April 9, 2018 at 5:30 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Rationale:  The Norfolk Public School District's board of education meeting is called to order.  

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

Rationale:  This is a legal meeting of the board of education, as advertised by the means specified in board policy. A complete copy of the Open Meetings Act is posted in the board room for your review. A copy of the agenda is available at the desk of the recording secretary.
 

Rationale:  25th Street Property Renovation-CMB Architects
Building Visits-Board members

Rationale:  Please stand and join us in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Rationale: 

At this time I would like to open the hearing to discuss, consider, and receive input on the student fee policy.  Attached for your review are the following:

1. Audited Student fee receipts and expenditures in 2016-2017 (Attachment A)

2. Proposed fees for 2018-2019 (Attachment B)

At this time, if any member of the public wishes to comment or give opinions on the student fee policy and proposed fees for 2018-2019, we ask that you come up to the microphone and state your name.

Comments

The district collected $137,920 in board approved student fees in the areas of instruction and activities during the 2016-2017 school year. These fee dollars can only be expended for the items for which they are collected.  The district had $88,481 in board approved disbursements for 2016-2017 which left the fund with a cash balance of $239,228 as of August 31, 2017.  The cash balance is primarily composed of those fees which are not necessarily expended on an annual basis such as the technology, summer school and 21st Century fees.  The district reviews all items on the proposed fee list annually and only lists those fees which we believe are necessary to help offset the total cost to the district.

Rationale:  LIFE management...a 7th grade family, consumer science class that focuses on career readiness standards.

Rationale:  Peggy Belt will share some exciting news about the amazing things happening within our Speech program, and State Champion, Marissa Carr, will share her #1 Poetry Presentation.

Rationale:  March 2018 Success Pin Recipients
 

Dana Mimick	Heather Marotz	Heather Wingate
Deanna Dolezal	Teresa Goodrich	Shari Mickelson
Molly Herpy	Jim Simonsen	Alexandrina Gardea
Lori Lundy	Rose McPhillips	Keriann DeFor
Curt Guenther	Amy Casey	Kathy Farlee
Dale Donner	Jeff Mrsny	Sandy McConnell
Sarah Eymann	Patti Hagedorn	Jessica Roberts
Pat Larson	Kathy Naranjo	Jeanne Schmid
Rosalva De la Cruz

Rationale: 

This is the time during the meeting when the public may request to address the Board. If you wish to comment, we ask that you identify yourself and the topic that you wish to address. Each individual's comments will be limited to five minutes.

 Please note that  the Board cannot discuss or act upon matters that are not listed on the agenda. Therefore, Board  members will not respond to your comments or questions.  If you wish to request that an item be placed on a future Board agenda, you may contact the Superintendent or her assistant during normal business hours.

Also note that concerns related to school personnel need to be addressed to the Superintendent using the approved district protocol.

Rationale: 

Total amount of claims to be approved in the consent agenda for the month of April, 2018 by specific fund are as follows:

General Fund = $628,158.37

Nutrition Services Fund =$254,609.95

Cooperative Fund = $12,415.43

Special Building Fund = $29,583.19

Student Fee Fund = $1,887.31

The total amount of claims for the month of March, 2018 in the Activities Fund are as follows:
Activity Fund =$103,088.40

All of these claims were reviewed earlier today by the Finance and Facility Committee.

Rationale:  Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment

• The required state ACT test was administered on Tuesday, April 3^rd.  I helped with the check-in process and I was impressed again this year, by the organization. The Senior High Administration, guidance counselors and teachers were spot on. I’m pleased to say that even most students knew when and where to be. In conversations at PLC, there were some suggestions for next year. I will keep everyone informed as results become available.
• At the 3^rd-8^th grade, we are administering the NSCAS (Nebraska Student Centered Accountability System). The new test engine is working well. I will admit there was a strict learning curve with administrators and organizers of the test sessions. The functionality is going well. There are still details revolving special accommodations that will need tying up and rosters that will need to be reviewed for accuracy by the end of the window. Also, 3^rd-8^th will be taking their Spring MAP test as well. That window is open clear into May.

