001We're rolling. Also, at the table with us Superintendent Unowsky and Assistant Superintendent Cassandra Quam. Other members of the district leadership team are in attendance and maybe working on technical issues, and obviously participating in the meeting as well. Richfield Public Schools mission is to inspire and empower each individual to learn, grow, and excel. And we aim to keep that focus at the heart of our discussions this evening. Thanks to all of us joining us here live and in the boardroom. We also want to hopefully thank those of us who are potentially streaming the fact via YouTube. We appreciate when people bear witness to the comedy bears. What? Maybe. Maybe watching it after the fact, where people can watch us conduct the necessary official business of the district. Woo. Uh our first item of business this evening
002is to approve the agenda before us. Uh we have a large audience tonight here for one purpose who it's warm enough in this room. My guess is they don't want to watch all the fun stuff transpire. So, I'm recommending that we make a slight agenda uh adjustment to the agenda to honor our special accommodations for our great people that we have present. Uh with that, I would accept a motion to approve the amended agenda. I move that we approve the amended agenda. Seconded. We have a motion by Director List and a second by Director Dennis. Let me see if Kirk can join it. Oh, no. This is my favorite time of year. Because Kirk's remote, every vote is a roll call. Special. So, Director Tompkins. Aye. Director Cole. Aye. Director List. Aye. Director Dennis. Aye.
003Director Spencer. Give us a thumbs up. >> Yeah, give us a up or down. Thumbs up or thumbs down. He cannot hear. Director Spencer. Aye. That'll work. The chair votes aye and we've approved our agenda. Those who have questioned how long the meeting's going to go tonight, I think this is a sign. >> He's like the news. It's a sign. Okay. Commendations. All right. So, we have four commendations tonight. Uh and we are going to start uh with Frank Berg. Uh RPS would like to commend Frank Berg, volunteer at Richfield Middle School. After retiring from his role as lead engineer for the city of St. Paul more than 15 years ago, Frank found himself wanting to stay active engaged. He reached out to Richfield Middle School to volunteer, offering his time to students in math.
004We actually have multiple math teachers, past and present, in the audience tonight to celebrate Frank. During his years at RMS, Frank built meaningful connections with students and staff, helping our students strengthen their math skills while boosting their confidence. At his time or as his time as a volunteer comes to a close, we at Richfield Public Schools want to extend our sincere gratitude to Frank for 15 years of dedication, compassion, and commitment to our students. He will be greatly missed, and we wish him and his family, who are also present in the boardroom, our best. So, thank you to Frank Berg. >> [applause] >> Rather than mailing our commendation, board member Haley Tompkins is going out to thank Frank personally. So, thank you and congratulations. I thought I heard something about a song or dance. No,
005>> [clears throat] >> just loud cheering. I will take that. No singing, okay. All right. Next, RPS would like to commend the students of Richfield High School for their outstanding achievement at the High School League Visual Arts Competition for Class 2AA. RHS students demonstrated exceptional talent, creativity, and dedication with 15 of the 16 participating students earning awards in their respective categories. We're especially proud to recognize the two students, Jonah Mayer or Jonah Mayer and Carmen Melnychuk, whose work had been selected for showcase at the state level, an honor that represents the highest standard of achievement in this competition. These accomplishments are a testament to the strength of our arts programming, the guidance of dedicated staff, and the passion our students bring to their work. Congratulations to these students and all of those representing Richfield High
006School with distinction and for enriching our community through their artistic expression. So, thank you and congratulations. Also in the room, Richfield Pub- Richfield Schools Gretchen Gifford. RPS would like to commend RMS teacher Gretchen Gifford. Gretchen recently demonstrated incredible calm supporting her students and the building during a crisis. Due to Gretchen's quick thinking and decisive actions to de-escalate the situation, RMS students were supported through a challenging time and were able to quickly return to learning in a safe environment. We appreciate more than words will ever say the actions and quick thinking of Gretchen Gifford. >> [applause] >> And then as we acknowledge Employee Appreciation Day is May 1st, School Lunch Hero Day, May 4th, Teacher Appreciation Week, May 6th, National School Nurse Day, and May 8th, School Communicators Day. We are thankful to all of those
007who put in all their time, efforts, and talents to make Richfield Public Schools, our students, staff, and our community successful. So, thank you to all of those, and we celebrate them on those days. So, thank you and congratulations. And again, in the room for those streaming, we have super volunteer Frank Berg and math teacher and superstar Gretchen Gifford. So, we congratulate them again before going on with the business OF OUR MEETING. >> [applause] >> NOW BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAM. Uh we have two presentations for you tonight. Um those presentations are Richfield College Experience Program um and Nutrition Services. So, I'll be happy to bring up Dr. Keisha Wilhite to the microphone. Shortly after that, followed by Michael Manning. So, we turn things over for ARSEP and Seals of Biliteracy to Dr. Keisha Wilhite.
