August 9, 2021 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:  Erik Wilson and Jen Robinson will share the presentation that they have drafted for the NSAA regarding our district plans for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

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

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, including your address, the name of the organization you represent 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 of claims to be approved on the consent agenda for the month of August 2021 by specific funds are listed below:

General Fund = $1,158,746.37

Nutrition Services Fund =$115.68

Cooperative Fund = $29,610.19

Depreciation Fund = $92,660

Special Building Fund = $222,087

QCPUF = $76,700.50

Student Fee Fund = $4,994.40

The total amount of claims for the month of July 2021 in the Activities Fund is listed below:
Activity Fund =$63,032.31

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

Rationale:  Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment

• Along with many others, the Teaching and Learning Department played a role in new teacher training. Our focus centered on curriculum and instruction and assessment. We emphasized the importance of adhering to district processes. Our training included but was not limited to finding curriculum documents, reviewing curriculum development processes and introducing teachers to our PLC processes.
• Our department has a strong schedule for upcoming training and curriculum work. We look forward to a busy and functional year.

Rationale: 

ELL and Special Education teams will be meeting this week.  Our special education leadership team met August 4, regarding the new information from the state with LB 527 and transition starting at age 14 rather than at age 16.

Thursday, August 5th, para education staff participated in the ESU 8 paraprofessional training for the 2021-2022 school year.  

Title VI- Native American school supplies are available for pickup for our families.  Please contact our Native American Home/School Liaison for more information. 

Rationale: 

All teachers are back in the district today preparing for the start of our 2021/22 school year. Students have been divided into groups A or B. Group A will attend school on Thursday the 12th and Group B will attend on Friday the 13th. All students, Groups A and B, will attend together starting on Monday the 16th. Starting school in this manner provides staff with smaller class sizes allowing them to better build relationships with their students and helps the students feel more comfortable.  

All new staff and substitutes have been trained in our District Standard Response Protocols (SRP) to ensure that we know how to safely react in an emergency situation. We have also provided all classroom teachers with an SRP binder so that the substitutes have the information they need to react appropriately no matter what building they are in. 

Rationale: 

HR Update:

Our "New to the District" teacher training was Tuesday, August 3rd - Friday, August 6th.  NPS has gained some passionate and knowledgeable new teachers and they are excited to get started.  Training has been held for our new classified staff, substitute teachers, and substitute paraprofessionals.  All certified staff reported today and it was great to see everyone together again.  The first day of school for ½ of the students is Thursday, August 12th and the other ½ is Friday, August 13th.

  Job Postings Update:
  Certified Positions:

• Substitute Teachers - ‘21-’22

  Classified Openings: 

• Full-time Substitute Paraprofessional
• Aftershock Club Facilitators (Part-Time)
• Jefferson Media Para
• Jefferson After Hours/Evening Custodian (Part-Time)
• Grant Special Education Paraprofessional
• Washington Classroom Paras (2) & Media Para
• Woodland Park Title 1 Para
• Junior High Media Para
• Junior High High Needs Para w/Driving (2)
• Senior High ELL Paraprofessional
• Senior High Night Custodian
• School Bus Activity Drivers 
• Evening Custodians (Part-Time)
• Electrician (Part-Time) - Maintenance
• Substitute Custodian (on-call)
• Substitute Deaf Education/Sign Language Interpreter (Part-Time)
• Substitute Paraprofessional, Health Tech, Secretary and Nurse

  Coaching Opportunities:

• Assistant Swimming-Diving Coach
• SH Technical Theater Director
• Unified Bowling

 

Rationale:  Board Appointment Process and Timeline

The process that we will use to fill our vacant Board seat will be very similar to the process we used a few months ago to fill Dr. Gubbels' position.  

Legally registered voters that live within the boundaries of the Norfolk Public School District can contact the Board's Recording Secretary, Mary Hoien, for an application.

The completed application must be submitted back to Mary by 12:00 p.m. (noon) on September 1, 2021. 

The Board President and Vice President will review all valid applications and select 3-4 finalists to be interviewed. 

