001yeah yeah we're good all right good evening thank you for joining us for the June 17th Board of Education meeting if you could all join me with a pledge to the flag i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay so we will start this evening with our special acknowledgements recognition of our retiring PO and PTO heads Mrs bole it's a lot of assistance okay good evening we are grateful to our parent organizations in Rye for those who step up to lead them tonight we recognize and thank the PTO and PO presidents who are completing their terms after generously giving of themselves in service to our schools these volunteers lead the parent
002organizations of the Ry City School District Schools they partner with the superintendent and the school principles and connect with and organize other parents to help enhance the quality of each child's educational experience in so many ways these the sorry the parent organizations raise funds and provide incredibly generous gifts to the district to support cultural enrichment enhance curriculum through events like field trips and author visits provide opportunities throughout the year to show appreciation to our faculty and staff technology and classroom resources playground and athletic equipment scholarships awards and much more they regularly communicate to keep parents appraised apprised of the many events happening within the schools they plan and throw events that bring our school communities together to build incredible school spirit among students and parents they collaborate with school administrators faculty and other staff and
003the board of education in ways that help RISE stand out as a community that values education and supports our schools and students on behalf of the board and the entire district I extend a hearty thank you to the following please come forward when I call your name to accept a small token of our deep appreciation for all you have contributed to our school community caroline Scully Ry High School son Matsui Midland School anna King Milton School thank you and Sharon Mntel Osborne School and I do just want to recognize Elizabeth Little for Ry Middle School but who could not be here tonight thank you all so much thank you again to our PTO PO heads we literally would not exist without your support and all the work that you do and all of the amazing
004amazing opportunities you provide for our parents and our students and our faculty we are so grateful for all of the work that you do so thank you again we will now move on to the report of the superintendent Dr burn good evening and thank you for joining us for a June 17th board of education meeting we just recognized and thanked our five retiring PO and PTO heads i also want to add my thanks um it has been a pleasure working with you over the past year and previous years when you were not quite the head uh at that point and for that partnership just a reminder we do have our last meeting of the school year tomorrow at 10 so you're not quite done yet almost just like you yes sorry but first a brief
005sports recap we had a lot of busy sports going on the boys varsity baseball team traveled to states this past weekend unfortunately they lost in the semifinals to Pittsver Menden which ended up winning the championship the boys had a terrific season so congratulations to the team and to coach Mike Bruno we also had two track athletes head to states this weekend senior Aaron Ball placed fourth in both the high jump and the long jump junior Ben Truman did not place but he set a new personal record for himself in the 800 meter congratulations to Aaron and Ben and coaches Kevin Murphy and Blair Moyahan this Thursday is the Junth federal holiday a reminder that schools and offices are closed in observance and on Friday we will hold the 94th annual Ry High School graduation in
006Nent Stadium this is the fourth year of holding graduation on Friday evening which in the past has resulted in a much appreciated reduction in the onfield temperature so far the weather forecast is looking good with only a 20% chance of rain at showtime and no tidal flood warnings anywhere i did check that i would be remiss if I didn't note the other celebrations taking place next week our Ryme Middle School eighth graders have their moving up ceremony next Tuesday in the morning and Milton's fifth grade moving up is ceremony is that afternoon osborne's moving up is Wednesday late afternoon and Midland's is Thursday late afternoon on Friday the 27th we will hold the annual closing ceremony the official start of summer for our teachers and staff i want to preemptively wish everyone a wonderful summer
007full of the things they like best be it travel catching up with family and friends or just lazing about in the backyard with a good book and that concludes my report for this evening great thank you we will now move on to presentation and discussion one year or end of year recap dr burn so as uh most years uh we wrap up this last meeting with a a brief re recap of the work that we've accomplished over the previous 12 months um I I'm actually going to go a little bit further back and connect some dots from a couple years ago so obviously as we always begin with the ride commitment and every decision we make every budgetary uh choice we make it is all in service of trying to achieve the tenets of the
008ride commitment so tonight's presentation um I I'd like to do a I' done a lot of reflection lately and I actually uh in a very entertaining moment yesterday that I shared with Jane uh I found the uh Hazard Young and ATA leadership profile that was created in 2016 when I applied for the job and and I thought of incorporating that into this presentation but did not have enough time so we're going to talk a little bit about um my entry plan and some things that I did coming in uh and I know things that Trisha is working on right now that anyone that knows me knows that I am deeply committed to the the notion of entry um recapping a bit of the work over the past few years and then a brief look ahead