008Hi. Good evening. Thank you, Superintendent Dr. Unowsky, esteemed board members, and to the community, both here in the room and as well at home. So, thanks for inviting me. I love public speaking. Um so, um as of um April 27th, we have we had 91 students enrolled. Um just under 94% identify as BIPOC, and 23% identify and qualify for English Learner services, and 13% for special education services. Um we also then have 75% of our students are seniors, super seniors, and super duper seniors. And 75 of roughly 75% are Richfield residents. The other 25% percent are open enroll these. Um I mostly wanted to talk to you tonight about some of the new things that we tried this year. Um we like to try and make sure we know who our students are and design
009a program that really fits their needs. Um one of the things we wanted to do this year is um students are very fluid in terms of their attendance. One of the things that we noticed is that every every year we try and design a master schedule so that students, right, go to period 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. Um because the attendance is very fluid, if students are unable to come in at the same time every morning or they have to leave early for child care or a job, they are always missing those particular classes. So, one of the things we tried this year is to remove that bell schedule, making it sort of a work session all throughout the day. So, when students come in, they really are never missing their math class
010that's period 6 or their English class that happens to be period 2. Um we do have a couple of blocks of time for students that are able to be there and are generally our high attendance time, which you'll see that 10:20, which is a scheduled class time, and then the elective block. Um elective block is also like a movement block. Every teacher designed something different. Some did arts, some did uh community service kinds of projects, some went to the gym. Um and that is also hopefully to encourage students to be able to stay during that time. Friday, upon arrival, um students check in with their advisors. And then they also have uh a check-in to see if they've made their goals for the week, and I'll talk a little bit more about that. It was
011one of our changes. There again is an elective movement time, a little bit of more work time to hit their weekly goals, and then they are allowed to do their uh blended learning or asynchronous work, and then the staff, that is when we go through our student engagement and we talk about every single student and where they are at in our program. Students are welcome to stay. I want you to know that in that afternoon if they so choose. Um another idea that we had was to rotate teacher preps. Um when we have, for example, a math teacher who always has prep say at 9:00, if his student is not able to come in at 9:00, they are always um or sorry, if they are coming in at 9:00 but the math teacher is on
012prep every day at that time, then they always miss their math teacher. So, what we decided to do was rotate the teacher prep so every day of the week the teacher has a prep at a different time. Hoping then we would be able to make sure that is when a student is able to come at least one of those days they would also be able to make sure to see that that teacher. Okay. A third idea was wanting students to have a little more choice and voice over what they were working on that day. We noticed that we create schedules for them. We would say Eric, you have math and then English and social studies and you would follow your daily schedule. We also notice that sometimes students just don't feel like doing math that
013day. Sometimes they don't feel like doing math that week. Um this daily check-in allowed students to come in, sign into the office on an iPad so we collect their attendance, then they would meet with an office person, the admin assistant, myself, school counselor, social worker, sometimes the EL support staff. And then every day when they would come we would say you know, how was your evening? You ready to go to come and work this morning? What would you like to work on first? So, you see that 8:40 to 12:15? What would you like to attack first? And then what do you want to do in the afternoon? Are you going to stay in the afternoon? Do you have to leave for work? If they're going to stay, do you want to continue on trying uh
014meet that entire credit or do you want to switch to something else? A lot of times students would surprisingly choose to work on the same class all day long. And then we have that block for the daily class because there were a couple of courses that were more scheduled for them. They take that pink sheet, they go down to the classroom wherever they chose to work, and then they would check in with their teacher. >> [snorts] >> They would write down which class, how many credits were needed, the course completion goal date, and then they would do starting assignments, ending assignments for the week, and then at the end of the week on that Friday morning when they check in with their advisor, the advisor would pull out this we called it the purple sheet
015cuz it's purple. And then they would be able to say yes, student is on track for that week or no, they did not make their goals. There's nothing punitive if a student doesn't meet their goals, then it just transfers down to week two. But, it was a way to keep students on having goals every week rather than half a semester or quarter by quarter. It's just a shorter amount of time. Um teachers then would take the sorry, the advisors would then take the purple sheet and this is what we would discuss during our student engagement meetings. Before student engagement meeting though, I want to talk a little bit about our tier support system. So, we do take attendance every day. And in this system if a student misses three to five days uh the advisor
016reaches out to students and families. If they miss six to nine days, this is really our tier two, then the school counselor and social worker would do the reach out or do the home visits. And if it's missed 10 days or more, then it really is office admin assistant and then myself reaching out. Going back then to the student engagement document with the purple sheet, this is an example of again, we would have right now we have 91 lines and we go student by student. We look at how likely are they to graduate? They're color-coded green, yellow, orange, and red. Um their grad year is there, uh the total credits needed to graduate, and then you can see all the different classes that they would need to uh accrue in those particular areas in order
017to meet those credit needs. And then what do we know about the student, what they're working on, or who's going to do the reach out and do the support. Um the colors um don't be fooled by the colors or the credit amount. Sometimes we have students with very few credits and for whatever reason they run out of steam right around this time. And so, for example, this morning um the office and myself had a very long conversation with student and parent to say you're only three and a half credits away. You haven't come for eight days. Get in here. Like you can do this. This is this is silliness to give up after you've done so much work. You have to come and finish up. And he did come in. Sometimes it's having enough belief
018um in them and what they can do even if they don't believe it yet. Um and then you have students who are maybe 16 credits away and you're right down to the wire and they're able to pull it out. So, we always say never say never until the very last day when we are at the final deadline. Um this is another tracking document so that we keep track of when a student has finished a course, what their percentage is for their grade, and then in what subject area. At the in May is crunch time for us so we always post on the exit door when students leave, they see the reminders when work is due, our sub graduation date, uh high school graduation date, and then we do the countdown with the posted notes. Um
019so again, anything we can do to try and get the message across time is ticking, don't wait. Um and then we also offer two senior study nights in May and we also have an extra hour on Tuesday nights for students to stay. We do the two senior study nights instead of a fourth quarter conference. Um a real We're so proud of these students. Um a number of of kiddos are going to the path pathways at Hennepin Tech. So, they're doing the CNA program. And then one student was featured in for the culinary arts program. We have one more student who is in the welding program. He's super proud of himself because he's leading the class. So, I just didn't get a chance to get his picture. And we always say when it works they graduate.
020And even if they don't quite make it, they still get farther than if we don't do all of these things. Right now, our senior credit needs are five have graduated. You can see 35 are in the 0.01 to 10 credits. Uh and then 12 more up to that 15. Six still need 20, and then we have a larger number that need 20 plus. We do offer summer school. And then they can also attend high school summer school. Um I will be honest, Metro Surge did take about two and a half months of our time this year. So, that took quite a lot of the wind out of our sails and out of our students' sails. Our annual survey completion rates, 32% um was our goal. We ended up with 36% filling out our annual survey
021and then from 89% BIPOC to 90%. And then all of the staff and I want to very much thank the staff because we're small so they always get a little nervous about filling out the survey. And then the last thing is the Seal of Biliteracy Awards. So, at RCEP we also offer the ability to earn an award and elective credit. So, right now we have 20 students who have earned a world certificate, eight a gold seal, two a platinum seal, and we have nine pending scores. I'm pretty confident at least seven or eight of those nine will also earn one of those awards. Um we have a lot of heritage speakers. And then at the high school, five have earned a world certificate from the stamp test, 12 from an AP test. Uh AP test,
022those are usually our DLI students. A gold seal, uh 11 and 10. And the platinum seal, six and three. And then we have seven pending scores there as well. And this year we did have uh two Somali speakers take the test at high school and two Amharic speakers take the test at high school. So, yeah. That's great. That concludes the presentation. Questions? Thank you for that. Questions from the board? You answered my question great just now. Okay. So. I've got questions. Oh, I feel really loud. Um okay. So, first of all, great. I love seeing the lock-in on the on the on the the sign. Sometimes that's the only reminder I need to. It's like, lock-in. Um so, one of the things that's got me thinking is uh the ways in which we know that
023I I really appreciate the the flexibility and the high support for students. And I know, right? We all know that high support balances with high expectations. Can you share some of kind of the ways in which you I know it's there. I'm not uh but, you know, I think sometimes folks might think about it like, oh well, it's just it it sounds like it's easier, right? But there's a lot of high expectations on these students. Could you share about kind of how you balance that? >> is still So, there is still the expectation that they come into school, right? Um truancy, not being able to come I have a hard time with the word truancy. It's very negative. Um when you really look at who our students are, sometimes just getting to school is a
024really big feat. There's a lot of anxiety, there's some mental health, sometimes students are battling um chemical things. Many of our students are working for their families, so they are carrying nearly full-time jobs. A number of students during Metro Surge picked up the second shifts um on top of um then being behind in your credits. So, I think as an adult with a full-time job, I get home, I'm tired. So, then to log in and sit down for another 6-8 hours and get through my work is is Yeah. is a feat. Um many of our students are also doing the work on their own. They do not have necessarily this their parents are also working or their parents are also taking care of younger siblings um or they most of our things are in English
025and they are not um able to read some of the materials that our students are working on. Um We had this conversation at school. I helped my son organize. I had him sit next to me and looked at his assignments. Um I think every teacher um that I know helps their their young person get through assignments, uh does the assignments with them, points out when things are not quite right or right, helps them do the research with the essay. Most of our students are doing that all on their own. And they are doing it at 2:00 a.m., at 3:00 a.m., at 1:00 a.m. Um right now we have a super senior. Um she is a manager at her job. She is carrying a full-time job. She is flown out to places to open retail stores.