Each candidate will be notified, by telephone, as to whether they received sufficient support to become a finalist for the position.  

The finalists will be interviewed at the September 13, 2021 board of education meeting.  Each interview will last approximately 20-25 minutes.  The candidates will be asked to make a statement concerning their qualifications, which should be no longer than 5 minutes.  This statement will be followed by a 15-20 minute question and answer period. 

Following the conclusion of the interviews, the Board of Education will discuss the strengths of each candidate and select one of them to join the Board.

The individual that is selected will be seated on the board at the September 23, 2021 Board meeting.

Qualifications for Board Member:
Individuals that apply for this position must be legally registered voters in the Norfolk Public School District. They must have a sincere desire to serve the educational needs of the children of this district. They shall be nonpartisan and non-geographical in dealing with all school matters and shall not subordinate the education of children to any partisan principle, unrelated group interest, or personal ambition.

In addition, they must be committed to attending all Board meetings, thoroughly reviewing Board packet materials prior to each meeting, and having open, transparent dialogue regarding topics on the Board agenda. 
Typically, Board meetings are held at 5:30 on the second Monday of the month and at noon on the fourth Thursday of the month.  Each Board member also serves on several Board committees and may be asked to participate in Board Retreats, Strategic Planning and other events.  Therefore, it is important that candidates evaluate whether they are able to fulfill these time commitments.

 

Rationale:  The committee met at 12:00 today.  The claims for the month of August and activity claims for July were reviewed.  The committee then reviewed the following items:

• Review of Budget and Tax Request Hearings and timeline for 2021-2022
• Updates on current district projects
• Updates on Benjamin Ave. project
• Review of the Bond Resolution for paying off our general obligation bonds.  The district will save an additional $46,515.62 with paying off the debt early.  With refinancing and early pay-off, the district has had a net savings of $1,925,516.45 during the life of this bond debt.
• Discussion on current Activity workers pay
• Request for additional year end expenditures to finish budgets, grants and transfer before the end of the 2020-2021 fiscal year
• Discussion on request to sell some of the district's property south of Westside School to the ODD Fellows
• Review of the tentative Audit Timeline
• Review of processes related to the receipts and expenditures within the Districts Activity Fund

The next meeting will be Tuesday, August 24th at 12:00 noon and then Monday, Sept. 13th at 12:00 noon.

Rationale:  Minutes of the July 12, 2021 and July 22, 2021 meetings are available for review.

Rationale:  Alexis Phillips

• 2021-2022 Junior High Career & Technical Education (0.6) and Substitute Teacher (0.4)
• Bachelor of Science, Middle level Education, Concordia University, Seward, NE
• 7/2019 to 7/2021, Teacher at St. John Lutheran School, Defiance, OH

This part-time position became available when I moved Austin Casselberry from part-time After Shock Coordinator/part-time Junior High Careers Teacher to part-time After Shock Coordinator/part-time Career Academies Director.  I think that this is a great fit for Austin and that the two part-time positions really compliment one another.  In fact, Dr. Ippensen has already mentioned that Austin is really jumping into the Career Academies position.  We think he will do a good job of moving us forward and making our Career Academies even better.

Rationale:  Attached are the claims for the month of August 2021.  These claims were reviewed earlier today by our Finance and Facility Committee.  There are no conflict statements for this month that need to be read before voting.

Rationale:  This item was added to the agenda at the request of a patron of our district, Kami Riley, who spoke earlier this evening.  She is requesting that we send a second letter to the State School Board and Commissioner of Education, asking them to completely eliminate all of the proposed health education standards. 

These standards are not required by law and local school boards are not required to adopt them. This is similar to many other content areas, such as: Fine Arts, Physical Education, World Languages, and the following Career and Technical Education areas: Agriculture, Business, Communications, Health Sciences, Human Services/Education, and Skilled and Technical Sciences. 

