Board approves calendar with late‑start Wednesdays, several personnel incentives and open‑enrollment requests; moves into executive session on negotiations

The Dickinson Public School District board took several routine actions during its meeting, approving the 2025–26 Dickinson High School calendar with late‑start Wednesdays, authorizing early‑resignation benefits for several employees, approving open‑enrollment transfers and voting to close the meeting for negotiations and financial discussion.

Calendar vote: Vice President Kim Schwartz moved to approve the 2025–26 Dickinson High School calendar to include late‑start Wednesdays; the motion was seconded by Mister Wilkie and carried on a roll‑call vote. The roll call recorded the following votes: Mister Rutkowski — aye; Mister Seeks — aye; Mister Wilkie — aye; Vice President Kim Schwartz — aye; Chair Michelle Orton — aye. Outcome: approved.

Early‑resignation benefits and incentive: Vice President Kim Schwartz moved to approve early resignation benefits for Patricia Sheasley (peer professional, Heart River Elementary), Annie Michael (speech‑language pathologist, early childhood program) and Carla Ratke (head cook, Heart River Elementary), all with effective dates of 05/22/2025. The motion also included approval of a yearly resignation incentive for Tammy Greenfield Peterson (principal, Lincoln Elementary) with an effective date of 06/30/2025. The motion was seconded by Mister Wilkie and passed by voice vote. Outcome: approved.

Open‑enrollment approvals: Mister Sikes moved to approve open‑enrollment applications for four children of Marie Sherman from Bellfield Public School District to Dickinson Public School District and one child of Megan Hurley from Bellfield to Dickinson, per the district’s open‑enrollment policy. The motion was seconded (by vice president Short as recorded) and passed by voice vote. Outcome: approved.

Executive session: Vice President Kim Schwartz moved to close the meeting and go into executive session under North Dakota Century Code (NDCC) 44‑04‑19.1, subsection 9, for the purpose of administrator and teacher negotiation strategy. The motion was seconded. A roll‑call vote was taken and recorded as: Vice President Kim Schwartz — aye; Mister Wilkie — aye; Mister Seeks — aye; Chair Michelle Orton — aye (the roll call began with Vice President Schwartz and concluded with the chair voting aye). Outcome: approved; the board convened an executive session and reminded attendees that any final action must be taken in open session unless law specifically allows final action in executive session.