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St. Paul board approves multiple policy updates and rescissions in unanimous votes
Summary
The St. Paul Public Schools board unanimously approved third readings and related motions on several policies, including post-secondary enrollment (PSEO), student surveys, research policy, library-materials reconsideration, and drug-free-schools updates; finance-related policies moved forward for later final reading.
St. Paul — The St. Paul Public Schools Board of Education on Jan. 20 approved a package of policy actions, unanimously adopting several third readings and moving other finance policies to a future third reading.
During the meeting the board voted to approve proposed revisions to policy 5.35 (Post Secondary Enrollment Options), policy 5.21 (Student Surveys), and policy 6.18 (Research). The board also approved rescission of policy 702.01 (Bonded Officers and Employees) and adopted a new policy 606.5 governing selection and reconsideration of library materials after clarifying supervisory responsibilities in the policy text.
Kathy Kamani, director of the office of school support, presented the third reading of policy 5.04 (Drug-Free Schools) and board members approved the revisions without change. Executive Director of Financial Services Dan Moser reviewed second readings of consolidated finance policies (701 Investments in Banking, proposed to merge earlier policies including 703 and 705) and said the district had added language directing divestment from fossil fuels and private prisons in accordance with an adopted resolution; directors asked staff to clarify timing for the third reading (noted for February/next regular meeting).
On grants and gifts (policy 706), staff explained current practice: gifts and grants of $5,000 and above appear on the board agenda for approval, consistent with Minnesota statute (cited board file 46503). Vice Chair Valiant asked staff to clarify an electronic-funds-transfer (EFT) reporting clause so it did not require the board to review every single EFT transaction; staff agreed the language could be edited to include a threshold.
All policy approvals recorded in the meeting passed by unanimous roll-call votes.
What passed (summary): PSEO policy 5.35 (approved); policy 5.21 Student Surveys (approved); policy 6.18 Research (approved); rescission of policy 702.01 (approved); new policy 606.5 selection and reconsideration of library material (approved); policy 5.04 Drug-Free Schools (approved). Finance-related consolidations (701 and rescissions of 703/705) were presented in second reading and scheduled for the third reading at the next regular meeting.
Next steps: Staff will return with the third reading of consolidated finance policy 701 and refined language on EFT reporting, and the grants-and-gifts process will continue to follow state statute and current thresholds for board review.
