April 14, 2025 at 6:30 PM - Board of Education Meeting Agenda

April is Month of the Military Child - Bellevue Public Schools is fortunate to be at the heart of serving the Bellevue/Offutt Community. Military children play such an important role in the armed forces community. Regardless of military status or position, every child of a military personnel deserves the love and support of their community.

As part of this month-long celebration, local communities are invited to take part in PurpleUp Day, which for Nebraska is Tuesday, April 15th. PurpleUp Day is a day to show your support for the military youth's strength and sacrifices by donning the color purple. BPS will celebrate PurpleUp Day with Offutt Air Force Base on Tuesday, April 15, 2025.

As a proud neighbor to Offutt Air Force Base and DoDEA supporter, Bellevue Public Schools understands the importance of recognizing our communities' military children. Thank you for your service and sacrifice.
 

Bellevue East and Bellevue West students that placed 1st and 2nd at the HOSA State Leadership Conference will be recognized.
 

Bellevue East students that placed 1st and 2nd at the DECA State Conference will be recognized.
 

Bellevue East and Bellevue West students that placed 1st and 2nd at the State German Convention will be recognized.
 

Bren Venable, BPS Bus Driver, Donna Janulewicz, Heath Paraprofessional at Two Springs and Ray Cluff, BPS Transportation Dispatcher will be recognized for life saving actions for a student.
 

Administrative Recommendation:(1) Noemi Arias Saldana, (2) Rebekah Bennett, (3) Alyssa Conley, (4) Chara Eckery, (5) Janez Egan, (6) Alexandra Eledge, (7) Sarah Geiken, (8) Stephanie Hall, (9) Nathanael Hindman, (10) Hanna Hofmann, (11) Rebecca Holland, (12) Kinley Holm, (13) Raegan Hughes, (14) Victoria Jacox, (15) Kaitlyn Kitsmiller, (16) Kelcey Lueninghoener, (17) Christy Mach, (18) Brooke Mattia, (19) Megan Mendick, (20) Desiree Milner, (21) Nicole Miner, (22) Joseph Mlnarik, (23) Emily Moore, (24) Rachel Nimmer, (25) Shely Penke, (26) Ashley Quintela Valle, (27) Charles Rosenthal, (28) Alexis Schall, (29) Korisa Schoepke, (30) Katherine Storm, (31) Kyla Stutzman, (32) Michaela Touchstone and (33) Christine Van Haute be released from their contracts effective May 22, 2025 and that (34) Mary Sasek be released from her contract effective June 30, 2025.
 

Administrative Recommendation:(1) Martha Aguirre, (2) Reuben Barry, (3) Courtney Biller, (4) Andrew Cangelose, (5) Krystal Doster, (6) Aubriana Garcia, (7) Kyra Holguin, (8) Brittany Kabat, (9) Ava Kelly, (10) Macey King, (11) Tinley King, (12) Levi Laib, (13) Julie Larsen, (14) Whitney Matthews, (15) Alexis Saxton, (16) Michelle Shoning, (17) Ashley Silligman, (18) Claire Taylor, (19) Emily Taylor, (20) Justine Trumble, (21) Daytan Vallinch, (22) Bente Wagner, (23) Skyler Wendling, (24) Elliott Zadow and (25) Claire Zbylut be elected to the certified staff for the 2025-26 school year effective August 1, 2025 subject to their release from any contractual agreements with other school districts.
 

Administrative Recommendation: (1) Rachel Durr be granted a leave of absence without pay effective August 1, 2025 through May 21, 2026.
 

Administrative Recommendation: that the following addendum to the contract between Aubriana Garcia and the Bellevue Board of Education dated April 14, 2025 shall be entered into with the following qualification(s) or additions: Successful completion of the appropriate Praxis Content Test as identified and determined by the Nebraska Department of Education.

Administrative Recommendation: that the following addendum to the contract between Daytan Vallinch and the Bellevue Board of Education dated April 14, 2025 shall be entered into with the following qualification(s) or additions: Successful completion of the appropriate Praxis Content Test as identified and determined by the Nebraska Department of Education.

Administrative Recommendation: that the following addendum to the contract between Skyler Wendling and the Bellevue Board of Education dated April 14, 2025 shall be entered into with the following qualification(s) or additions: Successful completion of the appropriate Praxis Content Test as identified and determined by the Nebraska Department of Education.
 