026And she still wants that diploma and she is still logging in when she gets home and is is logging in. Um I'm pretty sure she will get there. Um so, to me that's very high expectation. Um all of the courses we still go by the same state standards. They're still required to do their 3 years of math, get through all of their English 9, 10, 11, 12, do all of their social studies. Um Yeah. The students that are going to uh like the CNA program, they're doing that plus they're also catching up on their credits for high school. Thank you. Great work. >> More questions. I just want to say thank you. I really appreciate how you're using data in very creative, innovative ways uh and also the thoughtfulness of knowing uh the whole student,
027uh the the you know, the things that they're experiencing uh at home and in life and just figuring out the way to help them uh learn the content and uh move forward and reach their their goals. Thank you. Yeah, cool. Thank you. Thanks. I have a question. Could you explain um I can't remember what slide it is. Um the student engagement document example. The um orange slot. The third point. >> Yep. Yep. So, normally normally people have like red, yellow, green. So, green, pretty confident they're to go. Yellow, right? We're a little cautious. And red is we're we're not so sure that they will get there. Just the amount of credits or the work production has really slowed down. I was really struggling with going from yellow to red. So, the team created orange um
028to say we're we're nervous, they're in between, but we don't want to say like it's it's going to be impossible or they won't do it. So, we kind of had a a halfway in between cautious and maybe not this year. So, you're saying they can move from the orange to the green? >> Yes. And every Friday we go through this list and those colors change. Yep. So, um And uh honestly, the the one student who is orange, it used to be red and actually um that student has produced quite a bit of work. So, you know. Thank you. Thank you. Well, you know, it's like something to work towards. It's Yeah. That's awesome. Yep. And the goal is always to go from red to orange, orange to yellow, yellow to green, light green or green.
029I got a thing. I remember last year we did a December graduation. Are we going to do that again in the future? If we have Yeah, and we had a few students where we would like we wanted to have something very small um but given the backgrounds of our students and just all the things that were happening in the community, >> Yeah. it was not really the time. So, they are all being invited to participate here in the spring. Next year, if we have that a group again graduate early between now and December, we would we would go back to a midyear. Good. Yeah. I know it's a long time to wait for an entire year. >> Yeah. It's hard. Um I don't know. This is I have I don't know. I've got some just
030a couple weird ones. It's interesting to just your the the first thing you said um when you talked about students of color, so you the very first slide. >> Mhm. Um I didn't catch the percentage. Um You said 91% was it? >> 90 I don't know. >> Uh just under 94. >> 94. Um and and just >> [clears throat] >> a math student. But the [laughter] 6.6 6. Sorry. >> guess you're going to subtract it. See, you're smart. >> there are Yeah. Good job. Um you know, and it's interesting because like as as we talk and then we think just you know, with other groups, other teams, other schools of like how do we adjust those numbers? I mean, really the number here is how do we just reduce it in general, right? It's >>
031Um so, it's not necessarily a question or more just a comment. Um the other thing and this is a tricky one that I've really been thinking a lot about is from from my perspective, I believe from the board's perspective, from adults' perspective, our SEP is awesome, right? It's super cool, it's great for kids, right? It's like we just hear nothing but success. My question is is how do the students in in not the students in the program, but the students out of the program, how do they view it? Cuz I'm concerned that there's like a negative connotation, which then our is it the kids who are using it are getting great benefits. The kids who could use it but have a negative connotation of it are potentially missing out. And how do we change that?
032I would say alternative education in general has a negative connotation. Uh it did when I was growing up. I remember um alternative those kids, right? I mean, it's a decades-long issue. I think of the groups when I connect in with other alternative education leaders, it is one of the things that comes up often is that there is a stigma around alt ed as being othered. Um it's even if we have students going to Hennepin Technical College and in nursing programs or getting 16 credits in culinary or getting an AA degree at Normandale, that did happen a few years ago. Um it's just not considered a traditional pathway and I think people have they have feelings around that. Um there's many paths to get to the same place. That's what we say, I think, but do
033we really believe that? Not necessarily. Yeah, it makes me think of you know, back when I was in high school, being a nerd was not good. Now it's a point of pride. Uh I know someone very close to me who recruits for our our SEP. You know, when he goes out, he has no shame. And he has a lot of friends who are on the baseball team here at the high school and he'll talk about his thing and he's in college right now and just got an internship with the St. Paul Saints. Yay. >> Yay him. And um he's a good I mean, if you if you get good feedback and you know, that's that's you know, and he's a great recruiter. That's what we need. We need to get these kids to say, "Hey."
