Rationale: 

Welcome to the Budget Hearing for the 2010-2011 school year. The purpose of this hearing is to give taxpayers the opportunity to provide support, opposition, criticism, or suggestions and observations regarding the budget.

Ms. Schwartz will review budget items and the board will provide an opportunity for public comment. The adoption of the budget will take place by a vote during the board meeting and not at the hearing.   

Rationale: 

Welcome to the Tax Request Hearing for the 2010-2011 school year. The purpose of this hearing is to give taxpayers the opportunity to provide support, opposition, criticism, or suggestions and observations regarding the proposed tax request.

Ms. Schwartz will review the tax requests and the board will provide the opportunity for public input. The regular business meeting of the board will begin at the close of this hearing.

Rationale:  If any board member is absent, there will need to be a  motion to excuse the absence.

Rationale:   

It is the vision of the Norfolk Public Schools to actively engage all students in learning
through a relevant and comprehensive standards-based curriculum that integrates
 21^st century skills, tools, context, and assessments.  

• Goal #1:  All students will succeed at each grade level and graduate from high school well-prepared for a variety of post-secondary pursuits.

• Goal #2:  All students will feel connected with the school and the learning process.

• Goal #3:  District resources, programs, and departments will be aligned to attain high levels of student achievement and instructional excellence.

• Goal #4:  The community will be engaged to support high levels of student achievement.

  The mission of the Norfolk Public Schools is to prepare studentswith the skills and knowledge to meet the challenges of a complex, global society.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rationale:  August 9 - 4:30 Study Session
August 9 - 7:30 Regular Meeting
August 21 - Board Retreat
August 26 - 2nd Meeting of the Month

Rationale: 

LB 742 requires a public record of all settled claims. A written settlement agreement is required when the claim is settled by the payment of $50,000 or more.

 

Rationale: 

Policy 507.2 meets the statutory requirement that school districts adopt academic content standards in line with those adopted by the State Board of Education.

The statute related to adoption of standards by school districts states:

79-760.02: In accordance with timelines that are adopted by the State Board of Education, but in no event later than one year following the adoption or modification of state standards, each school district shall adopt measurable quality academic content standards in the subject areas of reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies. The standards may be the same as, or may be equal to or exceed in rigor, the measurable academic content standards adopted by the state board and shall cover at least the same grade levels.

Rationale: 

Total of bills approved by the Board:

            General Fund =             $460,491.92
            Cooperative Fund =      $8,678.89
            Lunch Fund =                $87,025.57
            Special Building Fund = $344,814.63

Included in the Special Building Fund expenditures were payments to Beckenhauer for the Senior High Renovation ($175,595.30) and the Lincoln Project ($110,290.52.  The Board also approved final claims for the 2009/2010 fischal year for the General Fund for $439,650.98.

Business Office personnel have been working toward completion of the September payroll for the new budget year.  Business Office personnel are also working on final financial reports for NCLB and ARRA grants.  SPED PreSchool and SPED Transportation Final Reports are due September 30.  The regular SPED final financial is due in October.

The application for the State Fiscal Stablization dollars (included in our State Aid dollars) has been submitted.  We plan to spend these dollars for retention of teachers, consequently, we will use them to pay for salaries and salary related items.   We must expend the dollars before we can request reimbursement. 

We are beginning the audit process for the 2009/2010 fiscal year.  The District audit report is due November 5th. 

I believe we are in a good place financially as we begin the 2010/2011 fiscal year.  We must continue to monitor our cash flow and spend conservatively.  With a minimum growth in our budget and a reduction in resources, buiding our cash reserves rather than expending them will be challenging.  The small budget growth will be used in salary and benefit increases which results in less dollars for operating our day to day business functions.

Rationale: 

 

Assessment / Curriculum

NeSA-Reading Results

A detailed overview of the NeSA-Reading results was presented at the board work session earlier. Overall, the performance of our district on NeSA-Reading showed us that we have work to do to ensure that all students are reaching their appropriate levels of proficiency. Teachers and administrators have already began to dissect the NeSA data and are working to incorporate appropriate strategies to improve the performance of our students.

Parent reports that detail individual student performance on NeSA-Reading were mailed to families early last week. If parents have questions about their child’s performance, they should contact their child’s teacher and/or principal.

Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Testing

All students in grades 3-8 and 11 are currently taking fall MAP tests throughout the district. Our district will be taking part in both fall and spring testing during the current school year. This will allow us to effectively measure student growth throughout the school year.

