September 9, 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:  Lunchtime Solutions Update
Board Visits

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

Rationale: 

Welcome to the Budget Hearing for the 2019-2020 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 2019-2020 General Fund budget, when including all of the cash reserve and estimated county treasurer balance comes to $69,044,277.42. The district's budget of actual expenditures for 2019-2020 when excluding the cash reserve and estimated county treasurer balance is $47,221,659. This budget will allow the district to continue its current programs and goals for 2019-2020 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 2019-2020.

Rationale: 

Welcome to the Tax Request Hearing for the 2019-2020 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 2019-2020 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 $0.003077 which would make our overall levy $1.173569 for 2019-2020 compared to $1.176646 in 2018-2019.

Rationale:  Washington Elementary Safety Patrol

Rationale:  Kathy Walker: Westside Elementary School: ED Teacher 

Rationale:  Our June-August 2019 Success Pin Recipients are listed below.
The Cash Now winner is Patti Hagedorn.  She will receive a $50 gift certificate, compliments of U.S. Bank.
 

Abbie Ziemba	Dan Runfeldt	Meaghen Ayers
Ali Johnson	Dana Mimick	Megan Gaines
Amy Elliott	Deb Babl	Megan Lewis
Angie Beltz	Diana Pantoja	Melinn Young
Angie Means	Hannah Rowse	Melissa Dinkel
Ashley Lanman	Jaci Jenkins	Melissa Hansen
Beata Burkink	Jane Doe	Melissa Jantz
Ben Reyes	Jared Oswald	Melissa Weber
Beth Nelson	Jason Ayers	Michele Dickey
Bob Sullivan	Jenna McCleary	Michelle Fisher
Bonnie Johnson	Jessi Jensen	Mike Sunderman
Brad Spreeman	Jim Beltz	Mike Thomas
Brenda Guill	Kari Cronin	Morgan Centrone
Brett Hart	Katie Fite	Nancy Boche
Caitlin Bartlett	Kelly Krueger	Nancy Probasco
Cara Riese	Kendra Henry	Paige Andrijeski
Carissa Batenhorst	Kris Anderson	Pat Wolff
Carrie Kopf	Kristine Herley	Patti Hagedorn
Cathi Wood	Kyle Mather	Riley Kalin
Chris Granatowicz	Laura Reeves	Rita Meyer
Chris Mueller	Lisa Geary	Robyn Pospisil
Christine Walker	Mandi Kettelson	Sandy Rose
Christy Lampert	Mandy Rich	Stormie Surrell
Cindy Mills	Mathew Arenz	Theresa Allen
Connie Haglund	Matt Skiff	Tom Olson
Curt Guenther	McKenna Gibson	Trevor Osten
Cyndi Thompson	Meagan Priebe	Trisha Andreasen

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 18-19 end of the fiscal year claims, which were approved last month are as follows:

General Fund = $1,460,325.82 

Total amount of claims to be approved in the consent agenda for the month of September, 2019 by specific fund are as follows:

General Fund = $630,969.46

Nutrition Services Fund = $171,446.35

Cooperative Fund = $1,884.91

Depreciation Fund = $434,296

Special Building Fund = $31,245.92

QCPUF = $6,575.50

Student Fee Fund = $16,320.71

The total amount of claims for the month of August, 2019 in the Activities Fund are as follows:
Activity Fund =$112,244.86

All of these claims were reviewed earlier today by the Finance and Facility Committee.  The end of the 18-19 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 18-19 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. 23rd.

Rationale:  Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment:

• The Teaching and Learning Department is finally normalizing. The beginning of the year did not disappoint with busyness. Added students brought on some extra tasks and orders but we are finally caught up.
• Curriculum and Civics Committees met in August.
• The MAP Fall testing window is now open for three weeks. It’s important for us to gather data early in the year to assist in our decision making for instruction to meet student needs.
• Multiple dates have already been set to work on curriculum for a bulk of the semester.
• The ESSA Title Grant is just about ready for submission. It is open early for the first time since I’ve taken over the grant management.

Technology:

• Technology is an ever revolving process. I believe the preschool is up to district standards now.

Rationale: 

Fall Activities have begun, please be sure to check the activities calendar located on the Norfolk Public Website for upcoming events dates, times and location.  

Homecoming week begins this week at Norfolk High School. We hope you will be able to attend the football game on Friday, September 13th at 7:00 p.m.,  between Norfolk and Kearney. Coronation will be on Saturday, September 14th at 7:30 p.m. with the Homecoming Dance to follow at 8:00 p.m.

Mrs. Nelson and I, along with several elementary principals, the Teaching and Learning team and special education personnel attended the NeMTSS conference last week in Kearney.  

 

Rationale:  District Safety and Security Audits:

• In October, we will have another round of district security audits completed by an external visitation team. This audit gives us an opportunity to gather additional feedback on ways to make our schools as safe as possible and it allows our safety teams to share and reflect on the things we have accomplished since last year’s audit. 
• Special thanks to our staff and the Board of Education for their continued commitment to school safety. 

Instructional Model:

• Our district Instructional Model continues to expand as all certified staff this year have created their own personal instructional goals tied to components of the model. These goals will be posted throughout the buildings so that students and staff can collaborate and reflect on the goals. 
• Our teachers do an outstanding job of meeting the needs of our students and we appreciate their hard work and dedication to continuous improvement with instruction.  

Current Openings:

•   Administrative Assistant to the Director of Human Resources and School Accreditation
• Aftershock Club Facilitators
• Aftershock Site Manager
• Deaf and Hard of Hearing Interpreter
• School Bus Activity Drivers
• Speech-Language Pathologist Paraprofessional
• Substitute Openings

Coaching Opportunities:

• HS Assistant Boys Soccer
• IM Football (JH)

Rationale:  Foundation Breakfast
Board Retreat
 

Rationale:  The committee met at 12:00 today.  The end of 18-19 fiscal year claims, the claims for the month of September and Activity claims for August were reviewed.  The committee discussed the closeout items on the Little Panthers Pre-School facility.  Other items for discussion were:

• Final review of the proposed 19-20 budget
• Final review of the proposed 19-20 tax request
• Review of upcoming audit schedule for 18-19 fiscal year

The next meeting will be October 14th at 12:00 noon. 

Rationale: 

The Policy Committee met at 1:00 on Thursday, August 29, 2019 to consider revisions to Board Policies 3010-3120 related to Business Operations. Dr. Bill Robinson was invited to the meeting to provide input as the district’s Business Manager.

Several revisions are recommended to Board Policy 3010 (Budget Planning) to make it more accurately reflect the process that is used by the district. 

• "Priorities established by the Board of Education" was included as a factor that should be considered when developing the annual budget.    

• "Short term goals" was added in order to clarify that the budget should be compatible with both short and long term goals.

• The preliminary budget report was removed from this process.

Policy 3080 was revised to clarify when the Superintendent needs to seek approval regarding Federal Funds.  Board approval needs to be sought prior to the initial application of Federal Funds. It does not need to be sought each year for grant renewals.

Policy 3120 was revised to indicate that the district can use banks that are not within the boundaries of the district if there is no bank within the district that can adequately secure our deposits.  We use several local banks, but also use the Nebraska Liquid Asset Fund for a percent of our cash reserves that exceed the security maximums at our local banks.

Several other non-substantive changes have been recommended to these policies to make them easier to understand. 

The Policy Committee will meet again on Thursday, September 26, 2019.

Rationale:  Minutes of the following meetings are attached:
Curriculum Committee 
Nurses 
Student Health
American Civics Committee

Rationale:  Minutes of the August 12, 2019 and August 29, 2019 meetings are attached.

Rationale:  None at this time.

Rationale:  None at this time.

Rationale:  Attached are the claims for the month of September, 2019.  These claims were reviewed earlier today by our Finance and Facility committee.

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 2019-2020 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 2019/2020 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 $25,946,862.24; (2) the Tax Request for the Special Building Fund should be and hereby is set at $1,297,343.11; (3) the Tax Request for the Bond Fund K-8 should be and hereby is set at $1,152,272.74; (4) the Tax Request for the Bond Fund 9-12 should be and hereby is set at $817,424.26; (5) the Tax Request for the Qualified Capital Purpose Undertaking Fund should be and hereby is set at $1,010,101.00.
The total assessed value of property differs from last year’s total assessed value by an increase of 2.5%. 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 $1.150015. Madison County School District 59-0002 proposes to adopt a property tax rate that will cause its tax rate to be $1.173569 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 a decrease from last year's by 0.3%.

Rationale:  The 2019-2020 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 29th.  The public also had an opportunity for comment and input at our hearing earlier this evening.

Rationale:  We have replaced our sewing machines at the Senior High.  They are no longer operable in the classroom; however, seven of them could be sold for home-use.  We are seeking permission to sell these out-dated machines for $25 each and to recycle any machines that cannot be sold. 

Because these machines are past life-expectancy, they are no longer carried on our Perkins inventory, which means that any money generated from their sale can be deposited for future equipment purchases.

Rationale:  According to Stanton County Subdivision Regulations Article 6, a Final Plat shall have a Certificate of Notification signed by the School Board President. 

Please see the attached documents from Stanton County for further information regarding this plat (Valley View Estates).

Rationale:  The 2nd monthly meeting of the Board of Education has been scheduled for noon on Thursday, September 26, 2019.

The next regular meeting of the Board of Education will be held on Monday, October 14, 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.