July 10, 2023 at 7:00 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

 

Rationale:  This past spring, we were unable to fill the 7th - 9th grade Special Education Teacher position vacated by Miss Kassie Schuett.  After advertising for several weeks, we were unable to fill the position.  Our administrative team proposed a shift of duties that would ensure students were appropriately covered for a short-term one-year solution as we will continue to seek innovative ways to fill that position.  The personnel committee is recommending additional contract days for our SPED staff that will be impacted by the increased caseloads they will have this school year.  Staff members who will have increased case loads this year are Kylee Malcom, Maria Andersen, Bryan Bazata, and Heather Franzen.

Rationale:  While we prefer to hire a teacher-coach, this is not always possible.  Policy allows us to hire anyone with proper certification.  The person that we hire will be the best possible fit for the position and program.  Experience and knowledge of the game plays a factor in the final decision. 

Evaluation of applicants is done in collaboration between Mr. Mroczek and Mr. Ryker who sit in on the interviews with final approval from the superintendent.  The ultimate decision is what is best for the students and the overall program. 

Annually, the board approves these assignments for transparency purposes.

Rationale:  Substitute salaries were $145 and $175 for ten consecutive days or after 30 cumulative days last year. 

We averaged 5.7 substitutes per day (not including school coverage) and 971 total days covered.  Our substitutes are critical to ensuring we can maintain daily operations and we're blessed with an incredible group.

I'd like to give a huge thank you to Rita Foster, Kristin Hastings, Blayre Miller, Dan Scherer, Cindy Fickenscher, Jillian Dowdy, Kami Brandt, Shawney Wellman, and Kathy Nichols who were here over 50 days.

I'd like to recommend we increase our daily rate at the same rate we increased teaching wages (4%).

• Set the daily rate to $150 per day.
• After 30 cumulative days in the district, the daily rate will be $185 for all remaining days subbed in that school year.
• After ten consecutive days in a specific assignment (i.e. maternity leave), the daily rate will be $185 for all remaining days in that specific assignment.
• A new layer will be added for those taking on long-term substitute assignments which will include a 20% bonus to be paid for all weeks beyond two.  This would be the responsibility of the substitutes to submit the form in the district office but would essentially be an extra "day" for each week in recognition of all the extra time that is committed during a long-term subbing assignment.

Rationale:  District #20 has been a Nebraska Rural Community Schools Association member for many years.  NRCSA provides many services for rural schools.

Rationale:  After review of our student data, our administrative team recognized that the JH ELA team needed to increase the rigor of their materials in order to better align with the NDE standards.  After a comprehensive review and approval from the Committee on American Civics, the committee would like to propose adoption of the new textbooks as presented.

Rationale: 

The Cooperative Fund may be used by the school district acting as the fiscal agent for any cooperative activity between one or more public agencies. All school districts, including the school district acting as the fiscal agent, shall show the payment for services to the cooperative in their General Fund.

This fund is a benefit for our school district as we move forward given it allows us to receive payment from the interlocal without that payment impacting our state aid as an accountable receipt.

We will need to make an initial contribution to the Cooperative Fund from the general fund to establish the fund.

Rationale:  Each year, KSB provides legally required updates to be made in policy and subsequent handbook references.  A review of those updates can be found here.

Rationale:  After reviewing existing policy, the following proposals for new policy are presented:
4063 - Extra Duty and Extended Contract
6038 - Artificial Intelligence
4065 - State Activities

As these are a first-reading, no action is required.  Any feedback should be provided to Dr. Jonas before the next board meeting.

Rationale:  The first reading of the Student Handbook took place at the June meeting. This handbook is in alignment with our new board policies.

Rationale:  This is the first reading of our activity handbook.  They have been aligned with new board policies.  No formal motion is needed at this time.  These will return in August for consideration of approval.  Please provide any feedback before that meeting.

Rationale:  This is the first reading of our staff handbook.  They have been aligned with new board policies.  No formal motion is needed at this time.  These will return in August for consideration of approval.  Please provide any feedback before that meeting.

Rationale:  Each year we ask the board of education to consider approval of our evaluation tools.  This year, we do not have any changes to these documents though changes are coming for next school year.

1. Teacher Evaluation Document
2. School Psychologist Evaluation Document
3. Counselor Evaluation
4. Director of Teaching & Learning Evaluation Document
5. Administrator Evaluation Document

Rationale: 

We have been working hard to put all of our currently taught health topics in one place so that we can formally adopt what we are currently doing with regard to health and wellness topics. Over 15 teachers contributed to this document and it is rather comprehensive.

We made this a priority topic at our most recent (Coffee) Shop Talk and shared this document with the public via social media and an email to every parent.  We have been asking for stakeholders to read through this document and ask any questions they may have.

A summary document can be found at https://bit.ly/GPShealth_summary and a complete document can be found at bit.ly/GPShealth 

Please note: these are not new topics - these are topics we are currently teaching that have been put in one place for community review.

The Committee on American Civics met at noon today to review these proposed documents and review community feedback.  This is our first reading of this formalized document.  We welcome any additional feedback from the community at this time and ask that be provided prior to the August board meeting where we will seek formal approval of the proposed Health & Wellness Topics.
 

Rationale:  Presentation on Strategy 3: We will collaborate with all stakeholders to maximize student growth.



This is an informational item.  No action will be taken.

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: