Staff and students tell ISD622 board they 'do not feel safe'; superintendent outlines targeted response

Teachers, students and bilingual liaisons told the North St. Paul–Maplewood–Oakdale ISD622 school board on Tuesday that recent immigration enforcement activity has left families afraid to send children to school and pushed significant numbers of students into remote learning.

"Students and staff do not feel safe," said Yennifer Gomez Bugme, a Spanish culture liaison at Tartan High School, during the public-comment period. She told the board more than 200 Tartan students were not attending and that some families had stayed home for nearly two months out of fear.

Why it matters: Board members and district leaders framed the problem as both a safety concern and a learning disruption. Superintendent Christine Tucci Osorio said the district’s priority is to keep as many students in school as possible while protecting staff and families. "This is far worse... far more stressful and anxiety producing and scary than anything we felt during the pandemic," she told the board.

Teachers asked the board for specific short-term supports. Veronica Green, a multilingual (ML) teacher, asked for three actions: two consecutive planning days so staff can build a sustainable online plan; a district-run call for vetted community volunteers to relieve pressure on teachers; and targeted supports for teachers of color and immigrant-background staff. "I'm begging you for three things," Green said.

Kristen Kabak, a Tartan math teacher, described classroom strain from student absences: "I am missing 25 students. That is close to a section of geometry," she said, urging two planning days and more coordinated online course options. Allison Ollie, a math teacher and coach, said she was missing about 12% of her students and that staff had organized food deliveries and volunteer supervision but needed district direction.

How the district is responding: Tucci Osorio gave a detailed operational update about steps the district has taken: extra supervision at bus stops and parking lots, vetted volunteer sign-ups using the district’s Raptor system, expanded points of contact for families, food distribution, and mental-health supports. She reported that, as of the meeting, roughly 325 secondary and 105 elementary students had requested remote learning—about 3.5% of the district—with Tartan alone accounting for about 193 remote students and North about 86.

The superintendent cautioned against broad school closures, saying the district is pursuing targeted approaches that avoid unnecessarily moving all students online mid‑trimester. "We are looking through all of our course sections to see where we can collapse sections," she said, so teachers can be reassigned to support remote learners without overwhelming staff.

Board discussion and follow-up: Trustees and administrators discussed scalable options—using licensed substitutes, collapsing sections where many students have shifted remote, and creating building-level outreach teams to manage attendance and participation for remote learners. The board repeatedly emphasized the need to protect teacher workloads while preserving live instruction where possible.

Next steps: District leaders said they will continue to monitor daily attendance data, recruit and vet volunteers through building administrators, and consider planning-day options if local data indicate a need. The board did not adopt any immediate systemwide closure or a district-wide remote-learning mandate at the meeting; members directed administration to continue developing targeted staffing and instructional supports and to report back as data evolve.