September 14, 2020 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:  Please stand and join us in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Rationale: 

Mrs. Lisa Langenberg

Special Education Teacher at Norfolk Senior High School 

Nomination Comments:

• Lisa consistently shows positive support every day with her students and co-teachers.  She is a reliable colleague who brings a great attitude to school.  Lisa's passion for teaching shows as she cares about each one of her students.  She is a fantastic leader in the SPED department by constantly helping us out on how to handle SRS.  She makes each student feel welcomed and wanted at school. Lastly, she makes a delicious corn dip.

• Lisa is exceptional while working with students! She caters to every student's specific needs, and is dedicated to each and every one of her students. The patience and empathy she expresses to her students is admirable. She is truly an inspiration.

• Lisa continues to show support by communicating with her co-teachers, SPED Teachers, paras and students during the e-learning process!  She answers all questions we throw at her!

• As we push through e-learning, Lisa is willing to step in the AC to give help to the paras for our AC Live zoom session! Kids are able to enter the room to get help from our paras every day!  

• Lisa supports her team and stays level headed about stressful situations. She's always got our backs. She supports all of the students in need and is always willing to help in any way she can. 

• A great person to bounce ideas off of and provides solid backup solutions.

• She tries to find the easiest, most effective method to accomplish whatever obstacle we are faced with.

• She is kind and caring to her students and staff. She always has time to talk and listen to the needs of others! 

• She has been amazing with answering every question, and it has been incredible to see how she has been there for her students. She is always willing to go the extra mile for every single one of her students. She is absolutely amazing!! 

• Lisa is a tremendous leader. She advocates first and foremost for our SPED students and the programs they are involved in. She advocates for her SPED staff (certified and classified), the classes we co-teach in and the AC program and its components. She arrives early and stays late to support our program. She's there to laugh with, cry with and be a rock to her "people".  Rock on, Lisa!!! 

• From AT, ED, LIFE, Resource, to Workstation and beyond she handles us ALL!

Thank you Mrs. Langenberg for your commitment to our students and our district!

Mrs. Langenberg was nominated by a group of Senior High School Special Education Teachers.

 

Rationale: 

Welcome to the Budget Hearing for the 2020-2021 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.

There will be a review of 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.

The 2020-2021 General Fund budget, when including all of the cash reserve and estimated county treasurer balance comes to $71,217,083. The district's budget of actual expenditures for 2020-2021 when excluding the cash reserve and estimated county treasurer balance is $48,819,174.20. This budget will allow the district to continue its current programs and goals for 2020-2021 without the need to use existing cash reserves or increase our overall tax levy.

All of the district's other funds represent adequate cash flow with those total balances being budgeted as expenditures for 2020-2021.

Rationale: 

Welcome to the Tax Request Hearing for the 2020-2021 fiscal 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.

There will be a review of the tax requests and the board will provide the opportunity for public input.  Official action and voting on the tax resolution for the school district will take place during the regular business meeting.

This year's overall tax request for 2020-2021 is detailed in the attached document (A-1).  This request represents the essential needs for our district's General and Special Building Funds as well as the principal and interest obligations in our different bond funds. The board is being mindful of our taxpayers when developing budgets and tax requests, so it is recommended to have a levy decrease of $0.046059 which would make our overall levy $1.127510 for 2020-2021 compared to $1.173569 in 2019-2020.

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: 

The total amount for the 19-20 end of the fiscal year claims, which were approved last month are listed below:

General Fund = $1,559,140.32 

Total amount of claims to be approved in the consent agenda for the month of September, 2020 by specific fund are listed below:

General Fund = $859,287.41

Nutrition Services Fund = $157,884.61

Cooperative Fund = $91,762.17

QCPUF = $131,206.75

Student Fee Fund = $6,060.40

The total amount of claims for the month of August, 2020 in the Activities Fund are as follows:
Activity Fund =$66,441.51

All of these claims were reviewed earlier today by the Finance and Facility Committee.  The end of the 19-20 fiscal year claim amount was approved at our last board meeting, details of the claims are attached for public review.  The annual audit for the 19-20 fiscal year has already started with the gathering of financial information and records for our auditors.  Schumacher, Smejkal, Brockhaus and Herley will be conducting the audit and plan to be on site during the week of Sept. 21st.