034I would say most of our a lot of our students are recruitments from past graduates. We have a number of um our school counselor talks about a student that they had many, many years ago. She did not get her diploma, but she loved the program then. It did a lot for her in other ways and she sent all her siblings. Um we have whole families that come through. Um this year we have a the youngest sibling of three, I believe. Um They usually bring their friends, so we have a lot of friendship groups um that come. And then, I think again a couple of them for students that are in the work world, they meet other students who are working and not finishing and will say reach out reach out like they have a flexible
035program where you don't have to quit your job. And I can't quit my job because I have rent or have children. Um So, that that is I would say based on that that is kind of that counter narrative that is out there. Um I don't know how to change the minds of of those that are really stuck in only a traditional path. Right. That's good to hear that you're thinking about it. I mean, I guess the only other question would be is is are we thinking about it from a marketing communications cuz I love bringing up marketing. Um are we thinking about it from that perspective of how do they help out? Like when I hear the stories of like the success stories, how are we how are we publicizing that, right? And like making
036sure that people are seeing that it's um not traditional can be okay or is okay, right? And it's and it's like here's how people are successful. 91 is a pretty decent number though, but It is, right? It's >> For a small program. Um and again, a lot of our students that have come to us in the last few months, it's from students bringing more of their their neighbors and their friends. Mhm. I just have one last comment kind of about that is they think one of the themes that I see throughout this is [snorts] the ways in which you or the program allows students to direct their own learning in a lot of ways, right? That the program adapts to your >> [snorts and clears throat] >> life, right? Which is a common challenge for
037high schoolers in general. Uh and that they're choosing their priorities, they're setting goals, right? They're accountable to an ongoing kind of system and really learning how to plan your work and work your plan and check out and you know, kind of hold yourself accountable. I think it's really really cool um system [clears throat] of really building what will it take, right? For even though many of these young people are living what we would consider to be a right these like adult lives, right? Full-time job, kids, rent. Um but really cool skills in addition to uh the the kind of traditional academics, really learning how to you know, lock in and make things happen. It's real school. As soon as they figure that out then, you know, you got to recruit the parents. You know, it's
038that's that's the one of the hurdles. Anyway. Check. Thank you. Anything? Nope, I checked already. We're good. Thank you for coming in. Thank you. Great presentation. All right, we're going to follow one great presentation with another. So, Michael Manning from Nutrition Services will now step up and share some of the exciting things happening within our nutrition services department. Well He's getting the mic on. I I thought we talked about cookies last time. So, I'm going to say that this >> were bringing the cookies though. This is extra questions for you tonight. >> an extra sour warhead though over here for you tonight. >> [laughter] >> That's on the floor. I put one on the desk. I brought one for me and one for you. Yes, so Michael Manning I'm going to give a quick nutrition
039services update. So, I just want to start off with our mission statement and simple it's just uh our goal is to create a warm and welcoming environment for every student, every meal, every day. Uh I would I'm just going to go through and tell you some of the programs we offer. So, we do breakfast in the classroom. We do a grab and go breakfast. We do traditional breakfast. We do second chance breakfast. Uh fresh fruit and vegetable snack, traditional lunch, satellite lunch at locations, after school snack and supper. Then I'll go into these a little bit more. So, our after school snack and supper is offered through the CACFP which is child and adult care food programs. Uh as of last year, we now offer it at every location. So, snack and supper are both
040available at Centennial and Richfield. Snack only would be STEM, Richfield Dual Language, Sheridan Hills. And then we do a supper only here at the high school. So, it's kind of cool that we're able to offer it at all the schools we have. So, All right, then we serve uh National School Lunch. That's the school breakfast program and school lunch program. That's served at all six of our locations. Uh the four elementaries, the middle, and the high. Uh we also satellite meals out to ARCEP, Richfield College Education College Experience Program, Central, and then special education over at SEC. And then one of the other programs I spoke about earlier, that's the FFVP. It's a pretty cool program. It's a grant-based program for schools that are 50% free and reduced or above. Uh they have to be
041in elementary school and they have to participate in the school lunch program. So, because of all the work we did this year getting in applications and stuff, we're going to next year we're planning to have three locations. So, we had dropped down the year before last year to one location. Because of the push with uh the free and reduced forms, two more schools will be coming on. So, we're we're anticipating that three of the four schools will have the fresh fruit and vegetable program. Uh Richfield Dual Language School was really close. They were I think it was like 2% off. Uh we did go ahead and we kind of figured out a way that we could apply. So, we we built a site, we we applied for it. So, hopefully it'll hopefully have some extra
042funding and they'll get to all four schools, but we think three will definitely make it. All right, so program participation. So, these were pulled as of April 20th. Uh I'll start out with my really happy number. So, our free and reduced percentage went from last year 53.3% up to 56% this year. Uh so, buildings helped out a lot. We got a lot more people on the program. So, our breakfast participation is down currently a little over 1% and our lunch participation is down 2%. Uh that's as of April 20th. Like Casey had mentioned, the the ice surge really hit us pretty hard. So, if you look at November up until November, we were actually trending 1 to 2% over. And now in April, we're back up to about 2% over. Uh we saw a at
043at its peak of the ice surge, we saw a 23% drop at our high school alone. Uh and we figured it out by day, we were we were coming in about 250 meals less per day during the peak of the ice surge. So, it made it really difficult. That's where a lot of these numbers are. We think we're we're trending like I said just a little bit above normal, but those three or four months really really took a hit. So, school lunch hero. So, Friday was school lunch hero day. So, I want to share some pictures of our crew. One of our favorite hot dog people is definitely Steve. He wears the costume well. No one had to ask him to do it. He >> [laughter] >> They said you volunteered to wear the hot
044dogs. >> Friday. Okay. I would interpret it differently, but um Uh and then here I thought the I thought the one in the middle was cool. So, after the state basketball tournament, uh the high school crew made a sign for them and welcomed them all back into the building. Uh chicken wing day. That's the school lunch hero shirt that we had designed this year. So, all of our staff wore it last Friday. And then this is just a salad. I thought it was really cool and I I didn't tell them to do it. Just in the location and saw they were writing little notes on the salads. And thought that was a pretty cool touch. Uh this year we've started a new program, Minnesota Thursdays. Uh we've offered four of them so far. And the
045Minnesota Thursdays is just uh we've kind of partnered with local farms, providers, uh grocery stores, things like that to give kids some cool menus. Um Last week was a good example. Last Thursday we did uh taheen chicken legs. They were we got the chicken legs from Northfield, Minnesota. We got uh fresh tortillas from Loma Bonita here in town. And like fresh fresh. We picked them up at 9:30 in the morning and started running them to schools. So, they would have them just as soon as they came out. Uh we did local corn. Flip over one more. And so, these are all the farms that we worked with this year on Minnesota Thursdays. Everything from Hoyo Sambusas, Morelli's Market in St. Paul, Bushman's Farm, Ed Field and Sons, Brand Farm which we work with normally, Johnny
046Pop, Rancher's Legacy. We got some uh meatballs some local meatballs from them. Emma Krumbee's Bakery, then Loma Bonita Market and North Star Farms. All right, so cafeteria update. So, STEM, we uh we were able to purchase if you look in the picture, you see the round tables. So, we were able to purchase those. Centennial School District actually over purchased on tables. We were able to buy them at a huge discount. So, that's the setup now. It's worked really well. The kids like the round tables at it's it's easier for them to talk amongst themselves and still continue eating as opposed to the long table. They kind of get distracted at times. So, that's what we did at STEM. And then that kind of spurred us along to the middle school. So, the middle school hasn't
047had new tables in decades. Uh so, we decided to go ahead and order new tables for them. And this is what it's going to look like. The the top design is their 3D rendering. Don't look at it too much, it confuses people. Everybody I showed this out, they said it looked like it was upside down. Like on a ceiling, but that's the closest I get to a real picture, but they're going to have that's going to be Richfield red on the seats, even the wheels are going to have Richfield red on them, and then around the tabletop there's going to be a little red to tie in, so. And we're going to have so that cafeteria didn't have any ADA accessible seating. They just had like seats at the end where you pull up, so
048we're going to have two tables that have full ADA seating. Uh spots broken in, but then we're also going to have the seats on the end as well that students can use. A lot of the old tables were were broken, mismatched, they didn't lift right, so it's a good chance for us to upgrade. And then we were also able to So generally with old tables like that you actually have to pay to have them removed and disposed of. We were able to partner with the math and science academy, so they're working on some new construction, so they're going to utilize some of our old tables, so. Works out good for everybody. All right, summer plans. So our summer plans will be similar to last year. Uh we will have kindergarten readiness at Central Education. We're
049going to use the We work with the state, we're going to be able to use the school lunch program and school breakfast program to provide them meals during this time. Whereas in the past we were never able to feed them because they wouldn't qualify for summer feeding. But by us extending the school breakfast program we'll be able to do it. Uh K-5 will be offered at Richfield STEM. Those are the dates below. We're going to have breakfast in the classroom with multiple kiosks, they'll grab their food, go to class. Then they'll come to us for lunch. Uh middle school same setup with multiple kiosks, they take breakfast to the classroom, eat it, come see us for lunch. Then to the high school, same thing. We're also going to be satelliting meals to ISD 287, so
050we're partnering with them this summer, and we're making meals for their kids and sending them over, so. All right, so next year we're looking at we're going to continue breakfast in the classroom to all of our elementaries, lunch in the cafeteria. Uh again, greater nutrition promotion and education. Uh same thing at middle school and high school what we've done in the past. We're doing our triennial assessment this year, so we'll be adding some new uh nutrition goals, stuff like that to it. And we're going to try to work these Minnesota Thursdays one of our plan is this year was just elementaries where we rolled it out, but we're hoping next year we can do the middle school and high school with them together. So. Uh ARCEP, uh they're going to have a satellite service. It'll
051be similar to the model they do now. We'll be able to provide meals the same way. And then me and Casey have talked about as the year goes, we can go over and kind of evaluate what the setup looks like there and see if maybe we can improve upon it since they are so close to us now. All right, so vendor contracts. As I won't read all of this, but this is just where we sit with our main vendors currently. Uh everything this year was just renewals, we didn't go out to bid on anything yet. Uh all vendors have been vetted for suspension debarment using district procedures and documentation. So we had to set up some standard operating procedures to make sure that we're staying on top of it going forward. And then negative balances.
052So our current student negative balances sits at negative 18,000. Uh that's around a $2,000 drop from last year. It's spread out amongst closed and open accounts. And then our current negative adult sits around $977. And our current Sunshine Fund balance is $6,958, so. Not enough to clear out all the negative balances, but the way we the way we pay them off at their senior year it should keep us going for a while, but hopefully we can get ahead of it. That's it. Thank you for that. Questions from the board. I have a clarifying question. For the piece about the participation, is that like the 68%? Is that 68% of the students attending are choosing lunch or or choosing school lunch or is it What's that number? That's based off of we take the enrollment and
053multiply that by the average daily attendance, which we get from the Department of Education every year. So it takes that number and figures up what percentage of that number actually ate lunch. Okay. Cool. >> why it it really hurt the percentage because it's not taking a snapshot of just who's in the building that day. It's how many are enrolled and what would be a normal attendance for them. So when So when the surge happened and students weren't coming, we were still basing the number off of 1,200 kids could eat a day and Right. Okay, that helps a lot. Thank you. I got two things. You say you're going to be feeding ISD 287 this summer. Are you talking about our piece of the South Education Center? Are you talking about all four buildings? The the
054entire building, so they The building at SEC. Right, just the SEC building, not their other Right, right, not their other districts. They partner with different districts depending on where they're at to help prepare meals for them. So we'll be preparing meals here at the high school and they'll get taken over to SEC and they'll distribute them, so. For the whole building. Okay. ARCEP. Yes. They're moving right here. One of the biggest challenges that the students talked about was getting hot meals Yep. over at the old building. I'm assuming that that's going to be a nice change for them. Yes, it should be. So we were able to increase a couple years ago to get them hot meals 3 days of the week, 2 days of the week they eat cold meals. And then when me
055and Casey met this year, we decided we would keep the plan like it is, 3 days a week hot meals, 2 days a week cold meals. But then like I said, we'd be able to evaluate and see what we can do with them being so close, so. Thank you. Question. Uh you indicated kindergarten through grades five would be together? K-5? Oh, for the summer? For the summer, for summer school. Yes, sir. Okay. Okay. Just wanted to clarify that. Kirk. You're Can't hear you. Still nothing. I think he's just saying how awesome we're doing. Yeah. What a fantastic job. Here, hold on. I will I'll translate. Uh can you talk more about CACFP, who that serves? So CACFP is for anyone in our schools that is staying after school to do some form of enrichment. So
056it can be anything from uh Generally Beacons has provided that at our other locations. Uh but it can be any kind of program. If they're working with a teacher on something, if they're here for sports, things like that. It can't be just to feed people doing sports, but if they're there at the same time, so. And it provides them in the sites that do too, it provides them a snack usually within 10 minutes of school getting out, and then the supper comes at the very end around 5:00. Oh, we hear you. Oh. Cuz we hear you typing. Now we can hear you. Got you. Can you hear me now? Yeah, we can. Okay, great. Yeah, so then the other question I had was RDLF just a little bit underneath that percentage for services. Um I'm
057I'm curious, how are we still able to apply for that? Um and like what is your confidence level being able to You said you could still apply, but not maybe not get services, maybe get services. Say more about that. Okay. Yeah, I'm I'm very confident that we're going to be approved for the three locations cuz they all meet the criteria. The fourth one did not, so I guess nine times out of 10 that we're not going to get approval to have fresh fruit and vegetable program there at RDLF, but we wanted to apply anyway cuz sometimes they do have extra funding. So we're hoping if if we got it in. Cuz generally they send you an application for the three sites. So we went in the system, talked to them, and they agreed that we
058could put in for the fourth site, we could go ahead and apply. It wouldn't guarantee us anything or sign us up, but we just wanted our name out there just in case. Is that a state program or federal program? Uh it's a federal program, but it's administered at the state level, so they just they determine how the money gets distributed amongst us. Yeah. In the past like during COVID they had they had lowered the threshold at a state level because they had excess funding for it through the grant, so they lowered it to 40%. And uh that's the year where we had all four schools on board, and then we dropped back down. Okay, thank you. Um I've got a couple questions. Uh the lid writing intended or not, I think it's really cool. Uh
059if we're around and like in the school, could we write on the lids? No. Darn. I just thought throw that out. I was like, that's a cool idea. >> wear the hot dog costume one day though. Steve's got it. He said he wanted to do it again next year, he liked it so much. Uh Nope. Kirk. Yeah. Wow, where are all these It's kind of fun. The waffle's like a sandwich board, it's just I'm like, a waffle to do writing, and then you're coming back with costumes. And Ken just said he would wear the sambusa costume if we had one, is what I heard. Also true. On the mic. Uh-huh. Uh okay. I'm going to ask the hard question here. I told you. You said that the chairs and the wheels were going to be
060in Richfield red. Are you sure it's Richfield red? I did send I hope so. I sent them the brand guide. Okay. Cuz Jennifer Jennifer Valley used to get on to me all the time, so I have it saved several places to make sure that the colors are correct. Okay. Great. That's what I want to hear. Like we red Richfield red like in due course it's No, no, no, it's it's really >> It's red. Okay. Just like the basketball court. Right. Um and then what the last your last slide, the why are there adult negative balances? I'm confused about that one. Uh so adult negative balances is generally when staff come through the line. Mhm. If their account isn't caught up, we still let them go through line and then we collect it from them. Okay.
