When three new members join the board in charge of St. Paul Public Schools in January, they’ll face significant challenges right away.

The school district, which has 33,000 students and a $1 billion budget, will face not only a $150 million shortfall in the coming year as federal pandemic aid ends but also contract negotiations with the St. Paul Federation of Educators.

There’s already a major gap between what the union is asking for and what the district is willing to spend on pay in the future. SPPS says it’s set aside a little more than $12 million for increases, while an early, incomplete estimate from the district found union asks could total at least $106 million. Teachers nearly went on strike in 2022 when the union and district positions were closer together.

“They’re not coming into this placid scene where they have time to absorb, to evaluate, to bring their own good judgment to the table and to try to figure these things out,” said former St. Paul school board member Jon Schumacher, who served from 2016 to 2020, of the new board members.

Enrollment, safety and academic achievement issues

Budget and union contract negations aren’t the only challenges ahead. St. Paul schools have seen declining enrollment — the district’s 33,000 students is down from about 37,000 a decade ago, and charter schools catered to specific ethnic groups have emerged as competitors to the city’s main publicly funded schools.

Parents also are concerned about safety in schools, particularly after a fatal stabbing at Harding High School earlier this year. A survey at the time said 28% of students felt unsafe in school hallways and 23% felt unsafe in restrooms. Surveys also showed support for restoring school resource officers removed in 2020, though in general, board members are more interested in alternative school safety staff and non-punitive measures for addressing school discipline.

Academic achievement also remains a problem, particularly after the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. The 2023 Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment test scores showed about 26% of the district’s students were proficient in math, and 34% were on grade level in reading.

Math scores showed an improvement in 2023, but they’re significantly lower than they were in 2019, the year before school closures and remote learning were introduced during the early stages of the pandemic. In 2019, 32% of students were proficient in math and nearly 40% were proficient in reading, according to test scores.

Three new members

So, with ongoing issues like declining enrollment, academic achievement and problems with school safety, who will be joining the seven-member board in charge of Minnesota’s second-largest school district?

The three new members bring a mix of strong community ties and nonprofit experience and a background in educational leadership.

Two of the newly-elected members of the board are active in community service organizations in St. Paul and are newcomers to education. Another comes with a background in education administration and served a temporary stint on the school board in 2021.

New members Carlo Franco and Erica Valliant say their experiences with community organizations will give them a unique perspective and give a voice to students and families from communities that may not have always been heard in the decision-making process.

Erica Valliant

Erica Valliant. (Courtesy of the candidate)

Valliant is the equity director of People Serving People, an emergency homeless shelter. She lives in the Rondo area of Summit-University and has four children enrolled in St. Paul schools.

“We all have connections to community organizations in one way or another, working with young people,” she said.

Valliant’s priorities include boosting funding for “restorative justice practices” in the district and working to “foster a culture of school pride, respect and belonging with staff, students and families.”

Restorative justice in schools focuses on addressing behavior through mediation and other means rather than punishments like suspension or detention. Valliant and other members of the school board are pushing for it as a way to address safety issues, and the teachers union is seeking additional funding for the practice in current contract negotiations.

Valliant has also said she hopes to encourage students to graduate with “strong financial literacy skills” and ensure access to early learning and pre-K for all children.

Carlo Franco

Carlo Franco (Courtesy of the candidate)

Carlo Franco is a fourth-generation resident of St. Paul’s West Side and graduate of Humboldt High School who works as a youth engagement and training manager for the city of St. Paul.

He serves as president of the West Side Boosters and a member of the board of directors for Neighborhood House, a West Side nonprofit that provides food, housing and educational assistance. His priorities include boosting investment in school counselors, community intervention workers and restorative justice coordinators in the district.

Franco said his past work with the city and volunteering put him in a good position to address safety issues in schools. He worked as a restorative justice coordinator at Humboldt in his previous work with the school district.

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Franco also says one of his biggest goals as a member of the school board is to bring about greater cooperation between community groups and schools. He hopes to expand community organization and nonprofit access to school buildings and infrastructure outside the regular school day hours.

“Right now, we’re in a space where we’re charging community organizations and nonprofits to access our buildings and infrastructure outside of the school day because they’re not technically programs that are sponsored by the district,” he said. “Which I think is a huge missed opportunity.”

Schumacher said the school district was in need of more passionate and activism-minded voices on the board to make the school district more responsive to the communities it serves. The challenge for the new members, he said, will be learning the ins and outs of the bureaucracy and how to work with various stakeholders to translate insight and connections into results.

Yusef Carrillo

St. Paul school board member Yusef Carrillo. (Courtesy of St. Paul Public Schools)

One newly-elected member comes to the school board with some administrative experience already under his belt. Yusef Carrillo is returning to the board after being appointed to complete the term of former board member Steve Marchese in 2021.

Before moving to the Twin Cities, he was in charge of enrollment and built enrollment projections for the school district in Oakland, Calif. He has two children enrolled in St. Paul Public Schools and is married to a teacher.

Asked about the district’s record budget coinciding with declining enrollment and levels of academic achievement, Carrillo suggested the district do more to measure its levels of success with spending.

“We have not focused on what it means to be effective in our educational aspirations and goals with a budget that we have, rather than piling on resources without actually means testing,” he said.

Like other newly-elected board members, Carrillo says he supports restorative justice practices but says the district needs to find a way to implement them without a top-down approach, which he says is ineffective.

“Families want to know that when something happens at school, there’s going to be accountability and that there’s going to be a path for students to be able to redeem themselves and become part of the community,” he said.

Teachers union endorsements

All four of the candidates elected this year were endorsed by the city teachers union. SPFE President Leah VanDassor said she thinks the new board will be more of an ally to the teachers, educational assistants and community school and community services personnel her union represents.

“We feel like we’ve got folks on the school board now who are very student- and educator-centric and they are concerned with what’s happening in the classroom, and are not so much concerned about politics,” she said.

Still, even with a new set of members with optimistic union backers, it may be tough for the new board to balance the reality of impending budget shortfalls with requests from the union. And it isn’t the only group they’ll have to work with — there are more than 20 bargaining units in the district for employees like bus drivers, cafeteria staff and custodians.

Carrillo, Franco and Valliant will join three members who were elected two years ago, Halla Henderson, Uriah Ward and current chair Jim Vue. Chauntyll Allen, a former employee of St. Paul Public Schools, was first elected to the board in 2019.

Members Jessica Kopp and Jeanelle Foster did not seek reelection and Zuki Ellis, who has served two terms on the board starting in 2016, lost her bid for reelection this year.

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