February 14, 2022 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:  Target-based Grading Update

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

Rationale:  The Norfolk Public Schools staff, administration and students would like to thank the individuals that serve on the Board of Education for their dedicated service.

Although last week was School Board Appreciation Week, we want you to know that we appreciate you every day.  Thank you for all the time and effort you volunteer in order to ensure that all of our students are provided with outstanding learning opportunities that prepare them to meet their goals for the future.

We have a short video presentation for you, as well as a variety of gifts from students and staff across the district.
 

Rationale:  Washington and Jefferson Elementary Schools--Makerspace Activities

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: 

Total amount of claims to be approved in the consent agenda for the month of February, 2022 by specific fund are listed below:

General Fund = $1,199,996.07

Nutrition Services Fund =$316,453.28

Cooperative Fund = $1,855.53

Depreciation Fund = $15,129.08

Special Building Fund = $129.08

QCPUF = $135,761

Student Fee Fund = $971.86

The total amount of claims for the month of January, 2022 in the Activities Fund is listed below:
Activity Fund =$111,923.12

All of these claims were reviewed earlier today by the Finance and Facility Committee.  W-2's have been sent to all employees in the district during the 2021 calendar year and 1095 C's by February, 11th .

Rationale: 

• The Teaching and Learning Department was able to work with the Math pilot teachers on January 17^th to advance our movement through a Math program decision.  We reviewed fall data and studied additional Math programs where teachers fill out matrixes to rank their findings.  We have found that our pilot experience with Zearn Math has shown us some strategies that are updated and helpful for teaching Math but the program itself would not meet the needs of the district. We will continue our research into a Math program.
• A few curricular groups were able to meet during the month of January.  We have had to change or cancel some work due to staff shortages but for the most part we have been successful.
• Although it seems early, we are already making plans and decisions for summer school and summer professional development.
• More details from Teaching and Learning will be reported in the Curriculum Committee Report.  

 

Rationale: 

Special Education- Some of our special education staff will be attending different conferences in the up coming weeks. 

ELL- The ELPA assessment opened on Monday, February 7. All our ELL students will be completing this assessment to demonstrate growth in the English language.

Rationale: 

I have completed and submitted the 2020/21 Civil Rights Data Collection report. This is a lengthy bi-yearly report, but due to Covid this report will be completed this year and next year. The CRDC collects a variety of information, including student enrollment, educational programs and services data that are disaggregated by race/ethnicity, sex, English learners, and disability. It allows the Office of Civil Rights to review districts' obligations to provide equal educational opportunities. No anomalies were noticed in this year's report over previous years' data. 

Our Safety Team held its quarterly meeting in January. We reviewed our Standard Response Protocol drills and response to safety audit items. We have been inviting local law enforcement to participate in our SRP drills and have received positive feedback. We will be purchasing room number signs for all classrooms in the district so emergency responders can view all room numbers from the end of the hallway. Finally, members of our team and I will be participating with local emergency managers in an active shooter training later this week as well as helping to develop and plan a hazmat exercise to happen in May. More information on those items will be coming soon.

Rationale: 

HR Update:

Substitute Update - The fill rate for our teaching staff is looking positive.  For the month of January, we were able to fill 91% of teacher absences and so far for the month of February we have filled 98% of teacher absences.  

Last week, Mary Luhr and I attended educator career fairs at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, the University of Nebraska Kearney.  We were encouraged by the large turnouts and were able to connect with a variety of potential applicants.  

Current Openings

      2022-2023 School Year:

• Speech-Language Pathologist, 0.6 FTE
• Early Childhood Special Education Teacher
• Special Education Teacher K-4
• Guidance Counselor, K-4
• 6th Grade Teacher
• 1st Grade Teacher
• 3rd Grade Teacher
• Special Education Behavior Teacher 5-6  
• Special Education Teacher 5-6
• Careers Teacher 7-8
• Science Teacher, 7-8
• Aftershock Coordinator 5-8
• District Behavior Specialist
• School Psychologist
• ELL Teacher

Rationale:  Monthly Enrollment Report-See attached

Reminder: Tomorrow is the last day for incumbents to file for re-election.  Non-incumbments have until March 1st to declare their intentions.

