It's 7 pm on August 18th, 2025 and I call to order this regular meeting of the Richfield School Board. Attending this evening's board meeting live and in the boardroom are board members Rachel Bankro Gold on my list, Ken Liss, and I'm board chair Eric Harker. We're joined, well, we're not joined by student representatives tonight. Thought we might get so lucky. Also, the We have uh superintendent Stevenski because I forgot who you are and assistant to the superintendent Cassandra F. Other members of the district leadership, one of them, more of them are in attendance and may be participating will be participating throughout this 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. Thank you to all of us joining here live and in the boardroom. We also want to thank those of you who are streaming the meeting or watching it after the fact via YouTube, which Apparently, a couple of those attendees are here in attendance tonight. We appreciate when people bear witness to our meetings and where we conduct the regular necessary official business of the district. Our first item of business this evening is approve the agenda before us as approval of the agenda is a routine business item. I'll briefly pause there any comments or questions related to the agenda. Seeing and hearing none, is anybody prepared to move the agenda as presented? >> I move to approve the agenda as presented. >> I second it. We have a motion by Director Bank and a second by director Liss bring it to a vote. All in favor, please say I. I. I. >> All post, please say nay. The chair votes I. And we have an approved agenda. Tonight is uh the we move to information proposals. Jumping ahead right away. Uh non- action item section of the agenda. This evening we have the opportunity for public comment. Although no one has signed up for public comment, I ask you to remember that we have public comment on the second meeting of each month. Uh the next one will be I wrote it down in the wrong place. Um on September 15th. Um so again, you can see that online as well if you're interested in pres uh speaking and presenting during the public comment section. Now over to Superintendent Yuneski for our superintendent update. >> All right, we have three wonderful items on our agenda today. Um, we will be welcoming the Richfield Spartan Foundation who are sharing scholarships with our students and presenting a check. We'll be introducing our Sheridan High School or Sheridan Elementary principal, uh, Evette Garcia. Um, and we'll have a presentation from director of extended learning and now assistant principal at STEM, uh, Jonathan Hire, talking about our summer programs. Uh with that, I would like to invite our leadership team from the Spartan Foundation. Um President Dave Boy, um the vice president, Mike Sandal, it would appear that he is stepping to the microphone and taking the stage. And it would also appear that um our leadership team member uh Steve Lindren is going to also allow Mr. Sandal to present on behalf of the team. So lucky Mike. >> Oddly enough, >> yes, they did warn me in advance. So Mike grabbed the long straw and gets to present. So pop that button on there that says push. It'll turn green. >> And now you are on the microphone, Mr. Sandal. So before he speaks, I just want to share that Spartan Foundation founded in 1990. >> Uh they have had generous contributions to our schools and to the community. Uh they fund um things for athletics, academics, performing arts and scholarships to our students. um they have been presenting 25 scholarships annually recently and this year due to the generosity of those um connected to the Spartan Foundation increased to 30 scholarships. So we are very proud um and love our partners at the Richfield Spartan Foundation. I don't want to steal all your thunder. I'm seeing if I can make it hard for Mike to go forward with the speech. So I'm going to turn it over to Mike to share some things and then I'll say one or two things. >> Um just one uh item. We have handed the school district $412,000 in scholarships alone >> and we have contributed much more than that on other things that the school system has needed. Uh tonight I'm thankful grateful from the foundation to present this check for $60,000 for scholarships for Richfield High School students. >> Wow. Thank you. >> First on behalf of the board. So be going to All right. It looks like Chair Carter is going to go over and accept the check. I will go with >> as a shorts on. I'm still going to go do this. >> All right. So, while Mr. Sandall shared that it was over $410,000, um what I want to say is that it's been well over a half a million dollars presented and shared and the scholarship money and that $60,000 tonight goes straight to students and this helps them um further their education and we are just so proud um to be partnering up with the Spartan Foundation. So, I'm going to step around also. Yes. >> Thank you so much. [Laughter] >> Hold back check right in front of >> now. Mr. Harass you just like did with Blaine. >> Next year I trick you a big >> check. Ready set. I'd like to see if we get big check in figure out how to do that. >> Thank you so much. >> You guys are ready to bolt out. We truly appreciate it. It's a big thing. >> Yes. So, all of us have great appreciation for the Spartan Foundation um and the generosity of those donors and supporting all of our students. Um our board members have a program from the Spartan Foundation Golf Tournament. Um the annual event, um one of their several fundraisers, but that is their largest fundraiser. It is typically held on the third Monday or fourth Monday in June. um oh and um by our participation in that event um that is one of the significant components to our fundraisers. So we are so appreciative of the community and appreciative of them supporting all of our students. So thank you to the Spartan Foundation. Did you want to >> Yeah, I was just going to follow by saying we love the event. We love to participate. I think I know member of board members participate in the event. Um myself included. Long drive. uh you know it's we're proud about it and we like to participate every year and we thank we're very thankful for this. So anybody who's listening we truly appreciate the Spartan Foundation everything they do. >> And then just for clarification when you said long drive you were suggesting that you hit the ball off the tea a very long way and received a prize or it was a long drive to the event. Mr. Carter >> you both actually >> I think he was just trying to point out on a microphone that uh Mr. Carter had a good day that day and I believe he won a prize which is also some of the excitement of the Spartan Foundation. >> Of course some point out that my age but you take what you can get. >> Anything is wonderful, >> right? >> So thank you for all of our community members who participated. >> Um all right, we are on to item number two and I am excited to welcome up to the microphone um principal of Sheridan Hills, Evette Garcia. We were very excited to bring her on to our team. uh she previously was working as an instructional leader in Hopkins and had been a principal in California. Um and we are excited to have Evette join our team. This group had wanted to say hi and meet her and as we do with all of our principles within August or September, uh our brand new principles come to say hi. So um Iet is here to say hello and just uh greet you all so you can greet her back. Go ahead, Principal Garcia. >> Thank you so much for having me tonight. I am thrilled um for the opportunity to serve as the building leader at Sheridan Hills Elementary School. Each day that I spend at Sheridan Hills, I fall a little bit more in love with the community. It is rich in love and joy and dedication to serving students well. And I hope to earn your respect and um earn the title of principal in not just name, but in spirit. and I'm looking forward to getting to know you all. Um, and additionally, I also want to personally u and publicly thank Superintendent Younan I mean the Richfield Public Schools community for onboarding me in such a intentional and warm and welcoming way. I'm overwhelmed in a good way with all of the um the support and and um just great onboarding that I've been receiving. So, thank you. >> Welcome. >> Welcome. >> And it sounds like I need to um start learning how to play golf. >> Steve needs help in his team. So, >> I need help with my Well, theoretically, I know how to play golf. Um but I don't think that helps. So, >> I know how to drive the cart and bring beers to the players. >> Maybe I can take you in on that job. >> There are many roles. Anybody want to share or say anything? Um >> I I will say she shared with me in advance that she'd been watching some of the board meetings. So right now that we're down from 10 to nine today, right? But it's we appreciate you following along. >> I'll run home and get that number up. >> Thanks. All right. So we are very welcome to ex to um extend our welcome to Principal Garcia. Uh she was an overwhelming selection of every group um that she met with and we are very excited to have her on board. So thank you for being here. Thank you for joining our team and we're looking forward to a great school year at Sheran Hills. >> Same here. Thank you. >> Welcome. >> Okay, we'll give >> all right and now for our more traditional presentation. Um the lucky straw of Jonathan Hire. Right. So Jonathan um just as a reminder, director of extended learning. Jonathan has moved on to assistant principal of STEM Elementary, but he is also maintaining some of the extended learning uh responsibilities and he was our leader for summer school. Um and so Jonathan's going to share about summer programs. So take it away, Mr. Hire. >> Thank you very much. Yeah, excited to be here. Uh good evening everybody. Like I said, I'm excited to be here to share with you about um Next slide, please. uh wi about uh our six summer programs that I get a chance to um to lead and support and uh they've really benefited our Richfield students and families this summer. So glad to be here and excited to share with you again tonight. Um just like we shared earlier the Richfield um mission and vision um Richfield Public Schools inspires and empowers each individual to learn, grow, and excel. And then our summer school or summer programs uh mission and vision around uh connection. So in Richfield summer programs we create opportunities for students to make deep connections with peers and caring adults while meeting students academic, social, emotional needs in a fun, safe, and responsive environment. And we're always working around community equity and excellence. Um I've shared with you all before that um our motto is learning never stops. And it never stops for us as adults. never stops for our students and we're so excited to get a chance to continue working with them in the summer. Um again, it's humbling and and powerful to work in the summer with our students and staff and I always have to take the opportunity to thank um everybody who participated big or small in the summer programs because they just really make it um a success for our students and for our staff. So, I want to uh pause and give a little bit of gratitude to them. Um, our programs are led by amazing and dedicated educators. Uh, a lot of them do, uh, uh, other work during the school year. They take time out of their, um, nights, weekends to get ready for summer programs. Um, and they really make something great for our students um, in the summer. Two things I wanted to highlight uh, just about our leadership team this summer is that about half of the leadership team was new um, and they stepped up in really big ways. Um and we also expanded the program by a week um in most cases either from uh five to six weeks or in some cases from four to five weeks. Um and with that new leadership uh those dedicated leaders um were able to maximize that additional time with the Richfield students. Uh in total we served um 943 students in summer programs this year. Um comparable numbers to last year. Uh there were increases in the number of students that participated in our middle school program, a slight decrease in the number of students in our elementary program, and there was also a slight decrease in the number of students participating in credit recovery. Um in my mind, that's a good thing. We we need less credits recovered in the summer or less students needing to recover credits. And I also want to share some encouraging numbers about credit recovery towards the end of our uh presentation tonight. Uh so now we get to take take a uh closer look at some of of each program. Um here's the demographic information from our elementary program. Uh we served just under 400 students like I mentioned earlier um and had daily attendance of about 80%. And so um our school year outreach teams and our summer outreach teams have been instrumental in helping us continue that high participation um enrollment and attendance uh throughout the last few years. And then at the elementary program, uh again like we mentioned our our mission and vision dedicated to focusing on that connection piece, making sure that our students have a really fun and exciting and positive uh school experience in the summer, but also getting them ready academically for the next school year. Um we target reading, math, um and writing as our academics as well as enrichment opportunities for every kiddo. Um and then continue to work this summer with more uh science of reading uh work um in our curriculum. Continue to grow that piece just as we do during the school year for our students. Um in our elementary program, uh we've also really worked hard to forge and um create partnerships. Uh we've had the Dolores Works partnership. Uh this year they offered robotics, soccer, coding, flag football, music, and dance classes. And then our beacons partner provided that after school um opportunity for our students after school um with some of our students coming in the morning about 8:00 and going home um around 5:00. So there was a full day of opportunities for students um at the elementary level. Um next year we know that I'll be talking about this a little bit later and so Mr. uh Dr. Dr. Yianowski. Uh we'll be working throughout the year to see how we can maintain those levels of um support for our students during next summer as well. Um social emotional and enrichment is a lot of what we do, but it's also academic achievement. And so um just wanted to share with you that most of our students uh did um have growth in both math and reading compared to their incoming summer score and their outgoing summer score. And we know that that's really important so that they're ready um for next year as they go to their um their schools for the fall. Uh next wanted to share with you about our middle school program. Uh serve students um rising sixth grade through rising eighth grade. Uh a bit higher attendance which we're really um excited for. Um and then one of our goals for this um program was to have more teachers from the middle school uh join the staff. And this summer we had all but one of the teachers was actually a middle school teacher. Uh so that was really exciting for the summer program at the middle school this year. Um in addition that teacher who was not from the middle school was from the high school. So all of them are Richfield folks which was really fantastic. Uh connection and social emotional learning. Again a large focus um for the summer program at the middle school. Um the middle school staff continues to build out their curriculum op opportunities for uh the summer and working again um to make sure that we include fluency and comprehension within our reading curriculum for the middle school in the summer. Beacons was our community partner for the middle school summer program as well. They were actually part of um the day and embedded into the enrichment opportunities there. Um, some of the classes were again cooking on a budget, the teen tech center, those pieces were embedded within uh the summer and we were so grateful to have them again this summer working with us. Uh, the next program I wanted to um highlight for you is our ESY program or extended learning uh program that we have for our special education students. Uh, we serve students there from age three to their 22nd birthday. Uh we enjoyed having 129 students um in our ESY program and it just helps them to maintain the skills that they've had uh throughout the school year so that they can maintain those skills in the summer and continue to have that progress um for the next school year. Um those programs were at the STEM school RMS and also at the central site uh this year. Spartan camp uh so Spartan Camp is one of the programs at the high school. votes from in incoming nth graders. Uh we're slowly but surely making progress there. Uh knowing that we had a little bit smaller um eighth grade class moving up this year. I feel pretty good about um the enrollment and the numbers that we had there. Of the 39 students that came on a regular basis, they had almost 80% attendance. So that's moving in the right direction from the years before. Um it again remains one of the goals that we have is to continue to uh increase that enrollment and have more opportunities for eighth graders to learn about the high school before uh they join. Part of the Spartan camp u program is that they get a chance to really meet some of the high school student uh high school staff. They get to see the building, get familiar with it, um get those relationships going with their peers. And then over the last two years, we've started doing um elective preview classes. So they get a chance to try on some of the classes that they might um have here at the high school. And again, uh Beacons was a big part of our enrichment program for the Spartan camp. Uh the next slide just shows some of the pictures of some of those elective preview classes that students got a chance to be a part of. Uh they were really busy during the summer having lots of fun and getting a chance to um just really try on those classes and see what the high school might be like for them. Um art, culinary, cycling um and child development were some of the things that they got to try on during the summer. Uh I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation really excited about our credit recovery um data for this summer. Um, we had a 6.5% decrease in student enrollment, but we had a 49.5% increase in credits recovered. Um, and then on the next slide, um, we had 142 credits earned this summer. Um, those courses are individualized. Students get a chance to, um, have dedicated support by the staff there. Uh, one of the big contributed contributing factors to that is we extended the credit recovery um program by a week. Um, the teachers were the ones that came to us and said, "Hey, if we had another week, we think we can really um make a difference in these credits." And so we worked with um the teachers staff to make sure that we could get an extra week and they were able to get 142 credits recovered during that time. Everything okay? >> Yeah. No, there's just a slight echo. Mary, can you pop in and double check with on a slight echo? >> Okay, [Music] we wanted to hear that twice that there 142 credits for the summer. Um, but super excited about that. Um, and then also wanted to highlight the language enrichment academy. We continue to have success um with our language um enrichment academy. 81 students got a chance to participate this year and um they get a chance to focus on uh English through academic language and STEM and science related um classes and um it's offered at the middle school and the elementary school. And then finally uh last slide just on some of the reflections and future planning. Um to sum things up, uh the sixe credit recovery program was a large success. Uh again, thrilled and excited about that. Um got an opportunity to increase uh the middle school and the elementary school program to five weeks and we didn't see a really significant change in attendance, which we thought we might see, especially over the Fourth of July week. Um Spartan camp attendance increasing. That still is one of our areas where we want to continue to grow. And then we just continue to enjoy success with our robust and diverse programs um especially with the work of our partners Dolores Works and Beacons. Uh for future planning um like I mentioned continue to increase the Spartan camp enrollment and attendance. uh continue to refine our curriculum to meet our student needs and then thinking about creative solutions so that we can keep our partnerships going or programming like the partnerships that we have right now and then continue to build on the success that we're having um in our summer programs. And before we go to questions, we've got one more slide here about some of the partnerships. >> Yep. So, I just wanted to update you on what we're doing in regard to 21st Century. And so, just as a reminder, 21st century grant funds have not been awarded for the future. Those could still happen, but we don't anticipate at this time. So, as you remember, our uh six-year grant had expired. Uh we went for a new grant where we would have been bundling all of our program at STEM. Um but none of that uh that that actually changed in the current executive order from the president. Um and so the next set of funds have not been approved. So without that, we wouldn't be able to have the beacons program or move forward with things. And so we're looking at we do have paid child care. Um and our partners Richfield Fund Club has run sites at Sheridan, at STEM, and at RDLS. They don't have the capacity to expand to Centennial. Uh so we're exploring some solutions. Uh right now what we have done is we have posted for a child care supervisor at Centennial. Um so that we are able to staff things. Um we are then surveying um as we do connect and assess our outreach workers and our team at Centennial is surveying and gathering information in a paid program uh which would then be run by community ed. Um then we would also look at expanding our targeted services um to make sure that our Dreams Academy programming was as full as possible at that site. Um and we'll be offering increased community ed enrichment classes all at Centennial all with the goal of making sure that all of our sites have some afterchool care um for all of our families. Um we can't um long-term necessarily provide um free options like beacons. We would certainly do things on a sliding scale or um different pricing based on the capacity within the community uh because we want to keep things as low as possible for um for our community. And so we just wanted to make sure to update the board on that. So since our last conversation, we have done an initial survey on child care. We have posted for a child care supervisor and we are now surveying really directly and seeing which which family members would need or be willing to sign on to that. So with that, I will pause and see if there are any questions, comments for um Mr. Hire or myself. >> Thank you for the update. No questions, but I just want to say congratulations on your promotion. That's terribly exciting. >> Yes. Thank you very much. >> Well deserved. >> Thank you very much. I'm very very excited. Um just like Iette was saying about Sheridan Hills, humbled and excited to serve um all the families at Richfield STEM School. Yeah, very exciting. >> I got one question. You know, you talk about how 78% of the students showed improvement in math and 60% showed. How do you assess them? >> Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for the question, Ken. We um have a in our curriculum that we use in the summer for our math, there's a pre-EST and a post- test. >> And so that's really targeted to the curriculum that we use during the summer. And so that's what we use for the math portion of it. And then in the um the literacy the reading portion of it, we use one of the fast bridge assessments and we take the spring score that the students had and it varies by grade and by age level. Um, for example, at the, you know, rising first grade, we might take the, um, the nonsense words or the letter sound and then we look at just that one piece after working with students around phonics and phmic awareness. Are the letter sounds better in the summer than necessarily they were in the spring? So, yeah. >> Good. Thanks. >> Yep. I don't have questions. Congrats. >> Thank you. >> Great great progress over the summer. So, some are well spent. >> That's right. Some are well spent. >> Well, I'd be remiss if I didn't say congratulations as well. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Um, and apparently I've got to ask at least some question. Um, I just look at the the numbers. I mean, um, so the the toll the total enrollment in the programs dipped just a hair. Uh, are we really and sorry if I already said it is like as it comes to the numbers again, are we concerned about it or about the dip with the numbers? Uh, I was really happy with the numbers for this this summer. Um, like I said, some of that dip was a little bit in the credit recovery program, which I we hope to be seeing dip even further as students have more credits during the school year and more opportunities for credit recovery during the school year and school day. Um, and then the elementary program, we did dip about 20 students and trying to think about, you know, why that might be. Some things that come to mind is, you know, maybe that longer fiveweek program could be something that deterred some families. Um, what I can say is we had about 450 that we had um pre-registered as they came off the list. We added about 30 that were on the waiting list. So, there is a variance in there as to how many register at the beginning and then how many decide not to come. And then we're poised and ready to add as many as we can from our waiting list. So, nobody off the waiting list was denied. Uh, that said, once we start and we're two to two and a half weeks in, we don't typically have students start at that point because there's only, you know, eight or 10 days left um of the program. >> Okay. Um, we were 142 credits recovered this year. How many in years past? >> Um, let me just get to that slide really quick. >> And you may need to come back in that one. Uh it is slide page 31. There's no number on the slide so I can have to tell you which one. >> Uh eight slide eight. Oh sorry. Um so over the years if you go back up one slide from there um Cassandra there we go. Um >> did it show? I just didn't see it. >> Yeah. >> In my face. Okay. Great. Thank you. Good job on answer the question preemptively. Uh so I guess then kind of to bring it all together. um your comment about not being concerned about the number of credits or or hoping that the number goes down. My question would be is are we tracking overall credits earned per year right to understand right because your comment is based on that number right it's like if we're earning a certain amount per year like I just think of like there we hope the kids aren't missing credits and that would be the deter derming factor of how many were missed as how many need to get recovered right >> yeah I think um as students you know the students get recommended through the counseling department here at the high school um and they recommend and students to come to credit recovery and we capture as many as those as we can to come to the program. Um what I was saying is I hope the the hope is that less and less students need to recover credits. And so while we peaked at 124 students hopefully that needed to recover credits to see that number go down in my mind is a good thing. Um, and at the same time, we're excited that 142 credits of those, you know, 116 students that came were recovered. >> Okay. >> Did this put a lot of the incoming seniors back on track to graduate on time? >> It does help with all of the graduation opportunities for seniors. I don't have the exact numbers right in front of me about who's back on track and who's not, >> but they've got to be a lot more on track than they were. >> Yeah, >> that's a lot of credit. >> So, it's it's more com it feels like it should be easier, but there is some significant complexity to it. And here's the couple of components. I think what we want to look at is the credits earned based on the number of students enrolled in credit recovery. Uh because students have some choice in whether or not they want to participate in credit recovery. So, that's the first thing for us to keep in mind. Um the second thing, yes, we obviously want all of our students to get all of their credits um during the school year, but the other component is there are credits that students will need to graduate and there are credits that they might not need to graduate. Um you need a certain amount of each kind of credits. If a student takes seven classes um per semester um for the entire four years, they will have more credits than they need to graduate. Um and so there are electives some students need to make up and sometimes students could have not passed an elective and not need to make it up. Um and so