Check November 10th, Tuesday, November 10th, 2025. And I call to order this regular meeting of the Richfield School Board. Attending this meeting's board meeting live into the boardroom are board members Rachel Banks, Cupo, Paula Cole, Ken Liss, Tim Pollus, Kirk Spencer, and I'm board chair, whoever I am, Eric Carter. We're joined tonight by a student representative Tenia Breenidge. Also at the table we have superintendent Steveowski and superintendent's assistant is out ill this evening. It sounds like other members of the district leadership team are in attendance and may be participating may be participating throughout the meeting as well. Bridgefield Public Schools mission is to inspire and empower each individual to learn, grow, and excel. And we aim to keep that focus at the heart of our discussions this evening. Thanks to all those joining here live and in the boardroom as we bear thanks to those of the streaming the meeting or watching it after the fact via YouTube. We appreciate when people bear witness to our meetings where we conduct the necessary official business of the district. Our first item of business this evening is to approve the agenda before us as approval of the agenda is routine business item. I will briefly pause and see if there are any comments or questions related to the agenda hearing and seeing none. Is there a motion? >> I move that we approve the agenda as presented. >> I'll second. We have a motion by director Banks Kept and a second by director whoever you are Spencer. I say director list would be the wrong one. Any discussion? We'll bring it to a vote. All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> All post, please say nay. The chair votes I. And we have an approved agenda. So that brings us to the next item on our agenda. It is information proposal. Normally we will have speakers this evening. Tonight we do not have anybody signed up to speak. Um the next opportunity for speaking will be on December 1st. Now it's not a normal comment uh meeting but it's for our truth and taxation meeting. Um so comments directed to that can are open to for sign up. And then our normal public comment night will be on December 15th. Now over to Superintendent Yunowski for the superintendent update. >> All right. And I am frantically trying to take notes on the board meeting at the same time. So I am balancing multiple things and seeing if I can actually chew gum and walk at the same time. It's very challenging. Uh a couple of items. Um it's actually one combined presentation. Um and so I'm excited to bring up our team from the Richfield High School. Please, Principal Collins, um, assistant principles VA and Harris, and activities director Peterson, uh, please step up and share with us, um, your wonderful update about college credit opportunities at Richfield High School and also about um, activities and athletics. Give me one second so I can toggle over to your presentation. >> Chair Carter, members of the board, Dr. Oski, student board rep. We are um grateful be to be here tonight to present on college credit opportunities available to Richfield High School students. Um there are so many opportunities um that we're going to discuss tonight and the data in which our students both access and have success in those opportunities. Um with the diverse school community, uh the diverse opportunities that we have for students to access college level credits um is important to us. And so we wanted to capture um the full picture of that for you um in tonight's presentation. Um this first one is just um sort of an overview of um the opportunities that are available at Ridgefield High School. Concurrent enrollment or dual credit opportunities are college courses taught during high school. Those first two college in the schools which um tonight you will hear us saying CIS that is what it means. um and post-secary enrollment options. And we will use PSO a lot in this presentation. So, we wanted to make sure you had what both of those mean. Um those two opportunities result in a student um getting both a college transcript and a high school transcript with those single courses. We also offer advanced placement which is an exambased college credit um class taken during high school with that sort of high stakes exam at the end. and the score will result potentially result in credits at Minnesota colleges and un well actually nationally. Um and then we have the language proficiency credit through the um Minnesota seal of biiteracy program which we will dive into tonight as well. Um, I am not going to read through all of these, but I do want to elevate. One of the single biggest benefits for students being able to access uh college level credits is just um the tuition costs that are safe for families. When Dr. Vala shares a little bit of the data, we're going to give you a small sample of a tuition saving cost over the past three years just for our college and the school's credits for courses available right here um in Richfield High School. Um the other one is just the um I think the variety of opportunities have we have classes that occur right here on our campus in a very supportive way five days a week traditional high school credit um that help students um in a traditional schedule with time management and accessing that level of rigor all the way up to PSO where students are on college campus and have um an adjustment both to their schedule time management um and what that means means to be in a different environment. So having that variety of opportunities um align to student readiness matters. Uh we also with being a seal of biiteracy school and giving college credits for students proficiency in language, it shows that we value multi multilingualism and providing a pathway um to potential college credit in that way. So those were some of the um benefits that we really wanted to highlight tonight. uh before we jump into the program description and the data. >> So, uh CIS is a is a partnership with the University of Minnesota. Uh Richfield High School teachers become credentialed and trained teaching specialists um and are supported through ongoing highquality professional development at the University of Minnesota. Our students are enrol uh enrolled in CRS courses earn the grade that they um earn in the course that will go on both their RHS transcript and a transcript from the University of Minnesota. Those credits then become highly transferable to colleges and universities around the country and um have to be accepted by colleges and universities within the state of Minnesota system. Uh CIS is a great opportunity for our students to earn college credits in a familiar setting with teachers that they know. Uh stay in our building for other extracurricular activities and other things that are going on and then provide a a seamless bridge for um entering university. Uh here is a list of uh the uh of most of the CIS courses we offer at Richfield High School. Uh some of these courses are uh acceptance is uh standards are set by the university programs that that we partner with on them and then other accessible to all of our students. Some of those co courses would be college algebra, physics by inquiry and then creative problem solving that that is a is a new course. Um advanced placement courses follow align curriculum set by the college board. Uh courses uh in the AP program culminate with a standardized test uh also created by the college board that students take. Scores of three, four, and five may be awarded credit uh determined by the accepting college where the student is going going to school. Uh AP courses are a great opportunity also a great opportunity for our students. They are widely recognized around uh the country. They're available in many US high schools and a great way to build a academic resume for our students. Uh one of the challenges for the AP is that dependent dependence on that single test score um and uh for potential college credit. And uh here's a list of our available AP courses. >> So we also wanted an opportunity to share with you tonight um our outcome data um the culminating effort of all of the teachers and credentialed instructors that have um offered these courses, our students um access to the courses and their success in courses. Um and it is a snapshot of some of the data that we use regularly to um just assess how we're doing as a school in providing access to students. Number one um and that our demographics in our advanced coursework represents the demographics of our school. Um so um I'm going to go through three different slides related to C CIS and AP. Um, and then if you happen to have additional questions or curiosities, we're happy to dig back into the data. Um, Mr. Spencer asked for some additional information, and that's the um the printed out packets that you see around you. Um, so we'll start out with just um enrollment totals um from the last two years. This is where we start our journey and curiosity around how students are doing both accessing rigorous coursework and then their success in it. Um you'll see in brackets repeated students. These um data points are pulled by course enrollment. So if a student, for example, is taking an AP bio and also a CIS education count course, they're counted in both of those places. So I'll just draw your attention to students taking at least one AP or CIS course. Um that's a measure we look at year-over-year and we are above 50% in that. Um, and then I'll draw your eye down to student success in those courses. So, students earning above a C in their transcripted course at in CIS or um their AP score being above a three. Those are measures that we want to see um as far as student success in those courses. And then you'll see the last line um CIS AP credits earned. That's the earning potential for students. On the next slide is our um again digging deeper into that the idea of access and success. Um we we certainly want to see our students of color succeeding in the courses. So that's this is this slide um comparing CIS and AP scores taken by students of color and then again those their success in those courses. Um we just pulled data for the last two years for you here um to show those two comparisons, both CIS and AP. Um, and then the last slide of data, um, we really wanted to unpack both, yes, students of color as a group, but then ensuring that our demographic representation also, um, represents the students attending Richfield High School. Um, you'll see a little bit of, um, I'll explain some of these numbers that don't equal up. Um because this because CIS totals and AP totals use federal designation for ethnicity and RHS um students can designate themselves uh better in my opinion [laughter] or more accurately by choosing two or more races. So what happens um when a student were to choose two or more races for their race ethnicity, the federal designation chooses the first whatever they select first. So that's why you'll see the little discrepancy here um between students selecting for us two or more races and then that's um us reporting to the CIS and college board whatever their first design designation is. um post-secary enrollment options or PSO is um the next one that we want to review and that is a program that really eligible high school students starting their sophomore year can take college courses at a post-secary institution. One of the things um that has been um um really lovely about more recently is the number of online options that are happening at PSO. those students. Um, one of the barriers has been travel or transportation to a college campus for many of our students. And so, um, the online option has really opened up the opportunity to take college level courses um, for our students. Um, there are eligibility and requirements. It does require an application process in working um, through registration at the university level or college level and then reviewing that with their um, high school counselor. um and some of the limitations are um limited by space and availability at the university. So we really start um talking with students about that option very early in January to make sure that that um there are no barriers to when students select to do that. They have um more opportunity open to them um should they choose that as an option. some of our PSO enrollment um um data is in front of you. We have both the part-time post-secary enrollment options and the full-time there. Um Mr. Spencer asked for it by grade level. That's also in the packet in front of you for 10, 11, and 12 at Richfield High School. Um you can see our over the past two years both our part-time and our full-time post-secary enrollment options have increased for a total of 59 um in 2324 to um 71 this year or this last year sorry and then um as Dr. Vala explained in the last one, it's really important that we look at the demographic groups um on the next slide and their access to um this college credit opportunity. So that is available on this slide both as a total representation of their the demographic group in at Richfield High School and then how that is represented as a part-time or full-time uh PSO student. The um another way students can earn college credit is through the seal of biiteracy. Um students in world languages um students learning English um but have a language spoken in their home other than English um and students that are in our DLI program all um converge um for college credit using the seal of biiteracy. Um so that is that's a test administered um students have to show proficiency in the four language domains listening reading speaking and writing. We partner with Dr. Quesa will height um on this effort. Um you will see information for RHS specifically but we also do have students that are at REP um who are earning seals of biiteracy. So the first um first college credit opportunity um the seal of biiteracy is staged in three stages. There's two semesters of college credit, three semesters and then four semesters that a student earning earning a seal um is able to request from their enrolling institution. So, equivalent to two semesters of college credit, we wanted to be transparent in how each school might award a level one Spanish class two or three or four credits. Um, so we're just going to share with you this information um the way the um state of Minnesota awards credits. So, for world cert world certificate status, there we go. Um students can request two semesters of college credit credit and these are the last three years both the languages that students have earned proficiency in and the number of awards given. The next slide um goes to the gold seal equivalent to three semesters of college credit in the Minscu system. Um and in it happens to be all in Spanish as languages um in the last three years. And then platinum seal is four semesters and you can see the languages both languages spoken and number of awards for the last three years. And then um that is just giving us a potential credit um semester credit potential that students can request upon enrolling into their university um of um almost 200 that we're really proud of from last year. We have two two um groups of testers um taking their stamp test right now um as multilingual learners and all students thus far have earned awards. Um the last one we want to talk about is um not an automatic um um college credit but we have through our career and technical ed or CTE courses entered 15 articulation agreements. This is a very unique opportunity um mostly in the trades where our CTE courses um in at the high school have um what the CTE community kind of calls a handshake agreement. Um our CTE teachers are attend articulation meetings and through a process where they work with universities or I'm sorry colleges that have CTE majors um trade majors, they review the high school transcript and they can enter an articulation agreement. And for any student in that course during high school um if they get a B or higher, which is considered a college level proficiency and register through a website while in high school, should they go to that university where we have an articulation agreement, they can then request credit be awarded for the work that they did in high school. So, it is not an automatic college transcript, but it's a lovely opportunity, particularly in the trades, for students to have college credit um earning potential. um 15 articulation agreements is an amazing um number of articulation agreements and our CTE department is working really hard to um both make that more well known at the high school level and create a process um by which all students in those courses register for that opportunity should they have an A or B in high school and um have that potential to know where that articulated agreement is should they choose that major. Um, we're going to transition um here in a minute, but prior to transitioning, I just want to take a minute to communicate that accessibility to college level rigor and college level credits is really important um for us. We are working in diversifying our program for all students. We're working to diversify course opportunities through student voice. One of the things that we've heard loud and clear um in the six years I've been principal here is what other um CIS opportunities might there be? And so one of the things that we're working hard on in partnership with the University of Minnesota is continuing to look for opportunities to bring those courses into the high school. One of the new ones we have this year is creative problem solving. Students asked us, we have plenty of math, plenty of science, plenty of social studies, um advanced level classes in college. um opportunities. We don't have a lot of elective opportunities that aren't content specific. So, we continue to explore opportunities to diversify CIS. We also um doing the articulation agreement for the trades looking at seal of biiteracy. It really shows that we value that all students have um access to college level um rigor and the opportunity for college credits while in high school. Um with that, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Valor to talk a little bit about the um student school board representative event that was recently attended. Um, so I wish Miss Vanessa were here with us this evening to share um our opportunity to attend the MSBA event um and collaborate with other school districts that have student board reps. Um it's the fourth year of this event and each year um the hosts tweak it just a little bit differently to create more connection and collaboration both among the adults and then also among the student schoolboard reps. So we opened the day by just um getting a little bit of education about how school boards govern govern and that relationship um between um management and articulating what might be a goal for schools and districts um and then as a board member how you sit and bridge all of those gaps. Um putting in student achievement for all at the at the center. Um so adults got to collaborate. Um schoolboard members were there, administrators, superintendents and those who support schoolboard reps. Um and then the students got to get together um with representatives across the state um to grapple with challenges that might be happening in