 

Rationale:  The committee met at 12:00 today.  The claims for the month of February and activity claims for January were reviewed.  Otte and Hespe Construction provided updates on the Lincoln and Grant projects.  The committee was able to ask questions and get detailed information from the general contractors.  The committee then reviewed the following items:

• Updates on other projects
• Review of proposed compensation increases for the other district employee groups

The next meeting will be Monday, March 14th, at 12:00 noon.

Rationale: 

Government Relations Committee Report  2-14-2022

The Government Relations Committee met on January 21st, January 28th, and February 4th to review pending legislation.

Dr. Thompson testified in support of LB 890, a bill that would increase funding to all schools and reduce property tax levies. 

Dr. Thompson sent emails opposing LB 364 (tax credit scholarships for non-public schools).

Dr. Thompson sent emails supporting LB 690 and 1218, bills that would help address our teacher shortage by changing the basic skills test for teachers (PRAXIS).

Dr. Thompson sent emails supporting LB 1128, 945 and 1169, bills that would help address our teacher shortage through loan forgiveness of teachers.

Sandy Wolfe emailed the Speaker of the House expressing our disappointment that written testimony is no longer accepted. 

Sandy Wolfe sent emails opposing LB 1237 (tax credit scholarships for non-public schools).

The Government Relations Committee intends to meet every Friday throughout the session, unless there are no items on the legislative agenda affecting public education.

Rationale: 

Date: __2/4/2022______

Members Present: 

Jake Clausen, Leann Widhalm, Jared Oswald, Mickie Mueller, Sharolyn Thelen, Nancy Probasco, Beth Nelson

Beth Nelson discussed the upcoming study session where the Teaching and Learning Team and teachers would present on the strategic action planning goal of target-based teaching, learning and grading. The team believes that even though the goal was not met in its entirety and at the projected timeline, they have established sustaining processes for curriculum development that focus on specific learning targets with supporting proficiency scales for grading. The time it took to update policy and procedures plus the pandemic, delayed the timeline. However, that work was necessary and has created a sound and reliable curriculum and grading system. Moving forward, complete transformation of all subject areas and class levels will continue to follow the established steps and processes.  Beth Nelson also reported that Norfolk High School is in communication with Northeast Community College to grow and expand common and overlapping educational opportunities which may affect the pace and steps of future senior high curriculum work. To say all courses in all grade levels will be target-based teaching and learning would be accurate. To say all courses and all grade levels will be target-based grading would not be accurate at this time. Target-based grading will appear where it appropriately meets the progression of curriculum development. 

The Teaching and Learning members gave brief updates on the curriculum work that has been in progress this year. Those groups include K-4 Specials, ELA & Math; 5-8 ELA, Science, & Social Studies and 9-12 Social Studies and ELA. The Career and Technical Education department has just received their new state standards and will begin updating their work this spring and into next year. 

Beth Nelson also explained the upcoming request for purchase for the K-5th grade ELA program, Wonders. This is not a new purchased program but an updated version of the current program. The updates in the new version reflect instructional shifts needed for meeting state standards. This purchase will be a part of the ESSRS CARES funds. 

Lastly, Beth Nelson explained the need for an additional teacher at the senior high to meet the Personal Finance requirement set by the legislature. The guidance received by NDE was not sent out until after the original staffing proposal shared by Dr. Thompson. The timeline became tight as the guidance indicates that current Sophomores must graduate with this credit.

Rationale: 

Date: __2/4/2022______

Jake Clausen, Leann Widhalm, Jared Oswald, Mickie Mueller, Sharolyn Thelen, Nancy Probasco, Beth Nelson

The Board of Education Curriculum Committee meeting was called to order at 11:00 a.m. The meeting began with the Civics portion where Beth Nelson and Sharie Thelen reported the completion of the 5th-7th grade pilot for Social Studies. They reviewed the pilot process and teacher survey feedback. After completion of the research and piloting process, it is determined that the TCI program would be the best fit for the district. The Curriculum Committee was able to review the materials at the November meeting. A request for purchase and motion will appear later in this meeting. 