061Uh the way our the way our lines are set up, the cash the cash register is at the very end of the line. So at the point where they wouldn't have money, they've already grabbed the full meal. So to not want to shame them, not want to take it away from them in front of students and stuff like that. And also it wouldn't do us any good. They've already gotten the food, so I can't reserve the food anyway. So Okay. What was that? I I was just Yeah, I said they licked it already. We let them keep it at that point. That's >> Yeah. You can have that one. More questions? If not, thank you. Appreciate you coming in even without cookies. >> [laughter] >> It was a great presentation. Appreciate it. Do you want
062the candy before I go? Do not. >> for you. You got it. >> Okay. I appreciate it. Uh we are done communications, that moves us to the consent agenda. This I the next item is a which is a routine collection on fire. >> [sighs] >> The next item is approval of the consent agenda, which contains a collection of routine or fairly routine business items that we consent to pass in bulk without individual discussion. I'll pause for a moment to see if there are any questions or requests before we proceed. Hearing and seeing none, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? Thank you. Did you say you did? I was chuckling. And >> that we move past the consent agenda. Thank you. I'll second. Thank you. We have a motion by Dr. [laughter] Tompkins
063and a second by Dr. Cole. We'll bring it to a vote. I'll start I'll write this time. Dr. Dennis. Dr. List. Aye. Dr. Spencer. Aye. Dr. Cole. Aye. Dr. Tompkins. Aye. And the chair votes aye and the consent agenda is approved. Brings us on to old business. Our first item is policy 703 student activity fund and other organizations and administrative guideline 703.1, third read. Third read, looking for hopeful passage tonight. And so the uh the policy and agenda's gone through finance or guideline has gone through finance department, activities department, and competitive activity advisors. Recommended changes were included. You'll see in the policy itself, most of that is branding, but on the final page just updated statutes. Um and then within the guideline, um just a set of clarifications and streamlining. Um page two you will
064see some clarification about how athletic team accounts are provided by the district and are not the specifically activity accounts. And so these are the ones that are not in the same way um and that they can receive donations approved by the board, but are not subject to the same um rules as those external activities. And so with that, uh we have it in front of you. Um actually there's an additional um number six, inactive accounts. Just to clarify, balances from inactive student activity accounts are transferred to the student activity list on the activity purpose summary form. So those funds do get rolled over um to the equivalent student group um for the next year, including for graduation. Um and so those things were clarified um after previous feedback. And so with that, um we have
065it in front of you for recommended passage. Questions, comments, a motion? I will move that we pass policy 703 as presented. I'll second. We have a motion by Dr. Spencer and a second by Dr. Cole. Thank you for that. Keep us moving. Bring it to a vote. We'll start with Dr. Spencer. Aye. Dr. Tompkins. Aye. Dr. Cole. Aye. Dr. List. Aye. Dr. Dennis. Aye. Chair votes aye and we have approved policy 703 student activities fund and other organizations. Sounds weird. And administrative guideline 703.1. Brings us to policy 613 religion in schools and administrative guideline 613.1. Uh and similarly, third read hoping for passage. You'll see within the policy itself um just clarifying and updating related to statute and um updating statutory um connections. And then similarly, most of the entire guideline is really just updated
066components related to branding. So we do have that again in front of you for recommended passage um after having already been reviewed. Um and so we have that today for that third and hopefully final read. Thank you for that. Questions, comments? I move that we pass board policy 613 religion in schools. Unless you have something else you wanted to say. I'll second. We have a motion by Dr. List and a second by Dr. Cole. Any discussion? Any more discussion or bring it to a vote? Okay. Uh we will bring it to a vote. I'll have to do this. Dr. Tompkins. Aye. Dr. Cole. Aye. Dr. Spencer. Aye. Dr. Dennis. Aye. Dr. List. Aye. Chair votes aye and the policy 60 613 religion in schools is approved. Brings us to new business. First item is termination
067and non-renewal of probationary teaching contracts. All right. So Dr. Michelle Axley is stepping up to the microphone to move forward. >> [snorts] >> Good evening, everyone. We do have for your approval tonight a resolution relating to the termination and non-renewal of our probationary teaching contracts. This is the next step in our staffing process in preparation for the 2026-2027 school year. In March and April, we brought forward a resolution discontinuing teaching positions for the 2026-2027 school year and a resolution to be to place continuing contract teachers on unrequested leave of absence. Tonight, it is the contract non-renewals for probationary teachers. We have 22 teachers that are being proposed for non-renewal. These decisions are part of routine staffing adjustments and reflect a number of factors. Reflect budget reductions, change in student enrollment, staffing changes, some are performance
068related, and a number of teachers who are working outside their licensure area that we are required to non-renew. Individual circumstances vary and no assumptions should should be made about any teacher included on this list. So with that, we are seeking approval of this resolution as presented. Thank you for that. Questions or comments? Or a motion? I move to approve the uh motion to terminate non and non-renew probationary teaching contracts. I'll second it. We have a motion by Dr. Cole and a second by Dr. List. Any questions or comments? You know, I do want to make a comment on the microphone. Just, you know, as we think about the impact of some of the things that happened in the larger picture of our world. Uh Dr. Axley talked about some of the components. But you think
069about Metro Surge and the loss of somewhere near 80 of our students in regard to enrollment um that requires fewer staff. Um when we look at um some of the decisions that were made at the legislature to uh change the way our students qualify for compensatory education and multiple millions of dollars are lost to support our students. Um those play into a larger list than is necessary. And we just want I just want to take a moment to acknowledge the skill and dedication of those folks who are on this list. This is always a hard time of year. These are always hard decisions and given some of the legislative and larger political things that's extra hard this year. And so I just wanted to thank these staff members and just acknowledge that this is a
070hard time. If I'm if I might add to that Steve um I have a very there's definitely two factors here. The one Metro Surge obviously had an effect on our students leaving the district. But also um I think that as we look to next year we have an outsized responsibility to serve the kids that are still going to be a part of our district next year. Um and I only say outsized because um compared to kind of what we've gotten in the past per per pupil. Um means that it it this is a really hard day for some of our teachers that uh and staff that need that that need to leave um based on on some of the rules governing but also that much of the staff that is still here next year um
071still have a big responsibility and and maybe more than what we've had from a per pupil basis in the past and I think it's really important just to recognize that it's unfortunate that um the compensatory didn't line up the way that we really wanted it to be. Thank you for that. More questions or comments? Here are some of these people tier ones who've just run out of their license? That's a good question Ken. So a tier one is a one-year license approved by PELSB. And so every year they would need to reapply. >> And you can only do it three times, right? Uh depends on circumstances. What you're going to see similar to the layoff of some of our continuing contract is there will be some of these staff you will see again as a
