During the Oct. 17 meeting of the Robbinsdale Area School Board, Supt. Carlton Jenkins highlighted some of the successes across the district, including that of Armstrong High School teacher James Redelsheimer, who received a personal finance leadership award from Thrivent Financial.
The economics teacher was selected by the Minnesota Council of Economic Education for the award, which he will receive at the EconFest celebration Nov. 3.
“It’s so important for young people to learn how to manage their finances, learn financial responsibility, understand what a student loan is, how interest is charged, and all the factors that come into play with managing someone’s finances,”said Redelsheimer, noting those students who don’t learn this have a handicap when they enter the workforce.
Redelsheimer has taught economics, including Advanced Placement sections, for the past 16 years.
“I’ve learned so much from outstanding teacher colleagues at Armstrong and also from teacher friends around the country, and they all have helped me create innovative and creative lessons to make the subject interesting for my students,” he said outside of the meeting.
“I am always trying to relate economics and personal finance issues to students’ lives,” Redelsheimer said. “A major goal of our curriculum is to have students realize they can reap huge benefits by investing in themselves and becoming financially literate. One way we accomplish this is culminating our personal finance unit with a comprehensive budget project where students are given a monthly salary, and need to make ends meet by renting an apartment, buying a car, insuring their assets, saving, managing student loans, and much more. This project has had a positive impact on our goal of helping students become financially literate.”
The board also recognized Cooper High School senior Michael White for earning the National Speech and Debate Associations Academic All-American Award, an award presented annually to 500 students who show academic excellence, leadership, service and integrity.
“Receiving this award really validates the hard work I have put into debate and academics over the past four years,” White said. “I would like to thank the coaching staff at Cooper. Without their support, I would not have been able to achieve the academic and debate success.”
Debate team coach DJ Brynteson praised White for his deep knowledge of debate and working well with his teammates. “An award like this just shows Michael’s dedication to both his academics and work in debate and speech,” Brynteson said.
The board also heard a report from Tamuriel Grace, the achievement and integration director, on the CollegeNOW! Summer Academy. With her were two of the 23 students who completed the pilot program last summer, Armstrong High School senior Ashley Williams, and sophomore Nadrat Amos.
Student were placed in two cohorts, First Year Student Transitions and either math or public speaking.
Students received high school and college credit and were exposed to college-level work as they attended Minneapolis Community and Technical College. All students in the program completed and received above a ‘C’ average, Grace reported, and students were also able to sign up for PSEO.
Amos shared her perspective, noting she gained a firmer grasp on what she would like to do in the future, and plans to join the program again next year.
Grace shared with the board her hopes of expanding the program next year not only in course offerings, but also increased student participation as well as on-campus student support services.
Other business
In other business, the board:
• Approved the renewal of the district’s health and dental plans, which resulted in no increases and no changes to the plans.
• Approved a policy related to non-discrimination related to persons with disabilities as related to employment opportunities to comply with state and federal law.
• Was asked by a parent to review its social media policy as it relates to staff use. No particular incident was identified, however, concerns were raised as to what students (current and alumni) can see with regards to a teachers public profile and social media content.
Compiled by Kristen Miller at Kristen.Miller@ecm-inc.com.