June 19, 2017 at 6:00 PM - Omaha Public Schools Board of Education and Educational Service Unit 19 Board Meeting

Rationale: 

Notice to visitors: If you wish to speak, please obtain a “Request to be Heard” form from the entry table and return the completed form to the table attendant or the Board of Education Director.

The agenda will be kept current and available for public inspection in the office of the Secretary of the Board of Education at the Administrative Building during regular working hours. 

Board members may request specific agenda item(s) be moved to a different place on the agenda.  Please attend the entire meeting to ensure you hear discussion on a particular agenda item.

Pursuant to Section 84-1412 of the Nebraska Statutes, the public is hereby informed that a current copy of the Nebraska Open Meetings Act is posted in the Board meeting room on the north wall.

Agenda items are subject to reordering at discretion of the board president, please attend the entire meeting to ensure you're able to hear any discussion. If you would like to rehear any discussion, please listen to our podcast located on the District Web Page, district.ops.org.

Rationale:  The Vision:  Every Student.  Every Day.  Prepared for Success.

The Mission:  Omaha Public Schools prepares all students to excel in college, career, and life.

Rationale: 

Good Evening, Madam President, members of the board, our #OPSProud Spotlight is on our middle school students who participated and excelled in our Gifted and Talented Education supported program – Academic Pentathlon.

Deanna Moisset, the Gifted and Talented Education Supervisor sends her regrets for not being present here tonight. This week, she is celebrating with her family her parent’s 50^th wedding anniversary.

This year in May, all of our middle schools participated in the Academic Pentathlon. We had more 50 students participate at the on-site or in the on-line National Competition hosted in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Pentathlon is a five-subject academic program that strives to foster a greater respect for knowledge, to promote wholesome inter-school academic competition, and to further develop student communication skills. The program is designed to parallel the United States Academic Decathlon and to include students from all academic abilities as they test their skills in: Language and Literature, Mathematics, Music, Science, and Social Studies.

The coaches and students we are recognizing tonight competed against mostly private schools and gifted academy schools in May.  These young men and women have clearly made a name for the Omaha Public Schools among the top academically competitive schools in the nation.

At this time, I would like to have the following groups of students stand and be recognized:

Morton Middle School Team for placing 3^rd place overall in the National on-line competition.

McMillan Magnet Middle Schools’ 7^th and 8^th grade teams, who each placed 3^rd overall in their respective divisions.

Students who received a National level BRONZE Medal on-site or on-line

Students who received a National level SILVER Medal on-site or on-line

Students who received a National level GOLD Medal on-site or on-line

All of this progress and achievement would not be possible without the dedicated work of the coaches and staff who challenge these young men and women to develop their academic skills that will last a lifetime. We salute the coaches and students for their hard-work and accomplishments. Thank you.

Rationale:  The Treasurer's Report for May 2017 is attached for review

Rationale:  At this time, any Board member may request that any item in the consent agenda be removed from the consent agenda and be considered and voted on separately. 

Rationale: 

It is recommended that the claims for the School District of Omaha be approved as presented by the central administrative staff.

A.   CLAIMS REPORT A

Rationale: 

It is recommended that the claims for the School District of Omaha be approved as presented by the central administrative staff.

A.  CLAIMS REPORT B

Rationale:  It is recommended that the claims for Educational Service Unit No. 19 be approved as presented by the central administrative staff.

Rationale:  The Board of Education hereby affirms the Board Officers met to conduct and complete Superintendent Evans' evaluation on or about Wednesday, June 14 2017. 

Rationale: 

The School Board will conduct interviews and select the individual for the vacant Subdistrict 9 board position.  

 

Applicants:  

Tracy Casady

Shannan Garcia

Erik Servellon

Victor Slape

Rationale: 

OPS currently has 6 schools enrolled in the CEP program as of March 4, 2015.  When we joined the program an ISP% of .8403 was assigned for each school enrolled (average of total poverty students divided by total enrollment of each building).  To calculate the number of poverty students in the CEP program for state aid purposes, the ISP% is multiplied by the total enrollment by building and then multiplied by 1.1%. 

Direct certification is the number of students receiving SNAP, TANF, FDPIR, homeless students, children who are wards of the court and foster children.  The benefit of CEP is that families no longer have to fill out applications to qualify for free lunch.  All students in a CEP school receive free lunch. 

For non-CEP schools, free lunch students include direct certified students, students that qualify based on income from the free lunch application forms and families that have indicated on the free lunch application form that they qualify for service programs but have not been verified by the State yet.

Once a building is entered into the CEP program, free lunch application forms can no longer be collected and the ISP% remains the same for 4 years.  The 1.1% multiplier is intended to make up for the free lunch applications no longer collected.  Any new buildings entering into the CEP program will be assigned the same .8403 ISP%.

An alternative to the free lunch application form has been developed, but families receive no benefit from filling it out and many times do not.  Poverty students are used for title 1, E-rate and grants.  When applications forms are not completed, we are not able to get a true picture of poverty students.

Information provided by NDE from the 2017-18 state aid certification shows 34,208 as the total number of free lunch students in OPS.  Of the total free lunch students, direct certification students total 23,136.  If OPS were to move all buildings to CEP, when I multiply the total direct certification students by the .8403 ISP%, multiplied by 1.1%, we could lose as many as 2,003 directly certified poverty students because the building has a higher ISP% that the rate established in the base year.  In addition to losing these students, we could lose the students that qualify based on income from the free lunch application forms totaling 9,334.

Given our current budget constraints, a loss of poverty dollars in the State Aid formula could mean millions of dollars to OPS.

OPS currently provides grab and go breakfast free of charge to all students.  Most of our high poverty school students already receive free lunch because of direct certification or free lunch applications.  OPS has a policy that every elementary student receives lunch regardless of ability to pay.  Middle and high school students receive alternative lunches after 2 days of no pay.

Based on the importance of accurate poverty student counts for federal and state funding, the instability of social funding programs under the current administration and our current policies on feeding students in the District, the Budget Committee recommends no further schools be added to the CEP program.

Rationale:  Central Office staff recommends board approval to create a Bond Steering Committee to examine options and timelines for a potential Phase II Bond.   

Rationale:  The 2016 Financial Reports and Independent Auditor's Report of the Land Reutilization Committee Serving Douglas, Sarpy, and Otoe Counties is attached as matter of receipt of official records.  Board member Lacey Merica represents the Omaha Public Schools on this Commission. The Omaha Public Schools annually, with Board approval, contributes $25,000.00 to the operation of this Commission.

Rationale:  The Omaha Board of Education is authorized by state statute to hold closed sessions.  Closed sessions may be held when clearly necessary for the protection of the public interest or for the prevention of needless injury to the reputation of an individual.  Reasons that meet this standard include but are not limited to:  (a) strategy sessions with respect to collective bargaining, real estate matters, pending litigation, or litigation which is imminent as evidenced by communication of a claim or threat of litigation to or by the public body; (b) discussion regarding deployment of security personnel or devices; (c) investigative proceedings regarding allegations of criminal misconduct; (d) evaluation of the job performance of a person when necessary to prevent needless injury to the reputation of a person and if such person has not requested a public meeting; and (e) legal advice.