009so when I think about my entry plan it started quite early i was appointed to the position and it began in the spring of 2017 um prior to my start uh and it did not end until the spring of 2018 which at the time was much to the chagrin of my assistant who was really getting frustrated after December that people were still scheduling entry interviews initially I held entry interviews with the trustees from the board of education all of our administrators the leadership from the PO and PTO groups teachers parents support staff municipal officials community organization leaders and anybody that called and was willing to sit down with me i met with over 500 people for entry interviews the bulk of which were actually one-on-one or two-on-one interviews um and did a number of parent
010coffees and community engagement events throughout that process so out of that work with entry and I still have my binders with all I hand recorded all of the notes because I never felt comfortable with a computer in front of me and it was really interesting because all of our new administrators do entry plans now which is something I'm particularly proud of and um Ununice Chow Forest our our newest administrator just very quickly uh in a very efficient manner started ran completed did her entry process into her new position as assistant principal at Ry High School there is now an app that does everything that those binders are filled with it collects all the information organizes it categorizes it and pulls out the main important pieces from it so um for those that will be doing
011entry plans talk to Ununice so these are really interesting keys that and I've shared this publicly multiple times i shared this uh several times throughout the year it was essential that we work to provide vision and a sense of purpose for the school district that we build relationships both internally and externally that I gain a deep understanding of Ry that I identify immediate and long-term needs i build partnerships beyond Rye and that was particular that was an interesting one because one of the things that uh I learned was that Rye it was like a wall was built up between the Rye schools and the rest of the universe we didn't have people involved in regional learning uh in the tri-states consortium and in areas where there was a lot uh to take from it was
012to identify and address instructional needs to codify and expand communication evaluate facilities and space be visible in the community and analyze and create administrative structures and processes this is a pretty tall list but one of which I am very proud of where we've come the ride commitment was an incredible effort in a pretty short period of time with the board the administrative team and folks in the community and I I put that as the very first item on this list because to me it was the most important thing that we did because it truly gave us that north star that it was clear when I arrived and through my entry process that the community was longing for the teachers the families the board the administrators everyone felt that that northstar was missing and while I'm
013not going to read through all of these I think there's a few key ones that I mean they're all pretty important an aligned comprehensive literacy program across all schools and and that's something that took a really long time when I arrived maybe some people in this room tonight talked to me about the fact that you could not tell when you walked into our classrooms whether or not you were in the same district and that could have been the same grade level in the same building across the hall from each other that when you went from one elementary school to the next you had radically different instruction you had radically different curriculum and there was no connection vertically or horizontally in the curriculum and the instruction in any of the schools and I'm really proud particularly
014because of all of the recognition we've received from across the state from legislators and state education department and the visitors for quite some time trisha was like a tour guide uh taking people to visit our elementary classrooms but that comprehensive literacy program is something I'm incredibly proud of and that work continues and hearing the data that was uh discussed at the last literacy committee meeting where our youngest learners are achieving proficiency levels that are just beyond anything you would have imagined eight years ago an aligned mathematics program across the schools um I think you were on the math committee i was yes the beginning of committees where parents were involved working with teachers um on helping to figure out some of our most challenging problems with instruction and again the literacy committee that's been going
015strong uh I know Trisha you've had parents teachers administrators working on that uh I'm incredibly proud of the inclusive instruction and the inclusive models that exist today that did not uh integrated co-eing across all of our schools and the work that Dr breedenberg and her team have done and their work with the community to create programs and supports for all of our kids and they have brought back so many kids whose families felt we did not offer the programs that their children needed and they now had the faith and the trust and the confidence that we can help their kids be successful the security evaluation that was very extensive that was conducted and under Gabby's leadership the upgrades across the district when you think of where we were with um we didn't even have locked