their district and to socialize some learning about how to um represent the entire student body as a schoolboard rep. So, this was my contribution to our evening and I will try and do Miss Vanessa's slides some justice. Um, she she um wanted to just highlight that um we shifted between schools that were rural and outstate and also metro schools. Um, so she had an opportunity to to be in breakout um groups with both um who we would consider some of our neighbors and also hear from outstate Minnesota um some districts that were trying school board reps for the very first time um and others that had seated board reps um for a number of years and how each of their processes worked. Um she's you all know her, she's also remarkable at bringing people together. Um, so the minute we sat at the table, she was able to ask curious questions of the people around her and get folks talking before we dived into a workbook and a planned presentation. Um, so she walked away um with some ideas about how to continue to um hold a space for her um classmates and teachers to provide her information um as she sits on the board. And she um She really wanted to share with you that she enjoyed the opportunity to go >> questions. >> Sorry. So, big thank you. Yes. Big thank you to our student rep, Vanessa um and Dr. Bala for representing us at that event. Um do we want to pause right now between our two uh combined presentations or do we want to go through with athletics and It say questions. >> I understand. I'm asking you all. All right. Questions it is for the high school team. Chris anxiously awaits his opportunity. >> I got one question. Well, two actually. How many schools have student reps? >> Um, that's a fantastic question because all of the schools that have them don't necessarily bring them to this particular event. I'm not sure I can answer that confidently. Um but in the room I would say a great estimate would have been around 20 different districts were maybe there um with some level of representation and each thinking about how to either um how to different processes and listen to other folks um for how they um see board reps and how many was the right number. And those were questions we got to share with each other um and then have a a board members different board members perspectives on um students and the difference between elected board members and seated students. So it was a great conversation. >> Cool. My other question is what PSA school is the most attended for us as in Normandale and is there a lot of is any feedback from the students themselves as to which program they like the best or success succeed? The first one, Normandale, I would say, is our most popular, but I would have to pull the data to give you any exact numbers, but Normandale is very accessible by location and entrance. And um I do not know the program. Lots of students take generals to get those out of the way. Um but I am not sure if there's specific program um preference. >> Yeah. Okay. I figured it was probably Normandale. >> Yeah. Sorry. Vast majority are Normandale. Um, and so the experience that we saw was the favorite classes were ones that rate my professors. >> Um, and so I know that our um, uh, counselors know in general know who the good professors are on campus. And so that often they often shepherd students to those classes >> and that helps always. >> Um I had a question about the the um CTE courses. So the 15 articulation agreements, does that mean 15 schools or 15 classes? >> 15 high school classes. Some of them have more than one institution that accept the articulation agreement. And in the link that is available um in the PowerPoint, it goes it dives into the information on the articulation agreement and what schools are available. >> Um and then one of some of the questions that I asked, I really appreciate you guys kind of scrambling to put together the extra data for me. >> Um so the the clarification around potential credits awarded for seal of biiteracy, the state of Minnesota says this is how many essentially classes. >> Yep. and and we're calling those credits here. So really, if you take those and multiply it by more or less four credits, that's 750 credits of foreign language that are >> potential that um students often get. >> Um the other question that I had just for the sake of the board here, I was curious about what started as kind of an experiment 10 years ago um with having all ninth graders take an AP course. I' I've been curious over the years how um that the goal of that was to expose students to an AP course early to encourage them to take an AP course later. And I know my own high school experience there was not a lot of AP courses available and definitely not any as a ninth grader. Um and so giving kids the confidence to do that. So my question was are we seeing that confidence and increase in number from AP? So I just did the quick math. Um, when we started the program, there was 209 high school AP classes taken in 2016. Um, that's steadily risen over the years to anywhere from 270 to 380, 390. Um, and so we are seeing sorry those numbers if you just look at 10th, 11th, and 12th, right? So, are we getting more kids to to come back and take more AP classes in 10th, 11th, and 12th grade? we are seeing those numbers. So I'm happy to see that those numbers rise >> and the data that data is specific to AP only. We did not do the increase in our college in the schools um and PSO opportunities as well that have likely increased after the confidence builder that AP for all and nth grade brings >> and college in the schools. Just to be clear, when we made that decision, which seems eons ago at this point, um it was to not only expose to AP but to sort of break down the barrier of college level classes, um I believe we did see the largest transformation actually in CIS classes. Um we had um we've done multiple presentations where we were having 600 credits earned was the 1617 credit earned and now we are typically averaging 2,000 credits. Um and then the other biggest transformation has been going from 30% students of color to well over 60% students of color. And so when we go to the U of M um we are the school that is engaging a wide range of diverse students in our advanced college classes. So that has had the biggest impact in CIS. >> Yeah. One of the data components that we didn't share out but is um just overwhelming in showing the value of the program from 21 to 24 um Richfield High School students earned 6,12 credits um equaling 3.7 million in U of M tuition. >> Wow. >> That's significant over three years. Um 2324 at 557 a credit students saved $1.2 million. Um, we do not have last year's data yet. The University of Minnesota puts out a CIS value statement that we get sometime in the fall. Um, and so we'll we'll have that data freshened as soon as we receive that from the University of Minnesota as well. >> Thank you. One of the other questions I had was related to that Spanish human geography class. So for our ninth graders, that's Spanish and English, taking it in the Spanish language or English language, but that AP test is only offered in English. And so I've always been curious how those students that have to learn the language and the vocabulary in Spanish for that class, how that translates to the vocabulary needed for the English class. And so that's the third page, I think, that was offered to us. And it looks like it's relatively equivalent between the two. And I think that that's um kudos to the instructor. I know that um Profaka has done a lot of work to um prepare those students toward the end of the year and has learned through the last few years. Um so um kudos to her for the work that she's done to help um those those students out. >> Yeah. The one addition I would make to that that I would point out is notice the significant higher percentage of the Spanish students taking it. Um and so one of the ways uh we want as many students as possible and so we also see a really very significant participation rate in the assessment um of our Spanish speaking students. So well done for the professor and well done for the students. >> Um and then I just had one other question um and maybe this is for you um Superintendent Yunowski. Um the PSO I believe there's a cost to the high school for students to enroll in PSO. Is that or is there a transfer through? >> Yes, we do some funding sharing with the higher ed institution. Um and so not only do we lose the participation of the students on our campus um but we also lose some of the funding um that goes over to to the PSO organization >> a portion. Okay. Thanks for that. That's all I have. Thank you. Perkins money pays for a lot of the CTE stuff, right? >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> And generally when we're talking about funding like that, that is above and beyond. I mean, the the biggest funding component comes from the students in the classroom as part of our overall school funding formula. Um, one of the challenges of our college level classes um can be that we are able to fund our high school at 30 students per class. Um, and the University of Minnesota puts some class size caps that are below that. Um, and so one of the challenges we often go through as we off offer classes is if we're only able to allow 25 students in the class, um, do we offer it? And we typically do with 25. Um, but then if there are eight kids or 10 kids or 12 kids who want it, uh, we have to make some tough decisions at times about what to do with that. Um, and so we try to offer as many classes as we can, but if you average 30 kids in a class and somebody has eight, then somebody should have the equivalent of 52. Um and so there are tough decisions as we look to maximize the supports to our students in classes, maximize our offerings while also being fiscally responsible with the classes we offer. >> Do these um colleges like you I think when I work there I think they did do they limit the classes which PSO students can get into? >> Um I'm going to have to lean on the folks at this table the classes people can get into based on GPA class rank. I'm talking about like if there's five on the list they can they'll accept PsOS for two [clears throat] >> for PSO or for college of the schools >> PSO >> for PSO there is um an application process and um often some GPA and readiness requirements >> um that go with the institution that the students are applying to. Yes. >> Okay. which I just remember when I was teaching low-level anthropology there three class two classes had PSCO kids the other three classes did not so we only allowed them into I mean this was you know 30 years ago um so things have probably hopefully things have changed 25 years ago that's more questions. >> The only other question I had um was uh the question around AP chemistry or advanced sort of chemistry. I know we have honors chemistry right now. >> Um and what the reasoning for not having AP or CIS chemistry? >> So there is no CIS chemistry. There's a list of available CIS courses that the University of Minnesota will support in um preparing teachers for um we have a number of CIS and advanced level courses in science. We have not explored chemistry but maintained honors chemistry. Every year we work with our departments on what courses they want to offer. Um and AP will be one that we will continue to revisit um with the instructors um having to become trained in um teaching that. One of the really nice parts about advanced placement is you students who have a readiness or a skill in chemistry um can take the AP course without taking an AP class. Um but we want to make sure that we um we have teacher readiness to teach at that um level of rigor and desire. We also drive our schedule by student choice. And so as um um students select courses um it's offered based on how they vote and how they register. So we explore every year what our opportunities are to add courses. >> Okay. Thanks. I want to say h having been here when this started the human geography in ninth grade that is so great to see the the effect because there's also a lot of in my head demystifying college is not I mean it is different but you can do hard things and you can and so being able to oh this is what this is and I know there's the prerequisites involved uh uh and so seeing the growth and also the increase of students of color enrolling after that because it's like now they know they can do it and so they want to take the others and see what happens. Uh also want to commend uh the social studies uh team very rigorous CIS courses I uh enjoy some of the readings that I see hanging around my house and they're very u I think they bring a level of excitement in in doing it and so uh also great to see. Thank you so much for your hard work rolling this out, making it a reality. I do have a couple questions. Um we talked about credits. um how are we helping the students with the transfer process or making sure that they're able to take those credits and bringing them to whatever school they decide to go to? >> Um so with the um college and career center that we have and our counseling redesign having a grade level counselor there is a lot of work in the individual level reviewing the high school transcript um and the college transcript. We also have our college do our counselors doing a pushin um model where they push in and do lessons across um senior classrooms on the college application process and if you have a college transcript what the process is and sharing that through both the application process and postacceptance process. So, it's really done um um comprehensively through teaching everybody and then at the individual level through our senior counselor and our career and college counselor. >> Okay. Uh we talked about the different you said instate and outstate districts were involved in that MSBA get together. Um what other districts did we sit with? >> Uh we were with story time. Um we are also with folks from um Hibbing and um Houston I think is >> Yeah. >> Um so getting to experience um different ways um that board members connect with students and um different ways that they were welcomed to the board um was a really interesting experience. >> That's very cool. Uh, and then maybe this is a question for Steve. I'll put you on the spot. So, the additional questions, were they published with the packet or published online? >> Uh, they were not. They were added. So, one of the things, uh, we asked board members, if you have a significant number of questions that might take some research, please send those in advance. I want to commend commend board member Spencer for sending those on to the high school. Um and so uh the high school worked on that um and put that together um to hand out. We can certainly look at uploading those additional components into the board packet um for future. >> I think they'd be great since we were talking about them and kind of we're waving around here. So be nice to have them electronically online. Any more questions before we move on to the next section? Okay, then >> take it away, Mr. >> All right. athletics and the last time there. Uh so uh 2023, 2024, and 2025 for our spring sports. So we haven't uh didn't have an opportunity to do this last time that we were here. Um so you can kind of see the trajectory of our spring sports um over the last three years. uh everything from golf to baseball and uh our first year boys volleyball team. Uh so some nice information and data for you there. The the next slide again because you maybe have heard this or or had this come up in [clears throat] previous board [cough] meetings. Um some of our spring sports highlights. So these are really uh state qualifiers and award winners. Uh I I did throw in the boys volleyball playoff reverse sweep victory in there. Uh so it was the one kind of team thing. Uh but but we had a number of state qualifiers in boys and girls track and field uh last spring. Synchronized swimming uh and our adapted bowling team uh did quite well as well. And then our Athena and Tom Spooner award winners are listed at the bottom, but didn't have a chance to celebrate those last time. So I wanted to bring those to your attention. Uh and then uh fall. So we do have fall 2025 numbers here. So going back again 23 24 25 for our fall sports participation again uh girls tennis to girls swimming and diving uh which I I didn't get a chance to include it because the event hadn't occurred yet but we we had some girls qualify for the state uh swim meet that'll be on Friday and Saturday. So I want to congratulate them uh on that achievement. Again that was last Saturday that they qualified. didn't have a chance to get it into the board packet ahead of time. U so our our fall season is is wrapping up uh with the girls swimming and dive team at the end of the week. Uh and our winter sports are just getting started. Uh so that's kind of our our next slide is kind of looking ahead. Uh so we have start dates. We kind of have staggered start dates for a number of our winter sports teams and and that's on the left and then uh kind of getting it out there uh for our spring sports seasons and and when those start dates occur uh typically in March. Uh so we're really excited for the for the rest of the school year. Our winter season is upon us. Uh it's it's a long kind of dark season with uh you know coming to work in dark and going home in the dark. But we're really excited for for what our Spartans are hopefully going to be able to to do out on the field in the court uh and in the pool and then uh getting for warmer weather in the spring season and getting back outside and enjoying some of those uh spring sports and a chance to be out in community um in an outdoor atmosphere. And then the last one, uh we do have a new uh ticketing system that will work in addition to our cash ticketing. Uh so Goofan is a company that does uh works with a number of our conference schools and we have partnered with them to have a way for people to purchase tickets and or purchase tickets electronically at the door. uh we really didn't have a an at the door uh online payment system and more and more of our conference and section schools were going to cashless payments and so we were encountering actually more visiting fans who were coming to our venues who didn't have cash. Uh, and so we were we kind of troubleshooted a couple things that weren't as successful, but we feel like this will be a wonderful opportunity for those who want the convenience of mobile payments to be able to have a mobile payment option. Again, cash is still going to be an option at all of our at at all of our events. Um, I can't guarantee that when we go to other schools and or uh section events. um those have a tendency to be cashless events as well. So, it's it's a new it's a new opportunity for people. Definitely a convenience um that goes along with it, but not something that our people need to do. They can still pay cash at the door. So, thank you. I know that was fast, but any questions? >> Thank you. You guys aren't all that quiet here on this one. >> I've got a couple questions, maybe just follow-ups for next time that might be helpful. Sure, unless you know them off the top of your head. One of the goals that we have as a district is just the high percentage of students that engage in extracurricular activities in general. Um, and so I'd love to see, I don't know if it's by graduating class or by percent of students per year that are involved in a sport. So I see in spring there was about 300 student athletes and 322 this fall. So it's a little over a quarter I think of our students that were involved. But I'm curious like when the class of 2026 graduates, what percent of them >> were involved in either an extracurricular that's athletics or maybe even the play or other afterchool activities? Um I'd be curious just to see what that looks like. >> Sure. >> Thank you. Thanks. I nobody else with questions. >> I guess I >> How did you deal with people who didn't have cash when they came to a game? >> Uh, so we we it's not a ticketing system, but we do have um a system that we have here at school called school pay. and we tried to kind of shoehorn that in as a way for people to make electronic payments. It was cumbersome in that there were four or five or six steps that it took to make the payment. Um so we really tried to work with people and help them be patient. Sometimes it got so frustrating we just >> said welcome and enjoy the game. This is frustrating for all of us. Um and then school pay changed or altered they actually increased the steps from like four to eight. Uh and so that really kind of necessitated us to find something else. >> Did you think about Venmo? >> Uh yeah, we we thought of a number of options and tying it into our finance department. So we looked at it from parent advisory [clears throat] group to looking at conference schools, talking to finance, talking to operations and trying to figure out kind of the what would be the best method. Um and Goofan seemed to be the best option. >> I don't think that kids can get them. >> Yeah, they can. My daughter has it. She's had it for a number of years. And keep in mind all of our students get into our home events for free and that that won't change. Uh so it's really away students. Um and so at I was at the section swim meet on Thursday and Saturday and it was 100% cashless because the money was going to the state high school league. Uh and to watch kids buy students buy tickets, they're way fast. Um to to see other people struggle like it It it was really impressive to see students. >> I my daughter I was just texting her. I was like she goes to Bloomington Jefferson and they have GoFan and she said that the kids love it because kids that's their world like they are cashless. They know how to use all of this and they move around to different schools >> and a lot of them have it and so it's it works beautifully for them. >> Yeah, I agree. >> It's us that have to [laughter] adjust. We just live in their world now. >> Yes. Yes. more questions or comments. Uh then I'll go um do we have any idea why there's such a big dip in boys tennis? I mean almost 50%. Um we our our coach does a fair amount of recruiting and what we have seen is that a personal invitation or word of mouth from a peer is the greatest driver in someone participating. Um, and so it's not uncommon, especially in our small sports, to have a a wave of students go through and once they graduate, then it kind of creates a little bit of a of a dip or a downturn in the participation for that sport. Uh, and our, again, like I said, our coach works really hard to invite student athletes. Uh, I've I've seen her when she's substituted in other classes, she works aggressively to, hey, you look like a tennis player. I think you would be good for the team. Um, so, uh, it's it's that it's it's kind of like what Mr. Spencer was saying is like it's those waves of kids that come through that are friends and really close and then once they graduate it kind of we kind of ride we get a little bit of a low in that in that wave. >> Uh, and then the dip in football looks like about 25%. Uh I you know again kind of similar similar thing. Um I have a a couple of of theories. Um one is that some of the suburban attitude of I need to play a single sport is creeping into our community. And that is not what we like to see. That's not what any of our coaches like to see. Um, but we had male athletes in other sports who were choosing to focus on that offseason sport instead of playing baseball. Uh, and or baseball is one of them instead of playing football. Um, so that that that definitely is one. I think football is a difficult sport um in that there's a lot that happens physically uh and with concussions and uh ankles and ACLs and that kind of stuff. And so I I'm not sure that I think people think hard about playing football and whether it's worth it or not. Um but kind of the again we have a a coach and players who had low numbers at the beginning and they dedicated themselves to reaching out and the numbers got better throughout the season. Um our coach does a football camp for youth and there's 60 to 80 kids per grade level in the younger grades that came out for a football camp. Um, additionally, um, our ninth and tth grade groups suffered from not having middle school football when they were in middle school. And so those are our smallest numbers and that I think is another part of it. Um, so I, you know, I think there's multiple factors and it's a lot of things to work through. Um and and we're we're we're putting in the effort to try to get kids out to play football in all of our sports. We want kids to participate. >> Well, and then that's my question in general. I mean, so then it looks like uh girls swimming and diving almost doubled, which So then is that back to your drag my friends with me? >> Uh ve very much. Um and we're we're seeing increased actually increased involvement from our co-op partner Holy Angels. Um, and so there there's just the number of girls that are participating and you can kind of see it transition from girls synchro swimming to the girls swim and dive team. Um, but yeah, by far and away the the biggest helper and getting people out is a friend who asks you to to play or participate. Um, and then as I looked at the slides, um, I didn't see any activities listed for spring or fall. Aren't there any? >> Uh, so there are we have like the we have the spring musical, um, as an activity. Um, but that's not a Minnesota State High School League activity. Um, it, uh, we debated whether to put in like cheerleading. Our fall play hasn't happened yet. that's a couple weeks away. Um, and so yes, there are activities, but we at this time we chose not to include them. >> I guess I would say, and I other board members can speak up on this, but when we talk about it being athletics and activities, for me, saying that we're talking about the spring MSHL, HSL participation, it makes the other one seems less than, right? And so if it's truly athletics and activities, then we should be promoting all of them. So for me, I'd like to see and what does our participation look like across those other activities and show growth ideally, right? Because that's what we want to see >> and and there's no doubt that we're promoting all of our activities and we want students to participate. There's there's absolutely no doubt about that. Um and we'll try to include numbers next time. >> That would be great. Uh and then the last question, this is more I mean this is by committee so that I have more insight, but I want to make sure we're also sharing with the group. Um did and maybe I missed it. Uh as we talked about Goofan, right? There's obviously a cost with it, right? And so did you want to talk about that or >> there there there is a cost to the to the user. So I I would term it a convenience fee. So again, no one has to use Goofan to to enter a game or any of that. Um all of our fans can pay cash. there is a $1 service fee that for the convenience of a mobile payment. Um there is no cost to the district. So like our partnership with Goofan doesn't cost us anything. Uh it does it's that user. uh and the groups that we talked to as far as competitive athletics advisory um the decision was made among that group that the cost should go to the user who's using the convenience of the of the of the service. Um so so yes there's a cost. Um but again our our patrons don't need to use Goofan. They don't you don't have to to enter the to the game. That actually spurred a question of mine. Are we using Goofan for the fall play as well? >> We we are going to try. So, keep in mind we got Goofan about two weeks ago. So, we're learning a lot uh as fast as we can and we will use it for the fall play. >> Great. Any more questions? >> Okay. Thank you, guys. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. brings us to accommodations. >> Accommodations. So, first um connected um to athletics and activities. RPS would like to commend RHS student Sydney Len for qualifying for the girls state cross country championship meet for the second year in a row. So, congratulations to Sney. We are proud of your hard work and representing us at the state. Well done. Uh then, as we always do, uh we are acknowledging employee appreciation days. So, November 3rd through 7th, National School Psychology Week. So, we thank them for their support in the social and emotional well-being of our students. November 13th is National Community Ed Day, and so thank you to our community education professionals uh supporting our partnership among individuals of all ages and backgrounds in our community. And then finally, November 21st is substitute educators day. And so, our subs play an essential role keeping our team on track when staff are absent. We thank our subs. Thank you to all. >> Thank you, sir. Next brings us to our consent agenda. The next item is uh which is contains a collection or of routine or fairly routine business items that we consent to pass in bulk without individual discussion. I'll pause for a moment to see if there any questions or requests before we proceed. Hearing and seeing none, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So moved. >> I'll second. We have a motion by director Ben Scupo and a second by director Paulus. Any discussion? Averted eyes. Sounds like we're good to go. All in favor, please say I. I. >> All post, we say nay. The chair votes I. And we have an approved consent agenda. Brings us right along to old business. First item is policy 2011, legal status of school board. Third read. >> All right. And so we are recommending policy 201 legal status of the school board. Uh third read. uh changes are mostly in regard to district branding and style guidelines. Um and so you can see um realistically we are just changing some of those um titles um some of the branding and nothing that would be significant since our last meeting. So we have this up in front of you for recommended passage tonight. >> Seems straightforward. Would anybody would like to >> I'll move the policy as presented. >> I'll second it. >> I think that was the closest I've ever seen. >> Uh but exciting. >> I had that as Cole. >> But you know what? >> It's going to go the other way just cuz I know you're the one but I'm just just giving you my share. >> I actually agree because so we have a motion by director Paul and a second by director Cole because Director Liss was already on the board. So we got to spread the wealth around. Any discussion? Bring it to a vote. All in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> All post say nay. Chair votes I. And policy 2011, legal status of the school board is approved. Brings us to policy 106. Students and employees with communicable and infectious disease. >> Yes. So we are again on a third read and so this puts measures into place uh to control the exposure to possible communicable infectious diseases in RPS while also making sure to promote and support the rights of those individuals. And so we have this for a third read. Again, no substantial changes since our last read. Uh it did get uh reviewed by our health services department and there are no substantive changes uh recommended by them. As I scroll through, you will notice that most are just in regard to um branding and styling. And so, we have this also in front of you for recommended passage for review tonight. >> I'll move the policy as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion by director Paul and a second by Director Banks Cup. Any discussion? Bring it to vote. All in favor, please say I. I. >> All post, please say nay. Chair votes I. And we have an approved policy 106. Brings us to new business. We have a bunch of fun stuff on our new business list tonight. Our first item is resolution canvasing returns of votes of school district general election. All right. So, in this header, we are asking that the board document and complete the proper procedures for the election that took place on November 4th related to uh Richfield Public School District. And so, you'll start with a total number of the votes passed. There were 1,793 uh votes passed. You have that information in the packet. Uh and then you also will have a full abstract of all of the votes in there. And so you can see uh different areas, different uh numbers in who they voted for. Um and so we are asking you to uh canvas the number uh canvas the votes um for the election. And as I am doing this myself and trying to clarify, it would appear that I am also supposed to us to share uh that in canvasing Haley Tomkins um was elected or on upon this action of canvasing the vote uh 1,418 votes for Haley Tomkins 1,341 votes for Kelly Dennis 1,264 votes for Eric Carter. So this would certify the canvasing of the election for Haley Tommpkins, Cali Dennis, and Eric Carter. >> Well, congratulations to the three the three winners and And I have great respect for the third place role that Mr. Carter has inherited. >> I got that when I ran. >> I'm glad you guys know what it means. >> Putting that on the record, >> right? >> Ken [laughter] knows. >> I appreciate all. >> I've never got third place. >> I've only gotten third place until now. I I may have tied for fourth. >> Yeah. >> With as many as three write in votes. [laughter] >> Thank you to everyone who thought enough to to write my name down. was your family. A couple of those votes keep getting them out of the house. >> No, no, it's I was the only voter in the in the household this time and um >> I did not vote for myself. >> I I I did that when I withdrew from the election. That was my vote for myself this time. >> Nice. >> And as we do discuss this, obviously we will be celebrating the service of Mr. Palace and Miss Banks Cupcho who will no longer be on the school board. Um that will be our new board members will be placed on January 5th, but our veteran board members who will be leaving us, we will celebrate them together on December 15th on their final board meeting. >> Boohoo. >> Boohoohoo is agreed. I I will I will say with great appreciation and to kick off my my my full lame dog status, I will move the resolution as presented with the results as presented. >> I will second as the other board member leaving. >> I'm glad you guys are so happy. We have a motion by director Paulus and a second by director Mike Scupro. Uh any discussion, comments, questions? Funny. >> No, just just the the general comment. Appreciation for the people who stepped forward, which does include you, Mr. Carter, and appreciation for the the folks in the community who came out to vote. >> I agree as the person who got the most votes in the last election. [laughter] >> Hopefully. Hopefully. I just knew it wasn't me. [laughter] Correct. Fantastic. You guys are the best. Any more discussion? Well, since this is my favorite thing being a resolution, we will do this with a roll call vote. And we'll start to my left since I'm looking at director go >> I. >> Director Spencer >> I. >> Director >> I. >> Director Max >> I. >> Director Paulus >> I. >> And the chair votes I. And we have a resolution camping returns of votes for school district general election is approved. It's a lot of motion. brings us now to the resolution authorizing issuance of certificates of election and directing the school district clerk to perform other election related duties including her certification of the election as to the abstract and return of votes cast the certification of election and the acceptance of office and oath of election. So we are certifying uh this election and having MissWam take some actions on behalf of the board to finalize um swear in our newly elected officers. I think all of you have gone through um a similar experience and we are moving that forward. So with that um I have that as a recommendation that you take resolution action and certainly am open for questions if there are any. or if there are no questions, then that would be another motion. >> I'll move the item as presented. >> I'll second it. >> I appreciate you guys. We have a motion by Dr. Paulus and a second by Director Liss. Any discussion? >> Just that if Mr. Pace is going off the board, somebody's going to have to take over the motion status pretty quickly um in January. So just as a reminder to us all >> we have two new members. >> That's fair. >> Creating motions often create motions. >> As I'm taking notes I am noticing how often not only is Mr. Palace in on the motions but in the notes uh formats Mr. Palace was making motions a lot in the last one too. Thank you Mr. Palace for doing it for the team. >> We're letting him have them. >> I know. I really enjoy my voice in limited in one sentence quantities. >> I was going to say it uh capturing while smiling, big grin, smirking, right? It's like >> there is a certain amusement that makes it even better. >> Kanye West got >> I saw that Trump got one too. >> Yep. Okay. Any more discussion about the resolution at hand? If not, bring it to a vote and this time we'll start to the right. Director Paulus. I >> director banks kept >> I >> director >> I >> director Spencer >> I >> director Cole >> I >> and the chair votes I and the resolution authorizing issuance of certificates of election and directing the school district clerk to perform other election related duties is approved. Oh boy you're all on your own for the next one which is the outreach workers collected bargaining agreement. >> I mean I'm sitting in the role of superintendent. I'm sitting in the role of secretary to the board. I'm sitting in the role of HR working hard this evening. So, I am proud and excited to share with you um an agreement that has been voted on and approved by our outreach worker team um and now is in front of the board. Just as a reminder, um outreach workers signed authorization cards um to partner with SEIU as their exclusive bargaining group. Uh we began negotiations um and worked our way through what is often quite complex. It is quite complex to come to a first agreement um with an organized group. Um, so this agreement would cover 24 because they began in the 2425 school year um through to the end of this school year. Meaning that our award for coming to an agreement with them is this spring. We will go back to the negotiating table and begin for that next contract. Um, when you do a first agreement um at this level um often there are additional things um that need to be added and so there are some clarifications that came in around duty days and hours of work. There is clarification around vacation around Junth around postretirement uh health embburment reimbursement account severance pay added in a lot of the components added into this contract are straight out of the language and agreed upon in many of our other units and we try to systematize all of that um because we are already in this year with the agreement um most of the increases went to this year and so there's an increase in steps by $1.90 um in addition an added step three. Uh we do have some retention incentive for those who were working last year um are receiving some additional money uh because they did not receive that raise last year. Uh added some components to longevity and then also similar to some of our other units increased the district contribution for health insurance and also for viva. Um then um with this partnership we added a wide range of language components um partnering with 284 and clarifying that um clarifying dues check off and union components um that were not um part of this group's agreement in the past. uh clarified probation period language. Um aligned their service credit language, added emergency e-learning day language, added seniority, layoff, recall, due process, sick leave language, ESST, discipline, and grievance procedures. And again, all of these components are in a wide range of our contracts. And so this is just bringing this up to speed. Um this does take additional time and took some additional efforts um because it was the first um as this group had organized. And so we are proud and excited to move that forward um and excited to continue on that strong partnership with our outreach workers. So with that, I have it in front of you today for recommended approval. Um or questions questions or a motion? >> Um I just want to thank both the team within the district and from the outreach workers um side. I I I can only imagine how much work it is to do a first contract like this. Um uh having never done that myself. Um reading through the contract, there's a lot to it. Um and so I want to thank both sides for their work on this. Um and with that, I will move that we accept this contract as presented. >> I'll second. And I I second also what you said because this is in place. It'll make further negotiations a lot easier. >> Agreed. Or hopefully agreed >> should make more straightforward. >> Well, it's true. I mean, there there have to be a lot of situations that are unique with the first one, right? We we >> just some some quirks of things when you someone goes from outside of a collectively bargained agreement to inside. It's just some things about legacy and prior performance things like that that are that are challenging to probably to to incorporate. So great appreciation for the people who work through it and and I you know it's one of the things over the years I mean going back to my first year on the board it was we were asked why was the group not organized and that's not a board decision you know it's it's the employees decide if if they would like to be organized and so they have subsequently a number of years later chosen to do so. students. >> I say any more questions or comments are we good? >> If not, we'll bring it to a vote which is not a resolution. So, all in favor, please say I. >> I. >> All post say nay. The chair votes I. And the outreach workers collective bargaining agreement for 2024 through 2026 is approved. brings us to our next item on the agenda is not agenda but next item in new business is policy 116 equity and administrative guideline 116.1. >> All right. And so this one uh affirms our commitment to viewing and analyzing our work through a racial and cultural equity lens. Uh describes our equity related policies um and lays that out in each of our strategic plan area for the district. Uh this actually is part of our Richfield High School social studies classes as they prepare for our mock board meeting on November 21st. Uh students will be giving feedback to a selection of our board members. Not sure who has signed up. I believe we typically well last year we had three at the table hoping we have three in the same. Um and then we will also have um additional students and management team members giving feedback to that guideline uh before we bring it forward. And so just as a reminder of this policy, this is clarifying that we are a safe and supportive school um and that our goal is to ensure that everyone can thrive. Um and that our outcomes are not predictable by race, culture, socioeconomic status, language, gender, sexual orientation, ability, religion, migratory status, or any other real or perceived uh democratic uh demographic characteristics. um clarifying definitions, talking about our racial um commitments um to making sure that we are an anti-racist district um supporting all of our students and supporting all of the beauty that their diversity brings. Um and that's a shared responsibility of everyone within this district. And so we have this information for us for a first read uh to refamiliarize ourselves um and we will have a significant amount of input um as we continue to bring this back to the board um for second and third weeks. So with that I have it in front of you in case there are any questions or input now. Happy to take input as we move along. Um and we will see this a couple more times as will a number of our constituents. questions, comments. >> I'm excited to hear what the students um will share with us next Friday. Um and I'm curious a little bit about um and I don't know um Dr. Yowski if you've got answers on this, but I'm curious how this is um presented in the class and studied in the class because I'm I guess my my question We've got a lot of commitments here and I would I'd love to hear from students examples of where they see us doing well as a district on these commitments and where they see additional work um needs to be done and and there's also shared responsibility from students and parents and community members and um some examples along the lines of you know almost like a report card on how are we doing. >> So I don't have an answer for you. However, um I was taking notes in my other method this evening. And so what I will commit to doing is tomorrow um I will send this on through high school administration to send on to the social studies team. Um so one of the thing the social studies team looks for is questions and how they address it. And so they'll be reviewing this policy. They'll be reading it through. They'll be getting perspectives on it. Um but I will make sure that we are also asking for how would they rate us essentially what what do they see as our strengths and our areas for opportunity for improvement. So that will get passed on to those leading the conversation. >> Did you say that this was going to safe and supportive schools as well? >> Uh it will go to safe and support of schools as well. Yes. >> Great. >> Any other group? >> Um not at this time. Um but we will wait and see how it comes back when it goes to the groups in general. >> More questions or comments? If not, we'll see this one again. And that brings us to our last item in new business is donations. >> All right. So, recommending the board of education accept the following donations with gratitude. Richfield High School Music Department received an anonymous donation for um of $1,250 for band and our MS music department received an anonymous donation of $1,250 for band. So, thank you to our anonymous donor to RHS and RMS music. Uh Richville Middle School received a donation of $300 from Nikki Keen Dolu for the United CH Unified Champions program. Thank you, Nikki. And the RHS Spartan Food Shelf received a donation of $690 from the staff of the city of Richfield. So, thank you to our partners at the city of Richfield. We appreciate your generous donations. Thank you for the donations. Does anybody want to do this? >> I move that we accept these donations with gratitude and more gratitude. >> I'll second. >> We have a motion by director list to accept the donations with gratitude and more gratitude. I'm even typing that in the notes. >> All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> I. >> All post say nay. Chair votes I. And we've accepted the donations with gratitude and more gratitude. Brings us to advanced planning. First item on the agenda or first item in advanced planning is legislative update. >> Uh so it would appear that there could be a change in whether or not the government the federal government is shut down. So, we have not locally seen school-based fiscal impacts yet. Thank you very much. Um, and so that um is one of those components for us to just be aware of that is probably changing. Uh, we are going to begin um looking at our legislative platform and so that will be on the agenda in December as we begin that dialogue. That should carry over to our new members. Um what I would say based on what we know is um similar to last year I know our highest priority would be the compensatory education hold harmless. And so as a reminder compensatory education is the way that the state of Minnesota identifies and funds students in poverty um and schools to support them and their needs. Um the change in free and reduced lunch form methodology um and the resulting free lunch for all um has correlated to a $ 1.9 million drop in compensatory education funding. Uh that was held harmless to us last year that was held harmless to us this year. Um they are currently looking at different models um of funding and uh without a hold harmless we would be looking to lose well over a million dollars to serve our students. Um, and so we will continue to monitor that, but we should anticipate that that will be one of our highest priority legislative platform ideas until there is a long-term fix for that. The rest we will talk about further >> questions, comments, >> I'm sorry, did I say that [snorts] information and questions from the board? Um, I think I'm going to bring one up. So, I don't uh as a board, right, we can't get together at random and talk, right? It's otherwise we can talk individually, but we can't as we start to get to a group, we violate Minnesota public meeting laws if we don't talk. So, in our presentation um about activities, I I don't know if we kind of glossed over it, but I I do I'm still kind of stuck in this whole discussion of the fees and um the impact to our to our to our community, right? I mean, it's I don't know if I like the convenience fee comment and I don't know if we want to have a discussion with the board, if we want to make it an agenda item, if we want to take it offline um or just a quick poll of like if you guys are interested, if this is something that's valuable to talk about, it's a dollar, right? And yet it's still a dollar and it's a dollar. So, if it's a family of four, right? Granted, they're going to have multiple students, but it still could be a couple dollars per family, per game, per event. Um I I don't >> to be fair I wasn't clear if it was a dollar per particular or dollar per transaction. >> Yeah, it sounds like a dollar per transaction. >> Okay. >> But >> so so that that would be better, right? Um I was unclear. I know that it also if you um get your season passed that way, it is a more significant cost. But again, I guess for me, I don't know. Um being a committee, we've gone up and down in participation. As a board member, I've been involved as a community member, I've been involved for a number of years. um it's like me and a couple other people. So, I know that we sent out information for it, but I think this is a bigger impact item, which I don't know if I feel comfortable with such a small group and not addressing it in a larger audience. So, I guess I look to you a little bit. I I raised under information and questions versus a future agenda item. I don't know if we need more information from the activities or if you guys would be interested in that or if you have opinions on it or we come back to it and it's agenda item. >> What do you think? >> Thank you. Um, >> microphone. >> Sorry. I'm honestly not quite sure. Um, I think kind of going over the clarification of if the fee is a per ticket or per transaction and kind of more going over if the fee includes like actually for the service of the website versus of it is a fee from using the website and kind of a a credit card or debit card search charge. like having that to the community and being like, "Okay, this is how much you would pay for the ticket in an addition to the fees and the fee goes towards this." I feel like having it broken down and having that available to the community is a better way to kind of communicate that. >> Got it. Okay. So, couple of clarifications um because I have gathered some info on this. I believe it is a $1 per credit card transaction fee. Um, so as a reminder, all of our students attending our games get in for free. Um, so that would not be to them. Um, if there is cash, um, there is no fee in regard to that. Um, people buying a yearly pass, if they were to do that in cash, there would be no transaction fee to that. So all all the charges go to somebody purchasing typically at the gate um using um a credit card. Um, I don't know the number of tickets that we sell. Um so I don't have that data in front of you in front of me. Uh the options for that um to provide that online opportunity are for either us as a district to take on the charge of a dollar each per transaction um or to charge the consumer who is using that as a um as their method for payment. Um those are the two sort of choices. um if we are providing goofan as a ticketing method and the many of the schools include in the tri metro and many of our colleague schools are using goofan as their model um so that would be some of the background um but I think the biggest and you can certainly correct me if I'm wrong the biggest question then becomes do we just take the charge on ourselves um or do we pass that on to the consumer >> I think if goofan were the only method of payment we were taking then this would be a bigger discussion, but because it's another form of payment, I don't see this as an issue at all. Personally, >> yeah, >> it's a convenience for people to be able to pay electronically. >> I would agree with that. And I've been to um other districts where electronic was the only way that you could get in. Um and then there was a a forced fee on everyone coming in and >> for convenience. >> For Yeah. Not it's no longer convenience. It's no longer convenient when it's the only means. Yeah. >> But some of us, like me, I don't carry cash like ever. >> Right. >> So, if there isn't an electronic way to pay, that's inconvenient for me. >> Yeah. It's interesting you say that because I'm annoyed if they don't accept cash, but I will never use cash. [laughter] I mean, you can you can have the discussion in January if you'd like or or later, [laughter] but but I I agree with the idea that as long as we accept both means um and and tell people, well, you could pay cash and there's no added fee or you pay this and there is a $1 fee, at least people have their eyes open or understand the cost of not carrying cash with them. >> I agree. >> Perfect. that >> I just one other question maybe Eric because I think you've brought this similar up in the past is do we not offer a means for people to get the season pass free and reduced if they if they >> so thank you for the segue because I was just going to say um we did discuss that as part of this the ticketing process um because my question to leadership was can we go ahead and take the opportunity to apply free and reduced launch uh the free and reduced uh discount to the passes. And so the discussion we had, and I'm not sure where we landed, was that the if you were free, then you could get the the the fall free or winter free. So that season pass free, not necessarily the full time. Um and then if you were reduced, then you could get the reduced at that same spread, right? Um and then then the thought would be is that it's handled offline. And so for me, it's always a discussion of discretion as well. >> Um, and so that it would be done with the athletics office and activities office and then they'd have a card just like anybody else would, which I think would be amazing. So I'm not if we could get an answer that'd be great. >> Um, question because I don't have my um, quam policy referral person here at the moment. Our fees and season passes are a board policy and I am looking around to Correct. >> They are a policy or procedures. They're but they're definitely >> But I mean, are they set in a board policy? I'm not knowing this off the top of my head, and I probably should, but >> I I'm pretty confident they are. Give me a second. >> I think so, too. So, if what I'm hearing you say is you would like me to bring the policy back faster around fees for activities. Um, and I can look that up. Let me let me just say this. Am I hearing from board members that um if it is just a procedure you would like us to examine the passes um and apply a reduced fee for those buying passes for free and reduced lunch folks? >> It's less costs less for people free costs in between for reduced and costs whatever price for not. Is that in there? I >> I guess I'm not seeing it at a glance but for me I'd like to see hear an answer and then we could decide. >> Right. Got it. Okay. So, without the answer, I will come back at our next meeting. Um, and I'll communicate with you in between meetings. Um, but I will come back with information around what do we charge for season passes. Um, and if there is a method um, by which those are connected and if not, I can work on that. >> That'd be great. And then the guidance from the board is that we are okay with the convenience fee as long as there are multiple payment forms. So, thank you. >> Yep. Appreciate that. Uh, any more things? I was just saying, >> information or questions for the board members? >> Uh, not board members, but I'll just toss this up. Each of the returning board members um have these in front of them because they are events and things that apply to our people who will still be on the board in January. And so there are upcoming uh flyer for upcoming events with the school boards association, an upcoming leadership conference for school boards association flyer, and then our beautiful new uh school board member handbook. Um and all of these will be given to our new board members also um as we do orientation with them between now and our January 5th seating of our new board members. >> Fantastic. Any more information or questions from the board? Suggested or future agenda items? >> Carry. Okay. >> I've heard you say that before. >> That would be up there by part >> after cookies. Any more future or suggested agenda items? Uh future meeting dates had it written down and I lost it. Is December 1st and December 15th because it's right up in front of me. Uh and again public comment on truth and taxation and then open public comment on the 15th. With that there are that brings us I'm so confused without this close session. The final line of business on the agenda is to adjurnn as this item does not require a full board vote. Officially adjourn the meeting at 8:30 on the dot. Thank you.