December 2, 2024 at 6:30 PM - Bloomfield Community Schools - Board of Education - Committee of the Whole

Rationale:  Welcome to the Committee of the Whole (COW) of the Bloomfield Community School District Board of Education. This meeting is called to order.

Rationale:  Roll call, a fundamental process in meetings, holds crucial importance when it comes to determining the presence of a quorum. A quorum refers to the minimum number of participants required for a meeting to be considered valid and for the decisions made within it to hold weight.

Rationale: 

Rationale:  The Nebraska Open Meetings Act guarantees that every public body meeting shall be open to the public so that citizens may exercise their democratic privilege of attending and speaking at meetings of public bodies. A copy of the Open Meetings Act poster is next to the Promethean Board near the file cabinets. Board members and visitors are welcome to review it at any time. They may also access the poster by opening the link noted in the agenda.

Rationale:  As identified by the NE Open Meetings Act, a public notice announces the time, date, and place of a public meeting. The public has the right to attend meetings of public bodies, listen to debate(s), and watch the decision-making process. The publication of this Bloomfield Board of Education meeting met all these requirements.

Rationale:  A meeting agenda helps you and your colleagues prepare for a meeting and guide yourselves through the items you need to discuss. Time spent in planning an agenda will likely save time for all meeting participants by providing a clear set of topics, objectives, and time frames.

Rationale:  The purpose of the public comment period is for members of the public to inform the governing body of their views.

Rationale:  Informational/Discussion Items - Items intended only to provide information to the Board and require no action; this includes communication items. Informational items can be scheduled during Regular, Special, or Committee of the Whole meetings.

Rationale:  In November 2024, the BOE contracted with the Nebraska Association of School Boards to conduct a self-evaluation of its work, operation, and leadership. This item will be a brief discussion of the evaluation, highlighting the growth and need for further development of the board’s progress since April 2024. A deep dive into the results is scheduled for the January 6, 2025, COW Meeting. 

Rationale:  Every January of a new year, the School District organizes or reorganizes. This process includes reciting the Code of Ethics by all BOE members and swearing in new BOE members. By Statute 79-4, 129, this procedure can only occur after the first Thursday after the first Tuesday in January. 

The first meeting of the 2025 BCS BOE is set for January 6, which means that the two outgoing BOE members, Jason Hefner and Jessica Loeske, will expire at the close of that meeting. The BCS BOE 2025 will be reorganized at the Regular BOE Meeting on January 13, 2025, to follow the mandate.

Rationale:  Strategic planning involves setting goals, deciding on actions to achieve those goals, and mobilizing the resources needed to take those actions. A strategic plan describes how goals will be achieved using available resources. It allows the district to plan for the future, anticipate what is most likely to happen, and prepare accordingly.
Effective strategic planning involves three separate, equally important components: strategic thinking, long-range planning, and operational planning.

Rationale:  Continuous school improvement is essential because it helps schools create lasting change and improve student outcomes: 

• Supports education agencies
  Continuous school improvement can bolster the work of education agencies. 

• Uses data
  Schools can use student performance results and other data to develop plans and implement improvement actions. 

• Develops a culture of improvement
  Continuous improvement processes can embed a school's culture and help ensure positive changes become part of daily practices. 
• Targets specific needs
  Schools can identify the most critical issues for their school and develop a plan to address them. 
• Improves achievement
  Continuous school improvement can help improve achievement across the board, including for low-performing schools. 

Continuous school improvement is a cyclical process that involves setting goals, identifying ways to improve, and evaluating change. 

Rationale:  Curriculum and instruction are two main pillars of education that work together to create a learning environment for students: 

• Curriculum
  The content and plan for instruction, including the learning materials, standards, and resources. 
• Instruction
  The methods and strategies used to teach the curriculum, including the teaching style, resources, and how the teacher connects the content to the students. 

The goal of curriculum and instruction is to create an educational environment that is standardized in what is taught, while also being individualized in how students learn. 
Curriculum and instruction are also the focus of a field of study within education that researches, develops, and implements changes to increase student achievement. This field is interested in how people learn, new trends in teaching and learning, and the best ways to educate.

Rationale:  Administrative Reports are

• Valuable and timely; the BOE is very thankful for them. The BOE is not present in the district or schools often enough to capture the district's "heartbeat." These reports offer us that opportunity.
• Provide a history of district/school/department information.
• Give the stakeholders factual, archivable, and just-in-time information.

Frequency:
All department Admin Reports are required for the BOE meetings on the first Monday of the month.

1. COW meetings, and occasionally, Special meetings, are conducted on the first Monday of the month.

Report Content and Format

1. When considering the content of your department's report, identify the "Big Ideas" and "Notables."

Presentation of the Reports

1. All Admin Reports will be posted to the COW agenda for BOE and stakeholder review.
2. All Administrative Reports will be provided to the BOE for review and questions before the Regular meeting.
   1. Administrators will have the opportunity to respond to BOE questions at the meeting.
   2. Plus, at the designated time of their reports, they are welcome to embellish, add additional items, etc.

If the administrator or department has no updates or news to report, it can submit "No Report at this time."

 

Rationale:  Policy is the backbone of the BOE's operations. It governs the business and actions of the board's work. This Informational/Discussion topic is used to discuss, update, and validate the board's policies. We will update policies in real-time. They will be approved during the next Regular Meeting.

Rationale:  The Board of Education may move into a closed session by a majority vote if a closed session is necessary for the protection of the public interest or the prevention of needless injury to the reputation of an individual.

Rationale:  A motion to adjourn is a formal procedure that ends a meeting. If there is any unfinished business at the time of adjournment, it is typically carried over to the next meeting. Prior to the motion to adjourn, the chair should be sure that no important matters have gone unnoticed.