Welcome and good evening. I would like to call the Monday, June 22nd, 2026 school board meeting to order. Lisa, will you please call the roll? >> Director Webber? >> Here. >> W. Felton? >> Here. >> Klaflin? >> Here. >> Cummings? >> Yep. >> T. Felton? >> Here. >> And Shireman? >> Here. >> That's six present.
>> All right. I ask all who are able to please rise 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. >> All right. And at this time, I'd like to welcome everyone who's here tonight and anyone who is watching online or on Town Square Television. All right. First, I am looking for a motion to approve the regular board
meeting agenda for this evening as well as the minutes for the May 20th, 2026 special meeting, the May 20th, 2026, 2026 work session, and business meeting, the June 8th work session, and the June 15th special
meeting. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you, Wendy. Thank you, Tim. And then I'd like to just briefly share that the two special meetings were um the May 20th was when we canvassed the vote from the May 12th special election, and then the June 15th special meeting
is when the board met to interview vacancy candidates. So, it's more things than normal there. Um any other comments or discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. >> Aye. >> Aye. Opposed? Uh motion carries 6-0.
All right. Now, I have the privilege of inviting our technology director, Tom Basquil, up to share about the district student online safety systems and what other amazing IT things he wants to share with us. >> Well, good evening. Thank you for the
invitation to come and and have this conversation tonight. I appreciate the chance to share a little bit about the things that we are working on in the technology department. Tonight I wanted to share just a brief kind of overview of the online safety systems that we have in place for the students and the
technology as well as what we're trying to do to increase the learning and the what we consider digital citizenship of our students, how they are using the technology, how they're using it responsibly, and how they're using it to become better
overall students and citizens in our community. So, first I want to talk a little bit about when we talk about safety systems, talk Oh, I didn't plug in. >> I know I I think I'm going to need to drive. Sorry. >> Okay. Um content filtering. So, I think this is
what we would consider one of our top lines of defense for our student online safety. So, content filtering, what that really means is what students are able to access on the internet. What sites they can get to, what types of content on those sites they're able to see, and
which ones get automatically filtered out. So, these are things like malware sites, sites that have software that get into systems and create problems, viruses. We don't want students and any of our technology from the district accessing
anything that's dangerous in that sense. Any adult content, social media sites we have filtered out mostly, and gaming sites, sites that are distracting to students and don't serve much educational value if any. So,
there's three layers of content filtering that we have. First is our firewall. That lives on our on our network across the whole district. So, any traffic that goes in and out of the district network goes through that firewall, and we have the ability to manage what are called
categories of traffic that students have access to. So, we can block sites that have a category listed as adult content or gambling, social media sites. So, the the firewall is the kind of main first level defense, but that is only protecting
what is on our network within the district. So, if students connect devices to networks at home, then the firewall content filtering doesn't help anything there. Um which is why we have our our other layers of content filtering as well. So, we have Google licensing for our
students. All our students have Google accounts, and within the Google administrative console, we have the ability to do some content filtering there as well. All of the student Chromebooks um we can do some filtering that allow us to say certain grade levels have access
to certain content, whereas other grade levels don't. Um we could do it based on school. If certain schools are doing research on a certain certain topic or particular set of websites they need access to, we have some more granular tools we can use to allow access
for certain grade levels, certain students to access certain things. Um so, that's our second layer of of protection, and then the third layer is called Aristotle K12. That's a software that we've purchased, and it lives on all of the student devices.
Um and this serves multiple purposes. One, we can individual on individual websites filter out what students can and can't have access to, but beyond just us in the tech department, this allows teachers to be able to specifically say what they want their
students in their particular class to have access to or not. So, a teacher could create what's called an outline using this Aristotle K12 software for that particular class they're teaching at the moment, and say, "I only want students to be able to access these
five websites for this class period and everything else is blocked. Um or a teacher could say um you know, I only want them to have access for these particular uh time of day. Um it also what's cool about Aristotle K-12
is it allows all of the teachers to actually see what every student in their classroom has on their Chromebook screen. So, it gives little tiles at the teacher view of what every student in their classroom is looking at on their Chromebook. Uh it gives the teacher the
ability to to freeze all of the Chromebooks in the classroom so that the students can't do anything on them. It allows the teacher to put a message out that goes right to every student Chromebook in the classroom. It might say something like heads up. It means that all the students should stop what they're doing on their
Chromebook and look up and look for the teacher. So, this tool Aristotle K-12 really gives some some uh useful tools directly into the hands of the teacher so they can control what's happening in the classroom directly. Um I did also want to mention that I
invited to come tonight uh one of our uh technology department, one of my colleagues, our systems specialist, Travis Wells back there. Um he lives in this content filtering stuff all the time. And so, I really wanted him to if he was available to be here tonight in case there are any specific questions on
how any of these tools work cuz he's in there. He's working with the teachers to do some research if students were extra distracted or on some sites that we felt like needed to be blocked, um he goes in and he takes a looks at look at those settings and can can block things on the
fly if necessary. So, thank you, Travis, for being here. Um the next piece to online student safety I wanted to talk a little bit about is digital citizenship. Um that is a relatively broad term, but it's really about how students or how individuals
interact with technology responsibly, ethically, um and how are we teaching students these skills based on the technology that we are providing to them. We want them to know how to use our technology effectively, how to use it responsibly.