Each year the Board of Education considers the compensation package for non-union employee groups. For the 2025/2026 school year, a 4.088% total package increase is proposed for the Administrators (B), Secretaries (E), Sign Language Interpreters (I), Supervisor/Specialists (K), Custodial and Maintenance (C), Full-time Transportation (G) and the Part Time & Temporary Staff (T) schedules. Substitute Teachers (Sub), Summer School Teacher, and Curriculum/Instruction Pay continue to be competitive within the metro area.

Administrative Recommendation: Approve the compensation package for non-union employee groups as presented.
 

A one-year salary agreement representing a 4.088% total package increase has been reached and ratified by Local 226 representation employees from the Food Service group.

Attached are copies of the current and proposed salary program.

Administrative Recommendation: Approve the one-year Food Service salary agreement as presented.
 

A one-year salary agreement representing a 4.088% total package increase has been reached and ratified by Local 226 representation employees from the Transportation group.

Attached are copies of the current and proposed salary program.

Administrative Recommendation: Approve the one-year Transportation salary agreement as presented.
 

Tonight, the board will consider the renewal of the Superintendent's contract until June 30, 2028, and approve the Superintendent Pay Transparency Notice. The current and proposed contracts are attached, along with the Nebraska Department of Education Schedule D.
 

Bellevue East and Bellevue West competed at the State HOSA Leadership Conference. The students who have qualified will represent Bellevue East and Nebraska at the International Leadership Conference in Nashville in June.

Congratulations to the following Bellevue East students:
Maame Ayensu-Aboagye, State Champion - Epidemiology
Isa Keuhn, Angel Dawson, Christine Adzafui, State Champion - Creative Problem Solving
Henry Yost and Daniella Evans, 3rd place - Forensic Science
Blake Zimmerman, 3rd place - Pathophysiology
Madison Sweet, 4th place - Phlebotomy (alternate for ILC)

Congratulations to the following Bellevue West students:
Jade Meekins, 2nd place - Pharmacology

Bellevue West HOSA Bowl team qualified for Semi-Finals, finishing 6th (out of 20) in a tie-breaker round - Derek Buchholz, Jade Meekins, Paige Falkner and Aiden Monro.
 

Bellevue East and Bellevue West competed at the State DECA Conference.

The students who have qualified will represent Bellevue East and Nebraska at the International Career Development Conference in Orlando.

Bellevue East
Taylana Tolbert, 1st Place Marketing Communications Series
Kyler Brey, 3rd Place Accounting Applications Series
Jaidyn Gaddis, 5th Place Hotel & Lodging Management
Mackenzie Smock, 5th Place Quick Serve Restaurant Management
Mary Ziegerer, 6th Place Principles of Finance
Adrian Davis, 8th Place Accounting Applications Series
Senior Living a Legacy Leadership Scholarship: Charli O'Quinn, this year's DECA President

Bellevue West
Andrew Taylor, 7th place Retail Merchandising
Aniya Williams, 5th place Sports and Entertainment Marketing

Robert Herechski will represent Bellevue West in the Emerging Leaders Series at the International Conference next month.
 

Bellevue East and Bellevue West German students competed at the annual DeutschCon 2025 (State German Convention) in March. Congratulations to all the students for their accomplishments.

Bellevue East
Xander Pape, 1st place in Art
He made a puppet depicting a character from German folklore.
Avery Armour, 2nd place in Banner
The banner represented our school in the art style of Franz Marc and was highly praised for its color and 3D effect.

Bellevue West
Isaiah Nomiyama, 1st place for club shirt design
Carson Boehne, 2nd place for the music video
Isaiah Nomiyama, 3rd place for Directed Dialogue Level 3
 

Congratulations to the Bellevue West Forensics team on their success at the district Forensics competition. The speech team competed at Lincoln Southeast in the A-3 District. The following students placed in finals and they had 7 students and 8 events qualify for State in Kearney. As a team, they finished in 3rd place.

Qualifiers:
Aarj Patel, Extemp Champion, 3rd in Informative
Isaiah Perry, 2nd in Extemp
Mason Bird, 3rd in Persuasive
Catherine Augustyn, 3rd in Serious Prose
Kalyssa Williams, 2nd in Serious Prose
Zoey Lauhon and Catherine Augustyn, 3rd in Duo Interpretation
Elizabeth Stratton, 3rd in Entertainment

Finalists, non-advancing:
Mason Bird, Poetry
Lina Foss, Nat Thomas, Andrew Callison, AJ Bior, Zoey Lauhon - 6th in Oral Interpretation of Drama
Salem Van Roy, Elizabeth Stratton, Savina Poutre, Kalyssa Williams - 5th in Oral Interpretation of Drama
 

Bellevue West competed in the NSAA State Speech Championships recently. Congratulations to Aarj Patel, 4th place in Extemporaneous and Mason Bird, 6th place in Persuasive.
 

