December 20, 2021 at 6:00 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting
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1. Call to Order and Pledge of Allegiance
Discussion:
President Gould called the meeting to order at 6:00 PM and the Pledge of Allegiance was said.
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2. Motion to Excuse Board Member's Absence
Discussion:
All members were present.
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3. Open Meeting Law
Discussion:
The audience was reminded that Open Meeting Laws would be followed.
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4. Consent Agenda
Discussion:
Motion by Matulka, second by Lange to approve the consent agenda as presented including the regular meeting minutes of November 14, 2021; workshop meeting minutes of November 29, 2021; November financial statement; and November monthly bills. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
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4.1. Regular Minutes of November 14, 2021 and Board of Education Workshop of November 29, 2021
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4.2. Financial Statement/Report
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4.3. Monthly Bills
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5. Correspondence/Recognition
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6. Public Forum
Discussion:
Dan Wolfe addressed the Board during Public Forum regarding his opposition to the mask mandate.
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7. Reports
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7.1. Administrative Reports
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Discussion:
Shelly Dostal and Allison Stansberry presented assessment data from 2020-2021 and school action plans.
Submitted by Brian Gralheer, Assistant Jr-Sr High School Principal/Athletic Director This month marks the beginning of the winter sports competition season. Our teams have been working hard in practice to ensure they perform well when the time comes for them. The Wrestling team kicked off the season with a runner-up ?nish at the Columbus Lakeview Invitational, then continued their success with a dual victory over a quality David City team and then winning the Raymond Central Dual Tournament. They will be back in action later this week in a triangular at Cross County and a Tournament at Platteview. The Girls basketball team is currently 2-2 with wins over Aquinas and Wilber-Clatonia. The losses came in hard-fought battles against two quality teams in Milford and Syracuse. They have 3 games against DC West, Malcolm, and Yutan coming up before the holiday break. The Boys basketball team is currently 3-1 with wins over Aquinas, Syracuse, and Wilber-Clatonia. The lone loss came at the hands of a Milford team that gathered 20+ wins last year. They have 3 games against DC West, Malcolm, and Yutan coming up before the holiday break. Central Players Speech team has been working hard with competitions at Lincoln High, Millard North, Lincoln East and Papillion-LaVista. With largely Class A competition, they have been able to place in the top ten as a team at each meet they attended. FFA had a successful District LDE competition at Newman Grove. State quali?ers include Sarah Lange (Natural Resources Speaking), Parliamentary Procedure team, and Conduct of Chapter Meetings team. As you see on the agenda, we have had a large number of resignations from our coaches. We will be posting these coaching opportunities until ?lled. Our priority would be to ?ll these positions within our certi?ed staff, but we are willing to take any and all steps to ensure our student-athletes have trusted and knowledgeable coaches to lead them. Submitted by Amanda Coufal, Director of Special Education The high school life skills program held a Thanksgiving Dinner on November 19. This was a huge success as many family members attended. The kids did a great job of preparing for this day by creating a grocery list, shopping for groceries, and preparing the meal. It was fun to see how proud they were of this accomplishment and being able to share this time with family and friends. They went above and beyond and the food was delicious! A huge thank you to Mrs. Doan, Mrs. Albrecht, Mrs. Gerdes, and Mr. Breitkreutz for all of their hard work during this time and allowing students a chance to showcase their skills. The students also went out to eat at Culver’s when they finished grocery shopping. This was a great experience as students had to order their own food and were excited to go out to eat with friends. This was a great experience for all the students and hopefully something that will continue as it is a valuable part of their education. It has been a busy two months of MDT/IEP meetings. In the months of November and December, the elementary buildings have held eight MDT/IEP meetings and the high school has held 30 MDT/IEP meetings. Meetings occur either before or after school. All the meetings have been successful with meaningful conversations which allow the SpEd staff to implement individualized plans for students. Staff has worked tirelessly to schedule, conduct, and write MDT/IEP’s during these last two months. Also, there has been a great turn-out of general education teachers at the meetings and parents have been very grateful. Our teachers are invested in the learning needs of our students! NDE came out with a new guidance document to help develop local policies and procedures for SPED. The ESU is planning to hold a workday to allow SpEd directors to dive into district policies and procedures. KSB has also come out with a template to use to help drive the process. Districts are now allowed to provide parents with their procedural safeguards through a hard copy OR internet web site. This information has been passed along to special education teachers and parents. The Procedural Safeguard document is given at the initial IEP meeting, follow up IEP meetings and whenever a parent requests information on procedural safeguards. Submitted by Shelly Dostal, Elementary Principal at Valparaiso/K-5 Curriculum Director Curriculum/Instruction/Assessment - Grades 3-5 are participating in the Winter Pilot for NSCAS. After training proctors and familiarizing staff with the new platform, most of the process is going smoothly. We have had a few technical glitches, especially with the text to speech accommodations. Grades 6-8 will participate in January. Second quarter ends on December 21. Report Cards for elementary students are scheduled to be sent home on January 14. FASTBridge data benchmarking will take place on January 19-26 for the second checkpoint to monitor student