July 14, 2014 at 6:00 PM - Regular July 2014 Meeting & Annual Strategic Planning Session (6:00 Dinner & 7:00 Meeting)

Rationale: 

Public Participation at Board of Education Meetings:

BOE Policy/Regulation 8346 outlines the parameters of public participation at Board meetings concerning items on the agenda as well as those not on the agenda.  A copy of this policy is available in the Superintendent’s office and at each monthly Board meeting.

Rationale:  Hotels-$861.58
Travel-$625.50
Registration-$597
Meals-$780

Total: $2864.08

Rationale:  This is the annual membership renewal for NRCSA.  NRCSA provides rural districts such as Franklin with representation in the legislative process.  NRCSA also makes available training opportunities to our administrative team and board members throughout the year.

Rationale:  The van has in excess of 180,000, has bad ball joints, and uses an excessive amount of oil between changes.  The transportation director recommends retiring it from the fleet.

Rationale:  Mr. Tarman suggests declaring the following items as surplus for sale or disposal:

35 Helments
2 sets of boys basketball uniforms
1 set of track uniforms
1 set of girls basketball uniforms
1 two-way headset

Mrs. Antholz suggest declaring the following items as surplus:
1 working follow spot light
1 non-working follow spot light

Rationale:  Reminder: The Annual NASB Area Membership Meetings will be held this fall.  The one in Kearney is on September 24th, with registration beginning at 4:45 and the opening session at 5:00.  Dinner and awards starts at 7:25 (which is optional).  If you wish to register, please let me know and I can get you registered to attend.

Rationale:  Stacey recommends replacing the red van during the upcoming budget cycle.  It is a 2000 with over 180,000 miles on it and the oil consumption is excessive (2 to 3 quarts between changes).  He also recommends replacing buses as the money is available.

Also of note is the fact that route driver costs will likely increase in the upcoming year due to the addition of a van route driver.  Because of the sparse geography of the routes, adding a driver might be necessary.  Stacey has explored options with parents such as paying them to drive to meet the bus, paying them to transport their kids, encouraging teenage drivers to drive to meet the bus, encouraging teenage drivers to drive to school, and asking parents to be paid to drive a van for the school.  If one of these options doesn't pan out, it may be necessary to add a driver.

Rationale:  The board president, vice-president, and the superintendent wish to have a discussion and develop an agreed upon protocol for board members to follow when contacting the school's attorney for legal advice.

Rationale:  The board will review their current board goals and discuss any work they wish to do during the upcoming school year.

Current Franklin Public School Board Goals are:

1.  Develop positive relationships with our students by staying engaged and visible within our community, while acknowledging community involvement contributing to student success.

2.  Emphasize attention to building improvements and maintenance of our school facilities to assure safety and security for our building, students, and staff.

3.  Maintain cash reserve strength while adhering to budgeting limitations and parameters.

4.  Recruit and attract quality staff as that need develops over the next few years.

5.  Reduce paperwork for parents, patrons, and staff.

Rationale:  The board has discussed at length creating a Facebook Page for patrons to utilize.  Attached is an article on the use of social media in a school's.  Some discussion needs to take place to develop a common vision for what type of social media and its expectations for use will be when the new technology coordinator, Amber Gibson, begins to modify the school's website to include such this component.

Rationale:  This drawing shows the remaining sections of roof and price estimates for their completion.  The roofer recommends that if we don't intend to finish the three remaining sections of roof, to finish roof area "B" with one of the other remaining areas of roof, with preference for area "A" and "B" being done together.

The cost for each section of roof is:

Section A-$75,000
Section B-$20,000
Section C-$69,000

Total for Sections A, B, & C-$164,000

Rationale:  Tax Facts:
*Total land valuation increase is estimated to be $396,688,882 for the 2014-15 school year.  That is a 31.4% increase.

*The increase in land valuation increases the school district's ability to generate $4,165,333 dollars in tax request at $1.05 levy rate vs. the $3,169,573 at $1.05 it generated during the 2013-14 school year.  That is an increase of $995,760 in possible tax revenue.

*Each "penny" in the $1.05 levy generates $39,669 in tax revenue.



Useful websites for generating data in consideration to taxation:
1.  http://www.nebraskataxesonline.us/ (property tax information for Franklin County)
2.  http://www.education.ne.gov/FOS/ASPX/ (NDE Financial Services Searchable Database)


Possibilities for reducing the tax request for the 2015-16 school year:
1.  Reducing non-required educational programming and staff positions, as per Rule 10 requirements.
2.  Reducing extra duty days from contracts.  All extra duty days for employees for the 2014-15 school year amounts to an annual expenditure of $19,608.
3.  Paying the minimum increases in base salary necessary to satisfy the rule of comparability as defined in statute.  85% of budget costs are comprised of personnel costs.
4.  Minimize building improvements and repairs.
5.  Reducing extra curricular activity expenditures. (See attached file entitled "AF Cost Analysis 2013-14" to see the amount each activity is subsidized by from the General Fund)
6.  Restructuring fringe benefits (insurance, leave days) for non-certificated employees.
7.  Reducing tax levy from $1.05 to a lower levy limit.
8.  Reducing the amount of cash reserve maintained through the budgeting process.
9.  Exploring cooperative arrangements with neighboring districts for the delivery of educational services.
10.Eliminating non-essential expenditures or "extras" paid through the activity fund (ie. pizza lunches on activity trips, senior banners, giving money to charities through activity organizations, etc.)
11.Repair rather than replace existing transportation fleet.
12.Increase lunch prices to avoid having to subsidize the lunch fund.
13.Increase gate costs at activities to avoid having to subsidize the activity fund.
14.Charge extra curricular activity participants a fee to offset or eliminate having to subsidize the activity fund.
15.Don't tax into the special building fund for building improvements, only make expenditures through the depreciation fund for repair or replacement of depreciated items.
 

Rationale:  Actual Cost of 2013-14 Teaching Staff: $2,437,170
Projected Cost of 2014-15 Teaching Staff at Close of 2014 Teacher Negotiations: $2,485,619
Actual Cost of 2014-15 Teaching Staff with New Hires: $2,333,884

Savings in Cost of Staff Based on Replacing Rather than Retaining 2031-14 Staff: $151,735  ($2,485,619 - $2,333,884)

Actual Savings in Cost of Staff from Replacing 2013-14 Staff with 2014-15 Staff: $103,286  ($2,437,170 - $2,333,884)

Rationale: 

High School Principal’s Report – July 2014

Board of Education

 1. Academic Information

• FYI – 9^th Hour a work in progress
• Standards work for 14-15 will include defining Essential Standards in Reading/Language Arts, Continuing work on Math standards and taking it to the next level with what we learned from the Marzano Institute
• Standards work for 14-15 continued – On the High School side of things we will include Social Studies, Science, and Fine Arts with Reading/Language Arts, and then work with Science and Social Studies over the next three years in order to create a K-12 alignment.

2. Activity Information

• Summer Activities have been busy, many students have been in the weight room, attending camps and leagues, and our coaching staff has been doing a great job of encouraging students to get better.

4. Other Information

• FYI – Starting with this school year I will be requiring students to leave their book bags in their lockers throughout the school day.This will cause uproar at the beginning of the year, but it is HUGE safety risk on many levels to allow students to continue to take their bags to every class.