August 10, 2015 at 7:30 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

This agenda contains a list of subjects known at the time of its distribution.  A copy of the agenda reflecting any changes will be available for public inspection during normal business hours in the District Office.  Except for items of an emergency nature, the agenda shall not be altered later than twenty-four hours before the meeting.  The Board reserves the right to alter the order of items, as it deems necessary.

Information concerning the Open Meeting Law, Chapter 84, Article 14 of Nebraska State Statutes, is posted on the bulletin board in the back of the meeting room.

This is the public’s opportunity to speak to items on the agenda. This is also the public’s opportunity to speak to any topic concerning the school district – since it is not an agenda item the board cannot discuss or take action on the matter at this time. Future discussion can be requested as an agenda item. To be recognized, all participants must complete the Request to Address the Milford Board of Education Form. No complaints regarding specific staff members will be heard during a public meeting. The District has established separate procedures for complaints against individual employees. Thank you for your participation.

General Fund for $496,198.99
Payroll for $435,029.92
Total $931,219.91

We have some larger expenditures this month and many of our usual yearly or summer expenses.  I will point out a few, but please email or call with questions.

1. You will see bills from Oswald Electric and Milford Plumbing.  As I shared last month, I have asked them to complete all of our summer projects related to electrical issues or plumbing issues.
2. $3,554 to Brown and Saenger is for classroom supplies through the ESU's COOP purchasing.
3. $67.80 to Kenneth Pankoke is actually Beaver Crossing Hardware.
4. $4,200 to CBS signs is for the elementary sign.  This will be reimbursed by a donation.
5. Contemporary Woods is for classroom storage, a trophy case at HS, and a different desk for Brandon's office so we can take advantage of the safety windows we installed in his office.
6. $40,000 to Creative Sites is what was required for our down payment for the resurfacing project we discussed last month.
7. $12,264 to Essdack is for our 3D printers, supplies and training day for our staff.  This is part of the anonymous donation program so it is reimbursed.
8. $150,000 to Farmers and Merchants is our payment on our loan for the HS remodel project.  We have around $250,000 remaining and plan to pay more at our next meeting if possible.
9. $1,930 to John Henry's is for plumbing issues related to the mud jacking.  This is the company Miracle Mud Jacking uses.
10. $73,170 to Master's Transportation is for a new PreSchool Bus.  This is being paid for by the Federal IDEA grant program.  We must purchase it and then request reimbursement from the State.  This can only be used for our preschool or special education programs.
11. $13,861 to Lincoln Electric is for our Torchmate Arch Welder for the industrial arts program.  This is being paid by the anonymous donation.
12. MSDS online is a three-year subscription to MSDS forms or the safety forms that come with all of the supplies we purchase.  We are required to keep track of these and we have large 3 ring notebooks throughout the district for these.  We are in a three year trial period with a company that has them online.  We can go in and pick the ones that are associated with our district and every staff member will have access to them through a link that will be placed on the screens of their computers.  We are required by law to keep and organize our MSDS sheets and hopefully this will be a more accurate and efficient program.
13. $86,598 to ALICAP is our 15-16 insurance payment - liability, property and workman's comp. 
14. $1,953 to Pioneer Manufacturing is for our paint for the football field and parking lots. 
15. $488 to Stelling Carpentry is for various projects around the district.  Ryan has been very good to work with.
16. $15,072 to Telephone Systems of Nebraska is for updating of some cameras, additional cameras and updating of the hardware/software of the security cameras at the high school.
17. Wergin Lawn Care - as always, we have chuck do all of our chemical work on all the school grounds.  He does a great job with this and I prefer that we do not have all of those materials in our storage areas.

We have attached the list of activity sponsors to date.  You will see that we have a few spots to fill.

Some changes to point out:

1. Dance Team - Kaylee Mensik and Becky Wingard are our new sponsors and are replacing Heather Babl.
2. Volleyball - had a number of changes.  The one to point out is that we are adding a 3rd assistant to the JH volleyball due to numbers and skill level.  We just have too many girls sitting off to the side due to only having two coaches.  We generally have 30+ girls on the team.
   • JH Football was in the same situation but when we added Dorchester, we gained an assistant coach.
3. Positions to Fill - assistant musical and speech positions

Here are the items that were changed or updated:

1. Several editing changes
2. Changed the vocational credits section that we approved last month
3. We are not allowing energy drinks in the building
4. Clarified that dual credit courses are not included in the calculation of class rank
5. Added the Eagle Pride information
6. Added information to match our policies in the dating violence section, the bullying section, dispensing of medication section, the student expression section, information regarding option enrollment students to the transportation section
7. Added a section for the rights of custodial parents

I think that was it.  We will update you at the meeting if there were more items.

We will be purchasing around $70, 000 worth of equipment before our next meeting.  We are ordering a MacBook Air cart of 30 for the middle school, a cart of 30 Chromebooks for the middle school, 5 desktops for secretaries/teachers, 5 laptops for administrators/teachers and an iPad mini (that cost will be reimbursed by a staff member).

Purchase of new computers was in our budget.  I will have to budget more than this in our next budget to keep up with replacement of old machines.  We will most likely need a couple more carts and we will need to start updating staff computers - most likely with laptops.

I would like to update the 2001 Ford Taurus that has 168,939 miles on it.  This vehicle mainly is used for driver's education and it is used by staff when nothing else is available.  We would move the 2003 Malibu to the driver's education vehicle.  It currently has 107,860 miles on it. We also have the Chrysler van people use for larger groups or hauling supplies and that has 97,308 miles on it.

Rediger's have a 2013 Malibu LS with 24,000 miles on it and are offering it to us for $15,000.  It has the remaining 3 year/36,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty and the 5 year/100,000 mile power train warranty.

It is a basic model.  4 cylinder with front wheel drive and the basic power package.  I believe it will be a great car for us and we should get over 30 miles to the gallon with it on trips.  It is time to start updating the fleet.

We can trade in the Taurus for $1,000.

PS - still searching for buses.  59 passenger buses are getting impossible to find.

I would like to discuss the following dates for future meetings.  You can see that for these three meetings, one board member - Tony, and two administrators - TJ and Kevin, have children involved in events that will conflict with our meeting.  I have missed many of my children’s activities, but do not want to have Tony or TJ miss those activities - which I assume they will pick the activity over the board meeting anyway!  We need to decide as a group if we are ok moving on with the meetings as scheduled knowing that one board member has a school activity conflict or do we adjust times and possibly dates (if even possible).  I worry about the September meeting as those involve our budget hearings.  I know we have not had any public at them for 10 years but not sure how I feel about changing those knowing we have budget hearings.  We could possibly go at 6:00 for the September meeting as the budget hearing would be completed by game time and possibly 8:00 for the October meeting.  Anyway, I have it here for discussion.

• September 14 - JV Football at home against Wilber at 7:00 p.m. (Tony, TJ, Kevin)

• October 12 - JV Football at home against Lincoln Lutheran at 6:00 p.m.  (Tony, TJ, Kevin)

• February 8 - 9th Grade BB Tourney at Seward (Tony, TJ, Kevin)

The Board of Education reserves the right to enter into Closed/Executive Session for 1) the protection of the public interest, or 2) the prevention of needless injury to the reputation of an individual, and/or the individual has not requested a public meeting. When making a motion to enter into Closed/Executive Session, the member making the motion should be as specific as possible as to the reason(s) for executive session.

The Board President will restate the reason for Closed/Executive Session after the motion has been acted on.