progress. Data from the 2020-2021 school year will be shared in separate format. Professional Learning - Teachers were very appreciative of the time on November 22 and 23 to learn more, catch up, and plan ahead. For professional learning time on December 8, elementary teachers expanded their knowledge base about the latest neuroscience behind the Science of Teaching Reading and revisited the principles of effective instruction. PLCs also met to continue progress on their SMART goals and apply their new learning to create further action steps. I attended the winter NACIA/Curriculum Directors meeting on December 6. Much of the focus was on the Pilot NSCAS assessment, the many changes with accountability, and general stress in education. Helping teachers do their best while serving students with high anxiety and mental health issues is a common theme across districts. Another commonality is the shortage of staff at both the classified and certified levels. School Improvement - The district committee met on December 8 to share what has been happening at the elementary and the 6-12 level towards goals. The elementary level SIP committee will meet next week to make decisions for second semester. Music Concert - The Winter Concert was held on December 7. Ms. Spale directed the K-2 students and Mr. Luke directed the 5th grade band. The students did a wonderful job performing for their families and friends. Thank you to the teachers who helped supervise the students; a big thank you to Mr. Gralheer for setting up the livestream. We have had over 290 views! You can use this link to see the concert if you were not able to attend: RC Activities Link. Ms. Spale and Mr. Luke are to be commended for their efforts. RC PTO - The annual Holiday Shoppe is back. Students will be able to purchase items for their family, friends, and pets at very reasonable prices on December 16 during the school day and until 7:00 PM. Thank you to the many volunteers who make this event happen! The Cookie Dough sales were a great success. Thank you to everyone who ordered and to our volunteers for organizing and distributing on December 16. Proceeds from the cookie dough sales support class field trips. Thank you to our many generous anonymous donors for providing Christmas gifts for families through the Angel Giving Trees. A special thank you to First National Bank Northeast and Frontier Co-op who support these efforts. The families who participate in the BackPack Food Program each week will also be receiving food vouchers and gift certificates to purchase food supplies for the extended winter break as well as extra food. These vouchers, certificates, and food are provided by our local faith based organizations, RC Food Bank BackPack fundraising, and anonymous donors. Thanks to all! Students will celebrate their learning for the second quarter with holiday parties on December 21. The Valparaiso Staff would like to extend our best wishes to you all for a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Submitted by Ann Egr, Elementary Principal at Ceresco/Special Education Director Elementary Ceresco Elementary just finished the 2nd round of FastBridge assessment. The data is used in conjunction with other assessment tools to evaluate students’ reading progress to develop appropriate supports and interventions. The data is used as part of our Campus Leadership group and to help drive the MTSS process. 80% or more of students will meet or exceed benchmark goals in reading by the end of the 2021-22 school year. Each student will improve in applicable reading skills to include: phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Action Steps:
PTO Cookie dough fundraiser pickup was on December 10. Proceeds from the sales go towards field trips. Hopefully, students will be able to participate in person. PTO Holiday Shop will be held at both schools. The students LOVE this opportunity to purchase gifts for family members. Thank you for your support! POP Pass (Positive Office Pass) and Mustang Award winners will be announced on December 20 at the Mustang Assembly. The MTSS group continues to collaborate on developing the foundation which helps educators provide academic and behavioral strategies for students. MTSS is a Multi-Tiered System of Supports with three tiers to assist all students at various levels and needs. The staff at Ceresco would like to extend our best wishes for a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! |
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7.2. Student Board Member
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Discussion:
Submitted by Jaci Bryce, Student Body President
This winter season is off to a great start with all of our winter sports programs seeing success. The wrestling team is being led by returning state medalist, senior Logan Bryce. Recently the team won the Raymond Central Invite competing against six other schools. The team will compete next at a triangular at Cross County and end the week with a big tournament in Platteview on Friday. The boys basketball team is starting the season with a winning record as well. They just matched up against Syracuse and got a victory in the close game. The girls team is also seeing success with recently having a win over Wilber. With the holidays around the corner, the High School Student Council is hosting a toy drive. Donations can be accepted in the office for that. Our school is putting together holiday boxes for those in need during the holiday season, it was a great success for thanksgiving. If you would like to contribute please contact Mrs. Stansberry. They would like to have everything no later than December 17, so that they are ready to send out. With finals around the corner some students partaking in our college classes have already started those and they will continue through next week which is our official finals schedule. |
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7.3. Superintendent's Report
Discussion:
Civic Nebraska Program - It is with much regret that we have to announce that the Raymond Central Before and After School Program that was operated by Civic Nebraska will not be reopening in January 2022. It was unfortunate that COVID hit at the same time that the program was implemented. Due to COVID and a change in family circumstances, we have not been able to build the enrollment that is needed to financially sustain the program. Program Director Kara Nelson and her staff have done a phenomenal job of providing quality learning experiences for these children. Civic Nebraska and the Raymond Central school district are ending this program on very positive terms and both entities are open to considering future relationships.
