March 8, 2021 at 5:30 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Rationale:  March 1, 2021

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: 

Award for Excellence Summary  
Mrs. Heidi Korth
Junior High Attendance/Discipline Administrative Assistant

Nomination Comments:

• Heidi is one of the backbones of the Junior High, she is so organized, and so kind to everyone who asks her thousands of questions per day. 

• Heidi is a great asset to our school. She manages her duties really well, assists teachers in any way possible, helps the office run smoothly, and encourages students to become better individuals when brought in for disciplinary issues.

• Being a teacher in a new school is very intimidating, especially when that school is so much larger and does things so differently than the last school where I taught. Heidi was a lifesaver for me on more than one occasion. She helped me fill in information on paperwork, student referrals, and other documents. She always answered my questions no matter how ridiculous it was, with kindness and understanding. Even without all the extra help she provided me with personally, the amount of things she has done for our school is overwhelming. She is always in the know and assists with anything someone might need. She encompasses so many of the "reasons to be nominated" items. And these are just the ones I know about this year. If she has been this amazing for me in one school year, I can only imagine the wonderful things she has done over the years for everyone here and for the district. 

• Heidi is one of the most positive, competent and hardworking people I know at the NJHS! She never is too busy to help with any situation and/or question. Heidi is definitely one of the shining starts at the NJHS!

• Heidi is the glue that holds the Jr. High together. Her positivity seems to know no bounds, even as the neediest teachers (me) continue to make demands of her time. I know no one person who personifies the attributes of initiative, professionalism and excitement for their often thankless job the way Heidi  does. The district needs to seriously consider hiring three people to fill her position.

• Heidi is everything this award stands for! Her school spirit thrives everyday. She goes the extra mile to help every staff member. She is always positive no matter how negative the person or situation. She maintains constant professionalism. She helps our community every year with a giving tree in the office to help out a local organization. Heidi is everything a Norfolk Panther should represent.

• The task of administrative assistant is all-encompassing; however, Mrs. Korth goes well beyond her duties to assist faculty and students. Her devotion to the students and the overall good of the school is revered and admired by all who know her. She has been a blessing to all who interact with her daily, and we’ll miss her when she’s enjoying her retirement. 

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

Mrs. Korth was nominated by a variety of staff at Norfolk Junior High

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 March, 2021 by specific fund are listed below:

General Fund = $397,823.29

Nutrition Services Fund =$228,211.52

Cooperative Fund = $88,713.82

QCPUF = $212,456.36

Student Fee Fund = $956.18

The total amount of claims for the month of February, 2021 in the Activities Fund is listed below:
Activity Fund =$53,752.69

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

Rationale:  Remote Learning:
Just as we predicted, Remote Learning has evolved and is operating pretty smoothly. At the end of the quarter, Remote Learning teachers decided that strong and clear communication on course progress and grades was needed. With the leadership and help of the Teaching and Learning team on instruction and the leadership of Mr. Wilson on student issues, Remote Learning continues on successfully for many students.

Curriculum and Assessment:
The Teaching and Learning team continues to work on curriculum where teachers have reached out for assistance as well as in areas where program pilots are in place. Currently 8^th grade Social Studies is piloting two programs and a small selection of 4^th grade is piloting a Nebraska Studies program. You will hear more on Social Studies at a later date. And, of course, we are busy with getting details ready for spring testing.
 

Rationale: 

ELL-  Our students are in the process of taking the ELPA summative assessment. They have until April 2, 2021, to complete the four assessments.

Nurses-  The second CPR training of the year was held last week and 31 staff were trained.

Special Education- Our special education leadership team met February 24 and will meet again on March 31st to plan the transitions for our students.  We will also plan the professional development schedule for April 28th for all special education staff. I attended the Council of Administrators for Special Education (CASE) conference virtually on February 24, 25 and 26. The focus of the conference was Social Emotional Learning (SEL) for staff and students. 

Rationale: 

Parent/Teacher conferences were held last month. We operated in a similar fashion to our 1st semester conferences and offered virtual or phone conferences along with limited in person conferences as needed. Our attendance with our elementary and middle school is historically very high because those are scheduled meetings. Interestingly though we actually had slightly higher attendance at the JH and SH then we have had in the past. Information about those conferences is posted below along with our remote learning conferences further down.

Reminder that Kindergarten enrollment for the 2021/2022 school year is in full swing. 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 28th at your neighborhood elementary school.

Our Junior High SRO, High School Assistant Principal, our High School LMHP, and I attended Basic Threat Assessment training last week, provided by the Nebraska Department of Education. This training is important to help our Threat Assessment team work to prevent an incident or event by studying human behavior to determine if someones concerning behavior is a low, moderate, or high concern of violence to themselves or others. This was a refresher for some of our team members and new training for others but just another piece of our district safety plan.

 

School Name	% attended 2019	% attended 2020	% attended 2021
Little Panther Preschool	99%	99%	99%
Bel Air	98%	97%	100%
Jefferson	99%	99%	100%
Grant	95%	97%	98%
Lincoln	100%	100%	100%
Washington	98%	91%	96%
Westside	99%	100%	100%
Woodland Park	99%	95%	100%
Middle School	70%	75%	95%
Junior High	58%	55%	60%
Senior High	39%	34%	48%
Remote Learning Grades
	Student attendance at P/T Conference	Total School Enrollment	% attended
K-2	7	8	87.50%
3-5	23	23	100.00%
6-7	22	24	91.67%
8-9	19	27	70.37%
10-12	30	42	71.43%

 

Rationale: 

Hiring season is well underway and we have resignations, retirements and contracts to approve tonight.  Letters of Intent for our certified staff were sent out on March 1st and are due back on March 15th.  

Job Postings Update:

Certified Positions (‘21-’22): 

• Psychologist
• Speech Language Pathologist
• Elementary Media Specialist
• K-4 ELL Teacher, TBA
• Special Education Teacher, Jefferson Elementary
• Special Education Teacher, Senior High
• Special Education Teacher, Junior High
• Vocal Music Teacher (0.4 FTE)-Junior High
• Dean of Students/Activities Director, Junior High
• Industrial Technology Instructor, Junior High
• English Teacher, Senior High
• Science Teacher, Senior High
• Social Studies Teachers, Senior High
• Substitute Teachers

Classified Openings: 

• High Needs Para/Driver (Full-Time) - Westside Elementary
• Achievement Center Para - Senior High
• Aftershock - Club Facilitators (Part-time)
• Special Education Resource Para - Washington Elementary
• Head Custodians - Senior High & Grant Elementary
• General Maintenance Worker-Full-Time
• School Bus Activity Drivers 
• Evening Custodians (Part-Time)
• Electrician (Part-Time) - Maintenance
• Substitutes - Deaf Education/Sign Language Interpreter
• Substitute:  Paraprofessional, Health Tech, Secretary & Nurse
• Substitute Custodians

Coaching Opportunities (‘21-’22):

• Head HS Football
• SH Assistant Volleyball
• SH Assistant Boys Basketball
• SH Assistant Track & Field
• Head 7th Grade Football
• Assistant 7th Grade Football
• JH Boys Intramural Basketball
• JH Boys Track Assistant
• Head 8th Grade Girls Track
• 7th Grade Girls Assistant Track
• SH Technical Theater - Assistant Theater
• SH Student Council
• SH Assistant Swimming - Diving Coach
   

Rationale:  Transitions Strategic Action Planning Committee

Rationale:  The committee met at 12:00 today.  The claims for the month of March and Activity claims for February were reviewed.  CMBA Architecture presented a review of the Lincoln School upgrades which is up as an action item later in the meeting.  The committee also was updated on current facility projects in the district.

The next meeting will be March 12th. 

Rationale: 

The Policy Committee met on March 4th to review several policies.

Policy 8342 was reviewed a second time and revised to remove the language indicating that advance notice of meetings can be given via the posting notices at locations around town.  This method can no longer be used in lieu of publication in the local newspaper.  

All policies in section 9000 related to Bylaws of the Board were reviewed.

• Minor, non-substantive revisions were made to policies 9301, 9330, and 9341.

• Policy 9310 (Advance Delivery of Meeting Materials) was revised to remove the option of mailing board packets to board members.  This information is now available to board members electronically via Sparq.

• Policy 9320 (Order of Business) was revised to remove the list of committee reports that are discussed at board meetings, because the reports vary each month depending on which committees met.

• The possibility of revising policy 9110 (Number of Members, Terms of Office) to change the number of  members on our board was also discussed, but the committee decided not to pursue that at this time, unless other members of the board want to consider it.  

Policy 5003 (Assignment of Students: Grade Placement and Transfer Students) was revised to indicate that NPS will accept credit earned via schools accredited by NDE or a regional accreditation institution, such as Cognia and that credits may be given for courses from non-accredited schools if the student can demonstrate master of the subject matter. It was also revised to indicate that the principal verifies (rather than determines) grade point average, class rank, and eligibility for graduation.

Several revisions were made to Policy 5004 (Full-time and Part-time Enrollment) to reflect changes in state law and district practices.

• We will accept applications until the end of the first week of school, rather than the previous August 1st deadline.

• The maximum number of courses that a non-public school can enroll in was increased to four to reflect state law and current practices.

• Capacity limits were reset to:  Kindergarten= 20, 1st-8th grade = 25, 9th-12th = less than 5 seats remaining in a course/section.

• Eligible or elective courses were better defined at the senior high level, as any course not required for graduation.

• It was clarified that the district determines which elementary school a student attends, but boundary exceptions can be considered via the district process.

• A statement indicated that failure to comply with the policy can result in a future application denial.

The committee recommends second and final approval of the policies in section 8000 and first approval of all other policies on the agenda.

Rationale: 

The Government Relations Committee met on February 12th, 17th and 24th to discuss bills that have significance for NPS. The following actions were taken as a result:

• Angie Buamann and Bill Robinson sent testimony in support of LB 146. If passed this bill will allow recently retired teachers to serve as substitutes 8 days per month, which could help with our substitute shortage.

• Dr. Thompson visited with Senator Flood regarding LB 523 which places additional restrictions on the Special Building Fund.  We have taken a neutral stance on this bill as it is currently written.  However, we cautioned that removing the ability to levy 6 cents without a vote of the people would be problematic and result in our opposition.

• Tammy Day sent testimony in opposition to LR 21CA which would require the State of Nebraska to pay all classroom expenses related to the operation of elementary and secondary schools. Although this may sound attractive on the surface, no funding source was identified for these expenses. It would either require new or higher taxes or major cuts to K-12 education

• Dr. Thompson sent testimony in support of LB 640 which would increase the amount of reimbursement for preschool children.

• Tammy Day sent testimony in opposition to LB 681, which included private K-12 schools in educational savings plans, limiting funding available for other state obligations, such as K-12 public schools.

• Dr. Thompson met with Senator Flood regarding LB 408 which would place a 3% cap on property tax growth.  As the bill is currently written, it would result in a decrease in funding for equalized school districts, because actual property tax valuations would be used when calculating state aid--even though the amount of property taxes collected would be reduced. The effects of this bill on NPS would be a $1.6 million decrease in the first year alone.

The Government Relations Committee will continue to meet weekly throughout the session to monitor bills and contact Senators when needed.  Hearings are nearly over, which means our attention will shift to floor debate. 

Rationale: 

The Activities Committee met on February 22nd.  Mr Ries and Mr. Vierutz reviewed winter activity highlights and shared NSAA's plans regarding postseason competition.

It was noted that Spring practices start March 1st and competitions begin March 18th.  It was also noted that Divots has been rented for Prom and that we are moving forward with plans for a traditional graduation ceremony in the NHS gym, pending current DHMs.

Mr. Ries shared a Booster Club update including projects and equipment that they are completing for NPS.  We continue to be grateful for their support and are working to enhance communication and transparency.

Dr. Hoffman shared information regarding a potential update to our senior high weight program.  It is being reviewed to ensure that we maximize the performance of our athletes.

Dr. Thompson shared information regarding the February 12th incident and our plans to create an Equity and Diversity Program. 

Mr. Ries indicated that the NSAA is once again considering classification changes, but they are unlikely to affect Norfolk. He also indicated that we have several coaching positions available for 2021-2022.

Our next meeting is scheduled for noon on Monday, April 26, 2020 at the Central Office.

Rationale: 

The Norfolk Public School Board Curriculum Committee met on Tuesday, February 17th. Teaching and Learning team members, Nancy Probasco and Sharie Thelen were present to report on the summary of curriculum work completed thus far in the 2020-2021 school year. Due to the pandemic, normal processes for the team were anything but normal. They highlighted the current status of the Remote Learning program, statewide assessment planning for spring semester and the limited curriculum opportunities they’ve been able to fulfill. 

The largest topic of discussion revolved around the senior high Science programs that have been researched and reviewed for purchase. The process of selecting a teaching resource involves multiple steps including filling out a compatibility chart. The compatibility chart identifies the product’s alignment to state and local standards, ease of use of the program for the teacher and the students, as well as strong instructional support. Digital accessibility and platform convenience have also become a heavy influence in decision making for educational products. Science programs have been selected and appear in a request for purchase later in the agenda. 

The next curriculum committee meeting will be held in late spring where social studies curriculum and teaching resources will be a topic of discussion. 

Rationale: 

The Norfolk Public Schools Foundation Board of Directors met via zoom on February 15, 2021 at 4:30 p.m.  Fourteen board members and 2 guests were present.   Board President Bobbi Theisen called the meeting to order at 4:31 p.m. and welcomed the four new board members in her opening remarks. 