Rationale: 

• We have concluded NWEA MAP Fluency testing to meet the Nebraska Reads Act requirements. Parental notification has been sent accordingly.
• We are in the middle of strong catch-up instruction and MAP Growth testing. District data will not be available until the window closes. The window is extended due to student absences.
• A survey was sent to teachers inquiring their interest in topics for professional development for Oct. 26^th PD day. The most popular requests were in the areas of social/emotional learning and best practices in remote teaching for absent students.
• The TnL leadership has been centralized around assisting new teachers and implementation of new programs.

Rationale: 

Nurses- Our nurses will begin their annual health screenings this month.  Students in grades Pre-K-4, 7th, and 10th grade are screened annually. This is a mandated regulation that allows for little flexibility even with the restrictions of COVID and DHM.

English Language Learners Staff- Our ELL teachers have been screening students based on their Home Language Survey to determine if they qualify for our ELL program. This is determined by the ELPA screener.

Special Education Staff- Last Wednesday, September 9th, I was able to meet with the district special education teachers to review changes to the SRS system as well as check in on the progress of completing the required paperwork for our fall report. The staff then met as teams to discuss grade level instructional needs. 

Nebraska Council of School Administrators-NASES- is offering a WebEd Series through the school year focusing on special education.  They are offered through zoom and recorded.  I will be participating in this series throughout the school year. 

Rationale: 

Fall activities have begun for our Panthers. We are limiting spectators in efforts to keep our social distance and requiring those in attendance to wear masks. Mr. Ries has worked with our tech team to provide online viewing opportunities as much as possible for home varsity competitions. Obviously we miss seeing and hearing our Norfolk fan base but we are excited that our students are getting an opportunity to continue to participate. 

Also the district safety team met last week to review goals, update safety plans and make sure we are prepared to address our districts needs. Select members of the safety team will be participating in the Nebraska Department of Education School Safety Summit later this month. Topics at the Summit will include Cyberbullying, Sexting, Digital Abuse, Human Trafficking and Kindness Interventions. We look forward to bringing back valuable ideas that we can use to continue to keep our students and staff at Norfolk Public Schools safe from these online dangers. 

 

Rationale: 

HR Update:

Substitutes:  Our search continues for additional teacher and para substitutes.  The application process is available on our website or call the Human Resources office, if you have any questions.

Student Teachers:  NPS currently has eleven student teachers in our district.  I have received positive feedback from our administrators about their start to the year.  Several of the student teachers are getting involved in extracurricular activities and volunteering in our programs.

Job Postings Update:

Certified Positions: 

• Secondary Math Teacher 
• Secondary Special Education Teacher
• Full-Time Substitute Teacher
• Substitute Teacher

Classified Openings: 

• Aftershock - Club Facilitators (Part-time)
• Aftershock - Partnership Specialist (Contracted/Part-time)
• Evening Elementary Custodians (Part-time)
• Substitute:  Paraprofessional, Health Tech, Secretary & Nurse
• ???????Substitute Custodians

Coaching Opportunities:

• Assistant Theater (2nd Semester)
• ???????HS Head Boys Golf Coach

Rationale:  Historical and Current (Preliminary 2020-2021) Student Enrollment 

Rationale:  The committee met at 12:00 today.  The end of 19-20 fiscal year claims, the claims for the month of September and Activity claims for August were reviewed.  The committee discussed the closeout items on summer projects as well as next steps for Lincoln and Grant schools.  Other items for discussion were:

• Final review of the proposed 20-21 budget
• Final review of the proposed 20-21 tax request
• Review of upcoming audit schedule for 19-20 fiscal year
• COVID related expenditures
• Opportunities with our Nutrition Program due to waiver extensions through the USDA
• Updated Fiscal codes for 20-21

The next meeting will be October 12th at 12:00 noon. 

Rationale: 

The Policy Committee met electronically to discuss policy revisions and additions, as well as updates to Central Office Administration Evaluations.

Policy 5001 (Admission Requirements) was revised to include the updated versions of the assessments utilized for early admission to kindergarten.

Policy 1211 is a new policy that outlines the procedures for sexual harrassment complaints. This additional policy is needed due to changes recently made to Title IX.