our biggest thing which the counselors track is how are students going in comparison to what they need to graduate and that is who they push towards credit recovery. Um and then we want to make sure that all of our students in credit recovery are are making up as many of those particular credits as humanly possible. So that's sort of the complexity of all and we we do track that at the high school in REP and in summer school. Um and counselors maintain that and maintain close connection to what students are needing to graduate. >> And I would just add that the the subjects that we focus on during the summer are science, our math, our language arts, and our social studies credits. So those are the ones that are being recovered during the summer. >> Yep. Those are the ones you might need four full years of um or three plus years and you could make up multiple electives at a time um by taking more electives um during a semester or fewer. >> So those are also the ones that are the ones we have analyzed and are the ones that cause people to not necessarily graduate um if they've and those are the ones we really focus on. Any more questions? Then thank you for presenting today. Thank you for having me. Hope you have a great rest of the night. >> So that then commendations brings us to the consent agenda which is 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 their questions or requests before we proceed. hearing and seeing none. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? >> So moved. >> Second. >> We have a motion by director Banks Cup and a second by director Cole. Any discussion? Silence of Golden. All in favor, please say I. >> I. All post we please we say nay. Chair votes I. And we have approved the consent agenda. brings us to old business. There are policies before us this evening for continued review and possible action. The first item is policy 712 credit card usage and administrative guidelines 712.1 our third read. >> All right. So this is the third time we have seen this. There is not significant changes since our last. You'll notice in the first part it is just branding and styling updates. Um and then in the guideline there are some title changes and just a couple of few clarifications. And so we have this for you um again with no significant changes since our last meeting. And we have this for recommended passage tonight. If there's no discussion, sounds like we're ready for a >> I move that we accept credit card usage and its follow on administrative guidelines. >> A second. We have a motion by director listen and a second by director Cole. Any discussion? Guessing since you guys are so quiet, there's probably none. We'll just bring it to a vote. All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> All post, please say nay. Chair votes I. And the policy 712 is approved. Brings us to policy 403, disability non-discrimination. Our second read. >> All right. And this is one of the required policies. Um this is second read. So you saw it at our last meeting. You'll notice um again just um stylistic changes and a title change. So nothing substantially changed but done to update um in alignment with everything else. And this just again re re uh reexplains our commitment to non-discriminatory hiring um and in practices and in terms of accommodations. >> And has this remind me did we send this out for any other groups to review? Um, we have not. This one is basically a word for word coming out of statute, but we certainly could get some if we'd like. >> Okay. >> Statute or MSBA >> or both? >> Um, >> state statute, federal statute, both. >> State. >> Um, I am looking and seeing um US Rehabilitation Act and ADA. Uh, so it's both state and Minnesota human rights act. >> Okay. Yeah, the references are >> any references are all over the place. Any more questions on that? If not, then we will see it again in our next meeting. Brings us to new business. We got a bunch of stuff in front of us. Our fun annual review, policy review. >> All right. Absolutely. So each year the board sees a list of policies and guidelines which are for yearly review. Um the policies around 107 electronic use, 407 leave of absence, 409 mandated reporting, 410 mandated reporting, uh 541 student behavior, 602 school district accountability, 716 public data, and 802 crisis management. Uh the only changes are in the guidelines for 107. Um and those are just um updates in style. Um and then mandated reporting also similarly updates in style. Uh note that in this I want to point out for the board um policy 103 harassment prohibition and 113 bullying prohibition. Uh those are typically in this review but we have pulled those out. Uh those are actually coming out for further review and updates. And so those will come back to the board for three full reads later this fall because there are some updates to forms um and making sure we get additional feedback in that longer process um from our groups. Um and so the ones you see in front of you are those that are just having um no change other than uh just some small small updates >> and 107 actually has a little bit more about social media versus just style change. >> Got Is there any reason why we added that? >> Um, >> oh yes, uh, we did. Yes, we added that language to align it to our professional boundaries policy which was just passed. Uh, just to add that same language and that same clarification. >> Perfect. >> I'm sorry, Eric. Which one did you say? >> Um, 107 had some additions to social media just about like if you're a relative, you can interact more with the students social media presence. So we added Yeah, we added to that policy based on professional boundaries just passed. Thank you for a reminder. >> Any more questions about this packet of policies? If no more questions then that bring us to a motion or questions. >> I move that we accept the policies requiring annual review. >> I'll second. >> We have a motion by director and a second by director Cole. I'm curious since that took so long if we have more questions about this. >> Lots of them. >> This is a The nice thing is with very little redlinining. We approved this a year ago. >> Yeah. >> So it doesn't seem unless there are questions on the red line that we should be able to bring it to a vote. >> All in favor please say I. >> I. All post please say nay. Chair votes I. And we have approved policies requiring annual review. Brings us to my favorite part of the evening, resolutions. Resolutions related to election of school board members and calling the school district general election. Got it. All right. So, you have before you a couple of components of the election that is to come. So, resolution before you is uh required for us to hold an election. And so you have a resolution um to call a school district general election, which would mean that there would be officially a school district election coming on the November 4th, first Tuesday in November. Uh that would be uh up to three new board members um for three-year terms. Uh you will see in your packet a sample ballot. There are three people who have filed for board. We have candidate Eric Carter. Uh we have candidate Kelly Dennis and we have candidate Haley Tommpkins. There are also uh slots on there for writing. Uh but three candidates who have officially filed for office. Um and