RICHMOND – In a room containing 19 people, several of whom sat less than 6 feet from each other, the Richmond Board of Education’s May meeting took place. The only district leader wearing a mask, board President Penny Vandiver, conducted the nearly twohour board meeting with administrators and staff members present. One of several discussion topics involved safety measures to take at proposed graduation ceremonies. Another involved the need to move quickly on distance learning – an area where the district is behind other districts – as cases and deaths related to the coronavirus, COVID-19, continue to mount in Missouri. When the board met, Ray County had 12 confirmed cases, and Missouri had 10,300, plus 560 deaths. The county now has 14 cases, and the state has more than 11,750, plus 676 deaths. After the public session, the board went into a closed-door session.