During the Executive Director’s Report, Sarah Dittmer shared with the foundation board members that the traditional scholarship application was open and available on the foundation’s website and that students are currently applying.  She has been actively promoting the link in Twitter and Facebook posts with daily "Scholarship Spotlights," as well as on the foundation website, in signage at NHS, and via the NHS Counseling Office.  Dittmer also shared that she had given a presentation at "College Club," a specifically designed time at NHS for high school seniors to come learn more about all things college related and ask their questions.  She reminded the board that the deadline for application submission is 3/17/2021 at 4:00 p.m.

 

Rationale:  Minutes of the 3-2-2021 Nurses and Student Heath meetings are linked.

Rationale:  Attached are the minutes from the March 8, 2021 and March 25, 2021 board meetings.

Rationale: 

Morgan Bruhn

• 2021-2022 - 4th Grade Teacher at Jefferson Elementary
• Master of Science, Wayne State College, 1/2019
• 2018-present - 3rd Grade Teacher at Gretna Public Schools, Gretna, NE

Maria Carabantes

• 2021-2022 - School Counselor at Junior High
• Master of Science K-12 School Counseling, University of Nebraska-Omaha
• 8/2020 - present - Elementary School Counselor, Ralston Public Schools, Ralston, NE

Kaitlyn Young

• 2021-2022 - Special Education Teacher at Middle School
• Bachelor of Science, Wayne State College, 5/2021
• 2017-present - Substitute Teacher for Norfolk Public Schools;
• Presently Student Teaching at Norfolk Middle School

Dave Hepner

• 2021-2022 - Alternatives for Success Teacher and Head Volleyball Coach, Senior High
• Master of Education, Educational Leadership, Doane College, Doane, NE
• 8/2007 - present - 9-12 P.E. and Health Instructor, Head Volleyball and 8th Grade Boys Basketball Coach, Hastings Public Schools

Rationale:  Myles Ehlers--Social Studies Teacher and Assistant 9th grade football coach at Norfolk Senior High and assistant 8th grade boys track coach and assistant intramural boys basketball coach at Norfolk Junior High
Natalie Yosten-Senior High English Language Arts Teacher, effective March 4, 2021
Jenna Lordemann--Special Education Teacher at Norfolk Senior High
Gary Schuurmans--Biological Sciences Teacher, Head Varsity Girls Track and Environmental Club Sponsor at Norfolk Senior High
Terry Belsan--ELL Teacher at Jefferson Elementary

Rationale:  Attached are the claims for the month of March, 2021.  These claims were reviewed earlier today by our Finance and Facility Committee.  There are three  conflict statements for this month.

Rationale: 

• Digital Solutions
• Midwest School Services
• Lifetouch

 I am recommending the Board of Education approves Midwest School Services as the provider of the District School Pictures and ID Services.  This 5-year agreement is strictly a service agreement with no cost to the District.

Rationale:  I am recommending to the Board of Education to grant permission to release bid documents for renovations at Lincoln School.  These renovations include enhancements to the main entrance for safety and security, the moving of the main office to the main level to allow better access to administration and students services for staff, students and parents.  This will also open space to allow the completion of the 2 track grade structure at Lincoln.  These renovations will be funded from our QCPUF and Special Building Funds.

Rationale:  I am recommending that the Board consider waiving the portion of Policy 4005 that requires staff and students to make up snow days, for the 2021-2022 school yea. This recommendation is based upon the fact that the Commissioner has granted us extreme flexibility regarding instructional hours this year, and the fact that our staff have gone above and beyond the call of duty this year in response to the pandemic.  We gave our staff two extra plan days first semester to help ease teacher workload and stress.  I am not planning to do that this semester (unless things change drastically). However, I do think it would be helpful to waive this policy, allowing both students and staff to have their full Spring Break this year.

Rationale:  Policy 5007 was waived for this school year (2020-2021) due to the pandemic.  Although I am uncertain what the 2021-2022 school year will hold, organizations are already contacting us regarding possible foreign exchange students for 2021-2022.  It is my recommendation that we waive this policy one more year, to ensure that vaccinations become widely available not only in the U.S., but in other countries, as well.  According to the ELVPHD, vaccinations will not be complete for the general population within our region when school starts, and I suspect that vaccinations may take even longer in other parts of the world.

Rationale:  See the attachment.

Rationale:  The 2nd monthly meeting of the Board of Education has been tentatively scheduled for noon on Thursday, March 25, 2021.

The next regular meeting of the Board of Education will be held on Monday, April 12, 2021. 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.