Rapid City Area Schools approve agreements and roof change order; board reviews new website, virtual elementary plan and curriculum adoptions

The Rapid City Area School board approved proposed agreements and a change order for the Valley View roof replacement and spent the evening reviewing the district’s new website and app rollout, a proposal to open a virtual elementary program at Meadowbrook, and recommended new secondary science and world history resources.

The board voted to approve the proposed agreements after a motion and second; those agreements were presented to the board as finalized by negotiating groups and are slated for district ratification. The board also approved a change order for the Valley View roof replacement; Chief Financial Officer Mr. Sassy told the board the revised plan would deliver the “same quality of roof and save the district $34,000.”

Why it matters: the meeting combined routine, binding actions — such as the contract approvals and construction change order — with policy- and program-level briefings that could affect how the district communicates with families, how it offers online instruction and which instructional materials teachers will use next school year.

New website and mobile app

District staff described progress on a planned migration to an Apogee-powered website and a companion mobile app, with a live rollout scheduled for April 11 and staff training completed the week of April 4. Presenters said the system centralizes messaging: a single message can publish to the live feed, district Facebook and Instagram pages, send text messages, calls and emails, and translate messages into families’ preferred languages recorded in Skyward.

Bobby (district…