So, we talk about things like cyberbullying, what it is, how to combat it, what to do if you see it, how to protect their personal identifiable information so it doesn't get out on the internet, understanding their digital footprint, any pictures they post. You know, the
internet is forever and anything that's out there they We want our students to understand what that means when they decide to share certain things with with their online communities. So, for our digital citizenship curriculum, we work with an organization called Common Sense Education, Common
Sense Media. Um we have teachers deliver lessons on digital citizenship to every grade level across the district, starting in kindergarten all the way up through 12th grade. And Common Sense Media has really done a a great job of providing tools
for teachers. They are grade level based um little mini lessons on different topics around digital citizenship. Um in let's say kindergarten or first grade level, they're little one or two minute videos that the students can watch and then the teachers talk with the students about
things like um how do you be kind online? What does that mean? What does that look like? Or um how do you Let's see. I took a couple of notes around what the digital citizenship curriculum entails. But like in general, what is media? We
want students as young as kindergarten to start understanding what that word means. There's a lesson on how to differentiate between fact or fiction. Um you know, in sixth grade one of the curriculum units is on red flags when you're doing online chats or what it
means to have a stolen identity, um de-escalating online harm. Um when we get up into the high school level, we're talking about things like um, the consequences of online hate speech, or how to protect your online
reputation. Um, and, you know, what you send in that moment when you're having really strong, powerful feelings, how you can, um, take a take a breath, take a step back, and are you sure that that's something you really want to be posting
out to the internet. So, these digital citizenship lessons, I think, are really, really valuable to our students, and, um, we are, uh, dedicated to providing these lessons to 100% of our students. Um, we try to make sure in the elementary schools, they get
these lessons throughout the entire year, and those are given by the media specialists in the library. Um, and when we get up into middle school, the English language teachers are providing these lessons, and that's happens all throughout the first trimester. Uh, in high school, it's both the ELA
teachers as well as the social studies teachers giving the curriculum. So, uh, we we ask then the teachers after they've given these lessons at the end of try one, um, can you verify that you you gave the lessons? Do you have feedback for us in the technology department about the curriculum that
we're using? Um, and just verifying that it has been done. Just so you know, this digital citizenship, uh, curriculum is a requirement of our E-rate projects and E-rate funding as well that we get from the federal government to do some of our network projects, our pay we get
reimbursed at a certain percentage for things like our Wi-Fi, um, access points, our our, uh, network switches, and, um, some of that equipment as well. So, um, and then real quick, the last thing I want to mention is that we do want to
make a lot of our resources available to families. So, we, um, on our website, we have a lot of family resource links posted. Um any kind of uh resource that we come across that we think might be helpful to parents, we post on the technology section of the
website, um including some of these other Common Sense Media resources. So, we use the Common Sense Media for the digital citizenship curriculum, but they have plenty of other resources for parents and families around building things like a technology agreement in the home. Um what does that
look like? Um Uh how to have conversations with students with with children about things like social media or different games out there that that involve online communities. And so, uh we want to provide these resources to families who
are looking for ways to take this online safety and bring it into the household as well. All right, that's what I have for you all. >> [laughter] >> I know that was a lot that I dumped on you. Um is there any any questions that I can answer for you? Any thoughts that you have?
>> So, I have uh two questions. One, how do you set to regulate something as useful and not useful as like YouTube? Like, how do you decide can you decide like what are great
educational tools and what is last week on The Real Housewives? Like, how do you separate those out? >> Yeah, so um we've Well, one of the things is that we work with the the teachers in our curriculum
directly to understand what is purposefully purposeful use of technology um versus um technology use that is filler time that, you know, students um we want to reduce the time that
students can go online and just do whatever they want, right? Um YouTube specifically is an interesting case because um we have recently turned YouTube off for students across the district. Now, what that means is that they cannot go to
youtube.com and just search for anything that's out there. But, teachers can still use YouTube as a teaching tool. But, what the teachers now have to do is find a specific video that they have chosen for a particular educational
purpose. They take the link to the video and they embed it in our uh learning management system, which we off we use Schoology for our middle and high school. So, um so or in the elementary level, teachers could take it and put it into their Google Classroom LMS. Or, they
could just plug in their computer and show it on the interactive panel in the classroom. But, uh you're right, we don't want students to have full access to anything on YouTube. So, that's why we've decided, let's turn YouTube access off for our students. And instead, if the teachers want to use it, the
teachers have to be the ones to curate the specific video and why they're uh purposefully using it for their students. Does that answer your question? >> It does. And then my second question is, do our students have access to any of
these like AI chatbots that like take them down random places that some might be good and some might not be good? >> So, interesting question. Um, good question. No, we have purposefully turned off access to anything that's categorized as
uh an AI chatbot. Am I right on that? >> Yeah. >> [laughter] >> It's not foolproof, but anything we have control over is off our block. >> Right. Yeah, now there with any technology, there are if you try hard enough to get around all of the systems, there are ways for students to
do that. But, we purposefully make it very, very hard for them to get access to anything like that. Um, there have been conversations around AI specifically, um both within our department and within the district as, you know, greater, um, uh, talking to some of the teachers. We
have an, uh, an EdTech cohort of teachers we work with in the technology department around, what would AI use look like in the district? Um, both amongst teachers using AI as well as students using AI. Uh, so that is actually one of my goals for the upcoming school year is to
really under start by understanding how and which teachers are using AI right now and how are they using it? What tools are they using? Um, and are they expecting or wanting to have students get access to any of these tools in the
classroom for any particular reason? I think there is value in teaching the students specifically how to use these AI tools responsibly, what they can and can't do, what they're good for, what they're not good for. Um, but on the other hand, we don't want them to use
these tools for um, detrimental purposes. Um, cheating comes up a lot, right? So, um, I really want to get a baseline of what are our teachers using, how are they using it, how would they like to use it, and how would they like to work with students on using it in a
responsible way. And once we kind of have a feel for that, then, um, kind of create some guidelines around what tools does the district support? Um, we do have access to Google's, um, like Gemini AI tools if we were to turn them on, but right now they are not turned on for
anyone in the district. >> [snorts] >> Um, that has its pros and cons as well, but I just came back from an AI conference last week up in St. Cloud where districts across the state were meeting and talking about these challenges and at what point do you recognize, well, AI teachers, administrators, they're going
to go use AI whether we have them turned on or not within our own systems. But if you, if they go out and use external systems and are you putting in data that they shouldn't be sharing? We have no control over that. So, on some level, it's
better to have them use tools that we do have control over because then the data still belongs to us and is not just out there. So, um that's one of the things we're we're digging into this year is what are those general guidelines around AI usage, who has access, what tools do they have
access to, and what are we what is professional development for our staff look like so that they know what is appropriate use of these AI tools and what is not. So. >> On the topic of professional development, can you explain how you're training our teachers, like how to
utilize Aristotle K through 12 and be able to get the most functionality out of it? >> Yeah, so um we have a position, a digital learning specialist position. Um Connor Murphy was in the position for the first half of the year uh and then he left the district. We recently hired
someone who's going to start in August to fill that position. Uh and a big piece of that role is going to be providing um training for the teachers on these tools like Aristotle uh and how to use that. We've done multiple professional development sessions um during PD days
during the school year on using Aristotle and what it can and can't do. Um I have heard feedback from the teachers that uh some some teachers love Aristotle and what it does and the tools it gives them and some teachers feel like it's not
doing its job very well. And the more we dig into it, the more we realize that the the teachers who are seeing the the concerns about Aristotle, it's because the students have found some of these workarounds that Aristotle has no
control over. Like, for example, Aristotle lives on the student devices and it tracks their internet usage, right? So, if a student goes into a classroom, um they well, let's say they take their device home. They They access a website
that has a a cloud-based game on it through a browser. Then they come back to school, they flip their Wi-Fi on their device off. Now, the teacher cannot see that student anymore. They can't see what's on that student device anymore because it's not connected to the network, but the
student has a game up that they had got brought onto their computer while they were at home. So, the students are figuring out ways around it. What we need to do is help the teachers understand what the students are doing to get around the tools. It's not that the tools aren't working, it's that they're they're limited in their capacity. They do what
they do very well, but they can't solve every problem. And so, part of the um recognition of what the teachers what we need to do better for our teachers is help them understand how these tools work and why in certain cases they're not working and what they can do to
to have a conversation with that student about, "Here's what I'm seeing happening. Explain to me why this why I'm not seeing your your computer screen. Are you connected? Are you you know, what what is going on here?" So, yeah. >> Thank you.
