September 12, 2011 at 7:30 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Rationale: 

Welcome to the Budget Hearing for the 2011-2012 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 2011-2012 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 8, 2011 - 4:30 Study Session
August 8, 2011 - 7;30 Regular Session
August 24, 2011 - 5:15 - Special Meeting
August 25, 2011 - 12:00 - 2nd Meeting of the Month

Rationale: 

New regulations for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) went into effect on March 15, 2011. The regulations require that public schools “modify its policies, practices, or procedures to permit the use of a service animal by an individual with a disability.”

Rationale:  LB 463 made another change in the truancy laws. The truancy policy is now required to include the following: The policy shall include a provision indicating how the school district and the county attorney will handle cases in which excessive absences are due to documented illness that makes attendance impossible or impracticable, and the policy shall state the number of absences or the hourly equivalent upon the occurrence of which the school shall render all services in its power to compel such child to attend some public, private, denominational, or parochial school, which the person having control of the child shall designate, in an attempt to address the problem of excessive absenteeism.

In response to this new requirement, our policy #501.04 adds the following under Section 6 – Reporting Excessive Absenteeism to the County Attorney: “When reporting excessive absenteeism, the attendance officer shall inform the county attorney whether the excessive absences are due to documented illnesses that make attendance impossible or impractical. This may be done by informing the County Attorney of either the number of absences due to such illnesses or that the attendance officer is of the opinion that prosecution is not warranted.”

Rationale:  Deb Sudbeck, Lincoln School media paraprofessional

Rationale:  September Bills:

GENERAL FUND:                   $330,852.09
COOPERATIVE FUND:           $2,308.74
LUNCH FUND:                      $68,736.16
SPECIAL BUILDING FUND:   $23.50

ADDITIONAL AUGUST BILLS AND TRANSFERS:  

GENERAL FUND:                 $669,075.26 

Final Financial Reports for all NCLB grants, Migrant, Perkins, SCIP, State Special Education Regional Grant have been completed.  Waiting on Title 1 Part A to submit. 

Accounting staff have began to process final financial reports as requested by the auditors.  Auditors were on site today and will be in the District for at least the next two weeks.  It is a busy time as we have been working on new payroll, inputting the budget into the accounting system and providing reports and data as requested by audit. 

We are closing out the 2010-2011 year in good shape.  Principals and Administrators, along with all District staff, have done a great job in prioritizing their needs and monitoring spending.  This will definitely assist the District in another conservative budget year. 

Rationale: 

NeSA-Reading & Mathematics Results

 

A detailed overview of the NeSA-Reading results was presented at the board work session earlier.  Overall, improvements were made in reading and strong baseline data was collected for mathematics.  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 sent to families 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 10 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. 

Rationale: 

 

v  Norfolk Public Schools remains a corporate sponsor of the 2011 Norfolk Patch Health Fair.  The Fair is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, September 16^th and 17^th.  This continues to be a great opportunity for NPS to build relationships with the business district and other community members.  I certainly hope NPS faculty and staff will take advantage of this Health Fair opportunity.

 

v  I have had initial visits with our Student Health Committee, School Nurses, ELL/Migrant staff and our district supervisors for Maintenance, Transportation and Custodial services.  We have discussed schedules, student and program numbers and most importantly student needs. 

 

v  Other scheduled committee meetings are noted on the school calendar that is located on the NPS website.

 

v  Jim Lukesh from the Nebraska Department of Education will be in the district on Wednesday September 28^th.  He will be here conducting a three-year review of our NCLB grants.  Those grants are Title I – Part A (Title I- Reading); Title 1 Part – C (Migrant Education), Title IIA (Teacher and Principal Training and Recruiting ); Title II D- (Enhancing Education through Technology); Title III – Language Acquisition (Limited Proficiency and Immigrant Education); Title IV – Part A – Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities) and Title V- Innovative Programs.  Following his visit the district will receive a written report of his findings - things we are doing well and areas where we need to improve.

 

Rationale:  The Finance Committee met today at noon at the Central Administration building.  Clark Froehlich and Alfredo Ramirez were present, Bruce Mitchell was absent. 

The committee members reviewed the final bill list for the 2010-2011 fiscal year.  The September bills were also reviewed.

The committee members reviewed the main components of the proposed 2011-2012 District budgets of expenditures and transfers, the proposed tax levy, the increases/decreases of each fund. 

Rationale:  Recommend approval of District Budgets for 2011-2012 as published in the Norfolk Daily News on Friday, September 2, 2011.

Rationale:  Board approval on the closing and final sale of the Victory Road property.

Rationale:  The second monthly meeting of the board is scheduled for Thursday, September 22, 2011 at noon in the central office board room.

The next regular meeting of the board of education is scheduled for Monday, October 10, 2011. The study session will be held at 4:30 p.m. in the central office board room and the regular business meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers.