RCS: Collegiate baseball team can rent McBride

Collegiate baseball is returning to Richmond next summer.

During its Sept. 25 school board meeting, Richmond Community Schools’ board voted to enter into a three-year lease agreement for Northwoods League, Inc. to use McBride Stadium for a collegiate baseball team in 2025.

The league has options to renew the lease for two additional five-year terms.

The new local team’s name hasn’t yet been finalized.

RCS has been renovating the 1936 stadium at 201 N.W. 13th St. that it acquired last year from Richmond Parks and Recreation Department.

In 2025, Northwoods will pay RCS $250 per game and for practices that use stadium lights. Discounts are available for other usages.

Northwoods also will pay 2/3 of the electric and water bills in June and July and a daily prorated charge in August.

Northwoods was organized in 1994 with Midwest and Canadian affiliate teams. It grew by two teams in 2024 to 26. Many are in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan. Kokomo, Indiana, is represented by the Jackrabbits.

In 2023, more than 1.3 million fans watched games, some of which have been broadcast by ESPNU and ESPN+. The league has produced more than 370 players who’ve competed in Major League Baseball.

Policies

The board agreed to move a few policies to second reading on topics such as personal communication devices, board member ethics and school accountability.

The devices policy says students can use devices before and after school, during lunch and in between classes if they aren’t interfering with the educational environment. Devices must be completely powered off and stored out of sight unless use is approved by a teacher or administrator.

Students can use their devices during after-school activities, unless directed by administrators/sponsors to power them off.

They also may be used on buses or school vehicles at the discretion of drivers, teachers or advisors. Distracting behavior won’t be tolerated.

Unless authorized, students can’t use their devices during the school day, including field trips, to record audio, pictures or video of any student, staff member or other people. Using devices to record others without proper consent is considered an invasion of privacy.

Full policies can be read at werrichmond.com with other documents from the Sept. 25 meeting.

Policies could be approved at the Wednesday, Oct. 9, meeting. A work session begins at 5:30 p.m., followed by the business meeting at 6:30 p.m. Both are open to the public at the administration building, 300 Hub Etchison Parkway.

Racial equity

Erica Pearson, representing REA’s racial equity coalition, appreciated the board’s consideration of its proposed equity policy. The board decided in August that a standalone policy wasn’t needed, but some additions could be potentially added to existing policies.

The coalition is studying RCS’ current policies and would like to be part of a future work session to share proposed changes. In addition, members want to bring community perspectives to strategic planning.

Pearson said during her three years on the coalition, she’s heard two secondhand reports of students feeling they’d been harassed by other students because of their racial/ethnic group and one student allegedly discriminated against by a staff member. Pearson said it’s unclear how many concerns haven’t been shared with school officials. At a community forum earlier this year, several students shared hurtful comments they’d never reported.

Pearson noted community confusion about who should be contacted about concerns if they felt the usual RCS channels weren’t working. She said the district’s website has good information about reporting special education compliance issues, but there’s no mention about contacts for other protected groups. She’d also like to see posters placed around the district with contact information.

In other business

• Board members received Title I school improvement plans to review.
• Public hearings were conducted for the school’s 2025 budget and for an additional appropriation. No one spoke. The budget is to be adopted Oct. 9. Documents can be reviewed through RCS’ website, werrichmond.com.
• Jay Lee, Richmond Education Association president, said he planned to meet privately with Superintendent Curtis Wright and Stacy Mopps, human resources director, to discuss some issues with communication during emergency action procedures that need to be fixed. “I know we’ll get it worked out, we always do,” he said.