The evaluation forms for the Associate Superintendent of Business Services, the Director of Human Resources and Accreditation, the Director of Student Programs, and the Director Student Services and Safety, and the Director of Teaching and Learning were updated to reflect our reorganization at CO.  If approved by the BOE, these evaluation forms will be sent to the Nebraska Department of Education for approval.  

Our next meeting is scheduled for September 24th at 1:00 (or immediately following the BOE’s Second Meeting of the Month).

Rationale:  Minutes of the Sept. 1, 2020 Nurses and Student Health meetings are attached.

Rationale:  Minutes of the August 10, August 17 and August 27, 2020 meetings are attached.

Rationale:  None at this time.

Rationale:  None at this time.

Rationale:  Attached are the claims for the month of September, 2020.  These claims were reviewed earlier today by our Finance and Facility committee.   Also attached is a conflict statement on a specific claim that needs to be read before voting.

Rationale: 

Public notice was given at least five days in advance of the district’s Special Public Hearing called for the purpose of discussing and approving or modifying the District’s Tax Requests for the 2020-2021 school’s fiscal year for the General Fund, Bond Fund, Special Building Fund, and Qualified Capital Purpose Undertaking Fund of Madison County School District 59-0002.
The Special Public Hearing was held before the Board of Education of Madison County School District 59-0002 at the time, date, and place announced in the notice published in a newspaper of general circulation, a copy of which notice and proof of publication of which is attached hereto as Exhibit A-1, all as required by law.

The Board provided an opportunity to receive comment, information and evidence from persons in attendance at such Special Hearing; and the Board, after having reviewed the District’s Tax Requests for each said fund and after public consideration of the matter, has determined that the Final Tax Requests as listed below are necessary in order to carry out the functions of the District, as determined by the Board for the 2020-2021 fiscal year.

NOW, THEREFORE, the governing body of the Madison County School District 59-0002, resolves that  (1) the Tax Request for the General Fund should be and hereby is set at $26,884,189.01; (2) the Tax Request for the Special Building Fund should be and hereby is set at $2,829,914.63; (3) the Tax Request for the Bond Fund K-8 should be and hereby is set at $709,090.90; (4) the Tax Request for the Bond Fund 9-12 should be and hereby is set at $503,090.00; (5) the Tax Request for the Qualified Capital Purpose Undertaking Fund should be and hereby is set at $848,980.00.

The total assessed value of property differs from last year’s total assessed value by an increase of 9.07%.  The tax rate which would levy the same amount of property taxes as last year, when multiplied by the new total assessed value of property, would be $1.068019.  Madison County School District 59-0002 proposes to adopt a property tax rate that will cause its tax rate to be $1.127510 per $100 of assessed value.  Based on proposed property tax request and changes in other revenue, the total operating budget of Madison County School District 59-0002 will be an increase from last years by 3.8%.
 

Rationale: 

The 2020-2021 budget has been reviewed in depth by our Finance and Facilities Committee.  The entire board had a chance to review the budget at a public meeting on August 27th.  The public also had an opportunity for comment and input at our hearing earlier this evening.

Rationale:  This policy has been revised to include the updated versions of the assessments utilized for Early Admission to Kindergarten. No other changes have been made.

Rationale:  This new policy is needed in order to address recent revisions to Title IX. It outlines the procedures to be used if we receive a complaint regarding sexual harassment.

Rationale: 

The evaluation forms for the Associate Superintendent of Business Services, the Director of Human Resources and Accreditation, the Director of Student Programs, and the Director Student Services and Safety, and the Director of Teaching and Learning were updated to reflect our reorganization at CO.  If approved by the BOE, these evaluation forms will be sent to the Nebraska Department of Education for approval.  

Rationale: 

Board President, Sandy Wolfe, and I both received  formal written requests by the NCEA (Norfolk City Educational Association) to be recognized as the exclusive collective bargaining agent for non-supervisory certificated staff. This action is required each year by Nebraska State Statute. We have not received any other requests; therefore, I recommend that the request be approved.  

Rationale:  The 2nd monthly meeting of the Board of Education has been tentatively scheduled for noon on Thursday, September 24, 2020.

The next regular meeting of the Board of Education will be held on Monday, October 12, 2020. The Business Meeting will begin at 5:30 PM. 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.