Congratulations to Bellevue West and Bellevue East student artists for their great showing at the Scholastic Art Show.

Bellevue West had 10 seniors receive awards for their portfolios and 3 seniors win the Gold Key which is the highest honor. Both of those recognitions were the highest in the state.

Senior Gold Key Winners:
Ashleigh Frazier, Alexandra Fiala, Arrow Boehne

Please check out the students art work: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1udsoIny4H6EKTyvqL9NqHKOIg2DkKQQZoOvKkL-YMW8/edit?usp=sharing

Bellevue East Artists earning Scholastic Art awards:
Addison Pithan, Carson Rollings, Sofia Burton, Bethany Murphy, O'dell Jackson, and Lucky Lewis.

The Individual awards are listed on each image, check out the students work: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1IwoBOkCqnR_pqjjEljYnpLLJpvRFLYtZCmZZRMQvoDs/edit?usp=sharing

In addition to the gold key, silver key and honorable mentions, two artworks earned additional honors. Addison Pithan earned the prestigious American Visions nomination and Bethany Murphy's work will be on display at the Artists' Cooperative Gallery in downtown Omaha.
 

The Bellevue East Quiz Bowl team finished second place at the Bellevue University Quiz Bowl Tournament recently. This is one of the largest tournaments of the season with 32 teams from Eastern Nebraska and Western Iowa competing in a double-elimination bracket.

Congratulations to the following members of the team: Ryan Kasperek, Killian O'Lone, Jonah Jolley, Carter Acosta, and Amaya Sterup.
 

Bellevue East JROTC cadets competed at the University of Nebraska Omaha. Results are as follows:

1st place IDD Unarmed; 1st place IDD Armed; 1st place Dual Exhibition; 1st place Armed Regulation; 1st place Armed Overall; 1st place Unarmed Overall; 2nd place Unarmed Regulation; 1st place Armed Exhibition; and Grand Champions!
 

Bellevue West hosted the HWAA Championships in March. They had three guard teams, two winds teams and one combined percussion team compete. The JV and Varsity guards placed 3rd in their division; and the combined percussion and Varsity winds both placed first in their divisions.
 

Congratulations to the West Connection Show Choir on their 3rd place division win in prelims and making finals for a 4th runner up finish at the Westwood Jubilation, the final competition of the season. Also, congratulations to Frankie Miller who for the second consecutive year won runner up in the solo competition. A special congratulations to this group on a great season; they have placed in the top 3 (earning them a trophy) in their division, and qualified for finals ( top 6 of the competition) at every competition this season. In addition they have accumulated 2 solo awards, 2 best performer awards, 1 sportsmanship award, and 2 People's Choice awards.
 

Congratulations to Bellevue West mathematicians for their victory at the Peru State Math competition recently. Bellevue West entered two different Calculus teams into the Peru State Math Day competition and won 1st and 2nd place in the Team Competition as well as 1st and 3rd in the Quiz Bowl Competition.
 

Congratulations to Bellevue West student artists for their great showing at the NFWC Art show. They had 4 artists win blue ribbons, which qualifies them for the state competition.

Special congratulations to: Ashleigh Frazier, Janiyah Wills, Taylor Morton and Finn Lawton.

Interested in viewing the student work, please visit this site: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1kpM6R4ex3ePONCQKS9HDpQY8whP_JbTnpLawU4rByGU/edit?usp=sharing
 

Congratulations to Bellevue East students who competed in the UNO Language Fair at the beginning of April. Results are as follows:

Tori Bogatz, Brianna Yang, Sage Frasier, Kristen Salisbury, Margot Boyd, Kaz Boldender, Grace Rued, MaKenzie Hoskins - 1st place Level 2 French Drama: "Hogwarts va à Beauxbatons"
("Hogwarts goes to Beauxbatons" a skit in which Harry, Ron and Hermione go to France and have a serious misunderstanding about what a "baguette magique" is.)

