January 14, 2019 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:  Enrollment Projections and Strategic Growth Plan (Staffing Adjustments)

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

Rationale:  High Ability Learners (HAL) Presentation--Growth Mindset and Personalized Learning Plans

Rationale:  Kathy Naranjo--Guidance Counselor at Washington Elementary

Rationale:  December 2018 Success Pin Recipients
The Cash Now winner is Julia Mortimer.  She will receive $50, compliments of U.S. Bank.
 

Torri Obermiller	Sarah O'Brien
Cara Riese	Megan Lewis
Mandi Dahlkoetter	Cyndi Thompson
Sheila Arlt	Julia Mortimer
Raylee Vosburg	Karen Terry
Chris Granatowicz	Keriann DeFor
Andrea Clark	Julia Mortimer
Kim Reinke	Mary Luhr
Lorie Summers	Nancy Full
Nancy Boche	Kathy Farlee
Chris Swenson	Jami Jo Thompson
Heather Whitney	Patti Hagedorn
Jessica Roberts	Taryn Retzlaff
Jaci Jenkins	Dustin Wood
Terri Kerkman	Xochitl Naranjo
Josi Johnson	Mary Boyle
Josi Johnson	Jennifer Cerny
Caroline Garder	Julia Mortimer

Rationale:  Dr. Thompson will call for nominations for Board President.

Rationale:  The newly elected President will call for nominations for Vice President.

Rationale:  It is customary for the District's Business Manager to serve as the Board Treasurer.  Therefore, I am recommending that Dr. Bill Robinson be appointed as the 2019 Board Treasurer.

Rationale:  It is customary for the district's Superintendent to serve as the Board's Secretary. Therefore , I recommend that you appoint me as your 2019 Board Secretary.

Rationale:  For numerous years, the district's primary legal counsel has been provided via the attorneys at Perry Law Firm.  We continue to be satisfied with their advice and performance. Therefore, I recommend that we continue to use their services on an as needed basis.

Other legal firms may be used from time to time for special cases with extenuating circumstances.

Rationale: 

Negotiations Committee:

Purpose: Represents the full BOE in negotiations with recognized labor organizations

Meetings: Several meetings in November-January

Required Members: 2 Board members; no other specifications

Current Members: Bob Waite and Tammy Day

Requested Changes: Arnie Robinson and Bruce Mitchell -- To be made after the conclusion of our current negotiations are complete. Bob and Tammy will remain on the committee until that time.

 

Curriculum and Americanism Committee:

Purpose: Examines recommended social studies textbooks and reports findings to the full BOE. Also reviews major proposals regarding the adoption of new textbooks, instructional programs, and graduation requirements.

Meetings: At least once a year; more if Social Studies textbooks are being reviewed

Required Members: 3 Board members; no other specifications

Current Members: Bruce Mitchell, Dr. Patti Gubbels, and Arnie Robinson

Requested Changes: Bruce Mitchell, Dr. Patti Gubbels, and Tammy Day

 

Finance and Facilities Committee:

Purpose: Studies financial documents of the district, as well as finance and facilities proposals

Meetings: At least once per month; more frequently when needed

Required members: 3 Board Members, including the President and/or Vice President

Current Members: Bob Waite, Arnie Robinson, and Dr. Patti Gubbels

Requested Changes: Sandy Wolfe, Arnie Robinson, and Dr. Patti Gubbels

 

Policy Committee

Purpose: Reviews proposed policy revisions and adoptions and makes recommendations to the Full Board

Meetings: Typically once per month

Required Members: 2 Board members; no other specifications

Current Members: Bob Waite, Sandy Wolfe, and Dr. Patti Gubbels

 

Government Relations Committee:

Purpose: Participates in government relations activities, such as attending GNSA meetings, visiting with State Senators, and testifying before the legislature

Meetings: Varies-typically 2-3 times per month during the legislative session

Required Members: 2 Board members; no other specifications

Current Members: Tammy Day, Sandy Wolfe, and Dr. Patti Gubbels
 

Superintendent Evaluation Committee:

Purpose: Completes the annual evaluation of the Superintendent, with input from the Board as a whole

Meetings: 1-3 times prior to the Superintendent’s evaluation

Required Members: 3 Board Members, including the Board President, Vice President, and one other member

Current Members: Arnie Robinson, Sandy Wolfe, and Dr. Patti Gubbels

 

Activities Committee:

Purpose: Reviews activities budget, participation, and proposals

Meetings: 4-6 times per year

Required Members: 3 Board members; no other specifications

Current Members: Arnie Robinson, Sandy Wolfe, and Tammy Day

 

Staff Member of the Month:

Purpose: Helps to select the Award for Excellence recipient

Meetings: 4-6 per year

Required Members: 1 Board member; no other specifications

Current member: Bruce Mitchell

 

Foundation Board:

Purpose: Serves as the BOE representative on the NPS Foundation Board

Meetings: Typically once per month

Required Members: 1 Board member; no other specifications

Current member: Sandy Wolfe

 

District Wellness Committee

Purpose: Serves as the BOE representative on this district committee

Meetings: 4-6 per year

Required Members: 1 Board member; no other specifications

Current member: Bob Waite

 

School Liaisons:

School	Board Member:
Bel Air	Dr. Patti Gubbels
Grant	Tammy Day
Jefferson	Sandy Wolfe
Lincoln	Arnie Robinson
Washington	Tammy Day
Westside	Arnie Robinson
Woodland Park	Bruce Mitchell
Middle School	Bob Waite & Sandy Wolfe
Junior High	Arnie Robinson & Bruce Mitchell
Senior High	Patti Gubbels & Bob Waite
Alternatives For Success	Sandy Wolfe & Tammy Day

 

Rationale:  RESOLVED, that the official depository of school funds for Madison County School District 59-0002 is hereby designated to be at Bank First, Elkhorn Valley Bank & Trust, Midwest Bank and Nebraska Liquid Asset Fund, and that the designation of any other institution as the depository of school funds is hereby withdrawn.  Bank First will be the primary depository for the General Fund; and Elkhorn Valley Bank & Trust will be the primary depository for all other district Funds except the Bond Fund which Midwest Bank will be the primary depository.  Nebraska Liquid Asset Fund will serve as a depository for cash reserves in the General, Bond, QCPUF, Special Building, and Depreciation Funds.This resolution specifically recognizes the financial institutions where district and taxpayer's dollars are deposited.  This resolution also meets the requirement of full public disclosure of financial institutions used by the district.
I am recommending that we use the following financial institutions (Bank First, Elkhorn Valley Bank and Trust, Midwest Bank, and the Nebraska Liquid Asset Fund). All of these institutions provide banking services to the district at no charge, while also fully securing district funds.

Rationale:  According to Policy 3130 the Board of Education shall be presented annually the list of recommended administrators and staff to have the authority to use school district issued credit cards and purchasing cards.  The credit cards are issued through Elkhorn Valley Bank and have the school districts name and card number on them, not individual names.  The district Voyager fleet cards for fuel can only be used by organizations that qualify for the state fuel rate. These cards are also numbered with the school district name on them.  All cards are initially checked out through the Business Office and returned to the Business Office when they expire or a listed employee leaves the district.

Rationale:  This is the newspaper that we utilize to post official Board notifications, such as bids and meeting notices.  I recommend that we continue to use our local newspaper, the Norfolk Daily News.

Rationale: 

State statutes require that School Board members disclose any Conflicts of Interest that they may have related to contracts and employment issues, as well as any other matters that may have a financial impact on the Board member or his/her family.  The procedures for conflict disclosure and reporting have been provided to all Board members for their review.

All Board members understand their duty to disclose potential conflicts of interest and refrain from voting on such items.  Potential items that may be a conflict include: reimbursement of expenses and the payment of wages for activity workers.  Our Finance Office will notify Board members if such items appear on the monthly claims and assist them in preparing a conflict of interest disclosure statement.

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 January, 2019 by specific fund are as follows:

General Fund = $390,194.40

Nutrition Services Fund =$197,783.68

Cooperative Fund = $2,888.11

Depreciation Fund = $163,775.81

Special Building Fund = $4,798.01

QCPUF = $19,705.00

Student Fee Fund = $3,707.39

The total amount of claims for the month of December, 2018 in the Activities Fund were:
Activity Fund =$80,190.93

All of these claims were reviewed earlier today by the Finance and Facility Committee.  The business office will begin the process of preparing the 2018 W-2's and 1095 C's for employees next week. They should have them early next month.

Rationale:  Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment

• Our Infinite Campus demonstration was rescheduled to last Friday. It was helpful to see how our evolution of work to Target Based Grading can or will look in a grade book.
• Shortly before Holiday break, NDE published AQuESTT classifications for schools across the state. I’ve spent a significant amount of time studying and reviewing the information found on reports. There will be changes still in the future so schools and districts are operating with a moving target yet.
• In the Teaching and Learning department, we’ve been diligent on our continued work with teachers on curriculum development. We have found that there is a need for training teachers to build their knowledge and capacity in understanding depth of knowledge and developing and using proficiency scales.
• On Feb. 11, we have scheduled a day of professional development. The TnL team will provide the Depth of knowledge training and I will specifically be doing a presentation on the big picture of educations and how our work directly relates to the big picture.
• Reminder to new Curriculum Committee members that we had tentatively set a meeting for Thursday, Jan. 24^th at 11:00 a.m. in the Teaching and Learning Office.

Rationale: 

1. Special Education- January 16th is our district Special Education PLC. We are going to address our district targeted improvement plan.
2. The window for our ELL students to be assessed with the ELPA will open the week of February 4 through March 15, 2019.
3. Parent Teacher Conferences will be held the week of February 4th.
4. Kindergarten enrollment has started for the 2019-2020 school term. Registration is being held at neighborhood schools. Parents must have a birth certificate and a copy of immunizations to begin the enrollment process. Kindergarten Round Up will be held Wednesday, April 17th at your neighborhood elementary school.
5. February 14th and 15th I will be attending the Nebraska Association of Special Education Supervisors (NASES) Legislative Conference in Lincoln.  At this conference we are given the opportunity to meet with our State Senators on the expectations for special education.

Rationale:  Staff Development:

• On Thursday, January 3, 2019 our staff spent the day enhancing our instructional practices and school safety procedures. Special thanks to Trooper Gena Jones from the Nebraska State Patrol for her presentation on CRAKE (Civilian Response to Active Killer Events). This training is just another example of how we continue to make safety a top priority for our students and staff.  An additional thanks goes out to the staff who led instructional presentations on this day. Their efforts and dedication to creating engaging and informative sessions was greatly appreciated. The overall feedback from our staff was very positive and it was a really good day of learning!
• Monday, February 11, 2019 is also a staff development day. This day will be focused on grading practices and learning targets.

ESU # 8 Winter Workshop:

• 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.

Personnel Update:

• Current Openings:
  • Aftershock Club Facilitators
  • General Maintenance /Transportation (2)
  • Jefferson Elementary Head Custodian/Maintenance
  • Middle School: Classroom Paraprofessional
  • School Bus Activity Drivers
  • Senior High: ED Paraprofessional/Driver
  • Substitute Custodians
  • Substitute Deaf Ed. Interpreters
  • Substitute Paraprofessionals
  • Substitute Teachers
  • Washington Elementary Special Education Para
  • Washington Elementary Classroom Para
     
• 2019-2020 School Year Openings:
  • School Psychologist
  • Junior High: Science Teacher
  • Junior High: English Teacher
  • Speech Language Pathologist
  • Westside: Title I Teacher
  • Elementary Principal
  • (Anticipated) Senior High: English Teacher
  • (Anticipated) Senior High Dean of Students
     

• 2019-2020 Coaching Openings:
  • Head Speech
  • Assistant Speech
  • Assistant Theater (.50)
  • (Anticipated) Assistant Varsity Football
  • (Anticipated) Head Girls Soccer

Rationale:  High Ability Learner/Honors Program Committee:
Beth Nelson and Ryan Specht are in the process of forming a district High Ability Learner/Honors Program Committee. This committee will study NPS' current practices and compare them to best practices across the state in order to evaluate the effectiveness of our current program and determine if improvements or enhancements should be made.  Identification procedures, course offerings and enrichment experiences across the K-12 continuum will be examined via this team of teachers, counselors, and administrators in order to determine how we can best serve our High Ability Learners.

Teaching Career Academy:
Erik Wilson and I are working closely with Wayne State College to develop a Teaching Career Academy, which would:
* provide our students with access to college-level pre-professional education courses while in high school,
* allow them to enter WSC at the Level II professional course level, and
* provide them with  greater accessibility to a variety of teaching endorsement options and opportunities while at Wayne State College. 
It is our hope that we will be able to bring you a formal partnership agreement for approval soon.
 

Rationale:  The committee met at 12:00 today and discussed the following items:

• Review of January claims
• Reviewed recommendation on Sr. High HVAC (Heating renovation)
• Updates on the 25th Street project, Hespe has been invited to the next committee meeting to provide a detailed update and answer any questions from the group on this project

Next meeting with be February 11th at 12:00 noon.

Rationale: 

The Policy Committee met on December 19, 2019 to review Board Policies 2000-2225 related to Administration.

Formatting improvements and grammatical changes were made throughout the policies, including numerous capitalization and verb tense changes.

Although changes were made to every policy, most were non-substantive in nature.

A substantive change was made to Policy 2010 (Hiring Administrative Personnel) to make the language regarding contract extension for the Superintendent consistent with the language in the Superintendent’s contract.

A substantive change was also made to policy 2222, to indicate that it is preferred (not required) for the Director of Business Services, Maintenance of Facilities to have a Superintendent Certificate.

