Leadership changes on
South St. Paul School Board

Former Chair reflects on his time with the Board

By Jake Spitzack | Staff Writer | February 2025

On Jan. 13, two newly elected members officially took their seats on the South St. Paul Public Schools (SSPPS) school board: Ryan Duffy and Paul Cumings. They succeed Nikki Laliberte, who served for eight years, and board chair John Raasch, who served for four. Each was at the end of their term and chose not to run for reelection.

At the swearing-in ceremony, board member of two years Kim Humann was named the new chair. Anne Claflin is now vice chair, Paul Cumings, treasurer, and Wendy Felton, clerk. Incumbent Monica Weber was elected to serve another term on the board, and Superintendent Brian Zambreno was recently approved to serve another three years, through June 2028.

Raasch reflected on his time with the board, including two years as chair. He’s a teacher in a district outside of South St. Paul and originally ran for the board because his kids were in high school, and he wanted to bring a fresh perspective to challenges facing the district.

“We were facing a real fiscal cliff that could have really adversely affected our schools and in turn our kids,” he said. “I’m very, very proud of the work that we accomplished [over the past four years]. Passing the learning levy to stabilize the funding in our schools has been really pivotal for our success…. We have also seen significant improvement to the academic outcomes and the graduation rates for our kids. We still have a long way to go but we are tackling that with a level of focus and rigor that I’m really proud of.”

Raasch noted that he decided not to run for another term because he’s pursuing higher education to become a principal. He said being on the school board is hard work and as chair he commonly had about 30 hours of weekly responsibilities on top of his fulltime job. It didn’t help that he was elected during the thick of the pandemic – being sworn in over Zoom – when learning models began shifting and health concerns skyrocketed.

“We’re in a community filled with a very diverse set of opinions and divided ideas about what should be happening inside of our school system, and trying to be a leader that represents our community as a whole is a challenging task for any board member to do,” he said.

Raasch said the board is eyeing renovations for aging infrastructure, such as the South St. Paul Community Learning Center, which is slated to get a new roof this summer. A final facilities plan is expected to be completed this spring. He also said to expect continued partnerships between the District and the City of South St. Paul. Last summer, the two entities jointly adopted a set of core values: respect, pride, collaboration, integrity, resilience and equity.

The board meets twice a month. A meeting schedule and feedback form can be found at sspps.org/about/school-board/meetings. Public comments can be submitted electronically for each meeting, or in person at the first meeting of each month.

• Facebook
• X
• ShareCopied to clipboard

<<< Back to Home