September 13, 2021 at 6:00 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Rationale:  August 31, 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:  Montessori Program

Rationale:  Kendra Marshall, Norfolk High School Guidance Counselor

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 for the 20-21 end of the fiscal year claims, which were approved last month are listed below:

General Fund = $300,000

The total amount of claims to be approved on the consent agenda for the month of September, 2021 by specific fund are listed below:

General Fund = $705,565.70

Nutrition Services Fund = $111,516.00

Cooperative Fund = $89,704.47

Depreciation Fund = $198,793.00

QCPUF = $145,824.00

Bond Fund= $2,814,670.63

Student Fee Fund = $4,650.89

The total amount of claims for the month of August, 2021 in the Activities Fund are as follows:
Activity Fund =$77,650.98

All of these claims were reviewed earlier today by the Finance and Facility Committee.  The end of the 20-21 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 20-21 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. 20th.

Rationale:  Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment
 

• This year we have been able to meet with curriculum groups. We are trying to make up for some lost time from last year. We held a vertical 6-12^th grade ELA day to review priorities and discuss specifics of grade level expectations. This is quite refreshing and we find ourselves able to regain some positive momentum after our limitations last school year.
• The TnL team has been studying the new proposed English Language Arts standards to determine next steps for updating curriculum.
• We are in the midst of the Fall MAP assessment window. Buildings that are complete are able to see their data and work on setting goals for this year.

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. 

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- The Special Education district staff will meet on September 22 to review assessment scores and grade level instructional needs.  Through the academic year our Special Education leadership team will be reviewing and updating our district procedures. 

Nebraska Council of School Administrators-NASES- again 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: 

• With students and staff back at school, we have a lot of back to school meetings and training that have to be completed. All staff who work with students are required to attend 1 hour suicide prevention training at the beginning of the school year. This year we were able to partner with Region 4 Behavioral Health to provide QPR (Question, Persuade, Report) Training. They offered smaller group training sessions at each of our school buildings for staff to attend.
• Our District Technology Team met last week to evaluate chromebook rollout, standardized testing needs, and future tech needs for the district.
• The District Safety Team met to go over our Emergency Operations Plan, Sub Safety Binders, and to develop plans to meet our goals for this year. We are working to solidify our Reunification processes and create a Hazard Mitigation walk-through form. We are also in the process of doing our yearly district safety audit.
• Our MTSS/PBIS team along with all building principals completed 2 days of Train the Trainer Educlimber Training. This was an extremely valuable opportunity for our building leaders to dive into how Educlimber works and provide them with the tools necessary to train their staff. A portion of our October PD day will be set aside for getting our teachers exposed to what Educlimber can do for us.

Rationale: 

HR Update:

Half of our new NPS teachers receive training on the NPS Instructional Model on September 9 and the other half will receive their training on September 27.  They are working hard to learn the essential concepts and strategies that will enhance learning and instruction in their classroom.

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 nine student teachers in our district.  I have received positive feedback from our administrators about their start to the year.  

Rationale:  Enrollment Report and COVID Update

Rationale:  The committee met at 12:00 today.  The claims for the month of September and the end of the fiscal year claims for August as well as activity claims for August were reviewed.  The committee then reviewed the following items:

• Final review of Budget and Tax Request Hearings for 2021-2022
• Updates on current district projects
• Final review of classified compensation pay increase
• Review of the Audit Timeline
• Review of ESSER III
• Discussion on Norfolk Public Transportation

The next meeting will be Monday, October 11th at 12:00 noon.

Rationale: 

The Policy Committee met on August 27, 2021 to review Board Policies 5001-5012 related to Students. The committee  is recommending that these policies are reaffirmed, as only minor non-substantive changes have been made to address grammar issues.

Rationale: 

The Activities Committee met at noon on August 23rd. The primary purpose of this meeting was to discuss the potential addition of Girls Wrestling as a pilot activity in 2021-2022. The Activities Committee recommended that this proposal be added to the Board Retreat Agenda, where it was approved unanimously.