 

Rationale: 

The Government Relations Committee has not met since our December Board meeting. However, Dr. Gubbels and Dr. Thompson attended the Blueprint Nebraska Town Hall on  December 19th.

Nebraska Blueprint is a group of business and industry leaders who have come together with the common goal of making sure the future of Nebraska is strong. Their mission is to provide a strategic plan that offers a clear path towards sustained economic prosperity for all.

Arnie Robinson served on the panel and did a nice job sharing the contributions that public schools make towards economic development.

In addition, Dr. Thompson served on the K-12 subgroup that helped draft the education charters/goals for Blueprint Nebraska. These goals include a strong collaboration among public schools, community leaders, and business/industry.

The legislative session started last Wednesday, January 9th, and we held our first GNSA Legislative call last Friday, January 11th.

Our first GNSA (Greater Nebraska Schools Association) meeting is scheduled for January 16, 2019 in Lincoln, and our first Chamber of Commerce Government Relations call with Senator Scheer is set for Thursday, January 24th.

All indicators suggest that this will be a very busy and tenuous legislative session, with considerable debate on topics such as budget issues, Medicaid expansion, property tax relief, and school funding.

Rationale: 

The Activities Committee met at noon on Monday, December 17, 2019.

Mr. Ries and Mr. Viergutz provided updates regarding our participation numbers.

Mr. Hoffman provided an update on the Student Leadership Team and the NSAA/NSIAAA/NCA Leadership Summit, hosted at Norfolk Senior High School.

The 2019-2020 calendar was discussed. This will be an NSAA Rollback year--meaning that everything moves back 6 days.  Norfolk was selected to host State Student Council Convention. District Music and the Norfolk Track Invite will be scheduled on consecutive days. This change is being made in order to increase participation and efficiency.  It has been difficult hosting both events on the same day.

Our NSAA Classification for 2019-2020 was also discussed. According to NSAA guidelines we will be placed in Class A for all activities, except Boys Basketball and Boys Soccer.  NSAA guidelines would place us in Class B for these two sports. However, we do have the ability to "Opt Up" to Class A, which we are considering. Mr. Ries will research this further and bring a recommendation to the committee in February.

Mr. Ries is working on a helmet replacement plan.  All helmets are reconditioned and re-certified every other year, but many are reaching their 10 year limit. These will be replaced over the course of the next 3 years...before their expiration date.

Our Boys Tennis Coop with Norfolk Catholic and Lutheran High will be renewed, as we have not reached our participation cutoff of 26.

Our next meeting is scheduled for noon on Monday, February 25th. (Please note that this is a change.)

Rationale:  Minutes of the January 8, 2019 Student Health Fund and Nurses Meetings are attached.

Rationale:  Minutes from the December 10, 2018 meeting are attached.

Rationale: 

Blake Otte

2019-2020 - Norfolk Senior High, Industrial Technology

Bachelor of Arts in Industrial Technology Education from Wayne State College in Wayne, Nebraska.

Currently a welding lab instructor at Northeast Community College here in Norfolk, Nebraska.

Rationale: 
Tonya Ripple--Senior High English and Ass't Speech Coach

Kathryn Budell -- Senior High English and Ass't Theatre Coach

Rationale:  Attached are the claims for the month of January, 2019.  These claims were reviewed earlier today by our Finance and Facility committee.  Also attached are the conflict statements on specific claims that need to be read before voting.

Rationale:  The Policy Committee reviewed and updated these policies. They are recommending that they be approved for First Reading this evening, with the changes that are noted.

Rationale:  See the attached schedule for 2019-2020 through 2021-2022.

Rationale:  The district did receive interest from several contractors for this project and received one fully qualified bid from Rasmussen Mechanical for $557,975.  This bid was reviewed by the Finance and Facilities Committee, as well as KPE Engineers, who is the mechanical engineer for this project.  This project will renovate the main heating system in the 400 and 500 areas of the Sr. High and will be completed primarily during the summer months of 2019 and 2020.  Funds for this project will come from district maintenance and depreciation.

Rationale:  I am recommending that we give each Senior their current Chromebook upon graduation.  Each of these Chromebooks will be four years old at that time and near the "end of life" for school purposes.

If approved, each Senior will be allowed to to keep the Chromebook that they used throughout the 2018-2019 school year, pending that it is four years old and near the "end of life."  No charge is recommended to these students, due to the fact that a student technology fee was charged each year of their use. These students may get some additional use out of these devices, but they would not be suitable for continued school service. It is more economical for us to give these devices to our graduating Seniors than to dispose of them.

Rationale:  The 2nd monthly meeting of the Board of Education has been tentatively scheduled for noon on Thursday, January 24, 2019.

The next regular meeting of the Board of Education will be held on Monday, February 11, 2019. 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.