016front doors at the schools to now where we have state-of-the-art security technology across the schools our staff our students are well trained they understand our procedures and processes we have a coordinator of safety security and emergency preparedness we have navigated some challenges in security that we've learned over the years and put in and implemented procedures and processes and facility improvements that have our kids staff and faculty safer than they've ever been before in the Ry City Schools we have new schedules kindergarten through 12th grade the win period at elementary school the extended periods at both secondary at at uh middle school and high school not too long ago at the secondary level we had 40minute periods for all of our courses that's no longer the case there's opportunities for deeper learning opportunities for kids to
017become critical thinkers and creative problem solvers and there's enough time within a period for them to collaborate all in a goal of trying to achieve the right commitment our work with challenge success and we've had fits and starts and stumbles in our work with challenge success but you can see the evidence of what we've been working at over these years to try and improve the culture and climate of our schools and I know that under the leadership of Dr murray and Dr freedenberg with a new director of school counseling and student wellness that we will go to the next level in supporting students mental health and wellness and creating a wonderful culture and climate in our schools building upon the good work implementing parent university and while we don't offer as many of those uh
018parent university events anymore we offer them at strategic points with multiple options of learning so that they appeal to parents and they can help understand what we're doing but beyond that getting all of our curriculum maps online so that parents understand what's happening in school bringing parents into the fold was a really important piece that I heard helping parents know what's happening in school and giving them access to the schools it has been a wonderful gift to our program the facilities master plan and the capital project um the amount of work that has been done in these schools again under Gabby and Rob uh to improve where we are and our facilities i joke about it all the time the elimination of the Midland smell air conditioning and fresh air ventilation across all of the
019schools um better lighting better um windows safer windows uh something I'm really proud of and the work that our custodians and our facilities team and I didn't even talk about the fact that we actually have a facilities team now that we did not have and the board has been so supportive without your support and the boards that uh preceded you to be able to make all of these things happen because we would come with these ideas and you would say it makes sense make it happen so we started with one mechanic one one facilities person in Patrick and now we have three and the amount of work that they are able to do and it saves the district money and it puts our facilities in a better place and I was talking to the guys
020today uh over here at the middle school and they're just like a machine the two of them and Patrick while he's doing his work they're just off they have their little vehicles they show up they fix things they improve things and it's someplace where we were never going to be um it's not long ago that our facilities were run by an outside provider that was a big step aramark they should be doing food not facilities school counselors at all of our schools i know some folks at the table had been talking about that for years but the fact that we have school counselors who have deep relationships with their kids from kindergarten straight through 12th grade we have a a counseling plan and we now have uh starting uh July 1 a director of school
021counseling and student wellness our skills-based educational support classes so our kids are not just going to ESC and getting help with completing their assignments our special educators and teachers are working to develop the skills they need so that they can be successful in their work and thanks to Aaron and Amy and Linda and the special education team that's been uh incredibly supportive for our kids our contentbased special education teachers uh we made a a conscious decision a number of years ago to focus on when we are hiring special education teachers at the secondary level that we want mathematics certified special education teachers brian you've been incredibly helpful in that in working with Aaron and going out hitting the colleges and the universities and recruiting people to make that something that's possible the Haskins lab work
022and Trisha what you've accomplished with phonics and the science of reading across the schools is incredibly powerful and something I'll I'll be uh always looking out and learning from in the work that you're doing the engineering program not long ago we had a few random engineering courses at the high school we had a few random engineering courses that some kids took as electives at the middle school we now have a wealth of engineering courses that all kids can take six through eight and that kids who choose to really follow up on engineering they have a lot of options in engineering and robotics and coding at the at the high school level the technology advancements and I think of the work that Caitlyn has done and I I think of one of my very early board
023of education meetings we were right here in this room and uh if you recall in the old days we had a cart like a rusty cart that would be put right in the middle here and we had to be connected to that and the cart was not working in the middle of a presentation and Gabby jumped up and she's trying to make the cart work so that we can continue the meeting because we didn't have that little panel that controlled it all we didn't have the camera in the ceiling that controlled it all and um Gabby was struggling and I got up and helped and we finally got the meeting back on track but when we think about our kids did not have devices we were just starting smartboards in the classrooms we've come a