EJ Garrett and Elizabeth Rieth - 1st place Level 1 Music
(They sang "Mon Regard" in French and were complimented by the judges for their accents)

Congratulations to Bellevue West students who also competed in the UNO Language Fair. Results are as follows:

Four students won first place for their German Film, Level 2 and of those who can be listed are Isaiah Nomiyama, Zachary Seelbach, and Xzayvian Incontro.

Isaiah Nomiyama also won Honorable Mention for Creative Poetry, Level 2.
 

Congratulations to Bellevue West German Club students who competed in the UNO Language Fair in March. Two students won first place awards:

Isaiah Nomiyama for German Poetry Creation, Level 2 (Level 2 = German 3+)

Gabriel Rouse for German Poster, Level 1 (Level 1 = German 1 or German 2)
 

Congratulations to the Bellevue East students for placing Gold in the Nebraska Diploma Seal of Biliteracy exam. This certifies their bilingual skills in reading, writing, listening and speaking in the Spanish language on their diplomas from Bellevue East.

Jordan Larson, Ryan Kasperek, Joshua Garcia, Richard Sanchez-Garcia, and Mirlhen Ramirez-Gonzalez

Stephanie Carranza Pulido, Ruby Cortes-Mancinas, Nathalie Rangel-Alvarado, and Catherine Barron-Alvarado placed Silver.
 

Congratulations to Bellevue East yearbook and newspaper students for their recent successes in the Nebraska Press Women's High School Journalism Contest.

Brianna Yang, 1st in Feature Story
Brianna Yang, 2nd in Environment
Victoria Bogatz, 3rd in Review
Savannah Stultz, honorable mention, Environment
Lillian Herrick, honorable mention, News Story
Addison Pithan and Jaidyn Gaddis, honorable mention in Yearbook Layout 
 

Congratulations to Bellevue East Green Initiative on receiving the Hillside Solution's 2024 Eco-friendly Schools award for their Share Bin program.
 

Enjoy a short video about their efforts: https://youtube.com/shorts/xSG0QD5LUzI?feature=share
 

Bellevue East junior, Tori Bogatz, was named the 2025-2026 Nebraska Youth Poet Laureate by the Nebraska Writers Council.

This competition identifies influential youth poets with a history of artistic success, civic and community engagement, social justice initiatives, and leadership.

The Nebraska YPL will receive $1,000, up to $2,000 towards a civic-engagement project of their design, year-long guidance from a creative and civic mentor, and at least 6 public readings in Nebraska. Also, being the Nebraska YPL makes them eligible to compete in the regional and national Youth Poet Laureate competitions (just like 2021 Inaugural Poet Amanda Gorman.
 

Congratulations to Fort Crook student, Isabella Kaup, for placing 1st and Two Springs' student, Kora Nesbit, for placing 4th in the state for the Severe Weather Awareness Poster Contest.

Third graders across Nebraska provided tips for being prepared for disasters that can impact Nebraskans during the spring and summer. The top four students were recognized for their winning posters.

Governor Pillen signed a proclamation declaring March 24-28 as Nebraska Severe Weather Awareness Week.

An outstanding achievement Isabella and Kora, thank you for representing your schools and the Bellevue Public Schools District at the State Capitol! https://nema.nebraska.gov/articles.php?nid=300
 

Radcliffe, Gilbertson, and Brady the Districts lobbyist will report on the 2025 Legislative session.
 

The administration will provide the Board with an update on the Strategic Plan Priority #4 Engaging Our Community.
 

The following Administrative Regulation will be presented for review:

                     511 Transgender Students - Revised
 

The Kindergarten registration process for the 2025-2026 school year kicked off February 19th and is available online through the BPS District website for parents/guardians to enroll their child(ren). Kindergarten Orientation/Roundup events will take place in April at each elementary school. To date, 490 students have registered for kindergarten. By state law, a child must be five years of age on or before July 31st  in order to enter kindergarten. The law also includes a provision for early entrance assessment. Nine children are scheduled for early entrance assessment.

Public comment pertaining to items not otherwise on the Agenda must be submitted to the Secretary of the Board five days prior to the Board meeting.  

Alyssa Osborn - Sustainability in BPS
 

April 17, BPS Staff Celebration

April 25, BPS Foundation Scholarship Breakfast, BPS Lied Activity Center

May 5, Board of Education Meeting, Welcome Center, 6:30 p.m.

May 6, District Retirement Reception, BPS Lied Activity Center
 

Adjourn to Executive Session to consider matters relating to strategy sessions for personnel, which are necessary to be considered in closed session for the protection of the public interest and for the needless injury to the reputation of an individual.