith. So, it was a very very interesting event. I totally would do that again ever. It was It was wonderful. I loved it. It was great. Very informative. >> [clears throat] >> And one of the things that we learned and were given at that day actually, this this came from Deb Griffith. If you're interested, this is tomorrow night there is a fundraiser. It will be held, as you can see, at the Croatian
102Hall. It is a taco feed fundraiser. The you can go there and get a taco, $3 each or two for $5. I have eaten several times having tacos there and they are very very good if if you like tacos. This This is a fundraiser from this organization. All proceeds go to supporting the Fill the Backpacks program in the South Saint Paul to assist children that are in need of school supplies. Yes, this event is fully sponsored with every dollar raised going directly to children's education needs. So, if you want to go tomorrow evening for dinner, Croatian Hall, starting at 4:30 until 7:00. That is a really nice thing to do to support our students. They would get their backpacks and much equipment in the fall when needed. So, definitely keep that in mind. And as
103several things that were already admitted, of course, we know that uh next week with our athletic activities program, that'll that'll that's always very informative, very nice. And then the week after that, of course, as you know, the Education Foundation scholarship which they are giving out $614,000 to [clears throat] our students that graduate. So, that that is that is very good. And then a couple things personally that I have done as you know, I've talked about it many times, the Senior Center when they go on tours, I went on the on the the last one which was the beginning of April called Super Duos Music Concert which was held in Red Wing. It was very very nice, wonderful music, a five-man band. And a luncheon. And also, as I have meant meant said and said several
104times next week on Wednesday, May 6th, is our fashion show at Senior Center. As I have said, it's $20 to help pay for your luncheon, which is from the Co-op, which is really it's a wonderful meal, but you do have to make a reservation in advance. So, if anyone is interested, age 55 and up, if you want to come to that fashion show please make the reservation as soon as you can. Of course, I'm a model there, too. I've been doing that for years. So, yes. Of course, of course, we had a we had our luncheon also at at the Senior Center. It was a salad, make-your-own salad, and then the next one will be Thursday, May 14th. They're calling it a tea party. So, that's that's the next one. And last but not least
105as you know, we talk a lot about our our election which is coming up and as you know on May 12th there is an article This is the second one that has been posted in the Pioneer Press. This was posted today with all the information as it also gives both of the what what is on the election when you go there to vote. So you can you can read this out of the newspaper to get information. And personally for me the surprising thing my signature is on there. Cuz I since I'm the secretary clerk I do sign a lot of this information. And I already voted. at city hall Great. Thank you. Thank you Director Felton. Um well, I guess I'll just tag on that early voting is available at city hall. Election day is
106the 12th. Please please please go out and vote. And to not delay Director Felton from getting to a taco dip. That is the agenda for tonight. I will um hereby entertain a motion to adjourn our Monday April 27th, 2026 school board meeting. Mhm. So moved. Seconded. Yay. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I. >> I. Opposed. Uh motion carries 6-0. School board meeting is adjourned at 7:26.