Curriculum Coordinating Council

The Curriculum Coordinating Council will begin meeting this week with our first meeting being scheduled for Thursday, September 16 at 3;45. Topics that will be discussed will include NeSA-Reading results as well as the upcoming NeSA-Math test. Discussion about Digital Conversion will also be held with the team.

Professional Development

Friday NET/PLC Meeting Update

To date, the district has held three NET/PLC sessions on Friday afternoons.

• August 27th—All NPS staff were together in the Carson Theater and received an overview of the Professional Learning Communities (PLC) process.

• September 3rd—Building NET/PLC sessions were held where teams of teachers developed group norms and outlined goals for the upcoming meetings

• September 9th—Builidng NET/PLC sessions were held where norms were reviewed and and finalized. Additionally building teams began the process of discussing instruction (specifically Saxon Math) and data (DIBLES and NeSA-Reading).

Rationale: 

ASSOCIATE SUPERINTENDENT OF STUDENT SERVICES

 

v  September 3, 2010 Enrollment

 

Grade	BA	GR	JF	LN/MO	WA	WE	WP	Totals
PreK				60				60
ECC				45				45
Kdg.	50	44	49	22	67	50	49	331
1st	50	50	57	21	51	48	34	311
2nd	53	38	45	21	40	53	54	304
3rd	55	41	55	20	38	38	45	292
4th	50	34	49	18	41	56	43	291
Totals	258	207	255	207	237	245	225	1634

 

Grade	MS	JH	SH
5th	282
6th	272
7th		291
8th		309
9th			307
10th			312
11th			283
12th			333
Totals	554	600	1235

 

v  Building enrollments for the last three years are:

 

School	8/29/2008	8/25/2009	**9/3/2010
Bel Air	289	332	258
Grant	151	171	207
Jefferson	197	217	255
Lincoln/PreK/ECC	121	107	105
Montessori	78	82	102
Northern Hills	142	128	0
Reiche	0	0	0
Sunny Meadow	72	0	0
Washington	211	212	237
Westside	251	288	245
Winter	0	0	0
Woodland Park	238	257	225
Middle School	591	606	554
Junior High	564	586	600
Senior High	925	905	1235
Totals	3830	3891	4023

 

**Sept. 2010—grade configuration change to K-4, 5-6, 7-8 & 9-12

 

 

v     School had a successful start.  Reconfiguration of grade levels has gone smoothly and schools are settling into a schedule.

 

v      I had my initial visits with Title I Reading, school nurses, and ELL staff.  We discussed schedules, student numbers, and initial needs.  Plans are that Title I Reading teachers and ELL staff will be forming their own PLC groups for this year and I will continue to meet with the Student Health and Nurses on a regular monthly basis.

 

v     For your information, the Norfolk Community Health Care Clinic (NCHCC) was of great assistance to the district this past August.  We had many students who needed immunization updates and physicals in order to start school on time and the clinic helped us out immensely.

 

v     Norfolk Public Schools is a corporate sponsor for the 2010 Norfolk PATCH Fair.  The fair is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, September 17^th and 18^th.  This has been a great opportunity for the school to build relationships with the business district and other community members.

 

v     Our ALICAP (All Lines Interlocal Cooperative Aggregate Pool) Safety representative will be in the district later this month.  He will be reviewing our workers compensation figures, visiting with our district’s Safety Committee as well as visiting with our district’s transportation department.  I will keep you posted regarding any necessary update requirements.

 

Rationale:  Finance Committee:

1.  Reviewed the Bills for EOY August claims and the September bill list.
2.  Reviewed the Summary of Funds Report
3.  Reviewed the proposed 2010-2011 Budget and Tax Request as proposed at the Budget Hearing and Tax Request Hearing.

Rationale:  Recommend approval of District Budgets for 2010-2011 as published in the Norfolk Daily News on Friday, September 3, 2010.

Rationale:  New Mathematics Standards and Action Required -- New state academic standards in the subject area of mathematics were adopted by the State Board of Education on October 8, 2009.  Each school district will need to adopt these standards,  or standards that are the same as, equal to, or more rigorous.  Under 79.760.02, the school district also need to make sure that local standards cover at least the same grade levels as the state standards.  This process will need to be repeated as the State Board adopst new academic content standards in science and social studies by July 2013.

It is no longer necessary to submit local standards to NDE for review.  When each school districts completes its assurance statement for Rule 10, due November 1, the superintendent will be assuring that the new mathematics standards adopted by the local board are the same as, equal to, or more rigorous than the adopted state standards.