>> Any other questions for Tom or Travis? All right. Well, thank you so much for coming tonight. That was fascinating, and I look forward to going to our website and seeing uh Sir Loyne's tips. >> Oh, Sir Loyne's tips. They're fun. [laughter] >> I saw that link. That made me laugh. Okay.
>> All right. Well, thank you very much, Tom. >> [laughter] >> All right. Well, continue on our agenda, items 3B and 3C regarding end-of-year evaluations. So, this is my report. Okay. On June 8th, 2026, during the regular
scheduled board work session, an end-of-year self-evaluation was conducted by the board. This opportunity allowed us to engage in conversation with each other about the performance of the board as a whole over the past year. The evaluation tool we used follows the three pillars of the strategic plan,
Packer Performance, Packer Pride, and Packer Promise, which was adopted in 2025. With various standards under each pillar to help us focus and direct our work on behalf of the district. Using a four-point rating system, the board scored itself an average of 2.8 over 27
different standards. The evaluation reflects meaningful accomplishments in many areas, while also highlighting areas where continued focus is needed. In addition to discussing the standards, we engaged in a thoughtful conversation about how we can strengthen support for
future bond initiatives through increased community engagement and outreach by individual board members. We recognize the importance of building awareness, understanding, and support within our community and are committed to making this a focal point of any future bonding initiative.
We also discussed opportunities to enhance our pre-meeting preparation to allow for deeper discussion and engagement on the issues that come before us. And additionally, we reflected on how we can be more intentionally in placing our core our shared core values of respect,
pride, collaboration, integrity, resilience, and equity at the forefront of our work, particularly during board deliberations and decision making. In August, the board will further discuss what professional development we should seek together to guide our
efforts and ensure greater success for the district in the future. Additionally, following the self-evaluation, we held a closed session as required by Minnesota Statute 13D.05 subdivision 3 to conduct the end-of-year
evaluation of Superintendent Dr. Brian Zambreno. Similar to the board self-evaluation, the superintendent evaluation also uses a four-point system. The board scored Dr. Zambreno's performance with an average of 2.88 over
the 27 different standards that support the three strategic pillars. Dr. Zambrino's average score reflects meeting the district's expectations across the strategic plan standards with several areas of notable success and a small number of targeted priorities
identified for continued growth. The board acknowledged and celebrated the progress that Dr. Zambrino and his team have made over the past year. Specifically, through cultivating an environment that encourages continuous academic success and high performance
for our students, which include the diverse extracurricular experiences available in a district of our size. The focus on academic success and personal fulfillment through extracurricular activities offer our students diverse opportunities to
explore their academic and personal goals, unlocking their full potential for success in school, careers, and life. Even as we celebrate the progress made on this front, we continue to support expanded opportunities for our students and community.
As a learning organization, making positive progress on the 27 standards is a priority of the board with the hope that by the end of the 5-year strategic plan, we see measurable growth in these standards. The board then selected three standards that we will focus our attention on
through the coming academic year. First, as we face a budgetary inflection point with the failure of compensatory revenue being held to the level we previously received, we've asked Dr. Zambrino to assist us in proactively developing our annual budget so we can
continue to align our budget to our strategic plan while also navigating the financial unknowns that we face as school revenue and enrollment numbers drop. I know later this evening, finance director Rod Toth will speak more about this when he presents the presents the
2026-2027 budget. Speaking of enrollment, the second focus we have chosen requires Dr. Zambrano to analyze enrollment trends and help us implement initiatives that attract and retain students leading to increased enrollment and improved district
reputation. As a board, we need to spend more time thinking about what sets South Saint Paul apart from our neighboring districts and help leverage those strengths into actions that Dr. Zambrano and his team can market. Our third focus is on strengthening
community connections through shared experiences and growing the sense of pride in our schools and community. This is work that as a board we need to spend more time on defining what measurable success looks like. I would like to encourage community members to reach out to us with
suggestions. This evaluation process has helped focus our attention on our district's mission to engage, educate, and empower. We will continue to prioritize how we engage with our community as a whole and specifically our students to allow us to
create an environment that allows for educational success and creates graduates who are empowered to share their personal gifts with the world for the betterment of our community. I'd like to thank the rest of the board and Dr. Zambrano for participating in this process with an openness on
communication, collaboration, and clarity necessary for us to work together to move our district forward. All right, that's the end of those reports. Next up, stakeholder comments. Um 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 time on our second Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m. during our regular extended work session meetings.
At our June 8th stakeholder comments to the board, we received 18 online submissions and three in-person comments regarding the importance of the South Saint Paul theater program advocating [clears throat] the board make no cuts to the program funding or theater staffing.
The board is happy to share that no proposed reduction has been brought to the board. And it was a privilege to hear about the incredible impact theater has on our students and the greater community through the relationships built and the skills developed through these experiences.