Remote Learning - There are two components of the Return to Learn Plan that I would like to reiterate for the board and the public as they’ve recently been in question. The first is the fact that we made the decision to not offer any remote learning. This includes when students are out of school for quarantine or extended illness. We made that decision because the practice is very demanding on our teaching staff and is not something that we can sustain and still maintain the emotional well-being of our teaching staff. Teachers will work with students to make up for the learning that has been missed. The only exception to this rule will be for some of the dual-enrolled classes. In those cases, we need to be consistent with the requirements of SECC. Quarantine Measures - We have experienced a slight increase in the number of COVID cases across the district. Along with elevated COVID, we have also seen a rash of other illnesses including influenza, coughs, colds, etc. In two instances, we are monitoring what appears to be an epilink in two subgroups. One of our contact tracing responses when we have multiple cases within a subgroup is to require subgroup members to wear masks for a period of time. These are protocols that are suggested by our public health agencies. Our goal is to do as much as we can to prevent the need to quarantine groups of students and to keep our staff healthy so that we don’t have to discontinue in-person learning due to a lack of staff. Snow Day Used and PK Hours - The unusual dangerous winds resulted in us having to use one of our three snow days. According to NDE guidelines, we have to have a certain number of instructional hours on an annual basis. We are in good standing with our elementary and Jr-Sr high school but our Monday/Wednesday preschool is some hours short. We will schedule some extra hours next semester to ensure that we meet the requirements. |
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7.3.1. Summary of Information from State School Boards Conference
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7.3.2. NASB Board Notes
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7.3.3. Important Upcoming Dates:
December 21: Last day of school before Christmas break (1:45 p.m. dismissal) December 22 - 26: NSAA moratorium (gyms closed) December 22-January 4: No School for students January 4: PD Day for Teachers
Discussion:
December 21: Last day of school before Christmas break (1:45 p.m. dismissal)
December 22 - 26: NSAA moratorium (gyms closed) December 22-January 4: No School for students January 4: PD Day for Teachers |
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7.4. Facilities Report
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7.5. Review of Technology Plan
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Discussion:
Submitted by Keely Schaffer, Technology Director
December 6-12 was Hour of Code Week/Computer Science Week. This is a national program that was started by Code.org to help promote the importance of programming, and to expose students to the possibilities of what coding can do for them. Students in grades 6-12 participated in events throughout the week. Chromebooks have been ordered for the 2022-2023 school year. Due to backorders we are not sure when they will be available. Staff laptop computers have been ordered for the 2022-2023 school year. Due to backorders we are not sure when they will be available. Website Updates - Added December Lunch Menu; Added December newsletter; Worked on Staff Directory - In Progress; Added new staff members; Deleted staff members who have left the district; Edit the old "Staff" page under each school and transition to the Staff Directory; Played around and sent out app push notifications; I have been working on a Raymond Central Website How to Guide; Posted about Sloppy Joe Feed; Posted about Toy Drive; Posted School Board Video. |
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7.6. Board Committee Reports
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7.6.1. Committee on American Civics (Breitkreutz-chair, Burklund, Matulka)
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7.6.2. Transportation Committee (Breitkreutz-chair, Lange, Matulka)
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7.6.3. Finance Committee (Blanchard-chair, Breitkreutz, Burklund)
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7.6.4. Facilities Committee (Blanchard-chair, Burklund, Matulka)
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7.6.5. Negotiations Committee (Blanchard-chair, Gould, Lange)
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7.6.6. Curriculum Committee (Gould-chair, Burklund, Lange)
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7.6.7. Policy Committee (Gould-chair, Lange, Matulka)
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7.7. Review Public Forum Presentation(s) - Consider, discuss, and take anll necessary action
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8. Old Business
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8.1. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to Approve the Superintendent's Evaluation
Discussion:
Results from the Superintendent’s Evaluation were reviewed. On a rating scale of 1-6, Superintendent Johnson received a very positive overall score of 5.51. She has a wealth of knowledge and a strong desire for our district to succeed.
