March 13, 2023 at 5:00 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Rationale: 

Mission Statement:

Gothenburg Public Schools is the cornerstone of a proud, passionate, and progressive community where students and staff thrive in a positive and innovative environment.  We ensure the growth of all individuals by inspiring them to own and maximize their potential.

A copy of the open meetings law is posted on the wall of the Board Room and is available to the public.

Rationale: 

The Board reserves the right to rearrange the order of items as needed.

Rationale: 

Board Policy 2009 - Opportunity for Public Expression.  
(A copy of the policy is linked here.)

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

INSTRUCTIONS FOR MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC WHO WISH TO SPEAK: This is the portion of the meeting when members of the public may speak to the board about matters of public concern.  

• Getting Started:  When you have been recognized, please stand and state your name.   

• Time Limit:  The board will generally allow a total of 30 minutes for the presentation of all public comments.  Individuals may speak only one time, and must limit comments to around 5 minutes.  If there are more than 6 individuals who wish to address the board, the 30 minutes will be divided equally between the number of speakers.   These time limits may be changed by a majority vote of the board members in attendance to extend the time for a specific item or speaker. 

• Personnel or Student Topic:  If you are planning to speak about a personnel or a student matter involving an individual, please understand that the district has a complaint policy and/or procedures to resolve such complaints and concerns.  The Board requests that you follow the policy and procedures before addressing these matters with the Board.  Board members will generally not respond to any questions you ask or comments about individual staff members or students.  

• General Rules: This is a public meeting for the conduct of business.  Comments from the audience while others are speaking will not be tolerated.  Lewd, obscene, profane, slanderous, threatening and hostile conduct or statements and fighting words (words whose mere utterance entails a call to violence) will not be tolerated. 

• No Action by the Board:  The board will not act on any matter unless it is on the published agenda. 

Rationale: 

1. Approval of Previous Minutes

2. Approval of the Treasurer's Report

3. Approval of the Warrants / Bills

  a.  Petty Cash

  b.  Student Activity

  c.  Hot Lunch

  d.  Bank Statement

  e.  Summary of Accounts and Receipts

  f.  Monthly Expenditure Report

  g. Check Journal

4. Excuse Absent Board Members

5. Consider Option Enrollment Requests
2023-24 Option Out
Carson Lamphear - Kindergarten to Cozad
Isabella Jewett - 11th Grade to Cozad

2023-24 Option In
Stella Grabenstein - Kindergarten from Eustis-Farnam
Amelia Wieseler - Kindergarten from Cozad
Laney Reiman - Kinderegarten from Cozad

 

Rationale:  Mr. Jeramy Bartels has been teaching Industrial Technology for the past two years in Franklin, Nebraska.  He brings a lot of great ideas in this area and a passion for this content area.  We are excited to offer him this position.

Rationale:  Mrs. Stienike has been working on her school counselor endorsement for the last few years and will finish up her internship this fall with plans to graduate in December 2023.  We are excited to welcome her to our four-person school counselor team.

Rationale:  The Superintendent currently has a two-year contract that expires on June 30, 2024.  At this time, the board will discuss and consider a motion to update the contract as presented.

Rationale:  The Gothenburg administrative team is an outstanding professional group of leaders.  District #20 will continue to benefit from their leadership.  The Personnel Committee is proposing a compensation package for administrative staff that reflects an overall increase in compensation of 3.8% and total compensation of 5% for administrative staff. Administrative compensation is based upon comparability with schools of similar size and who are located within a similar geographic area.  Total compensation used in the comparison includes applicable health insurance through the Educators Health Alliance which saw rates increase by approximately 6.5% from this year's rates.

Rationale:  The Personnel Committee has met to discuss compensation for non-instructional staff.  This category includes office personnel, paraprofessionals, custodians, bus drivers, and directors.  The committee recommends an increase in compensation of 7% and total compensation of 12.9% for non-instructional staff. Total compensation includes applicable health insurance through the Educators Health Alliance, which saw rates increase by approximately 6.5% from 2022-2023 rates. 