Additionally, a group of staff members and students came in person to express concerns about the condition of the tennis courts and to inquire about next steps before the next tennis season begins. The board is happy to share with the community that we are currently
accepting bids for resurfacing the remaining five courts. The first three had been done last year. As a reminder, our next public listening session is at 6:30 p.m. at August 10th because there's no full work session in
July, but online submissions are accepted at any time. And I will now turn things over to Vice Chair Klafflin for an update on this evening's work session. >> Thank you. Uh this evening we went over a few of the other topics that we'll
hear more about later on our agenda this evening. Uh we had an update on the contracts that were finalized from our HR director, Mr. Cook. Um there is a new edition of the student and family rights and responsibilities
handbook coming out. Those handbooks can be found on the website and they really are full of a lot of good information. And then uh most of the rest of that uh work session was our public relations
and events calendar. There's quite a few things that we are involved in coming up here. There's an ice cream social with the senior center. You can look for your school board members and uh other school folks in the Kaposia Days Parade. We will be at the Splish Splash Bash
on July 15th. And looking all the way out to August, we'll be out in the community on Night to Unite. And for candidates looking to file to join the school board and run for election, we're putting together an
information session. You can find more information about that coming up on our website while this are finalized. It's a lot going on in the summer. >> Thank you. All right, Dr. Zambrano, you're next. >> All right, thank you, Chair Human. I hope everyone's summer is going well. We
are actually now officially in summer. Yesterday was the summer solstice as I understand it. It looks like the sun is shining brightly through our windows still even though shades are drawn. So, I do want again thank our incredible students, families, staff for a great school year. It's going to take our
brains a little shift as we shift to 2026-27 here in in a week. So, still a lot going on as as Vice Chair Clapham said, but a little less in my report tonight. We do want to make sure people are aware especially because it's a little bit different time frame than
we've seen in the past, but we have the filing period opening up for some open board seats. So, the filing period will be from July 14th through the 28th. So, that two week window no later than 5:00 p.m. on the 28th. That is the hard deadline for submitting
your interest in that. There are four seats open. Those are all four year terms and they'll begin January 27 and end right when we roll over into January 2031. And then we do have a two year term to complete the remainder of Director
Duffy's vacated seat as he has stepped away to focus on family. And that term will begin immediately following the election and then end when we roll into January 29. So, that the rest of that two year term is available. We're excited to see interest in being
on our board. We love the work and we hope that even if people put their name in and don't get chosen, they'll still lean in and collaborate and partner with us as we do this work together as a community. Um other things that we're working on. We as people are aware, we had the
district had two questions on the ballot in May looking for some support for a bond and a capital projects levy. Both measures did not pass and as a learning organization, we are committed to learning from that and the best way to do that is to listen and
learn. And so we have sent out a survey to all of the community and want to make sure people are one aware that should have hit your mailbox. But if you did not receive that, never fear. We do have that linked on our website. So whether you voted yes or no or even did not
vote, we want to learn more about that and and see what the perspectives are of the community and how that influenced how the election turned out so we can learn from that and get it right the next time around. Again, that's available at our website sspps.org in the news section. You'll find the
survey. What an amazing group of graduates we had this year. I mean every year is but this one I know was special in a lot of ways. We had a great group of student reps this year who graduated from us. Boy, I think we just used our collective
will to have perfect weather just about perfect weather for that night. I do feel a little selfish sitting I'm looking at the picture where Chair Human and Principal Ochaki and I sit. It's a great view to get to sit there and just soak it all in. I wish everybody could enjoy that but we we do wish our
graduates from the class the very very best. I know we'll hear a little bit about them from Ms. Felton here sitting next to me. She's got some exciting news she'll share in a minute. I don't want to get ahead of you there. We also had the graduation for our CLC and that was
another great group of kids and the little bit smaller group as we know the big school works for a lot of kids but not for everybody and to help support that we have our community learning center which is our alternative high school
just a different group of educators there just helping the kids figure it out and it's that graduation ceremony is so much fun and these kids have every bit as big of hopes and dreams as everybody else so want to wish that graduating group as well so the entire
class of 2026 once a packer always a packer so please stay in touch with us we find out all the great things you'll go on to do as we talk a lot about here we really take pride in serving our entire community where we can one of the ways we are doing that this
year is we're continuing with free lunch for kids so anybody in the community from birth through 18 we're partnering with the open door again to provide free summer meals so there will be mobile meals traveling to the locations listed there between
already June 14th or 15th up through July 24th so that's underway no meals on the 19th that was the holiday last week or the third that's where we're celebrating the 4th of July because that is on the weekend this year exciting one this year with 250 years
but those you can look at our website to find out but they'll be doing the traveling meals at Veterans Field or Rain Park the Clark Place Apartments or McMorrow Field and then Caposia and SSP Secondary will also be the locations so if you if people want to come in and
take advantage anyone from birth through 18 to come in and and get the meals breakfast or lunch those are two sites again I know it's a lot of information so certainly access the website to learn more at the news section of our website
summer learning started last week and went on and got off to a really good start so we've had um, call it SLA or Elementary Summer Learning Academy going on in the first section, uh, session of Packer Preview, uh, for our incoming sixth graders. Um,
so that's going to those are running now and then we'll continue through July. We really work on, uh, making sure the kids are having fun doing hands-on activities while also developing those academic skills we want to make sure they're gathering. Uh, the Packer Preview again and for incoming
sixth graders to practice middle school before the year, uh, begins. So if you didn't get in the first session, there's still time to sign up for the second session in July. Um, I know, um, just anything can help. I was a middle school principal, I'm married to a middle school teacher, my
mom was a middle school teacher, so kind of, uh, know that transition very well. One piece of advice, just get a lock over the summer, practice lock. If you do nothing else, get a combination lock and practice that one. We do have the locks on the lockers, but just learning on any lock is, uh, a great way to do
that. And I see the kids in our picture here are working on that, uh, clockwise enough times and then, you know, all that stuff we all had to go through, so I want to, uh, definitely thank our staff who have committed to working the summer programs. That is not something that's always required and so
it's a it's a fun time cuz everybody wants to be there and learn and and celebrate in community. Some important dates. Oh, sorry, one more, I forgot about that one. The back to school webpage. There we get a lot of questions in the summer of how do I find out information, um,
what's coming up for the next school year. And so, as is always the case, our website is a, uh, wealth of information, but you can keep an eye on the website, uh, throughout July for any back to school updates, uh, but there's a school year information page where you can find the school supply list. I know that's
always very important, especially if we're looking for deals and sales over the summer. We also want families to know that does not need to be a barrier, we can help support in those areas, too. Uh, there's important dates, links to important information, and of course just the back to school checklist to
make sure you're all set. When we get to the end of the summer, I don't want to talk about the end of the summer just yet, but it does come pretty quickly. We were actually just talking about night to night and some of the things that are coming up. It's amazing how quickly these precious months go by. So enjoy those, but
always ready to serve our community. And then just some important dates. We are off of summer learning as I just mentioned summer learning academy is already started. We do give the staff off the week of the 29th through the 2nd. We try to figure out what's the right week for people to be able to celebrate the 4th of July with that
falling on Saturday. The decision with the calendar committee was to have that time be June 29th through the 2nd, so next week. The 4th of July is a Saturday, but sometimes we have programming in our buildings. That will be a district-wide holiday, so nothing happening in our sites.
July 6th through 11th Central Square is closed and that building is almost always open, but it does need a good deep cleaning like the rest of our spaces. And then again the second session of Packer Preview for incoming 6th graders starts on July 6th. That's all I've got for tonight. If
again anytime you want to track what's going on with the district or with our board, uh hop on our website. You can find all kinds of information there about the district and what the school board is up to. >> Thank you, Dr. Ziemer. >> All right. Next I am looking for a motion to
approve the consent items on tonight's agenda, which include the financial claims, bills payable, and staffing as presented. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Wonderful. Any discussion? All right. All those in favor, please
say I. I. I. Opposed? Motion carries 6-0. Moving to section five of the agenda, district policy. District policies play a critical role in the the 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. At this time, I'm seeking a motion to approve the 14 policies listed on our agenda this evening. Do I have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Thank you.