024long way in technology there's still a long way to go because the technology advancements are much faster than we are but the fact that we've continued we're in our second five-year plan after the very first five-year plan and we're continuing to make those improvements the transition from the Ry School of Leadership to the Academy at Ry High School from a program that in its last year was supporting one student from the Ry City School District to a program that now supports about 40 students from the Ry City Schools joe D javanni stepping up and and doing a um pilot of the universal screener the NWA during the very beginning of coh no less and that has actually enabled us and been the building block for so much of the literacy work across K to8 the
025mental health supports that exist across all the schools from the SEAL committee to the DBT work um to the WJCS partnership up have been incredibly powerful and helpful for our community the review of the high school and middle school uh athletics offerings and club offerings the addition of new sports and clubs that appeal to more kids across a range of areas and that we are not just an athletics place anymore we have places for our kids in the arts if they want to be in clubs for our kids that wish to take newer courses and newer opportunities in music and theater and coding and robotics we we can't get enough spots in robotics clubs for our kids the establishment of a capital reserve fund which the the board committed to back in 2019 to be
026better prepared in the future for those capital needs as they come and the the incredible offerings of meaningful quality professional development not just for our teachers but for all of our staff the training that our custodians get now the training that our clerical staff and we did it all with strong fiscal stewardship and in a sustainable model so it continues going forward so there are so many people that have made this possible and it it's I'm just so incredibly proud and I had a chance to spend some time with the clerical staff and the custodians this afternoon and you know when I looked at all of those faces and their commitment to our schools and their commitment to our children and I think about our administrators and our leaders who have done so much of
027this work because it's not just us up at the there's so many more people behind the scenes that make it possible for all of it to happen and I it's just something to to think about as we move forward and something that I'm particularly proud of and I know will continue because I've said this many times before um you know there are people like me in this business that we love like ripping things up we love identifying problems we love building foundations and we love figuring out where you need to go and then there are people like your next superintendent who could take you to levels that I think are going to be extraordinary in this community and and I'm so proud of the board for sticking to that northstar and making the decision to
028take Rye to the next level and I I thank you for that opportunity to be here these past eight years and as we look ahead I'm thinking and I know that Dr murray will have a lot more to say about these going forward but just a short list of the things that are coming the implementation of IB the implementation of IB is such an exciting thing for this community and for our kids continuing to strengthen communication and community engagement i know that Trisha is committed to empowering our students and giving them a stronger voice and she's already done that but I I can't wait to see what happens next elevating the professional growth and particularly teacher leadership continuing to elevate instruction and opportunities for all of our students and addressing and incorporating AI the list
029is a lot longer but these are big things that as I was reflecting on where we've been these last eight years I know that those are really important areas that you'll be tackling moving forward but again I I want to thank the the board and the boards before you for the opportunity to be here i want to thank my teammates at the table for the opportunity to work with them um you know one of the things that people said is "We'd like you to stay for a while when I got here." And I think we did eight years we got a lot of good work done there's a lot of amazing people in this school district in this community and Rye is a different place in a wonderful way and I I'm so excited for
030where you're going to go next but thank you for this opportunity well thank you or I'm I'm part wondering if you shared that list with us so you could let us know how tired you are and that really you are ready to take a semi-retirement so um the board is going to reserve their comments for a little later but it is truly uh amazing to take that step back and to see all that has been laid and to know that all that will come is the result of a very strong foundation so I will leave it at that for right now and well I would just say on your last point um you know smart move in terms of getting out before we're tempted to replace you with AI that's a good call maybe we
031have right and it might be the board members getting replaced first but you know we'll see all right uh because this is your last board meeting I do not want to uh just kind of run through things so we're going to do it as we normally would and so for the hearing of the public on non-aggenda items we welcome and encourage our community members to address the board at this time please come to the podium state your name address and if you are representing an organization to ensure everyone has the opportunity to speak please limit your remarks to three minutes the board is here to listen the public comment period is not designed to be a discussion so please understand that we may not respond publicly to your comments or questions at this time we