Rationale: 

• On Wednesday, April 18th, Kindergarten Round-Up will be held at all our elementary buildings.  There will be activities for students and information for parents/guardians.
• District Music Contest is scheduled for Friday, April 20th.  If you can‘t attend on the 20th, they are having a Pre-contest concert on Tuesday, April 17th at 7:00 pm in the Carson Theater.
• Saturday, April 28th is Prom, which will be held at Divots. Coronation will begin at 7:45 pm. The dance will be held from 8:00 to 11:00 pm. Doors open at 7:00 pm.
• Spring sports are also in full swing, please reference the NPS activities calendar for dates and times of your favorite activity.
• Our district special education certified staff will meet on May 2nd during PLC.
• May 3rd and 4th I will be attending the Nebraska Association of Special Education Supervisors (NASES) Spring Conference in Columbus.
• Some important dates to remember:
  • May 20th - Graduation
  • May 24th - Last day of school for students
  • May 25th - Teacher work day and staff check-out.

Rationale:  Safety Information:

• In response to increased school safety concerns (and in alignment with our new district strategic planning goals) we recently distributed a video to parents and community members about our Standard Response Protocols. This video was also viewed by our staff members at PLC meetings and follow up trainings. The video is intended to provide increased consistency in our crisis responses by our staff and students and to better inform our parents and community stakeholders about the actions our schools will take in the case of an emergency or crisis situation. Additionally, we also sent out information to students and parents about a new reporting system called Safe Schools Alert. Finally, we added a school safety section on our district website. Special thanks to Sarah Dittmer, Lorena Pantoja, and Sandy Rose for their assistance in helping us "roll out" this information to the public.

Instructional Model:

• Our Instructional Model Task Force will be providing additional training to our staff about our new Instructional Model in April and May. Our district will utilize this model to effectively train our new teachers and reinforce essential instructional elements with all of our staff.  

Hiring Season:

• The hiring season continues to be busy for our district and we are carefully reviewing applications and selecting the highest quality candidates to fill our most recent and anticipated openings. We are getting great interest from very skilled and quality applicants who are excited about joining our team. We will continue to advertise and recruit as needed until all of our spots have been filled.

Personnel Update:
Current Openings:

• Activity Bus Drivers
• Bel Air- Autism Paraprofessional
• Bel Air- Evening Custodian
• General Maintenance /Transportation
• General Maintenance/ Electrician
• Grant Elementary:  Elementary Guidance Counselor:
• High Ability Learner Facilitator
• Junior High- Resource Paraprofessional/Driver
• Speech/Language Pathologist (1)
• SPED Teacher (ED) at the MS
• SPED Teacher (ED) at the HS
• Grant Elementary Teacher 4th Grade
• Substitute Custodians
• Westside Elementary- ED Paraprofessional/Driver-F/T
• Woodland Park Secretary
• Woodland Park Health Tech
• Substitute Teachers
• Substitute Paraprofessionals/Secretary

Current Coaching Openings:

• 7th Boys Head Basketball (2018-2019)
• JV Volleyball (2018-2019)
• Head Softball (2018-2019)
• Assistant Varsity Volleyball (2018-2019)
• Senior High Weight Room Supervisor (2018-2019)
• IM Head Football (2018-2019)
• Assistant Swimming-Diving (2018-2019)
• Assistant Theatre (2018-2019)
• JV Boys Basketball (2018-2019)
• Assistant Varsity Football (2018-2019)

Rationale:  Lincoln Montessori:
Lincoln Montessori held their random drawing for 2018-2019 kindergarten students on 4/3/2018.  Forty-two students applied for Montessori this year, but only have the capacity for 25 students. This means that we have 17 students on our 2018-2019 Montessori waiting list.  This is the largest number of students that we have on the waiting list since I started in 2013.
2013-1014:  3 students
2014-2015: 5 students
2015-2016: 7 students
2016-2017: 12 students
2017-2018: 2 students 
Because we had an extremely small kindergarten class across the district last year, I would hypothesize that the small waiting list last year was an anomaly.  I would further hypothesize that we have a positive growth trend in regards to students who are applying for our Montessori program. We actually has twice as many students apply for 2018-2019 than we did in 2013-2014.

Professional Growth:
I would like to take a moment to recognize Bill Robinson. Bill has successfully defended his dissertation and will officially receive his doctorate degree at the UNL graduation ceremony in May.  Obtaining a doctoral degree is a very long and difficult journey, worthy of recognition and celebration.  Congratulations, Dr. Robinson!