Many patrons of our district have expressed concerns with the Health Education Standards. These concerns are related to sex education items which are contained within the area of Human Growth and Development. The second draft of the Health Education standards eliminated many (but not all of those concerns).  The second draft still contains the following standards related to reproduction, sexually transmitted disease, gender, and sexual identity:
*  HE.5.7.2.d:  Describe how puberty prepares human bodies for the potential to reproduce.
*  HE.7.7.2.d:  Recognize that biological sex and gender identity may or may not differ.
*  HE.7.7.2.e:  Analyze how puberty prepares human bodies for the potential to reproduce.
* HE.HS.1.16.f:  Describe how pornography and sexting can impact relationships.
* HE.HS.1.17.e:  Describe fertilization, fetal development, and the birth process.
* HE.5.7.3.d: Describe the human reproductive systems and the basic functions.

They also provide the following definitions:
* Gender Identify:  internal, deeply held thoughts and feelings about gender.
* Gender Roles:  Attitudes and behaviors that a society considers "appropriate" for males and females.

I have not received any complaints about the standards within the other 7 areas of the Health Education Standards (Foundations of Personal Health, Disease Prevention, Substance Abuse Prevention, Social, Emotional and Mental Health, Injury Prevention and Safety, and Consumer and Environmental Health Promotion.

Rationale:  The district has the funds available in our bond fund to pay off the remainder of the debt early, which will result in a savings of $46,515.62. With refinancing and early pay-off, the district has had a net savings of $1,925,516.45 during the life of this bond debt. Attached is the official resolution which, if approved, will start the process of calling in the remaining bonds, thus eliminating the current general obligation bond debt.  The district will also no longer need to have a tax levy for these bonds in 2021-2022.  The official resolution is attached

Rationale: 

1235 Chromebooks

I am recommending the purchase of the HP 11 G9 from CDW as it met all the specs we requested, has the longest life (AUE - Automatic Update Expiration - 2028), and is the only device that comes with a 3 year warranty.  If we receive the Emergency Connectivity Fund ECF grant, it will pay for our devices up to $400 per device. So with this proposal, we would receive our devices for zero cost to the district. If we do not receive the ECF grant we can revisit this proposal.

 

Seller	Model	AUE	Warranty	Google MAN	Price	per year
Logistics 365	Dell 3100	2026	1 Year	NO	225	$55
CDW	HP 11 G9 MT8183	2028	3 Year	YES	366.51	$52.35
Sterling	Dell 3100	2026	1 year	YES	258.49	$51.60
Sterling	Dell 3100	2026	1 year	YES	272.98	$54.60

Rationale: 

475 Laptops

For our teacher laptop purchase I am recommending the Sterling quote of the Dell Latitude 5511. Our RFP specified a Dell Latitude with 6 Core processor or better. The 5511 is the lowest price that met all the specs requested. If we receive the ECF grant, it would pay $400 towards each device ordered, the district would cover the rest of the expense. If we do not receive the ECF grant we can revisit this proposal.

 

Seller	Model Latitude	RAM	Storage	Processor	Price	Warranty
Sterling	Lat 5521	16 GB	m.2 256	i7-11850 8 Core	$1,741.67	1 Year
Sterling	Lat 5511	16GB	m.2 256	i7-10850 6 Core	$1,509.83	1 Year	lowest quote that met specs

Rationale:  I am requesting a motion to approve spending up to $2,500,000 of additional claims out of the General Fund in August for completion of 2020-2021 budgets, grants, and transfers to depreciation.  An end of August claims list will be posted for the Sept. 13th board meeting.

Rationale:  A Board of Education Retreat has been scheduled from 12:00-4:00 PM on Thursday, August 26, 2021.  The purpose of the retreat is to explain and to inform the board how the district plans to allocate the ARA/ESSERS-III funds.

The next regular meeting of the Board of Education will be held on Monday, September 13, 2021.  The Study Session will begin at 5:30 PM and the regular business meeting will follow at 6:30 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.
 

Rationale:  See item 13.

Rationale:  I am asking you to approve the filing of a complaint with the Commissioner of Education and the Professional Practices Commission regarding a Breach of Contract.  A certificated employee has resigned, knowing that she was past the deadline of March 15th and knowing that we could not fill her position.