Two different groups of students made presentations to the Rugby Public School District No. 5 Board of Education Tuesday morning.

Members of Rugby High School’s Student Council and Ely Elementary’s First Lego League each gave presentations to the board an hour apart.

Student Council members Zarah-Mae Keenan and Rachael Hartl gave the board a presentation that included a recap of the State Student Council Convention; ideas for fundraising, elections and school-community involvement; and next steps for the council, including volunteering and events for the student body.

The First Lego League team, a group of fourth- and fifth-graders, were next to present.

The First Lego League, which is in its first year at Ely, discussed challenges including building a city and programming a robot to help solve problems within said city, and an innovation challenge related to architecture.

For the innovation challenge, the team looked at the problem of space at Ely Elementary School and use of Third Avenue Southwest. The team proposed a solution of building a walkway over the road to access a building on the other side of the avenue. Other possible solutions the team looked at included building on Ely’s playground, an underground tunnel, and adding a third level onto the school.

The team will compete against six other schools at Turtle Mountain Community College next Friday.

“Great group of kids,” said Ely Elementary Principal Jason Gullickson.

Other actions

– The board approved the first reading of a policy pertaining to background checks.

– The board discussed the Strategic Planning process; an update of the Citizens Committee which included a vote by the City of Rugby’s Planning & Zoning Committee to hold a hearing on the Third Avenue Southwest closure; and setting up a date for the Superintendent Evaluation Committee to meet.

– The board approved the consent agenda, which included December meeting minutes, bills, financial statements and the pledge of securities.