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8.2. Approval of job descriptions of Special Education Director, Student Services Director and Curriculum Director as regulations 2300, 2310, and 2320 respectively.
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Discussion:
Motion by Matulka, second by Burklund to approve Policies 2300-Special Education Director Job Description; 2310-Student Services Director Job Description; and 2320-Curriculum Director Job Description. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
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8.3. Approve Policy 2405 Organizational Units: Structural Relationships
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Discussion:
Motion by Breitkreutz, second by Lange to approve Policy 2405-Organizational Units: Structural Relationships. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
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8.4. Approve Regulation 2405A District Organizational Chart
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Discussion:
Motion by Burklund, second by Lange to approve Policy 2405A-District Organizational Chart. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
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8.5. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action in updating Safe Return to School Plans
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9. New Business
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9.1. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to approve an early graduation request
Discussion:
Motion by Breitkreutz, second by Burklund to approve the early graduation request of Jeremiah Karpov. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
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9.2. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to approve a Student Teacher
Discussion:
Motion by Matulka, second by Lange to approve Radley Shaw from UNL as student teacher with Andrew Placke including the Modern Problems class with Courtney Polak. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
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9.3. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to approve RC After School Clubs
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Discussion:
The After School Clubs existed within the Civic Nebraska Before/After School program. With the termination of that program, it would be beneficial to continue to run the Clubs on a local level. Motion by Blanchard, second by Breitkreutz to approve the RC Elementary After School Clubs to be overseen by Kara Nelson as proposed. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
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9.4. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to approve Staff Appointments
Discussion:
Motion by Matulka, second by Blanchard to approve staff appointments: Laura Tvrdy, Assistant Jr High Girls Basketball; Hannah Miller, Paraeducator at Valparaiso; Kara Nelson, Preschool Paraeducator; Nicole Maier, Part-Time Jr-Sr High School Cook; and Michael Jorgenson, Industrial Arts Teacher and Skills USA. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
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9.5. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to approve Staff Resignation
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Discussion:
Motion by Blanchard, second by Lange to approve staff resignations: Kearah Houchin, Asst Varsity Track; Kalli Brannagan, Asst Volleyball; Ryan Hitz, Asst Football; and release pending suitable replacement: Kalyn Brannigan, Head Cross Country; Andrea Rockemann, Head Volleyball; and Tasha Osten, Assistant Volleyball. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
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9.6. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to approve Substitute Teacher
Discussion:
Motion by Matulka, second by Burklund to approve Jerry Voboril as a substitute teacher; Rebecca Higgins as a local substitute teacher; and Steve Johnson as long term substitute for Kalyn Brannagan. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
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9.7. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to amend Policy 4004 - Duty Hours of Employees
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Discussion:
Motion by Breitkreutz, second by Blanchard to approve amended Policy 4004-Duty Hours of Employees. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
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9.8. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to approve the Master Contract with the RCEA for 2022-2023
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Discussion:
Motion by Blanchard, second by Lange to approve the Master Contract with the RCEA for 2022-2023 increasing the base salary to $38,775.00. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
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9.9. Discuss, Consider, and Take Necessary Action to move forward with a course of action in response to the Feasibility Study, Spring 2021
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Discussion:
Matt Fisher and Carl Dietz (First National Capital Markets) presented a summary of the results from the January 2021 feasibility study to the Board of Education at their Workshop on November 29. Motion by Blanchard, second by Matulka to schedule a Workshop on Wednesday, January 5 to refine the data into an executive summary to be shared with patrons in conversations about the next step with facilities. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
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9.10. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to accept the annual audit as presented
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Discussion:
Motion by Lange, second by Matulka to accept the annual audit as presented. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
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9.11. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to approve the Annual Report 2020-21
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Discussion:
Motion by Burklund, second by Matulka to approve the 2020-2021 Annual Report designed to capture highlights for the year that can be shared with patrons and included as part of our recruiting toolkit. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
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9.12. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to approve the redistricting as presented.
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Discussion:
The district had to be redistricted based on the change to legislative districts. The most recent 2020 census was used to determine the new boundaries. The goal is for each ward to be within 5% population spread. The new ward boundary lines evidence that Ward 1, just north of Lincoln, has experienced the biggest growth. Motion by Blanchard, second by Lange to approve the redistricting as presented. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
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10. Approval of Next Regular Board Meeting
Discussion:
Motion by Blanchard, second by Matulka to approve the next regular board meeting on Wednesday, January 12, 2021. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
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11. Adjournment
Discussion:
Motion by Breitkreutz, second by Lange to adjourn the meeting at 7:54 PM. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
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