Sue Sitter/PCT Work done to add space to the north end of Ely Elementary School shows steady progress in a photo taken in mid-October. “Things should start firing up during the month of October,” Rugby Public Schools Superintendent Mike McNeff said of the project.

Changes could be in store for Rugby Panthers basketball teams if a proposal to divide North Dakota’s two-class team system into three classes.

The Rugby Public School Board reviewed the proposal at its regular monthly meeting Oct. 11.

Rugby High School Athletic Director Scott Grochow presented information and feedback on the plan to place Rugby Panthers basketball teams in a mid-level designation, introducing new competing schools such as Devils Lake and Standing Rock, and moving competitors such as TGU and Harvey-Wells County into a class with smaller schools.

The North Dakota High School Activities Association (NDHSAA) drafted the plan after gathering information from a focus group consisting of representatives from class A and B schools throughout the state.

The new plan would designate larger Class A schools as Class AA. Larger Class B and smaller Class A schools would have a Class A designation, while smaller Class B schools would remain in Class B.

The proposal placed Rugby in the new Class A West Region, along with Standing Rock, Des Lacs-Burlington, Watford City and other schools west of Rugby. Venues for regional competitions include Minot, which board members said was positive information.

Panthers Boys Basketball Coach Mike Santjer and Girls Basketball Coach Jennifer Brossart also attended the meeting to offer feedback.

Grochow noted the new system added fairness to the chances participants have for reaching state competition.

“Our chance to go to state just multiplied” under the new three-class system, which allows for more teams per region to play in state tournaments.

“But,” he added, “To me, is this a good thing or is this a bad thing, I’m not sure either way.”

Grochow said, “There’s a little bit of me that says, ‘I want to try this.’ I want to see what this is like. I want to find out.”

This has been pushed since I was in school,” he added.

The proposal said the NDHSAA plans to roll the system out for the 2023-24 school year.

Grochow and the coaching staff all agreed to try the new system. Grochow said the

The board approved a motion to support the proposal as presented.

In other business, the board heard an update by District Superintendent Mike McNeff on a construction project to expand the Ely Elementary School building and campus.

“We’re making progress,” McNeff said. “The wall should be going up quickly,” he added, referring to an addition that expands the school’s gym wall to the north several feet.

“They currently are putting the bar joists in the gym, so things should start firing up during the month of October,” he said of the construction pace.

McNeff added a citizen’s committee formed to address the project would meet that evening to review a one-page flyer to be mailed to property owners in the district to provide information on the project and explain how a gap of $1.4 million created by inflation in construction costs could be filled by fundraising.

The flyer also provides information for contributing to an account for the project through the North Dakota Community Foundation.

McNeff also gave a monthly report to the board, which included plans to discuss and implement safety recommendations made by first responders after touring the district’s elementary and high school campuses.

He shared information given to him by Dakota College at Bottineau about a new program available to high school students in the Rugby School District to learn about drones.

Other information given to McNeff included news of a program called a Pace lab, available through Peace Garden Special Education Region to teach independent living skills.

He said the district had also hired Rugby resident Jackie Skipper as a tutor to help address learning loss during the COVID pandemic. Skipper would be paid through a federal grant.

The board listened to a presentation by instructional coaches Ashley Seykora and Angela Hager about standards developed by North Dakota teachers for North Dakota students. Both explained how teachers help their students meet standards for skills such as reading and math.

The board also listened to a report on learning outcomes for students in high schools. Data measuring the outcomes showed Rugby High School students continuing a trend begun in 2015 toward ACT test scores consistently above state averages in English, reading, math and science. Overall test data across all learning outcomes measured also placed Rugby High School students in the above average range.

The data also showed 6.52% growth in students designated as “choice-ready,” or having the skills necessary to join the workforce, pursue higher education, or enlist in the military.

A full report is available at https://www.rugby.k12.nd.us/ by clicking the “Our District” tab on the upper left side of the page and then choosing the “ND Insights” link.

In other business, the board accepted a retirement benefits request and letter submitted by Rugby High business instructor Paola Trottier.

Trottier introduced the board to Tambrey Brossart, a member of Rugby High’s Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) chapter. Trottier serves as the club advisor.

Brossart, a freshman, won first place over entrants from all over the United States in the digital citizenship contest held at the National FBLA Convention in Chicago in early July. She had just finished eighth grade.

“There were probably 250 students in a room on laptops taking tests online,” Trottier recalled. “She came out of there, and I asked, ‘How did you do?’ She said, ‘There was one question I didn’t know for sure.’ I got her test results back and she got 49 out of 50.”

“There were probably about 12,000 students competing in all kinds of different events,” Trottier added. “In her event, there were 228 students.”

Trottier described digital citizenship as “a hard topic to prepare for, because it’s so broad.”

Brossart said she prepared by studying a list of questions about all the topics related to digital citizenship. “Some questions, I went into detail researching,” she said.

The board gave Brossart a round of applause.

In other business, the board received updates on a convention for the North Dakota School Board Association set for Oct. 27-28 in Bismarck. Board members also received information on an upcoming evaluation of the district superintendent.

The board approved finances, bills and minutes from its September meeting.

The school board will hold its next regular meeting Nov. 8.