January 13, 2015 at 6:00 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Discussion:  President Olsen called meeting to order at 6 pm and directed attention to the open meetings act. Those present were Angie Paisley and Jan Schultz. Jodie Schuller arrived at 6:28 pm.

Discussion:  Oath of Office was presented to Steve Wallin and accepted.

Discussion:  No comment.

Discussion:  Hauxwell noted fall Academic All-State, for athletes contributing with a GPA of 3.7 or higher to the team. Students included Softball: Emma Bauerle and Makenna Wallin, Cross Country: Alyssa Moreno, Ryan Moline, and Indy Smith, Volleyball: Mindy Castle and Paige Spady, Football: Bryson Fisher and Dakota Wallin, Play Production: Emma Bauerle and Makenna Wallin. On Saturday January 10th Hauxwell held a 3Dimensional Coaching Workshop in the Auditorium from 9:00 to 10:30 AM. Doyle Denny a certified 3Dimensional Coaching Trainer, former coach and Administrator was the guest speaker. Hauxwell noted 27 coaches in attendance and felt it went very well. Hauxwell added that he will look at continuing this process in the future. Hauxwell noted the Chase County wrestling Invitational is this weekend, January 17th with approximately 15 teams expected. CCS will be using the track wrestling clocks that we purchased with Ogallala and Sutherland. He noted he would be attending the NSAA district 5 Meeting in Holdrege, January 14th, and would release the SPVA tournament seeding and brackets on the 14th as well. Preliminarily, it looks like boys will host Monday night and the girls will be away on Tuesday. Randy Ross and a partner from Specialty Installation in Rapid City, SD were here last Wednesday to look at bleachers. Randy was very knowledgable and worked quickly. He determined everything looked great structurally, but he did make motor adjustments. He recommended purchasing new drive wheels, however, believed in doing that we could get at least another 7 years out of the current bleachers. Randy also noted they could put in steps that are 48” by 12” making the existing steps about 6 inches tall, instead of 12". This would cost $7,000 to $9,000 to redo our steps. Board member Meeske was able to visit with Randy as well while he was here.

Discussion:  Principal Stewart briefly discussed the Administration and staff's response to the loss of a Chase County School (CCS) student this last week. Superintendent Schoeppey noted the crisis team was well prepared and acted timely and appropriately with the crisis. Stewart mentioned upcoming dates: ELL School Improvement Team will meet Jan. 12, with topics to include NESA testing for our ELL students, and elementary assembly will be Jan. 30 at 2:30, NeSA writing assessments are scheduled for Jan 28 and 29 for 4th grade. Stewart highlighted that CCS was chosen to be part of the Model Cornerstone Assessment Benchmark Project in conjunction with the National Core Arts Standards, for grades 2 and 5. The purpose of this project is to identify student work as benchmarks that demonstrates proficient outcomes from standards based education under the new visual arts standards in those grades. The timeline for this project is Jan. 15 to May 1, 2015. Ms. Tomaso will be leading this project. Stewart presented progress noting RTI (Response to Intervention) team continues to work on decision rules for levels of instruction and instructional strategies, PLC team leaders collaborate with teachers with the focus on summative and formative assessments. A team of teachers will attend the Kearney Assessment workshop titled: How Do We Know They’re Learning, on Feb. 3. In addition, Aims Web mid year testing is scheduled for Jan. 15 for grades K-3 for reading and for K-1 for math. She added the next monthly elementary staff meeting will focus on math problem solving strategies and teaching strategies for student engagement. Lastly, she mentioned the Feb. 13 Teacher in-service day with Dave Weber presenting, Mid year Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) monitoring for students in grades 2-6 and lasting a Book Parade for students in grades K-4 Jan. 23 at 8:15 A.M., sponsored by PTO. Parents are welcome to join us at the Book Parade. HS Principal Sorensen also opened thanking the crisis team of Trent Herbert, Shannon Waggoner, Susie Stewart and Tonya Olsen. Sorensen noted with the start of the second semester of school, arrives testing. On January 22nd, the 11th grade will take the state writing assessment and January 29th the 8th grade will take the state writing assessment. Teachers have been working diligently to prepare our students for this assessment. February 17th, the 8th grade will be taking the National Assessment of Educational Progress, assessing students in core subject areas. On Tuesday, March 17th, juniors will meet at the Berean Church and take the ACT. March 23rd through May 1st is our NeSA window of assessments. We will conclude with MAPS testing again in May. Sorensen noted he has been pleased with teachers' work thus far to prepare students for these future assessments. He especially noted the staff's dedication to our students and focusing on building strong relationships that will lead to academic success. Lastly he mentioned the new CCS student teacher, David Keim, who will be here sixteen weeks assisting Mrs. Wilson, Mr. Munger and Mr. Dodge with science. Keim is a Bridgeport native and student at Chadron State.