Other discussion items included the introduction of our new Activities Directors (John Erwin, Curt Lammers and Tyler Beranek) and general updates from those directors.  It was also noted that our Equity and Diversity presentation to the NSAA went very well.  The NSAA Directors were impressed by the efforts we are taking to ensure that everyone within NPS feels safe, welcome, and valued. 

Our next Activities Committee meeting is scheduled for noon on October 4, 2021.

Rationale:  The minutes of the September 7, 2021 Student Health and Nurses Meetings are attached.

Rationale:  Minutes of the August 9, 2021 meeting and the August 26, 2021 board retreat are attached.

Rationale:  None at this time.

Rationale:  Debi Commerford--Kindergarten Teacher at Grant Elementary 

Rationale:  Attached are the claims for the month of September, 2021.  These claims were reviewed earlier today by our Finance and Facility committee.  There is one conflict statement for this month that needs to be read before voting.

Rationale: 

A seat on the NPS Board of Education is open due to the resignation of Bruce Mitchell, who moved out of the district. This open position was advertised in the Norfolk Daily News and on our NPS website.  Fourteen candidates submitted applications and four of those were chosen to be interviewed tonight.

The order of interviews was determined by random drawing and is listed below:

1. Jo Roberts

2. LeAnn Widhalm

3. Joe Mtika

4. Leonor Fuhrer

Each candidate will be asked the same questions.

At the completion of interviews, sitting board members will discuss the candidates’ qualities and attributes, focusing on strengths.

Once the discussion is complete, the Board President will ask for nominations to fill the empty board seat.  Nominations may be made by any board member and several nominations may be made before a vote. If more than one candidate is nominated, the candidate that receives the majority of votes will be chosen/appointed to the seat. Each school board member may only cast one vote for a nominated candidate.

Voting will occur via roll call due to limitations of our electronic voting system (Sparq). Ballots are not allowed for Board appointments.

The motion will be:  I make a motion to appoint the candidate with the majority of votes to fill the open seat on the NPS Board of Education.

If no candidate receives a majority vote (3), the board will discuss candidates further and go through the nomination and voting process again...until a candidate receives the majority vote (3) or until the Board has voted 5 times.

If the board fails to fill a vacancy on the board after 5 votes, the vacancy will be filled by election at a special election. (It is important to note that the cost of this special election would be paid in full by NPS.)

Once a candidate is selected (via board vote or special election) he/she will be seated at our next regularly scheduled board meeting and will remain seated until the next general election (November 2022).

Rationale:  This proposal was discussed in great length during our Board Retreat held on August 26, 2021.

Rationale: 

Over the past several years, the district has annually made percentage increases to the base starting wages of hourly employees using the same percentage which the certificated employees were receiving in their total package settlement.  This system has traditionally kept us competitive when compared to other local employers in the area.  As directed health measures expired and the economy began to open back up to its pre-pandemic status, employers quickly started seeing staff shortages.  So to counter that, many employers have raised their base wages to $15 or more per hour.  This has become very common in our community and has put our district in a situation where we are not able to fill positions or keep people because of our current compensation structure. 
It is recommended that we add $2.54 to the base wages of all our hourly positions in the district.  Please reference (Appendix A) for the current starting wages and (Appendix B) for the proposed starting wages.  We are also recommending a $2.54 increase to all existing employees hourly rates.  This recognizes the experience these employees have while also treating everyone equally in this proposal.  We anticipate this will prevent many of our current staff from possibly looking to other employers but also increase the quantity and quality of our applicant pool for openings.  This cost has been included in the 2021-2022 budget, and if approved the new wages would start September 19th. This coincides with the beginning of our next payroll period.

Rationale:  Only minor, non-substantive changes have been made to these policies.

Rationale:  The 2nd monthly meeting of the Board of Education will be held at 12:00 noon on Thursday, September 23, 2021.

The next regular meeting of the Board of Education will be held on Monday, October 11, 2021. Study Sessions will resume and begin at 5:30 PM. The regular business meeting will start 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.