072rehire. Mhm. Um so the I would not anticipate that all of these staff will be leaving us similar to all of the layoffs. There will be some positions in those spaces but we need to start from there and move forward. So some of those are required licenses or changes are amongst that list. Yes. So. Any more questions or comments before I bring it to a vote? Director Liss. Aye. Director Dennis. Aye. Director Thank you. Director Spencer. Aye. You can keep shaking it up. Director Cole. Aye. Director Hopkins. Aye. Chair votes aye and the termination and non-renewal of probationary teaching contracts has been approved. Brings us to the 2026-2027 preliminary budget and advanced expenditure authorization. Thank you very much. This is our first look at the fiscal year 27 budget. It is a preliminary proposal. We'll
073be reviewing a couple of the highlights here and more importantly asking for authorization to spend up to 30% of those fund budgets here before the start of the school year. Typically May and June is when we are taking a look at purchase orders and things like that so that we can receive deliveries in the summer. So that is the board action tonight. Taking a look at the budget a couple high points. We are projecting revenue of 87,539,245 dollars in the general fund and expenditures of 88,643,788 dollars. So you can see we are planning to do some deficit spending next year. Um this is something that we've been planning for. Our revenue projections include updates to these state formula allowance. It also includes our about 2.5 million reduction in compensatory funds so that is kind of
074built into this as well as well as some preliminary enrollment projections for next year as well. Um expenditures we have updated staffing with some of our right-sizing as it was referred to the district and some of the budget reductions that way. We're going to continue to make modifications over the next month both in fine-tuning that in revenue as well as fine-tuning the expenditures. Overall budget on the second page you'll see does include those other funds and just kind of taking a look at the full budget the last couple lines there. Overall our revenue is projected to be 115,455,363 dollars and expenditures of 116,735,767 dollars. So that's looking at all funds together with construction and our general fund as well as nutrition services community ed. Um so with that again we'll continue to modify that budget
075and you'll have a chance to do that formal review at one of the June board meetings. It does need to be approved before the end of the fiscal year before June 30th. Um and we are asking for your authorization to start spending up to 30% of that budget based on those numbers that I have presented to you tonight. Questions? Yes. I know for a fact now that we pay a certain percentage into ISD 287. They every district pays their bit. Where what line item is that? That's all I'm just I'm just curious. So it's not going to be a line item on the budget that you have here. In the detail budget it is included. Those are going to fall under purchase services. Um but there are a lot of things that are going to
076fall under purchase services across the district. Okay but that's that's kind of where they make up So those fall under purchase services. All right. Um so salaries um the first two salaries, wages and employee benefits those are paying our current staff in all districts and in our district specifically. Anything that is not current staff is going to fall in the purchase services or in those supplies or equipment in the lines below that. Okay. I was just curious to see where it fell in. That's all. Thank you. Other questions or a motion? I'm curious what Oh go ahead Kirk. No go ahead Haley. Kirk you got the She's pointing at you Kirk. She's letting you go first. >> the floor. >> [laughter] >> Maybe maybe just a a comment is all really I had. The first
077time that I saw this request for spending 30% 3 months before we started the calendar year like we what what are we doing? And it's it's a reflection both of the fact that the district needs to spend this money as you mentioned but also um that we've got an immense trust in the leadership from the district to be able to um spend appropriately. And so now two or three years in I'm over my initial shock of like whoa 30% you need and it's only April May. So that's my only comment. Mine was just going to be I'm just curious what kind of stuff do you want to buy? What do we need to buy with 30%? So a lot of the requisitions that are starting to come through are going to be software systems so
078that we can continue our technology. We're starting to purchase computer replacements and things like that. So those are the things that have shown up in my requisition boxes today. There will also be some of the construction budget that takes taking place in July and August. Um so once we hit July 1 we're in that new fiscal year and we need the authorization to spend in those areas. Um sometimes curriculum will be starting to purchase supplies for next school year or other things that end up being purchased now or being requested now for purchase after July 1. Awesome. Thanks. If I might just add to that Craig some of it is that you're signing on agreements to pay for things before we actually do pay for them. Right? So there's things that come up in May
079and June that are authorizing the payment from a purchase order perspective but you're not actually paying until later. Correct. I move that we approve the authorize the preliminary budget and advance expenditures as presented. I second the motion. We have a motion by Director Hopkins and a second by Director Cole. Any more questions or discussion? If not we'll bring it to a vote. Director Cole. Aye. Director Hopkins. Aye. Director Spencer. Aye. Director Dennis. Aye. Director Liss. Aye. Chair votes aye and [clears throat and cough] we have an approved preliminary budget for 2026-2027 and advance expenditure expenditure authorization. Brings us to another exciting topic school board meeting dates for 2026-2027. All right. So we're not looking for a vote on this just yet. We're looking for opinion. We usually do two reads although if everybody is sure
080we could certainly take a vote. Just a reminder all of our board rooms are on the first our board meetings are on the first and third Mondays with exceptions when there is a holiday. We typically have schools or presenting during the first meeting of the month. We have public comment second meeting of the month and then we usually have around three study sessions added as needed. We're offering two possibilities and it's really a unique component around November, December. So if we did the first and third meeting in November and December, then that second December meeting would be actually during winter break. Now we do have the district office is open, but there is no school. And so we could either maintain those meetings which would then be the 7th and the 21st of December. The
081other option is to move them forward and so the other option would be to go for November 30th which would then make three meetings in November and then December 14th which would then sort of wrap us up for December. And it's really about board member preference. And so we just wanted people to think about that. We can certainly have a conversation today, but we certainly don't have to. And I will be checking in with board members as they look at their calendars, as they think about would you prefer to have typical first and third in December even if it is when school's closed or would you like to move those forward November 30th and December 14th? And we'll just keep it two week cadence. So that I'll turn it back to Chair Carter in case
082there's conversation or again not taking a vote today. There's always conversations there. I I'll just throw out there. I mean just looking at the calendar and not looking at my personal calendar the latter one looks like it makes more sense not doing it during break. Just seems doing during break seems weird. But that's my two cents. I agree. Sounds like you get to go talk to the board members about this. >> I'll check in on that and then we will also be popping in truth and taxation and levy approval and so we'll make sure that we are rolling those out in those time windows also. So I'll gather some additional information for board members to double check and we'll have it back for us in a couple of weeks. Fun stuff. I was like I
083feel like we just enjoy the summer before we talk about winter and stuff. Let's look ahead to. Well, July 1st we don't have our our meetings for next year set. We kind of have to move on with that which is why we always do it at this time. And we do it after the calendar has been approved so we can we can have those nuances. Right. All right. Brings us to unless there's more discussion. Don't see it. Brings us policy 614 animal in schools and classroom and administrative guideline 614.1. All right. And so this is the policy that allows service animals and certain others that could possibly be present at schools or could possibly not. And then guidelines for how that happens. We are bringing this one to safe and supportive schools before we bring