Discussion:  Nothing noted as she was not present due to basketball games.

Discussion:  Superintendent Schoeppey began by highlighting what was noted in Hauxwell's Athletic Director report regarding the bleachers. Schoeppey highlighted the upcoming Board workshop Jan 28 in North Platte. Schoeppey also mentioned that CCS was approved for the EPA Grant, which will be discussed further later. Schoeppey noted upcoming committee meetings for calendar, technology and Sch. B. Schoeppey gave a brief preview of the proposed 2015-2016 calendar noting the fair, leap year, and the location of Easter in 2016. Board briefly discussed whether a 2 year vs a 1 year calendar was warranted, however, in general the Board believed with new administration and activity hosting that remaining year to year was still the best option. Schoeppey noted the new route bus has been received and the activity bus should be able to be picked up as well in approximately another week. Regarding, snow removal, Schoeppey noted that should we receive another large amount of snow, we will use Matt Vlasin to assist in removal for additional manpower. The Board then further discussed locating an additional cross-walk and the location of sidewalks from staff lot to the school.

Discussion:  O'Neil inquired as to any items of note from the audit report and Schoeppey just noted the timing and difficulty in completion, given the auditors' schedules. Reeves inquired as to segregation of duties and Schoeppey noted in discussing with auditor, there is really no further segregation that can be done with limited staff and President Olsen reiterated that this has been and continues to be a consistent recommendation in small districts. No further discussion was deemed necessary.

Discussion:  Superintendent Schoeppey noted that participation of this service varies. He noted the service is expensive, but in addition to students, staff use the service through distance webinars.

Discussion:  Schoeppey noted the language to be added to the section Sharing of Foods and Beverages would be "Because of the danger of complications with food borne illnesses, food allergies and restrictions of some children’s diets, parents/guardians and students are not allowed to bring “homemade” or “home baked” foods for the elementary classrooms. Teachers are allowed to prepare recipes in the classroom where they are in control of the ingredients, food preparation and food handling. The proposed was K-6, however, the Board discussed applying it K-12. In addition, Board inquired as to teacher input and Principal Stewart shared the respective comments she received both for and against the policy. Board agreed to change the proposed addition from for elementary classrooms to just into the classroom for the second reading.

Discussion:  President Olsen, with the Board, went over the proposed clarification changes to these policies. No significant changes in policy were noted.

Discussion:  Meeske proposed that the appraisal process be adjusted so that the evaluation tool is dispersed in November verses currently in January and adjust all other dates respectively earlier by two months. This allows for the tool to be utilized prior to review of the Superintendent contract. For the first year, the second assessment that is mandatory will need to completed prior to July as the contract period ends June 30.

Discussion:  President Olsen noted the attached appraisal should be completed by each Board Member and returned within two weeks to any of the Superintendent Evaluation committee members.

Discussion:  President Olsen inquired as to any additional changes to the template. Smith noted the proposed in regards to contract term 1)does not address what happens if a December proposal by the Board is not made and 2) in regards to renewal. After discussion, the Board agreed to leave the language as proposed and maintain due diligence in necessary timeliness of Board tasks.

Discussion:  After discussion, Board agreed to a tentative retreat on February 25th, 2015 at 4 pm in the Board room.

Discussion:  Schoeppey briefly discussed the grant parameters noting the grant is reimbursement based, therefore requiring an additional expenditure to occur, after the grant date. Schoeppey noted in order to take advantage it would take approx. $20k from the depreciation fund in order to acquire another route bus given the current budget. In addition, such a purchase order needs to be completed with 90 days of the date of grant, which is approx. 60 days away. After discussion, Board agreed to pursue bids with the intent to take advantage of the grant in order to bring existing bus fleet more current.

Discussion:  Meeting was adjourned at 7:49 pm.