>> Second. >> Thank you. The policies are policy 420, students, employees, communicable diseases, infectious conditions. Policy 425, staff development. Policy 504, student dress
and appearance. Policy 506, student discipline. Policy 512, bullying prohibition. Policy 535, service animals. Policy 606, textbooks and instructional materials.
Policy 606.1, reconsideration of textbooks and instructional materials. Policy 606.5, library materials. Policy 618, assessment of student achievement. Policy 702, accounting.
Policy 702.1, fund balance. Policy 703, annual audits. Policy 721, uniform grant guidance policy regarding federal revenue sources. Seven of these policies were reviewed by
the policy committee on May 20th, reviewed by the full board for a second reading at our May 26th meeting, and are on their third and final reading this evening. The other seven were reviewed by the policy committee on June 10th, and experienced very little to no changes, and are recommended for
approval this evening. And interestingly, policy 606.1, reconsideration of textbooks and instructional materials, is actually up for abolishment this evening because the policy was absorbed in policy 606,
textbooks and instructional materials. Maybe it's just interesting to me. Okay. >> [laughter] >> Um any other discussion regarding policy? Okay. [laughter] Then all those in favor of approving these this evening, please say I. >> I.
>> Opposed? Motion carries 6-0. Okay. Moving on to our business items. We have seven items this evening. First, I'm looking for a motion for the South St. Paul School Board to approve the 2026-27 South Suburban Adult Basic Education,
the SSABE, Consortium Agreement. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Seconded. >> Thank you, Monica. All right. I'd like to invite Tom Umhofer, our ABE coordinator, to share more about this annual agreement
and just cool stuff about ABE. Open it up for you. >> Thank you, Superintendent Zambrano, Chairwoman, and board members. Um there's a lot of information you have in front of you already. I've been in community education for 34 years. Uh ABE's been a part of my life the whole time. We have a vibrant program here in
South St. Paul. A really nice um uh consortium with West St. Paul and Inver Grove Heights and South St. Paul, very similar populations. Uh the program um well, right now we just finally got our
award letter in the mail uh today, so that's good to know. We're moving forward for next year financially. Our program is growing. We had where you can see we had over 180 students last year. We had seven graduations this year, which is a a large number
particularly for a program of our size. Um uh ABE statewide generally um you see about 50% of your students that sign up initially are gone after 12 hours of studying for variety of reasons. They
move, different jobs, hours, child care, working. There's a whole variety of issues. So we retain a little bit less than 50% of our students up until the 40 hours when we can actually test them. And And statewide, we're we're right in the middle, a little bit above actually average of what our
fellow consortiums are doing. So, our program's doing really well. We've implemented a pilot program this last winter for online studies. Unfortunately, we had some other issues that evolved this winter which kind of skewed the data that we would have had on that.
We're introducing though the owl, which is a I don't know what it's a It's a camera that's going to sit in the front of the room and students can access it remotely from your home. We have folks who are going to need to lose class time due to again jobs, sick child, maybe child care issues,
car issues, whatever it might be. They could still participate then online, which is really nice and it's very interactive. It sees you, it follows you around. They can engage it quite well. Our PD on Friday we'll be learning about that, how they can access that to the best of the students' abilities, how it works. They'll have one in their
classrooms. And just kind of go over on that. I've used it extensively for the last 14 years and it's a really nice tool to have. So, I'm pretty excited about that. There's There's so much I can tell you. I'm I'm not sure if you have any specific questions or We have a wonderful program place. We
have wonderful facilities. And I have been around the state a lot. We have wonderful facilities at at Central Square. So, kudos on that. >> Any questions or comments for Tom? >> I would say like what's the number one reason people walk through the door?
Like what motivated them to get there? >> Um one of the neat things about ABE is I mean you know, at events and and gatherings over the years, I mean literally sit next to a rocket scientist from Russia, you know, an accountant from Venezuela.
I mean it's it's amazing the people that you encounter. And And they want to learn the language. They're there to learn the language. Many of our individuals have degrees from other countries. They have extensive schooling, just can't speak the language. And what prompts them really is looking for a better way of life and a better opportunities here in our
country. That's that's really what it is. It's really quite fulfilling, so. Yeah. >> All right. Thank you. Well, so as a reminder what we're voting on is the continuing to work with our partners at
Inver Grove Heights and West Saint Paul. And we house it all and get the opportunity to be this amazing hub of learning for people from all over the world. >> Yep, we're the fiscal agent. We have six teaching staff, probably amounts to somewhere like 2.75 FTEs total.
We're actually adding a Saturday this year, which I'm pretty excited about. And it's going to be a conversation class. I want people coming together not online, but in person. And then in working with Amy about some of the programs with the community outreach, I'm inviting some of our community members to participate
that and really get a much broader kind of base of conversation that folks can have. So, pretty excited about that as well. >> Very cool. All right. If there's no further discussion, I will ask all those in favor to please say I. >> I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries 6-0.
>> Awesome. Thank you. Thank you for your time. >> Yeah. >> Night. >> Next up, I'm looking for a motion for the South Saint Paul School Board to approve the fiscal year 2026-2027 budget proposal. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Thank you, Monica.
>> Second. >> Thank you, Anne. And I'd like to invite our finance director, Rob Toth, up to publicly walk us through this budget proposal. >> [laughter] >> I guess I say publicly cuz we've been hearing about this for kind of [laughter] a while.
>> Madam Chair, Madam Vice Chair, members of board, thank you for the introduction. Uh once again, my name is Rod Schauf. I'm the executive director of finance and operation for South St. Paul Public Schools. Today, um I'm going to walk through the actual budget timeline, the actual budget process, the
actual assumptions, and also what our future projections will be, as well as some stressors and headwinds that the districts are facing, not just our district, but also surrounding districts. First and foremost, I just want to talk
about the process timeline here. It actually takes I I work in multiple years. I work in a calendar year, I work in fiscal year, but I'm also always day-to-day, week-to-week analyzing data because there's just new trends that are are happening
around our district. [clears throat] So, we started this process by reviewing actual budget parameter. We actually had a budget guiding change, and part of that guiding change was there was programs, athletics programs, that we as
a district decided to not decrease. So, just uh one example was the tennis program, athletics program, we did not make any proposal for for any decreases at all. Um another parameter that we analyzed was actually
class size. We have not increased class sizes, I believe, for the last nine plus years. That's great. Phenomenal. As we moved into April time frame, we reviewed uh our spreadsheets, we reviewed any proposal to any budget
adjustment, but at the background, we've also monitoring compensatory revenue because compensatory is a big factor in this budget which I will show in the following slides. April-June, again we developed that that budget. Um just I believe it was a week
2 weeks ago we actually reviewed this presentation, reviewed the parameters again, reviewed the numbers and I made some tweaks along the way as I got more information. Having said that, there's a purpose and a key driver to adopting a budget. The purpose is we have to be strategically
fiscally responsible because we want to maintain educational quality and strategic initiative. But also at the same same time we also have to analyze the state funding. There's also some federal contribution that had to be uh analyzed as well and also the
operational need. We're in the business to teach kids and because there are labor negotiation labor management, we have to factor that in as well. But you know, developing a budget is never easy because there's always going to be headwinds each and every year in a
variety of districts out there. Part of our headwinds that we're going to face is facilities planning. We have limited resources but our facilities have needs and we want to keep up those needs we have to use portions of our budget primary LCFF to keep up to date
with those facilities planning. We also had experiences this year with compensatory funding experiencing a decline approximately $800,000. Continued declining enrollment again is another headwind.