Rationale: 

The committee met today at 12:00 p.m.  We reviewed all claims for April, 2018, Activity claims for March, 2018 and current fund balances.  We also discussed the following items:

• Updates on the 25th street property
• Discussion with Norfolk police on possible additional resource officer
• Review of Student Fee items
• Review of action item on seeking proposals for sanitation services for 2018-2019
• Reviewed current transportation service for in town students

Our next meeting will be at 12:00 noon on May 14, 2018 at NPS central office.

Rationale:  The policy committee reviewed Board policies 5422-5601 electronically.  Only one non-substantive change (the addition of a semi-colon) was recommended.  However, it should be noted that Board policy 5422  is a completely new policy based upon a new state statute. It outlines the accommodations that we will make for pregnant and parenting students, as required by law.

 

Rationale:  The Government Relations Committee met three times in the last month (February 14th, March 23rd, and April 4th), as the legislature has kept us very busy. 

Many of the bills that we were concerned about have been filibustered, which means that their sponsors would need to show Senator Scheer that they have 33 votes before he will but them back on the agenda.  In most cases, this means that these bills are probably done for the year.  However, we will still watch them "just in case."

Bills in this category include LB 778 (Special Building Fund Restrictions), LB 640 (Groene's Property Tax Relief Bill), LB 295 (Smith vs. Linehan's Tax Credit Bill), and LB 947 (The Governor's Property Tax Bill).  We will definitely keep an eye out for LB 947, as it would be very detrimental to school funding.  LB 947 would $640 million dollars from the state's budget without any plan to replace it, and the actual tax savings for patrons would be very minimal.

There are three bills left on the agenda that we are still concerned about: LB 1069 (Brasch's Americanism Bill), LB 1084 (Briese's Property Tax Bill), and LB 1103 ( Friesen's Foundation Aid Bil).  

We believe that Brasch's Americanism Bill (1069) is unnecessary, because we already have an Americanism Committee in place to monitor district curriculum and activities related to Americanism.  In addition, we are reluctant to add more testing to students, especially testing that would not even be reported.

Briese's Property Tax Relief Bill (LB 1084) is supported by Nebraskans United and is the best property tax option available, as it includes funding sources to replace the last property tax revenue.  However, there is talk that this bill may be combined with Friesen's Foundation Aid Bill. Therefore, we are withholding our support until we see what the final bill looks like.  We would not be in favor of this, if it resulted in a reduction to equalization funding via TEEOSA.

Rationale:  Our next Activities Committee meeting is scheduled for noon on Monday, April 23, 2018.

Rationale:  Minutes from the April 3, 2018 Nurses Meeting are attached.

Rationale:  Minutes of School Board meeting held March 12, 2018 and March 22, 2018 are attached,

Rationale: 

Megan Schrant- Washington Elementary, 3rd Grade Teacher

• Master of Science Degree in Elementary Education and Special Education K-12 from Wayne State College in Wayne, Nebraska.
• Currently a student teacher at Emerson Elementary and Columbus Middles School in Columbus, Nebraska.

Tyler Beranek- Norfolk Junior High School, Math Teacher

• Bachelor of Science Degree in Middle Level Education concentration in Math and Social Sciences from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.
• Currently a Math Teacher at Seward Public Schools in Seward, Nebraska.

Shelley Hastreiter - Norfolk Senior High, English Teacher

• Bachelor of Arts Degree in Education Grades 7-12, concentration in Language Arts, from Midland University in Fremont, Nebraska.
• Currently an English and Intermediate ELL Teacher for the Fremont Public Schools in Fremont, Nebraska.

Alissa Hoffmann - Norfolk Senior High School, Social Studies Teacher

• Bachelor of Science Degree in Social Sciences Education Grades 7-12 from Wayne State College in Wayne, Nebraska.
• Currently a American History student teacher at the Norfolk Senior High School here in Norfolk, Nebraska.

Kelsey Camelin-2018-2019 - Westside Elementary, 4th Grade Teacher

• Bachelor of Science Degree in Elementary Education from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.
• Currently a student teacher for Randolph Elementary in Randolph, Nebraska.

 Jill Weidner - Westside Elementary, ELL Teacher

• Master of Science Degree in Curriculum and Instruction and English as a Second Language, from Wayne State College in Wayne, Nebraska.
• Currently a 3rd Grade Teacher at Madison Elementary in Madison, Nebraska.

Tami Kaup - Norfolk Senior High School, Special Education Vocational Programs Teacher

• Bachelor of Science Degree in Special Education Mildly - Moderately Handicapped grades K-12, from Wayne State College in Wayne, Nebraska.
• Currently a Coordinator in the Division of Developmental Disabilities Services for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services in O’Neill Nebraska.

  Kimberly Waddington - Norfolk Senior High School, English Teacher

• Master of Science Degree in in Curriculum Development and Instruction from Doane University in Crete, Nebraska.
• Currently works as a English Teacher at the Stanton High School in Stanton, Nebraska.

Kathryn Budell - Norfolk Senior High School, English Teacher

• Bachelor of Science Degree in Secondary English and Language Arts Education from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.
• Currently a English student teacher for Lincoln Southwest High School in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Emily Duerst - Norfolk Middle School and Junior High, ELL Teacher

• Bachelor of Arts in Spanish Education and Business Education. Master of science in Education in School Administration grades 7-12 from Wayne State College in Wayne, Nebraska.
• Currently a Spanish, Keyboarding and ELL Teacher at the Wayne High School in Wayne, Nebraska.

Melissa Weber - Norfolk Middle School, Special Education

• Master of Science Degree in Secondary Education concentration Special Education and History from Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska.
• Currently a Special Education Teacher grades 9-12 at Deshler Public Schools in Deshler, Nebraska.

Michael Sunderman - Norfolk Senior High School, Business Teacher

• Bachelor of Science Degree in Education concentration in Mathematics and a minor in Business, Science and Vocational Education from Kearney State College in Kearney, Nebraska.
• Previously a Business and Math Teacher for the Madison Public Schools for 37 years in Madison, Nebraska.

  Rebecca Munson - Norfolk Senior High School, Drafting Instructor

• Master of Curriculum and Instruction from Doane College in Crete, Nebraska. Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.
• Currently a Art Teacher at Elkhorn Valley Schools in Tilden, Nebraska.

 

Rationale:  Shana Chamberlain-Middle School Special Education teacher
Curtis Reese--Senior High Science teacher
Emily Reese-Senior High English teacher
Elizabeth Spray-HAL Facilitator
Julie Volwiler- Woodland Park Elementary Counselor
Jennifer Bruckner--Senior High Special Education teacher

Rationale:  Attached are the claims for the month of April, 2018.

Rationale:  Attached is Appendix "1" which are the proposed fees for 2018-2019 under policy 5416.  These proposed fees have been reviewed by all K-12 administrators and the Finance and Facilities Committee prior to the public hearing held earlier this evening. 

Rationale:  I am recommending that you approve the contract for Derek Ippensen for the 2018-2019 Senior High Principal.

Mr. Ippensen:
Bachelor of Science, Biology and Music - Doane College
Secondary Education Certification -UNK
Master of Education Administration - UNK
Educational Specialist, School Supt-UNK
Doctoral of Education - Doane -anticipated 2020

PK-12 Principal/Activities Director - Shickley Public Schools 2011- Present
Activities Director/Teacher/Coach - Central Catholic High School (West Point, NE) 2007-2011
Marketing Manager/Director in Corporate World 1999-2004

The interview committee (which included administrators, teachers, classified staff, parents, and students) selected  Mr. Ippensen, because they felt that he was the right person to serve as the next leader of NHS.  They indicated that Mr. Ippensen will bring a wide variety of experiences and skills to Norfolk High School and is a great fit for our school. The believe that Mr. Ippensen will meet the staff and students of Norfolk High where they are, honor where they have come from, keep them on their current path of growth and improvement, and help them become even better than they are today.

 

Rationale:  I recommend to allow our district to seek bids for sanitation services for the 2018-2019 school year.

Rationale:  The Elementary and Middle School Handbook drafts are attached. The proposed changes have been highlighted in yellow.

Rationale:  Policy 5422 is a brand new policy required by recent legislation and a corresponding model policy drafted by the Nebraska Department of Education.
 

Rationale:  No changes have been made to these policies since their first reading last month.  However, it should be noted that the appendix (or annual update) to Board Policy 5416 (Student Fees) was approved earlier this evening.

Rationale:  The 2nd monthly meeting of the Board of Education has been tentatively scheduled for noon on Thursday, April 26, 2018.

The next regular meeting of the Board of Education will be held on Monday, May 14, 2018. The Study Session will begin at 5:30 and will be followed by the Business Meeting at 6:30. All components of these meetings will be held at the NPS Central Administration Offices and will be open to the public unless an Executive Session is needed in order to protect the interest of the district or the reputation of an individual.