June 17, 2025

Personnel

At last night’s meeting, the Board approved the hiring of Adam Ball as an interim assistant principal at Eureka High, beginning July 1. Mr. Ball is replacing Dr. David Arledge, who resigned his position earlier this month.

Read more about Mr. Ball.

Superintendent Comments

In his Superintendent Comments at the June 17, 2025, Board of Education meeting, Dr. Curtis Cain shared the following updates:

Students at all levels are engaged in learning this summer during Rockwood Summer Academy, which runs through June 27. Elementary sites are Babler, Blevins, Bowles and Westridge, middle school sites are Eureka High and Selvidge, and high school sites are Marquette and Eureka. This past week, I had the privilege of stopping in at Babler and Bowles to see firsthand our students learning and our educators teaching. The images you see on the screen are some scenes of students enjoying math, reading and writing at Blevins. Thank you to our staff members who are working hard this summer to provide fulfilling educational experiences for our students.
Continuing on that theme, crews are hard at work around the Rockwood School District this summer completing needed safety, technology and facilities upgrades using Prop 3 funds. The scenes you see on the screen are from the parking lot replacement at Lafayette High and HVAC system replacements at Ellisville, Kehrs Mill and Uthoff Valley elementary schools. We also have technology upgrades in progress at multiple sites and, just this week, more than 120 new walkie-talkies are being delivered to our schools to help us enhance the safety within our school communities. I’d like to thank our Facilities, Finance and Technology teams for their coordination of projects like these all over the district this summer. And, as a reminder, you can visit prop3.rsdmo.org for more information about priority projects, timelines and more.
Recent Rockwood graduates Maleah Eggers, Caleb Mitchell, James Tse and Nolan Zink of Marquette and Mary Jenna Hails and Charlie Heppe of Lafayette are among the first round of this year’s College-Sponsored National Merit Scholarship winners. These outstanding Rockwood graduates are among more than 2,900 college-sponsored scholarship winners from around the nation – and only 57 from the state of Missouri – who were announced June 5, with an additional group being named in July to bring the total to more than 3,600. So far – between college-sponsored, corporate-sponsored and National Merit-funded awards – a total of 13 recent Rockwood graduates have earned scholarships in this year’s National Merit Program. We are very proud of these graduates and wish them well on their next steps.
I wanted to share with you a story of two of our staff members exemplifying what it means to fulfill our mission of doing whatever it takes to ensure all students realize their potential. Selvidge Middle band director Caitlin Gierer and library media specialist Jim Miller collaborated to come up with a creative solution to a challenge faced by a band student. Louie, a clarinet player, could not hit a certain note because he is missing the pinkie finger on his left hand. Caitlin worked with Jim to create a 3D-printed piece to attach to Louie's clarinet, giving him the ability to hit the note. Let’s watch.

To view Dr. Cain's entire Superintendent Comments from the meeting, click here.

Patron Comments

There were no patron comments at the meeting.

Policy Updates

The following policy revisions were approved by the Board:

Agenda Items

Professional Learning Master Plan 2025-2026 - The Board heard the master plan for professional learning for the 2025-2026 school year. They learned about changes for the new school year, including a new coordinator of professional learning, updated belief statements based on the new CSIP and most recent Learning Forward standards and the return of four full days of professional learning during the school year. The Board also heard details on participation data, microcredential data, areas for growth and areas of focus for the new school year. View the master plan.

Adoption of 2025-2026 Annual Budget - The Board approved a balanced operating budget for the 2025-2026 school year, as presented by Chief Financial Officer Cyndee Byous. Byous noted that revenue and expenditure budgets are comparable to the current school year and that the debt service fund continues to be sufficient to satisfy current debt obligations.

Insurance Plan Design and Premium Recommendations - The Board approved the updated standard plan premiums and plan design for active employees, retirees and COBRA participants as recommended by the Rockwood Insurance Committee for standard benefits and approved the Essential Plan premiums and plan design as recommended by the administration. District staff and retirees received communication today about the need for these design changes and premium increases. Listen to the presentation about the need for the changes and view the updated insurance plan design and premiums.

To view the entire Insurance Plan Design and Premium Recommendations presentation, click here.

Board Discussion

2025 Telephone Survey Presentation - Board members and Cabinet members heard a presentation from Rick Nobles with ExcellenceK12 regarding the results from the random sample community phone survey related to a potential ballot initiative. The phone survey collected 300 responses. View the survey reports.

Annual Community and Employee Feedback Presentation - The Board heard a presentation from Glenn Hancock, director of research, evaluation and assessment, on the Rockwood Annual Feedback 2025 Community Survey and Employee Experience Survey. View the presentation.

Review of July 17, 2025 Board of Education Meeting Date - Board members and Cabinet members reviewed the July 17, 2025 Board of Education meeting date. View the planning calendar.

**Board meeting agendas are available to view the Saturday before regularly scheduled Board meetings on BoardDocs.**