You know, I I was at a conference uh year last year a year and a half ago and it's just not our district it's just surrounding districts uh the metro uh primary driven by birth rates and primary driven by optionality for a lot of districts that are facing
declining enrollment. Also, a lot of districts are fighting for talent, fighting for labor. So, we have some contractual obligations to our various union groups here. As well as, you know, this has been on the news a lot and a lot of us have experienced this, inflation, inflation, inflation. I can't
say it enough. The next slide here talks about the general education formula allowance. In my world, the Gen Ed 8 revenue. As you can see for the last 22 plus years, we started with a small gap, but in the
last couple years it the gap has been widening. If we kept up with the CPI and the state would have given us the max with the CPI, it would have been 8645 compared to
6500 ish that we have gotten. That delta right there, 1364, would have given us approximately 3. 7 million dollar extra in revenue if it had kept up.
The other headwind that I I spoke about in my previous slides was average daily membership trend, also known as enrollment. So, right in the middle right there, 2712 was what I budgeted for this ending fiscal year here, right at midpoint.
But, we take 5 years back, take a look at it that outlook right there. We were holding around 3,000 and then we steadily steadily decline until 25, 26. We're going to experience more decline for the next
3 to 5 years until we stabilize around fiscal year 29, 30, and 31, which we should be around 24 hundred kids. I spoke about compensatory revenue earlier. I just wanted to show everybody here this slide here. This was last
year's number. Last year, we were urgently preparing for compensatory revenue decreasing about 1.5 million dollars to hold district rally up uh with the help of our legislature and we got
held harmless. So, instead of facing a decline last year, we got that 1.5 million dollars with the governor proposal of the 4.6. This year, it's been in the talks for the last couple months. We were hoping that the
state would have given us uh held harmless again compared to last year, but there were some recalculation going on and unfortunately this year, we lost approximately 800,000 dollars in
compensatory revenue. This chart here compares to last year's revised budget. Again, you know, there's adopted phase, there's revised phase, and now there's a new adopted for the new fiscal year, which we're all living in here. Um the
fiscal year of 26 is going to be audited pretty soon by our external auditors. We're going to undergo go that. Uh but as you can see, there's been a slight decrease of approximately 325K in revenue due to declining enrollment. Um there's also various other factors as
well that triggers other revenue declines. So, in total, it's about 325K or just a little bit more than a half percentage. Pie graph. I I I like to show a pie
graph, so I would like everybody to know where our money is coming from. Majority of it is coming from the state aid. And also majority of it is coming from property taxes. We get very little in federal contribution, about 2%, and the rest
are local fees and interest that we get. On the flip side of revenue is expenditure. Last year when we did the budget revision for fiscal year '26, I forecasted expenditure is going to be about 53.3. This year, because of contractual
obligation, inflation, there's a lot of variables that go into create this adopted budget with the facts that we know on the ground. It's going to be an increase of 55 Uh excuse me, um totality of 55 million dollars. So, we're at an increase in
percentage terms about 3.1%. What does this look like? Again, we're in the business to teach kids. What are our major expenditures? Our major expenditures are labor. 78% of it tallies up to salary and benefits. We have supplies and materials for the
classroom, capital planning, uh purchased services. We We outsource transportation. Transportation is also a large portion of this. Having said that, uh another graph I would like to show is the actual line graph. I I use this for
example, so I can share with everybody here is that the last couple years revenue was over expenditure, but we're at that inflection point now going forward where revenue could be under expenditure because of declining enrollment, because
of compensatory, because of inflation, because of contractual obligation. So, taking a little history lesson in the past previous fiscal year, we have SR dollars that was helping the district. But,
with that declining enrollment and and compensatory revenue, that that that's been a shock to our district. So, going forward, we're at that inflection point here. We're going to keep an eye on it. Um we're going to look at things 3 4 5 months from now to
do a budget revision and come back to see where that inflection point is. Is it widening? Is it narrow? We're going to take a look at that. Having said that, I I like to show um everybody here as well of worst-case scenario. This is not to cause alarm or anything.
We are a fortunate district that we have fund balance and the purpose of our fund balance is to absorb some of these shocks and headwinds that are coming through our district right now. But, as you can see, if with that inflection point, because you you have to act in the next couple
years, that if we continue with these downward trends here for our fiscal year 2028 for 2029, our fund balance can absorb some of that shock, but we get into trouble
in 2029-30 and 30-31. Just some key metrics here. Um you know, our targeted undesigned fund balance is 8%. Uh dollar-wise, it's $4.4 million. Our projection for our undesigned is
going to be 6.6 projected. We also have an undesigned fund balance of approximately $7 million. Total that up, it's about $14 million, $13.7 million. We are over to target from the minimum undesigned. Um we're a
fortunate district again. We have a healthy fund balance to absorb this this year. >> [sighs] >> Uh two bullet points here that really resonate our discussion tonight here. It's one, greater than expected inflation. Why do we have a
fund balance? This is part of the reason here. Two of them pop out, inflation and the changes in enrollment state funding. You know, fortunately for us, we have that saving account. Uh I I our district saving account, just for layman's term here, fund balance,
and it helps absorb some of these unknowns here. Last but not least, we are dealing with that compensatory aid. We are dealing with enrollment challenges. But, we're going to align with our strategic goals, where we're going to still emphasize fiscal responsibility,
and at the same time, we're going to monitor our budget, as well, and making sure that we need to interject when we can, and hopefully help that inflection point be more narrow. I will stand for any questions. Thank you. >> Thank you, Ra.