084it back with recommended changes. And so this is just for that reminder for you all and this is how we um how we decide on the conditions for which service animals or animals are permitted and which other scenarios where they are not. So again just to refamiliarize ourselves and we will have that back with updates at our next meeting. Awesome. Any questions, comments? I have one question. There's a there's a comment within the policy around fear of animals and I'm I'm curious how that shows up in the classroom that it doesn't necessarily prevent an animal from coming into the classroom or being in the classroom, but like what happens if a child is fearful of an animal that's brought in? That is a great question. I will gather some we'll gather some additional information. We'll
085check in with our principals to see if they've had that experience and I'll have that information with our second read. Thank you. Do you have anything on here about classroom pets? I haven't seen anything. Um >> Or does this district not allow that? There are the rules at which there are as long as it is within the conditions for presence of animals. And there there's a run for what those look like. So if you look within the policy on section three conditions can only be in when certain components have been met. Has to be permission of the principal or site administrator, provisions for housing and humane care of the animals, protecting the health and safety of students and staff. And so then it it kind of goes through those components and then it also shows
086the permitted purposes or why they would be there. And so I can certainly gather information. I do not believe we have regular classroom pets, but I would need to double check into that. I mean it sounds loose like it could fall under two number four A curriculum related projects activities that you call a classroom pet but it's really there for Yeah, I don't I don't know of any regular animal presence. I know Amy Winter used to bring her goats to earth right three times a year. I know that there are fish that have been in for certain certain experiences at STEM, but I'll I'll need to check more in depth to see. Cuz I've seen science classrooms with reptiles. Possibly yes. In We will check on that and I will be able to confirm or
087deny factually at our next meeting. Sounds great. More questions or we move on to donations. All right. We have five for you tonight. Centennial Elementary School received a donation of $1,134 from KPMG for books. So thank you to KPMG. Richfield High School Scholarship Fund received donations of $500 from from Meda of Bloomington, [clears throat] Minnesota and $2,000 from the Cobb Family Foundation of Minnetonka. So thank you from Meda Zuba and thank you Cobb Family Foundation. RHS Science Department received a donation of 14 pair of binoculars valued at $2,519.30 from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology of Ithaca, New York. Thank you Cornell Lab. RHS Spartan Food Shelf received a donation of $5,000 from Uplift North. So thank you to Uplift North. And then Armistead Elementary received donations of $10 through the Blackbaud Giving Fund and $133.30
088from Box Tops for Education. So thank you all for your generosity. Thank you. I move that we accept these generous donations with the utmost gratitude. Second. Motion by Director Tompkins and a second by Director Cole to accept these generous donations with the utmost gratitude. We'll bring it to a vote. Director Spencer. I. Director Dennis. I. Director List. I. Director Cole. I. Director Tompkins. I. Chair votes I. And we accept these generous donations with the utmost gratitude. It's killing me. That brings us back to the top of the order by perspective. Legislative update. All right. So there are still three weeks left in the legislative session before everything wraps up. Um as we talked about earlier with comp ed, right now it sits as there is a governor proposal to reimburse some of that. There is
089a Senate proposal to reimburse some of that and there is a House proposal to reimburse none of that. And so we are still sitting kind of where we are. We need to make guesses and estimations. We are estimating or guessing that there will not be some significant funding in our favor. Now we are absolutely hopeful. We are pushing very hard with our legislators, but it has been a tough session so far and I have learned in my many years that we don't want to judge anything finally until the actual end of session occurs. And so with that we'll be watching very closely all the way into our next board meeting and actually most likely into the one in June that first meeting to see what happens. Questions, comments on that? Okay. Information and questions from
090the board. I guess I'll bring up one start off with cuz there's an exciting event coming up, right? The time capsule opening of which more than one board member myself who might be present. I don't know if anybody else is planning on going. So this is a reminder there is an RHS time capsule being opened on Thursday, May 14th at 4:00 p.m. at the high school. It was buried in high school in 50 years ago with a request to open it up. Chair Carter is mentioning that because it's lovely for people to attend and if more than three of us attend, we will actually have to take some planning steps to make sure that there is some separation or lack of conversation between board members as we as we go to that ceremony. >> I
091was thinking of going. Me too. So So Mike got it. So assume Director Cole, Director List, Chair Carter, was that a yes for you? Yeah. We're three in. So let's say we're good. And if other people decide to come, we will take some precautionary measures to make sure that there are official locations where our board members would be where they wouldn't necessarily cross paths. So then is do you you look like you want to go? I think it depends on what day. Day of the week. What day of the Uh Thursday? 14th is a Thursday. I can't I can't make it. I've got we've got uh piano lessons. So I cannot be there. Uh May. May. May. It'll also be streamed for those who want to watch remotely. Pretty high-tech. So just if again, information
092update Steve will put tape X's on the ground so you know where to stand. >> and and just make sure and just as a reminder to board members, um we can't have more than three cross verbal paths in dialogue about anything related to schools. And so we'll just make sure to separate you all out um if you're there and we'll have to be very conscious not to um engage in any school board business dialogue with conversation. Thanks for the reminder. Any more information or questions from the board? >> Yeah, I'd like to give a shout out to the RHS uh theater department. I went to see Mary Mary Poppins on the opening night and it is probably one of the best shows I've seen here yet. They're Mary the gal who played Mary Poppins has
093a voice that's going to take her places and and everybody else did just a wonderful job. Enough to make me watch the movie last night on TV. So Was it as good? Don't answer. Different. I figured you were going to say not as good so. So shout out to the history department. Get more males to join the theater world. Any other information or question for the board? From the board. Suggested future agenda items. Future meeting dates. Uh I'm I'm looking around for this one this is me. Um May 18th will be the next regular board meeting and that will be the opportunity for public comment. Remember you can sign up online and then the meeting after that will be June 1st. On to >> [sighs and gasps] >> our normal time we'd be adjourning but
094tonight's another special night where we get to go into closed session as allowed by 13 D 03 for labor negotiation strategy. With that I'll accept a motion to go into closed session. So moved. Second. We have a motion by Director Director Cole and a second by Director Topkins. Roll call vote. Director Spencer. I. Director Topkins. I. Director List. I. Director Cole. I. Director Dennis. I. Chair votes I and we'll now be moving into closed session. After a brief recess the board will be going into closed session in a private room. We'll return to this meeting to officially adjourn upon completion of the closed session but there will be no further business other than to adjourn the meeting. For those of those following the live stream this will be the end of the session. Thank you
095for watching.