032take your comments seriously and may need more time to process and research an issue we will ensure questions will be addressed by the appropriate staff member or possibly answered at a future board meeting we will not entertain comments regarding individual students or district personnel as these are protected under state and federal privacy laws please know we take personnel concerns very seriously on these matters we would ask you to follow the appropriate administrative channels as a reminder the community may submit written comments at any time to the board by sending those to rcsd boardschools.org seeing no members of the community here for the hearing of the public we will move on to the consent agenda can I please have a motion to approve this evening's consent agenda valerie Lapam seconded by Matt Shibonov let's take a
033look at tonight's consent agenda consent agenda general consent agenda fiscal consent agenda professional appointments consent agenda classified appointments consent agenda pupil personnel services and special education and consent agenda curriculum instruction and assessment seeing no questions can I have a vote to approve this evening's consent agenda all those in favor that is 620 with one absent so on this evening's consent agenda we have approved as board of education the code of conduct um this is an important document for all school community members to review prior to the start of the 2526 school year it is part of our student registration plan and process so please don't just do the old quick clickth through some of us when registering reregistering our students may have done that in the past but not this year because we've got a
034new document that we want everybody to make sure they take a look at we have contract approvals related to the additions at Midland and Osborne related to the capital bond work we look we look forward to an exciting summer of lots of diggers and work and exciting things that will happen for us in September we have the approval of the contract with D rosa Sports Construction for the updating and maintaining of our sports fields this is the commitment of the administration and the board of education to keep facilities in field and our fields in good regular working order we have an approval of a gift from the Ry Middle School PO in the amount of 19,49 what did I9 no 1009 that's what mine says well that's my eyesight that's why I need new glasses
035913 okay yep yep yep $1,956 where did I even get that number from i don't even have the right number 1,9 Sorry 1,956.88 to support the purchase of furniture for five classrooms we also are approving a gift from Jim Hemma did I say that right x EA yes hea Jim Hea in the amount of $25,000 for the maintenance of the track and to support the spring for Ry initiative we also have a number of hires and approvals for summer curriculum work and we also have two approvals this evening that I would like to pull out and recognize that we have Dr cody Bloom who will be joining us as our new high school principal dr dr bloom we are very assistant principal did you see his face okay wait what i'm going to do that
036again dr bloom dr bloom will be joining us now as the high school assistant principal he will be coming up through the ranks as uh we have had a great opportunity to have a few times this year and we're very excited about that moving from social studies where I will tell you uh personally from student experience he's a very effective teacher and so now we are sure you will be a very effective assistant principal so congratulations Dr bloom and we also have Mr aj Thompson here this evening who is now going to be joining us as a fully certified special education and English language arts teacher at the high school we are very excited to have you here Mr thompson mr thompson comes up also through the ranks as he is here now having been
037a Rye High School graduate and again a little personal he is also one of our football coaches so we are very excited to have you AJ joining the family so congratulations we also have approval uh of agreements with various curriculum and instructional leaders which will continue to provide our teacher with high quality relevant professional learning so that was a packed agenda that I messed up twice so you know I told you we're going to giving you the full flavor on your last time here all right so there is no presentation discussion number two but now we move on to information and discussion mrs bole policy Thank you uh so during our last meeting um our last policy meeting as well as our last board meeting uh we did talk about this brand new policy um
038which is called students and personal electronic devices also known as the cell phone bell to bell ban um the the law around this was final finalized just a few weeks ago um and so this is the uh um policy that the uh Rise City School District has created around that law and and one of the things I think that's important to note about the intention of this is that um the overarching purpose is to um provide students with um fewer distractions um less opportunity for negative impact on their mental health and um their well-being so if we if if we think about it from that context um it's a really important uh part of what we're trying to do um by having these devices not used throughout the school day um there are some exceptions
039within the policy as you'll see um those are uh limited to students who have an um IEP or a 504 where having access to the um device throughout the day is part of that plan there's also an exception for students who need it for health care management such as diabetes or um asthma or medications translation services is another exception and then there is an exception for case by case basis for students that are primary caregivers those all will need to uh will be um uh uh given information to parents for anything that they would need to provide as far as documentation around those exceptions um as part of the communications that will be uh sent out um essentially um the devices really in in many ways not much has changed in terms of what we