Any questions? >> Good sharing. So, to the public, we've seen this presentation now several times. Um and so, if you don't see us leaping up, it's mostly not mostly not new information. Um but, I would just
like to give props to our finance cuz I give director of finance for just the meticulous detail that he goes down to not only what our funding has been, what it currently is, and what it could be in the future. Um because there are other districts
that have not been as diligent in their finance tracking that are now facing the brunt of some decisions they made that they didn't fully understand. Um and not that we'll ever be perfect as a board, but I feel that we will get the
most perfect that you can information in order to make decisions moving forward. And a lot of that credit goes to our executive director of finance. So, I just wanted to say that. >> Yes. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Rob. >> [laughter] >> Thanks, Rob. >> All right, if there is no further
discussion, thank you for shouting out, Rob. >> He deserves [laughter] it. >> Um I will ask all those in favor of approving this budget, please say I. >> I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries 6-0. >> Thank you so much. >> All right, I am looking for a motion for
the South Saint Paul School Board to approve the 2026-27 independent working agreements. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Thank you, Wendy. >> Second. >> Thank you, Monica. All right, I'd like to invite our human resources director,
Charlie Cook, up to talk about what independent agreements are. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, so um one sec. Dr. Zembrzuski and members of the board, we're looking for the approval of the
independent working agreements. Um what those are are anyone not in a collective bargaining agreement. So, anyone that's not in a union for our staff, so that would be groups of administrators, coordinators, administrative support, district
support, technology, student support, nutrition services, and then part-time >> custodial. >> Um the agreements are 2% for the '26-'27 school year towards the base salary, and then 2% increase
towards the district contribution to health insurance and dental coverage, which was it within the parameters established by the board. >> Any further discussion? >> I just want to like thank you. I know we have another contract coming up, but
you've been such an amazing partner working with all of our unions and with our our staff to make sure that they get treated respectfully and come to agreement quickly and it's just really um a huge weight off the shoulders of the board to know that's in good such
hand in such good hands and to have people happy with what they're getting paid to work with us for. So, thank you so much, Charlie. >> Yeah, thank you. >> Um all right. There's no further discussion. I will ask all those in favor to please say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries 6-0.
Now, I'm looking for a motion for the South St. Paul School Board to approve the 2026 through 2028 maintenance collective bargaining agreement. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. All right. And Charlie, >> [laughter] >> what's this one?
>> Yeah. So, um the school district um has reached a agreement with the maintenance and custodial um unit for the bargaining unit. So, this would be like your building engineers, um
um your full-time building custodians, things things of that nature, people that kind of have those positions. Um they can they ratified the contract on uh June 12th, Friday, June 12th and the settlement was within the board
parameters. Well, so it's 2% um 26-27 and 2% for 27-28 along with enhancements to longevity compensation, um increases in supervisory and specification like specialized certifications. So, um if you're an engineer, if you're depending
on what school you might need a chief engineer license. So, so for that chief license, they have um that increased a bit. Um as well as the agreement also includes several just contract language changes. So, that would be like ES ESST language that is in the contract, which is now a statute.
>> Any discussion? All right. Um all those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries 6-0. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, we're at item E under business. I am looking for a motion for the South Saint Paul School Board to approve the
resolution filling school board vacancy by appointment. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. And I'm going to invite Lisa Branddecker to kind of share this process and what this is and what it looks like going
forward. So, all right. >> Uh so, with the resignation of Director Duffy um effective June 19th, state statute requires the school board to um fill the vacancy temporarily until we can fill it by election this fall. So,
on um the school board held a 2-week application process and received seven candidates and brought all four all of them forward for interviews. We had two um individuals that were unable to make it that evening on June 15th, so the
board conducted five um interviews and were um impressed with all of the candidates and their ability and their commitment to the district and the kids and the staff of our community. And um with that, the board has selected to bring forward um Amy Wardell and
appoint her um to fill the vacancy until the election this fall, where the school board will hold a special election for that position. So, um if uh the board approves the resolution this evening, Amy will um have a 30-day
waiting period before she can officially take office, and that would be on uh the July 27th. We would officially swear her in at that point. >> Thank you, Lisa. >> Mhm. >> Uh any further discussion? No. Yes, I will just share the interviews
were amazing. Like the candidates who came in, it was really impressive and we're very excited to welcome Amy to join us. >> Yes. Yes. >> No further discussion. Lisa, will you please call the roll? Director W. Felton? >> Yes.
>> Klaflin? >> Yes. >> Cummings? >> Yes. >> T. Felton? >> Yes. >> Weber? >> Yes. >> And Chair Human? >> Yes. >> That's 6 A's. >> Yes. >> Resolution carries. Thank you. All right, one more resolution. I'm looking for a motion for the South Saint Paul School Board to approve the
resolution establishing dates for filing affidavits of candidacy. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> [clears throat] >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Excellent. And again, Lisa. >> Uh yes, as Superintendent Zambrano shared earlier, the filing date for the
candidates is coming up. The legislature moved that those dates up a few weeks from previous years, so you will see those Tuesday, July 14th to Tuesday, July 28th at 5:00 p.m. City Hall is where candidates would go in to file their affidavit of candidacy. It costs a whole
$2, so um they will have the opportunity to file for we have four seats up for four-year terms as Superintendent Zambrano shared earlier and then we also have the special election that will be on the ballot for the two-year seat that would fill the remainder of Director Duffy's
term. >> Thank you. Any further discussion or questions? Okay. Um Lisa, will you please call the roll? >> Yes. >> Director Klaflin? >> Yes. >> Cummings? >> Yes. >> T. Felton? >> Yes. >> Weber? >> Yes.
>> W. Felton? >> Yes. >> And Chair Human? >> Yes. >> That's 6 A's. Resolution carries. All right, final business item. I'm looking for a motion for the South Saint Paul School Board to approve the 2026-27 student rights and responsibilities handbook.
Do I I'll a motion? >> So moved. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you. All right. And Dr. Zambrano, you want to talk us through this? >> Yeah, thank you. So, this is the time of year where we're reviewing all of our handbooks. So, staff handbook, student handbooks, etc. But, each year we bring
the student rights and responsibilities handbook to the school board for approval as this is the the guidance, the governance for discipline and and those important pieces around student behavior and things that could potentially end up in front of the school board. We hope not, but
mostly we want to make sure that we are clear in and what's expected and transparent, clear, and really it's if if people read through the rights and responsibilities handbook, it's it's mostly about growth and support and those pieces, but there are times when they can be a little thorny and so we
want to make sure that you all see that and that we're very transparent with this handbook. >> Thank you. Any further discussion or questions? Then all those in favor, please say aye. >> Aye. >> Aye. >> Opposed? Motion carries 6-0.
All right. As we reach the end of our meeting tonight, I'd like to invite the school board directors to share any updates from committees they serve on or highlight any recent district events they've participated in. And I will start with Director Felton. >> Oh, thank you.