so it would then be up to this school board to call the general election um and um make that as a resolution. Always love resolutions. Now, there are times where when board members names are in the policy or in the motion at hand, that they abstain. >> So, I don't think you would need to because we're just calling an election, but I don't think you should be the one um making the motion. >> He never is. >> Huh? >> You He never makes the motions as chair. >> That's true. Well, I have never made a motion as chair. The chair almost never >> Yes. I don't believe it's a conflict for you to agree that we're going to have an election since we have an election every two years. >> Okay. I'm just making sure that publicly, right? Right. >> Everything on the up and up. >> Okay. So, because it's resolution, well, because it's a on the board, we need to get a >> we need a motion. >> Thank you. >> We approve that that we approve the resolution uh related to school war. members uh election of school board members and calling the school district general election. >> I will second. >> I'm just going to point out here for a group that is as talkative as we normally are. You guys being really quiet tonight. It's like pulling teeth get to get emotions. Not sure why >> cuz we're waiting for the other guy to do it. >> All three of you. >> We just be polite. >> People are just thoughtful and polite and lovely in every possible way. Super >> motans go. You go. No, you go. >> Okay. So we have a motion by director Cole, a second by Director Banks Cupcho. Any further discussion in this? >> Seeing it's a resolution, we will do call I know the name for this blank and >> you'll pull the board. >> Pull the board. >> Director Banks Cup >> I. >> Director Liss >> I. >> Dr. Cole >> I. >> The chair votes I. And we have a resolution. The resolution relating to election of schoolboard members and calling the school district general election is approved. >> So I want to make just one comment before we move on to the next item of business. So I am excited for the election but I also and we will acknowledge some of this later um as we thank them for their service. I want to acknowledge that um board member not here Tim Palace will be completing his 12th year and will no longer be on our board. Um and uh board member Banks Chup Cupcho will board member Banks Cupcho will be completing her term and will also no longer be on our boards. So while it is exciting uh the new folks come in um it is also sad to see some of our folks leave and so we will acknowledge them for our service as we get close to December at the end of their terms but we have appreciated um their service to the community and we've appreciated having them on the board and this step uh moves in that direction. So, joy and sadness at the same time. >> I hear cupcakes are in our future. >> Cupcakes are in our future or some kind of fun thing of that nature. I >> think I've never been called that before. That wasn't directed towards me. >> I think he was talking about eating >> cupcake. I've been called cupcake my whole life. >> No. Nope. I was actually cupcakes for eating >> in celebration of the end of the terms. >> I was going to say poptarts >> or pop-tarts. I was saying I'll even bring a toast tonight. >> Oh, now we're punchy today. Good to know. Okay, it brings us to approval of credit uh payment credit and mutual release agreement with Metropolitan Transportation Network. >> All right, so um our administration has been working diligently back and forth with uh MTN uh our former uh transportation provider. Um we have an attached agreement that has been reviewed by legal counsel. It is recommended for approval by our attorneys. Um, and so here is where the dispute has gone. And this dispute is over $718,890.32. Um, in our special ed and homeless transportation and partner contract billing from N MTN, um, there was a dispute over the terminology route versus run. And a route is where a bus or a transportation provider leaves and returns to the uh, returns to the home site. So that could be routes that are routed for an entire day. Um, and there were times where we were being built for runs. And so as you can imagine, one bus or one van leaving a site could have three runs, four runs. Um, and so there were times where we were built being built three or four times for runs when it should have been one time for a route. Um, and so this agreement um comes with the refunding of all of those. Um, this won't have a significant impact on the Richfield Public Schools budget. This is funds that are um reimbursed through the state of Minnesota. Um and so this will just help to serve our overall special ed and special ed transportation and our homeless and homeless transportation. Um to make sure that we are not required to overexpend funds in the future. There's a thing called maintenance of effort. Put simply, maintenance of effort means you can't spend fewer dollars next year on special ed than you did this year on special ed. So, an inflated transportation cost um would mean we would have to spend an extra $718,000 next year to maintain our effort. Um and so the advantage of us uh getting these funds in addition to saving everyone money um is to make sure that we don't have to overexpend in the future. And so this agreement um agrees to that um and agrees that uh this will be the end of the conversation between both parties. And as you know uh we are working with our transportation department um and we have joined on with Frontier to provide similar services um into our future. So we have that before you today. It has been reviewed by our finance team. It has been reviewed by our attorney um and it has been negotiated back and forth. Um and we are not planning to do business in the future um due to that dispute >> and double and triple checked for all billing >> absolutely >> clauses. Yep. Exactly. >> As treasurer. I guess I should be in >> All right. Well, I will uh move to approve the payment credit and mutual release agreement with MTN. >> I'll second it. >> We have a motion by director Frank Cupro and a second by director Liss. Any discussion or questions or anything else you'd like to share? >> I got one question. It's an easy one. $718,000. You know, we were talking that it was like a three-year problem we've had, three-year issue we've had with them, but we're only fighting for the last year. Is that's 718,000. >> Um 718,000 is what we are able to recover, which is the last year. Um that's >> Yes, there's dispute over whether or not this was longer than that. Um all of these funds are reimbursed. Um and so in in working with the state and reporting to the state, um they the state has shared with us that this is um this is our contract to handle with them. Um and so the state is not going to step into that space either way. Um and so with the state reimbursing all of the funds, um what I can tell you is this. Um the other transportation providers uh write their contracts with the word run. And so you would not get transportation much less expensive than the higher inflated cost. Um and so your typical other providers are charging for runs, not routes. Um and so we have a set of things we're putting in in terms of long-term cost savings. >> Um but don't feel that we could go back further into the future or into the