A large portion of this package is allocated to increasing the starting wage for paraprofessionals to align more closely with the current employment climate in our community. 

Rationale:  Danette Anderson, OTD, OTR/L provides direct services, consultative services, and assessment services to District #20 for occupational therapy.

Rationale:  The proposed calendar for 2023-2024 is attached.  There are no significant changes from the first draft that was presented last month.  Spring Break continues to be the most challenging scheduling obstacle.  There is no "right way" to schedule spring break.  With state girls basketball, state boys basketball, district speech, spring sports starting, and families that want to get away - this is an incredibly busy time of year.  We do our best to "guess" what will work best, but honestly, this is the hardest part of the school calendar.  We will continue to evaluate our process in the years to come in hopes of finding what works "best" for the majority.

Rationale:  After a year of close reflection, we have decided to send out a Request for Proposals for our school lunch program.  The cost of food, our ability to procure healthy and quality food, and the increasing challenges of training and retaining quality staff are all reasons we've decided to explore this option.  Ultimately, our decision to send out a request for proposals was to ensure that the school explored every option to ensure high-quality, healthy meals at a reasonable cost.  Mrs. Jacobsen has done an incredible job in our lunch room over the past several years and while she does not have immediate plans to retire, we did feel like now was the time to explore this option, given the timeline established by NDE requires this process to begin in January and conclude by May of each year.

This is an informational item only.  No action is required.

Rationale:  The timeline for the second evaluation will be as follows:

• Mon. April 10th - Fri. April 14th: Superintendent completes the self-evaluation
• Mon. April 17th: NASB sends board self-evaluation results
• Mon. April 17th - Sun. April 30th: Board members complete their evaluations
• Final Report & Executive Summary will be emailed to the board president by Friday, May 5th (The board president will also receive a follow up call from a Board Leadership Team Member to discuss results.)
• Personnel Chair & Board President will meet with Superintendent prior to June board meeting.
• June Board Meeting - Evaluation will appear as an action item.

Rationale:  Schools are required to give an annual report on their efforts towards multicultural education. There is no action required.

Rationale: 

Committee Reports (Chair in bold)

1.  Personnel Committee (Mr. Fornoff, Mrs. Terrell, Mrs. Jobman)
2. Transportation and Facilities (Mr. Wyatt, Mr. Dalrymple, Mrs. Brass)
3. Finance (Mrs. Jobman, Mr. Wyatt, Mrs. Brass)
4. Committee on American Civics (Mrs. Terrell, Mr. Fornoff, Mr. Dalrymple)
5. Policy Review (Mrs. Terrell, Mr. Fornoff, Mrs. Brass)

 

Rationale: 

Rationale: 

According to § 84-1410, the Board of Education may hold a closed session by the affirmative vote of a majority of its voting members if a closed session is clearly necessary for the protection of the public interest or for the prevention of needless injury to the reputation of an individual and if such individual has not requested a public meeting. 

Closed sessions may be held for, but shall not be limited to, such reasons as: 
(a) strategy sessions with respect to collective bargaining, real estate purchases, or litigation
(b) discussion regarding deployment of security personnel or devices
(c) investigative proceedings regarding allegations or misconduct
(d) evaluation of the job performance of a person when necessary to prevent needless injury to the reputation of a person.

The vote to hold a closed session shall be taken in open session. 

The subject matter and the reason necessitating the closed session shall be identified in the motion to close.  

If the motion to close passes, then the presiding officer immediately prior to the closed session shall restate on the record the limitation of the subject matter of the closed session.

The Board shall restrict its consideration of matters during the closed portions to only those purposes set forth in the motion to close as the reason for the closed session.

The meeting shall be reconvened in open session before any formal action may be taken.

Rationale:  TBD  (2nd Monday of the month)

Swede Activities:
This is the day after Easter.  No school, no scheduled activities.