Uh first thing I want to say is I want to say congratulations to all of our students that graduated this year. And also, this is something that we see every year in the newspaper. This was posted at the Pioneer Press on
Sunday, June 14th. It's an athletic Get it turned around here. Intelligence program where we have mentioned a whole listing of our South Saint Paul students, 11 of them, that were posted
in the newspaper. This is an annual event of the whole metro area where the top students in in your building are recognized in the in the newspaper. They list the student's name,
their parents' name, and it also lists the majority of where the students plan on going when when they graduate, which college that they intend to attend. So, this is the authentic intelligent information. Like I said, it's always in
the Pioneer Press newspaper. And one other thing that was already mentioned by Dr. Zambrano, if you want it, we would like to hear from you regarding our our levy program that we had. Unfortunately, we know that that did not pass. But if you would like
to share, we want to hear from our community members and families, whether you voted yes, no, or did not vote, your feedback will help us better understand community perspectives, improve communication efforts, and guide future
planning. So, if you'd like to you you can make a survey. You can If you speak English or if you speak Spanish, you are allowed to call 651-457-9429 for an English speaker. For a Spanish speaker,
habla español es muy importante que hable ah este este 651-457-9490 that you can also call if you'd like to share your your information regarding our our requesting things.
And then, of course, as you know, as I serve on the Education Foundation, we had our discussion again, just a reminder that coming up on September 30th, which is our walk-a-thon date, which is held down at the Comoja Education Center. And
also, of course, the gala which will be Thursday, November 5th at the Mendota Country Club, which is one their major major fundraiser events that they hold. And then one last thing, as you know,
I am little bit involved at the senior center here in our in our community up at Central Square. This past week the school board us members, we were the ones that provided
the financial support to the senior center for their ice cream social luncheon that they had. Kim and I were both there and we both helped to work and cooperate and prepare some some of their items for them.
So that was a that was just last week. But coming up, their next major major event, their next luncheon I'll show you here. This is a phenomenal one, a personal one that I really really like. The next luncheon
is July 23rd, which is a a hot dog buffet cooker outside, they grill it. It is an excellent excellent luncheon on Thursday, it starts at 11:30 for our senior citizens
that that can come and attend that major event in our community. Of course, and then the last thing that's so exciting for us coming up this Friday, we are in the parade, the Kaposia Days parade.
Yes, it it is a fun event and and you will see us in the parade, looking forward to that. I will be there, thank you. >> Thank you, Wendy. Director Weber. >> I don't have much. Um, also will be in the parade on Friday, looking forward to
that. As we gently guide candy into the hands of, um, the attending children, cuz you're not allowed to throw candy at the parade. So, we will gently guide it, um, onto the sidewalk for, um, for the
young people. Um, so, it's going to be a good time. The route is slightly different this year, if you don't know, um, um, because some of the construction, um, the route is going to be slightly different this year. Um, but it's still going to be a good time. And
there are what, over 100 floats? Like 118 floats or something like that. So, it's going to be a good time, and you will get your money's worth by watching all 100 and some floats, um, walk by. So, it'll be a good time. >> I'm going to mark it. It's Monday, and I have not seen any chairs yet.
>> [laughter] >> They'll show up tomorrow. >> Okay. >> Director Cummings. >> Uh, first of all, I just wanted to, um, thank uh, folks for reaching out to me about, um, their thoughts about the bond. Um, just some very interesting
conversations, um, that have helped me better understand, um, what happened and how the community is, uh, was thinking about that. I also just wanted to lift up that, um, we had a couple incredible graduations that occurred. And, um,
at the graduation that was on, um, at Henger Field, which was, um, great. Um, we had three student speakers, and they did such a fantastic job at sort of talking about the, um, essence of the school and of this community, and I'll
just lift up a few words. Um, Jackson Schultz, who was a former, um, advisory member of this board, um, started out his remarks by thanking the custodians, and, um, also really honoring our immigrant heritage. Um, Reagan talked about how supportive
environments create more interconnected communities and said that there's always a place for someone um, and there's always a place for someone in South Saint Paul. Um, and then Addie, she um, marveled at how this community, our community, shows up for one another.
Um, and reminded us of the responsibility to uplift each other and to give back. And so, I just wanted to thank these students for reminding us um, the importance of what these schools do. Um, wanted to just congratulate all of our graduates
and um, just really looking forward to the next um, batch that we have this coming year. >> Thank you, Director Cummings. Director Felton. >> Oh, thank you. So, in regard to the South Saint Paul Open, it's it's kind of a quiet time for uh, when we uh, support
the programs and teams and activities as because it's the summer, but we are um, ordering the artwork and the new scoreboard for McGuire Field. That was uh, the one thing that we supported at our last meeting and then we have two
important fundraising opportunities uh, coming up. As everyone knows, the golf tournament, the SSP Open is coming up. That will be July 13th. Uh, we currently have 18 teams signed up, but everyone typically signs up late, so our goal is 40. So, get signed
up. Uh, it is, I believe, $200 to golf. Dinner only is $65. Honoree this year is going to be Mr. Donny Gang, long-time teacher and coach. Uh, couple pertinent times, 12:30 is the start at 6:15 is dinner and 7:00 is the
program. Uh, head to the Open website for any more details and some sponsorship opportunities. We're always looking for sponsors. In addition, coming up this fall, we have the uh, fall Packer Brunch. that will be at Tanucci's in Newport. Time
yet to be determined, but that will be October 25th at Tanucci, so stay tuned for further details. >> Thank you, Director Fulton. Vice Chair Glavin. >> Thank you. I think graduations and all the end of the year celebrations of our students were
incredible this year. And thank you, Paul, for highlighting some of those student remarks. Um I'm already in getting ready [snorts] for the next school year mode and have to thank all of the teachers and staff who are putting on
Packer Preview. It is amazing that you can make locker combinations like riveting. You've turned it into a relay and a race and scavenger hunt and
that's what I hear about every day. So, middle school's going to be awesome. >> [laughter] >> And I'm so excited seeing the kids coming out at the end. They are all talking to each other, they're making new friends, and it's not um just the Caposia kids with the Caposia kids and the Lincoln kids with Lincoln. They're
all mingling, they're making a lot of new friends, and that's another really awesome part of Packer Preview. So, we're off to a good start for next year already. >> Oh, good. Nice. Nice. >> Well, I know it's already been touched on, but I think the biggest event that I
participated in was graduation, and I'd like to thank the board and our community for letting me have the opportunity to sit on the stage and have that like front row view of our just incredibly impressive graduates. Um it was amazing, and thank you.
All right. That is all on the agenda for this evening. I will hereby entertain a motion to adjourn the Monday, June 22nd, 2026 school board meeting. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any discussion? All right. >> [laughter]
>> All those in favor please say I. Opposed? Carries 6-0. This meeting is adjourned at 7:19 p.m. Thank you.