District’s online payment system, FeePay, experience technical issues, service outages

FeePay, the district’s online payment system for SSP Secondary Activities and Athletics, is offline. This is a FeePay outage impacting many school districts in the area, not just South St. Paul Public Schools. The outage impacts a user’s ability to log in, make payments to student/family activity accounts, sign up for activities, and reset passwords. Note that this FeePay service outage does NOT include payments made to district meal accounts (School Cafe) or Community Education programs (Eleyo).

South St. Paul chosen for $20,000 grant to pilot new community-wide early learning initiative

South St. Paul Public Schools (SSPPS) is pleased to announce the receipt of a $20,000 grant from the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) to support the expansion of early learning programs and services throughout the South St. Paul community. The grant allows the district to build and align collaborative systems for learning, care and child development across providers and services for families with young children.

Familiar face joins SSP Secondary leadership team

Students, staff and families will see a familiar face in a new role at South St. Paul Secondary as Kristin Johnson begins her first day as an interim assistant principal. Johnson fills the vacancy created with Corey Knighton’s resignation in October. Johnson’s Packer Pride runs deep, having graduated from South St. Paul and spent her entire professional career at SSP Secondary.

School Board approves annual tax levy, includes smaller increase than originally projected

South St. Paul Public Schools (SSPPS) homeowners will see a 5.83 percent increase on their 2019 Payable 2020 property tax levy, which is considerably less than the increase preliminarily approved by the board in September. While half of the increase is the due to a combination of annual cost increases and new payments for the purchase of the River Heights Professional Building, the other half of the levy increase is the result of rising property values in the community.

District’s credit rating remains stable, provides positive outlook for financing of new facility

Standard & Poor’s (S & P) Financial Service recently affirmed its AA- underlying and A+ unenhanced rating to South St. Paul Public Schools (SSPPS) for the district’s financing to secure the purchase and renovation of the River Heights Professional Building. The certificates of participation (COPs) will be included in the district’s lease levy, which supports facilities use and maintenance for educational purposes. The positive credit rating keeps South St. Paul Public Schools in the top third of all Minnesota school districts rated by S & P.

District financial audit shows strong fiscal stewardship despite funding challenges

The district received a positive report on its annual financial audit, which was presented to and approved by the School Board at the Nov. 25 meeting. Auditors issued an “unmodified opinion” on the district’s financial statements for the 2018-19 school year, which means no corrections were needed and all accounting is in order. The audit also noted that the district had implemented adequate procedures to correct a minor finding in last year’s audit report.

South St. Paul selected as one of four school districts to receive financial award from Dakota Electric Association

Dakota Electric Association selected the school districts of Lakeville, Randolph, Red Wing and South St. Paul as this year’s recipients of donations from the unclaimed capital credits fund. Dakota Electric awarded a total of $46,000 of unclaimed capital credit money to the schools, which will be used to fund specific educational projects and reach district goals. South St. Paul Public Schools (SSPPS) received $6,000 from Dakota Electric that it will use at Kaposia, Lincoln Center and SSP Secondary for advancements of the district’s Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) program.

Overall district enrollment continues to exceed resident student population, administration focuses on resident families choosing other options

According to a report shared with the South St. Paul School Board on Oct. 28, enrollment trends over the last ten years show that while the district has served more students than reside in SSPPS, the number of school-age students living in SSPPS has declined over the last two years. In addition, the number of students open enrolling into SSPPS has remained constant, but the number of resident students choosing other educational options has increased.

SSP School Board hosts first in series of engagement events focused on building and celebrating the South St. Paul community

As part of its vision to enhance relationships with all members of the South St. Paul Public Schools (SSPPS) community, the SSP School Board plans to host a series of community engagement sessions throughout the year. The focus of these sessions is to offer opportunities for district residents to get to know the school board and one another outside of the formal school board meeting setting through a variety of engagement methods and conversations. The SSP School Board is pleased to announce its first community engagement session on Tuesday, Dec. 3.