November 12, 2018 at 5:30 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

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.

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

General Fund = $410,155.18

Nutrition Services Fund =$278,475.07

Cooperative Fund = $11,511.37

Depreciation Fund = $264,038.64

Special Building Fund = $42,874.59

QCPUF = $950,035.11

Bond Fund = $1,871,565

Student Fee Fund = $6,813.19

The total amount of claims for the month of October, 2018 in the Activities Fund were:
Activity Fund =$98,007.64

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

• Teachers are getting near to the finish of their science pilot of Discovery Ed program. The true verdict is out yet. It may be fine in some grades but not great in all which is why we perform pilots so we don’t purchase a poor product for our students.
• The Big Red Keno grant is complete and submitted. I anticipate a positive funding of the grant this year again. We wrote the grant to mirror our prior years of experience.
• The Title I Grant is complete. I’m sure we’ll have adjustments and amendments along the way but it is one big task off of our list.
• Mary Luhr and I have teams attending the Multi-tiered Systems of Support Training days. (MTSS) We’ve completed day one of three total for this year.
• The professional development day held on October 22 was extremely productive for teachers. I received a lot of positive comments back from teachers on the day and the amount of curriculum work they were able to accomplish.
• Sandy Rose attended an Infinite Campus conference where she learned of some other schools that have gone down the road of target based grading using Infinite Campus and we are going to try to make connections with them. There are a lot more decisions on the back side of this grading piece than I realized.

• A small committee has been doing some research on devices and display panels to be sure we continue to make the best technology decisions we can for the district.
• Since we’ve had a few turn overs in positions and there is always a need for updating our knowledge, we are scheduling a website booster shot training for those who keep our website up to date.

• Our next staff development day is Thursday, January 3, 2019. This day will be split into two different sections. One part of our day together will be spent reviewing our district plan for enhancing our school safety protocols and the other part of the day will be spent discussing and collaborating on the Instructional Model. High quality staff development is essential to increasing teacher effectiveness and maximizing student learning and engagement. 

• The Winter Workshop (a collaborative staff development day with a multitude of area schools) will be held at Norfolk Senior High School on Monday, January 21, 2019.
• This event is an excellent way to bring together area school districts for consistent and relevant staff development on topics designed to enhance educational effectiveness.
• The keynote speaker for the 2019 Winter Workshop will be Dr. Adolph Brown.
• For more information on the Winter Workshop, please go to: esu8winterworkshop.weebly.com.

• Our district calendar committee just finished up our last meeting and we will be sending a final recommendation to Dr. Thompson before the December board meeting

• Current Openings:
  • Activity Bus Drivers
  • Central Office: Interpreter (20 Hr.)
  • General Maint. /Transp. (2)
  • Senior High: Achievement Center Paraprofessional
  • Senior High: ELL Paraprofessional
  • Substitute Custodians
  • Substitute Deaf Ed. Interpreters
  • Substitute Paraprofessionals
  • Substitute Teachers
  • Westside Elementary:  LIFE & ED Paraprofessional/Driver
  • Washington Elementary: ELL Full Time Paraprofessional

• 2018-2019 School Year Openings:
  • School Psychologist
  • Speech/Language Pathologists (1.5)

• Current Coaching Openings:
  • None at this time

• Review of November claims
• Discussion on bid for fertilizer, chemicals, and application of those items for district fields and grounds
• Discussion on 403 B plan administration 
• Updates on the 25th Street project
• Discussion on renewal of soft drink provider
• Updates on heating and cooling project at Sr. High

The Policy Committee met on Thursday, October 25th.  We reviewed policies 1300-1470 related to community relations in order to prepare them for First Reading.

No changes are recommended to policies 1310 (Fund Raising and Gifts), 1400 (School and Community Organizations), 1410 (Parent Organizations and Volunteers), 1430 (Utilizing Community Resources), 1440 (Staff Participation in Community Affairs), and 1450 (School Personnel and the Public).

Slight, non-substantive changes were made to policies 1300 (Fund Raising Activities), 1420 (Citizens’ Advisory Committees), 1460 (Student Production of Goods and Provision of Services), and 1470 (Public Performances by Students).

Policy 1320 (Memorial Policy) was revised to clarify that honorary diplomas are awarded privately to families of students who have passed away during the time that they were enrolled at Norfolk Senior High.  These honorary diplomas are not presented at the graduation ceremony.

Policy 1320 (Memorial Policy) was also revised to allow inscriptions on items, rather than plaques, when this is more practical.

Our next meeting is scheduled for noon on November 20th.