040have been doing before at the elementary level um which we had lots of discussion actually toward the end of last year about parents were very concerned about um students having access and using smartphones at young ages um but the process or the uh practice has always been that students should not be bringing uh at the K to 5 level any devices to school um students that do bring devices to school those will be and use them will be taken and uh parents will have to pick those up at the middle school level which has been the practice this year as well um students need to have their devices silenced and stored in lockers and again as um if there's a student that is using it throughout the day um those devices will be taken and
041parents will have to come and pick those devices up um at the high school level there is the the I guess the most significant change um the student students will um need to store devices in lockers all students will be provided with a locker um those should be silenced and um again if a student is using them throughout the day they will be taken um and there's a throughout the in the policy there's a a process for a first time when that happens the student can collect it at the end of the day um and after that then a parent will need to come and pick up the device um the the other elements that are important to know are that the any student who's using um the uh devices provided by the school so
042Chromebooks or in some levels at the elementary level there's iPads I believe those are not um part of this policy because they're used for educational purposes similarly in the high school for our BYOD program those devices will also be allowed because they are being used for educational purposes um there will be lots of communication to parents and and students and families about this um and in fact as part of the development of the policy there's been many discussions with faculty administrators um parents and students about the the process around this and what what the law looked like um there will also be communication around how students will be able to or how parents will be able to get in touch with their students if that is necessary throughout the school day those will come from
043the building level administrators prior to the start of school so I think that's the overview does anyone have any questions comments nope matt I guess just one question um I just think about these sort of loopholes or maybe smart watches and you know linking to um you know a device that might be right outside the door so um smart watches are part of the um defined uh group of internet enabled devices so again would have to be stored in a locker throughout the day silenced or probably better off if they're not on at all but though that is that is the what what the process will be i guess another one just around you know sort of think of it as you know a car alarm that just continuously goes off i mean is do
044we have anything around you know ensuring that there's a silence and and perhaps ramifications if you know there's a phone that's ringing or getting constantly pinged and causing a distraction outside may maybe the doors in the schools are I'm not sure that that needs to be in the policy but anything like that would be addressed by the administrators with the families the building level and certainly uh the schools are aware of whose lockers are who so they can certainly the administration can access lockers um and then help secure those silence those devices as needed if that should become a problem but again that that's all kind of in the sausage making at the building so for right smarter minds than ours I will say it's a it was a hefty lift to get it done
045in a short amount of time because we were working under a very tight guideline from the state so I really do appreciate uh the work of the policy committee on making sure that this got pulled together in time not only for us to be in compliance with the August 1st deadline of the state but also to allow us as a district to be able to communicate these changes to families so that September 1st none of this is a surprise and so our students can get acclimated to a new way of behaving our parents can get acclimated in a new way of behaving um lots of changes but change is not always a bad thing so look forward to uh seeing what happens in September yes okay and so Miss Bo what will be the process
046for this policy at this point so we will move it forward to our next board meeting which will happen in July um for a second review um and then post that meeting we will approve it at the very next meeting okay great or adopt it okay wonderful thank you you're welcome all right so now we've reached communications to and from the board so we have board officers board members will state their intentions regarding board officer positions anybody Anybody have any ideas suggestions oh Valerie Lapam I would like to nominate Jane Anderson for board president oh goodness as well as Jennifer Bole for vice president for the following year well thank you Miss Lapam that's very kind of you um uh Miss Bole do you want to go first um sure uh well thank you i
047appreciate the nomination um and uh uh would certainly be um honored to continue to to do as much work as I can to help bring us forward and and work as a team together um around uh uh and with our new leader in place as of July 1st um to continue to do all the great work uh for the school district that we've been doing so thank you i will accept your nomination thank you you've done an amazing job this year so appreciate it i also uh humbly appreciate and and thank you for your nomination um I am um honored and I I use that word in the most genuine sense that it can be uh meant for you to to make that recommendation and that nomination i think the work when you have an
048opportunity to look back you know eight years to see the work that the board has been able to do in supporting the superintendent to truly transform a school district it is amazing and it is very humbling uh the work that we do and the idea that you all um would like to put up with my antics and my you know stumblings and bumblings around in meetings i'm I I truly am honored and um I would be more than happy to accept the nomination and I look forward to all the great work with you all and with Miss Boille and certainly with Dr murray and the team uh next year so we'll see what happens at our July reorg meeting when everybody gets to vote and we'll see if we make it jen fingers crossed thank
049you you've both been wonderful as far as um being on board for this first year you've um really led this group and and showed us you know what it's all about and have taught me so much over the first year and I really appreciate it oh thank you that means a lot uh okay we will now move on to board and committee updates and it looks like policy miss Bole what what else did you guys work on uh we actually didn't do much else because um we now won't meet as a committee again till September so we felt finishing out the year with a brand new another brand new policy we've had several this year um was probably a good way to to pause and then we can pick up whatever might be coming our
050way in September all right I think that sounds fair enough uh now uh it's not on the agenda but I will take the liberty of adding an item to the agenda and that would be an opportunity for the board to recognize Dr burn one more time so uh I would turn to the board at this time for any comments or remarks that any of my board members would like to share matt you look poised and ready to go so I'm going to start with you if that is me looking poised then maybe I should just um No but Dr burn it's been a wonderful year working with you um and again you know as a as a first year of service um on this uh on this great group um I guess I have the
051the benefit of seeing you know those seven years already you know with with so much transition taking place and you know I only been in the community for three years so you know when when I moved to the community it was oh this is just the way it's done and it must have been that's the way it's always been done but you know sp spending time here uh you realize oh this is not the way it always was um and and I think you know ju just the the the guiding north star of of uh the right commitment certainly you know just speaks to how you've you and your team have tried to ensure that all stakeholders ers are you know brought along and in a budget compliant way um that is no easy task
052um uh seeing how many moving parts are required to uh to make a difference um no it's it's been it's wonderful you you will absolutely be missed um I am excited to see where you know your um your path will path will progress but um also know that you'll always have a home here and I know that uh Dr murray will hopefully have uh you on speed dial for you know any questions at any time um but you know very very sad to see you go but greatly greatly appreciate all that you've done for the community i just have um a quick few things um I just wanted to thank you for everything you've done for the district over these past eight years um from the big things to the little things um you've paid
053a lot of attention to what goes on in the Rice City School District and have just left things so much better off um from where they were when you came i'll never forget one of the first times I was introduced to you was at a meeting for um the passing of the bond and at the time I was the Osborne messenger news editor which I did that for quite a few years for some reason still doing it for some reason um at other schools but um I think we had published an issue that day and when you found out who I was you actually said back or repeated something back that had been in that day's issue and I was like it was like a tiny little thing and I can't remember what it was
054but I was just blown away that you had actually like read the issue it had just come out it was very unexpected and so it's very clear that from every little detail you are monitoring what's happening in the school district and um the list you just went over um earlier in your presentation is tremendous and it's just amazing that we've been so lucky to have you here you will be missed um but so excited for whatever the future may bring you um so thank you and good luck in the future yeah I would um you know I want to echo what what Matt said even though I go back a few years more than than him um just the impression of things are under control this is how it's always been done um you know
055and sort of took some time on the board to to realize sort of how quickly you had implemented that so even though you know in my period we had some of our challenging times you know sort of the the period around the the bond and then COVID and the diversity task force and all of those types of things but those were like bumps that came up that were dealt with amazingly but the underlying like core plan of how are we going to reorganize and move forward the list of things that you shown I mean I think was was there so early on and then just a steady execution on that while still managing to get those things done with you know global pandemics and other distractions so um really uh really commend you um you'll
056be missed can dive right back into the field whenever you want to but uh but yeah so don't be a stranger we hope you show up to you know for a community speech sometime uh to keep Jane on her toes and uh welcome whenever you're in Ry i just wanted to say thank you for your leadership over the past few years it's been a pleasure knowing you and working with you starting now it's been three years that I've been able to had the pleasure to work closely with you through the POS and um my first year on the board and you know your presence is second to none and the recognition that you give every staff member in every building um is so wonderful and I think it makes a difference in the way that
057you know our our teachers feel our students feel it makes us feel like a community and everything that you have helped put in place has moved us forward and when you move to Ry and people say I moved to Ry because of the schools so much of that is from what you have done to make the schools this way so thank you okay I'm going to read mine because otherwise I'll go all over the place and nobody wants that right now um so I have had the good fortune to work closely with Eric over the past eight years i was a member of the board that hired him and shortly thereafter a new and somewhat green board officer that he had the opportunity to partner with and to support his work his teaching skills came
058in handy as we both learned on the job at times from the start Eric took the helm with confidence curiosity focus and an unwavering commitment to our students and moving the district forward eric's tenure as superintendent has been active rewarding and challenged with some unexpected events his first priority was to listen to the school community to get to know faculty staff parents and students he used that input to build a vision to anchor our work ideas became goals goals became plans and those plans became the foundation of the district we know today in his first few years Eric led the district through one of the largest capital bond projects ever proposed in Ry he introduced integrated co-eing into our elementary schools he championed the reimagination of our alternative high school program that resulted in the
059academy and he guided the district through the creation of a mission and vision statement the Ry commitment that continues to steer program development and strategic decision-making at all levels all of this and more as we heard a little while ago was done with a laser focus on students so that each child in Ry has the opportunity to grow thrive and pursue their interests and just in case that wasn't enough to manage there was the small matter of navigating a global pandemic creating hybrid instruction and a flood that delayed the opening of school eric met each of these challenges with calm leadership and steady resolve eric thank you for your leadership your dedication and your unwavering belief in what our schools and students can become congratulations on your retirement sort of sort of retirement um and
060your tenure has made a lasting impact on our community so tonight marks another stop in what I have lovingly referred to as the Eric Burn farewell tour way back in October Eric informed the board in the community that after eight years in the Ry City Schools that he would be retiring at the end of the year it is hard to believe that the end is near and in some ways it is even harder to believe that you are only semi-retiring in the eight years that you have been here Eric you have transformed the Ry City School District from a place of five separate schools to a district with one common vision the Ry commitment the creation of the Ry commitment many would say is the legacy you will leave behind but it isn't just the
061words of the commitment that will remain here after you leave but you will leave programs and initiatives that have forever changed the work of the schools reading writing math engineering art music student supports data literally every aspect of the schools have been transformed for the better since your arrival it was not always easy there was cupcake gate 11 votes for the bond co flooding and it certainly wasn't always as fast as some yes me and those darn baby steps would have liked but as it is said it isn't how you start but rather how you finish that matters and you are finishing strong Eric during your time in Ry you have been committed to students always keeping them in the forefront of your mind you have been committed to teachers always providing them with the
062supports and professional learning needed so they could best support our students you have been committed to the Ry community engaging and informing everyone about the work of the district while seeking the community's support to ensure the best possible outcomes for students your commitment just like the Ry commitment is a legacy that will stand the test of time in Ry when you first announced your retirement people would ask you what you plan to do with your free time and you would always mention paddle boarding now even though you aren't really retiring the board got you a gift for you to use when you actually do retire and finally get to enjoy the open waters you can open it at your leisure you don't have to do it right now so as you get ready to paddle
063board I will leave you with an Irish blessing fit for a paddleboarder may the road rise up to meet you may the wind always be at your back may the warm rays of sun fall upon your home and may the land of a friend always be near there's something in the bag there's a sign take it out please and may the land Yeah there was a prompt bad bad decision on my part the big one big you can't miss it yeah what does it say arrive friends are forever friends that's right and please remember Eric once a Garnet always a garnet thank you thank you thank you all very much well we thank you and there will be there are more stocks on our tour so cuz June 30th is his last official day so
064with that being said this is our last official board of education meeting for the 2425 school year not sure how that happened but we will be joining and meeting again on July 10th for our reorganization meeting where we will have Dr trisha Murray as our superintendent of schools so we all look very forward to that and with that I would take a motion to adjourn this evening's meeting sean Cloffer seconded by Matt Shibonoff all those in favor 61 absence good night