February 14, 2011 at 7:30 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

The Board approved the bills for February as follows:

·         General Fund Total Expenditures for February = $384,489.85

·         Cooperative Fund Total Expenditures for February, 2011 = $42,798.90

·         Lunch Fund Total Expenditures for February, 2011 = $86,344.84

·         Building Fund Total Expenditures for February, 2011 = $43,779.95

·         Bond Fund Total Expenditures for February, 2011 = $450.00

As of this month, we are half way through our fiscal year.  Fund balances are looking good.  We will shut off the budget at the end of February except for emergency items and begin to put together building and departmental discretionary budgets for next year.  Based on current year budgets, the principals will be asked to project what they feel they will need for next year.  Once the projections are returned to Central Office, we will begin to fit them to our preliminary budget of expenditures.  We will return projected budgets and ask for reductions if necessary.  At this time, we are projecting a total budget of expenditures for the general to be 2.65% less than current year.  Should we decide to implement a budget similar to the current year, it would mean spending $1 to $1.5 million of our cash reserves.

Federal fund reimbursements are slow in coming.  We have just received the dollars requested from our first reimbursement submission as of the end of November. 

Assessment / Curriculum

Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Testing

All students in grades 3-8 and 11 will begin taking the MAP test on February 21. The test window will run through March 25.

NeSA-Writing Assessment

The NeSA-Writing test window closed on Friday for grades 4 and 8 and will close for 11th grade on this coming Friday. We are excited to see results for our students are are confident that they will continue to perform well. Cudos to our teachers for working to hard to prepare their students. Their hard work, along with the hard work of the students, will continue to pay off.

Professional Development

NET/PLC Meeting Update

January 14th—District NET day. Elementary teachers met as grade levels to discuss academic issues including writing in kindergarten, technology/SMART Board use in 1st grade, teaching academic vocabulary in 2nd grade, and preperationf for the state writing exam in 4th grade.

January 21st—Building NET/PLC sessions were held.

January 28th—District NET day.

February 4th—Building NET day.

February 11th—No School for staff or students.

Teacher Evaluation Model Redevelopment

As was reported in the 4:30 meeting, a team of nine teachers, principals, and central office administrators within the district is working to redevelop the our teacher evaluation model. The new model will be based upon work done by Charlotte Danielson as outlined in her book, Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching. The new evaluation model will be designed around the four domains of teaching which include:

1. Planning and preperation,

2. The classroom environment,

3. Instruction, and

4. Professional responsibilities.

Within each domain are five to six components that define good teaching and within each component are two to five elements that further illustrate what good teaching looks like.

-          Norfolk Public School Staff hosted Spring Parent-Teacher Conferences during the week of February 7^th.  As soon as the attendance percentages are available I will share that with the Board.

-          February 16^th Norfolk Public Schools – Crisis Response Team will be hosting Dr. John Dudley at NECC.  Dr. Dudley, in his afternoon session, will be sharing recommendations on a variety of topics with area school crisis teams.  (A copy of the flyer is attached for your information.)

-          Norfolk Public Schools 3^rd and 4^th graders will be attending the Norfolk Arts Center’s “Art Festival” on either February 23^rd or 24^th.  The Edgerton Explorit Center from Aurora, NE will be presenting again this year.

-          Our 3^rd quarter will be ending on Wednesday March 9^th.

The Finance Committee met at Central Office at noon today.  The bills for February were reviewed.  The current 403(b) program was discussed.  Silverstone representatives were present to discuss 403(b) program options.