past. Yeah. >> That's what she told us. >> Yes. >> That we're just going to do this most recent year and correct leave it alone. >> Yep. >> Yeah. Yep. And we did um again after talking to other board members, I did go and consult with the state with the finance and the special education teams and made sure that we were aligned to their practices at the state. >> Thank you. Any more questions or comments? >> No. >> Okay. Bring it to a vote. All we have a sorry, we have a motion by director, second by director Liss. All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> I. >> I. >> Don't we hold this one? >> Uh, we do not. This is not a resolution. >> Okay. >> All post, please say nay. Chairs. I And we have an approved payment credit mutual release agreement with Metropolitan Transportation Network. Brings us to workman's compensation insurance renewal. >> All right. So, our workers comp. Um, so we've been working with our insurance consultant to renew in uh workers comp. Um the overall renewal um results in a projected cost of $465,131. That's a decrease of $12,156 or 2.55%. Um this includes projected payroll increases. Um but then also a decrease in what's called the experience mod, which changes premium rates. And so in studying for the board, since I knew that um I would be presenting this, the experience mod is essentially our history of workers comp. And so if you think about the number of staff members who received workers comp during COVID um since it goes back 5 years that was a much higher number um than we are having now. And so we are seeing significantly decreased costs um in our workers comp. And so we have decreased that causes the decrease in what's called the experience mod. Uh we anticipate those other large years to continue rolling off. And so we ex we anticipate continued flat to down costs for our workers comp in the future as that experience mod for at least a couple of more years clears the co years um and those higher costs for workers comp. And if you're wondering uh those uh because co created scenarios where people with asthma could not come into work, they were receiving workers comp. um or we had a set of folk who might have had health conditions, they were receiving workers comp in that window. Um and so that is not the same anymore. So that's we have before you tonight. >> Questions, comments? >> I move that we renew workers comp. >> Second. >> We have a motion by Dr. Listen, a second by Dr. Cole. Any more discussion? Doesn't look like it. All in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> All post say nay. The chair votes I. And the workers compensation insurance renewal is approved. Next brings us to the superintendent contract for 2026 to 2029. All right. And Mr. Holy >> Steve wants a job. >> I think we all want to stay together. Uh Mr. Holy did the work to put this together. Um, and so this would be, um, as a reminder, my current contract, my fourth, expires at the end of this school year. Um, it is typical then to begin negotiations for that next contract. So, this would be the three years following. Um, and so, um, similar to all areas, uh, looking at a market adjustment with a small 2.22% increase in second and third years. Uh, there is some management team retirement incentive, um, that occurs for those who are 15 years and above the age of 55. Um and so as been our practice um that incentive would be achieved only if I were to fully complete this contract. Um and so it is an incentive for me to remain and remain the entire this year and the three years of the contract. If for some reason I left after one or two years, I would not receive that. Um and that is something given to all of our management team members. Um then um something that happens each three years, there is typically a cap on the sick leave that I could acrew. 201 would be the sick leave of 15 years times the entire amount. Um it won't be that many. Uh but that just increases that number. Um and then there is some ongoing health and dental which prior to the age of 55 had some very complex language. Um and that was very much simplified um through the work of Craig and our insurance folks. And so this ran through the 403b consultant. Uh this ran through the insurance consultant and then this also ran through the attorney for the district. And so Craig prepared that um with his recommendation. So we had that before you tonight. Um I suppose I should add we had several meetings, Eric and Kirk and I um to negotiate uh they did uh request a full pull of market data um and walk through that which Chair Carter can certainly share if he chooses to with the board um to make sure that this was aligned to overall expectations. Um the one I'll jump I guess with the first question if there's any other questions. Um we had talked about retire this number two retirement incentive versus like a longevity. >> Uh yes. So retirement incentive is the language used in other contracts. Um there is the ability to utilize funds related to retirement. Um and so Mr. Holy had some concerns or questions about changing that and in consulting retirement as the term. >> Um what happens is you are able to technically retire from Richfield in each of our contracts at certain ages that might not be typical retirement. >> Okay. >> Um and so it is used in that terminology um because we do have staff members who are able to retire from Mitchfield theoretically work elsewhere um but they're used as that language um in each of our contracts. And so he felt like that was important language to maintain. >> Okay. >> It's early retirement, right? >> U if you if you left before that time. Yes. Yes. >> Uh if you left before that time, but if you stayed so so that's um if you stayed till whatever age it is or whatever time it is, it's still >> from the district's perspective, it's considered retirement. even though the person to your point may go on to take another job. >> Correct. >> Okay. So, it sounds like um when Craig's back then, I'd like some followup on that to understand more because for me, I think language consistency and it's like I would push for why not call it longevity awards throughout all of our contracts just to be consistent. If his concern was is we want to be consistent, great. Then my push would be is if it's truly longevity, not retirement, why not call it such and we can pick it up later? >> Yeah. So according to the insurance consultant, there is the capacity for and in contracts retirement health benefits um that are in the contract, not longevity health benefits. >> Um got it. >> And so that's where retirement begins to be used. Each of the retirement components are after the age of 55 >> um which is connected to to some of those benefit components, but I'm sure yeah, you could certainly have that conversation with Mr. Holy. Okay, more questions. Like Steve said, we dug into information of other districts to make sure. For me, I look at this as the same thing as like just like we do for any other of the um agreements and reviews, right? It's like so we said get look at the surrounding districts, compare the numbers, and then let's go ahead and make decisions from there. And that's really what we talked through. And it's um same approach doing that, by the way. >> Yeah. >> Enjoy being the chair. underpay or overpay this guy. Just kidding. No, Steve, you do a phenomenal job. >> Thank you. And I'm As long as this passes, I'm very Well, I'm very excited and as I shared Yeah, I'm just kidding. >> I'm sorry. Say that into my good ear. >> Well, you do have to vote, right? Um I'm very excited and wanting to continue here as you and I had talked about offline. Um, my hope is, you know, it was interesting when I started as the superintendent here. I was 43 years old, just about to turn 44 in August. Uh, this year I'm turning 55 in August. And >> I had been told when I started in Richfield public schools that every superintendent who has ever worked here has retired from Richfield Public Schools. And at 43, I kind of chuckled and I was thinking, okay. Um, not sure that's how this plays out. Um, >> you have tried to escape us, FYI, in case you forgot. >> I applied for one job in 12 years. Um, and I, if I could turn back time, I think that's a song. Um, I would, um, I learned some valuable things from going through that process. And I can share I don't anticipate anything like that happening again. Um, I didn't do that because I wanted to ever leave Richfield. Um, I had thought in my head, having come from a very large district. I was a St. Paul public schools principal and assistant principal before being here. I had it in my head that I wanted to be a big district superintendent. Um, and after looking at it up close and doing a lot of reflection and reflection with my family, um, I, you know, it it is a take on a line from an old movie, but why would I ever want to leave Richfield? It's the perfect place. >> Oh, stop. I'm gonna get all weepy. And and so uh my hope uh my hope is to continue on um I plan on continuing on and absolutely through this contract and either retiring at the end of this one or continuing on further. Um but I plan on on completing my career in Richfield and keeping that keeping that component going that every Richfield superintendent from here is retired. So >> retiring from Richfield. Oh, >> that could be the name of our strategic plan, Richfield Retirement. Well, once you signed the contract, you're responsible for the cupcakes. >> I will be responsible for the cupcakes once that is completed. Sure. >> My face better be on some of them. >> Okay. >> All right. As >> taking notes. Cupcakes. Uh laser printing of Banks Cupch. >> Guys are out of control. So with that, does anybody interested in >> Yes. I approve like I Excuse me. I move that we approve the superintendent contract from 2026 to 2029 and that we keep Dr. Steve Unowski >> till till retirement >> I >> and beyond. >> She's hoping for one after that. >> I mean I may not be here but he should be. >> I'm still young >> into infinity. I was going to say okay. Uh any more discussion, questions, comments? >> No, I moved. Who's going to second this? >> She did already. >> She did it already. Oh, I'm sorry. I missed it. >> I'm out. We're ready to roll. >> So excited. >> We have a motion. >> Light your moment. >> We have a motion by Director Banks Cup and a second by Director Cole. All in favor, please say I. I. >> I. >> All post, please say nay. The chair votes I. And we have an approved superintendent contract for years 2026 to 2029. >> Congratulations, Steve. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you, Steve, for staying with us. >> Thank you. Thank you for keeping me. >> Last on our agenda, we have donations. >> All right. So, it's recommended the board accept the following donations with gratitude. The RPS athletics department received a donation of $5,000 for the following uh for the following teams from the Mortonson Family Foundation, $500 for the RHS track and field team, $2,000 for the RHS boys basketball team, $2,000 for the RHS synchronized swimming team, and $500 for the RHS girls swim team. Richfield Public Schools uh re actually so thank you to the Mortonson Family Foundation. Richfield Public Schools received donations of $2,500 from Richfield Baseball Inc. and $2,500 from the Richfield Dugout Club for maintenance of the baseball field. So thank you to BA Richfield Baseball Inc. And thank you for the Richfield Dugout Club. Earlier tonight, the Richfield High School Scholarship Fund received a donation of $60,000 which will go on to our students from the Richfield Spartan Foundation. So, thank you to the Spartan Foundation. And then Sheran Hills Elementary School received a donation of school supplies valued at $1,000 from Elizabeth Spletzer of Edina. So, thank you, Elizabeth Spletzer. >> That's really nice. >> That is an awesome amount of donations tonight. >> That is You know what? I would really love to move that we um appreciate these donations with a tremendous amount of gratitude. >> That's tremendous. overwhelming amount of gratitude. >> We have a motion to accept these donations with a tremendous amount of gratitude by Director Banks Kept and a second by Director Cole. All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> All post, please say nay. Chair votes I. And we will accept these donations with a tremendous amount of gratitude >> and overwhelming amount. >> You're adding extra words to that. I can't remember them all. All the adjectives. >> I like to be accurately quoted. We are very grateful and we we just we joke but we our hearts are open and wide and we're thankful for it. >> Exactly. >> Uh next we move to advanced planning. The first item on the agenda is legislative update. >> Um the only thing we have because it's a little quiet at the moment is AMSD is beginning to gather information on their platform for this year. Um and so they will do that work. Just a reminder it is not a budget year. It is more a policy year. Um and so uh we will be doing that work ourselves as we come to late fall. Um as we also have that study session typically in January, Februaryish with our legislators, probably February this year. Information and question from the board. Suggested future agenda items. >> Karaoke. >> I'm just going to move on to the next one with future meeting dates. Um the next two board meetings, our next one actually is exciting is Tuesday, Tuesday, September 2nd, first day of school. And this second one is this is uh back to Monday, September 15th. What you got? You see what I said? >> I just going to remind so we do have connect and assess in our elementary. So that's the first day of school secondary. Um and then our elementary students and prek start showing up on the 3rd. And so we get everything tight with the secondary on day one. uh and then roll in with our elementary and younger folk on uh the 3. >> Awesome. And then there is on the n on the 15th is uh public comment as well. So keep that in mind if anybody's interested. Uh well normally we adjourn at this point but tonight we have a closed session because we love them so much as allowed for by Minnesota State Statute 13 DO3 for labor negotiations. Anybody want to make a motion? >> So moved. >> Seconded. We have a motion by Director Cole, second by Director Liss. All in favor, please say I. >> I. Post we say nay. Chair votes I. And we will be moving to close session. After brief recess, the board will begin a close session in a private room. We will return to the 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 following the live stream, this will be the end of the session. Thank you. Love