It was 11:25 at the conclusion of the civics portion of the meeting. 

Rationale: 

The Norfolk Public Schools Foundation held its Annual Meeting on January 17, 2022 at 4:30 p.m. Eight board members and six guests were present.  The foundation operates on a calendar year and is required in its by-laws to hold an annual meeting each year on the third Monday of January.  During the annual meeting, board members discussed and approved the year-end 2021 financial reports, 2022 annual budget, board member terms, election of officers, and annual vendor relationships.  

Annual distributions from the foundation’s endowments and funds for scholarships and grants were also approved for 2022 programming.  Members of the NHS graduating Class of 2022 have the opportunity to apply for 64 Traditional Scholarships equal to $75,300 through the Norfolk Public Schools Foundation.  The scholarship applications will be available on the website at the end of January and has a March 16 deadline.  

Rationale:  Minutes of the February 1, 2022 Nurses Meeting are attached for review.

Rationale:  Minutes of the January 10, 2022 and January 27, 2022 meetings are attached for review.

Rationale:  None at this time.

Rationale: 

• Lynn Baker-1st Grade Teacher at Grant Elementary--retiring
• Julie Wisch-Science Teacher at Norfolk Junior High--retiring
• Lisa Werning--Special Education Teacher at Norfolk Middle School-relocating due to husband's job

Rationale:  Attached are the claims for the month of February, 2022.  These claims were reviewed earlier today by our Finance and Facility Committee.  There is a conflict statement for this month that will need to be read before voting.

Rationale:  See attached.

Rationale:  The Nebraska Statute 79-3004 requires financial literacy to become a part of graduation requirements. Guidance for meeting this requirement was not sent out by NDE until Jan 20, 2022. Because this guidance specifies that the class of 2024 (current sophomores) must complete this graduation requirement, it becomes necessary for NPS to add an appropriately endorsed business education teacher for the 2022-2023 school year. This is one year sooner than the staffing plan presented at the January 10th board of education meeting.

It takes 16 sections to meet the needs of our student body when we have a required class. Although NHS currently offers 5 sections of Personal Finance, we cannot add 11 more sections with our existing staff. It will take adding a full time person in order for us to meet this requirement. Our original staffing plan called for this addition in 2023-2024, because we did not know that this would become a graduation requirement for our current sophomores.



 

Rationale: 

The study and review of new social studies programs has been delayed due to the pandemic putting us a bit behind on updating materials. Teachers reviewed, studied and lastly piloted 2 programs.  After consideration, TCI was chosen as the best fit to meet the learning needs of students and state standards. Appropriate review has taken place to meet the Civics Law requirements in selecting and purchasing social studies programs. The price includes the cost of print and online resources for a 6- year subscription. This will be purchased through the regular general curriculum budget.  

I recommend the purchase of TCI for 5th- 8th grade Social Studies. 

The one qualifying bid has been reviewed. 

TCI 2022

$132,249.10

Rationale: 

The current Kindergarten- 5th grade ELA program, Wonders expires at the end of this school year. The updated version contains resources that reflect instructional shifts matching state standards. The program will provide resources for regular education, special education, Title and ELL. Of all content areas, ELA typically costs the most because it includes reading, writing, speaking, listening and critical thinking pieces. This purchase includes a 6 year subscription to online and paper copies. ESSERS III and the Curriculum budget will be used to purchase 2023 Wonders for K-5th grade.  

 The one qualifying bid has been reviewed and I recommend this purchase. 

 Wonders 2023

$620,357.81

Rationale:  See attached.

Rationale:  This item was listed on the January 10th meeting agenda as the second and final reading, when it was actually the first reading of these policies.  No changes have been made since the January approval.

Rationale:  The 2nd monthly meeting of the Board of Education has been tentatively scheduled for noon on Thursday, February 24. 2022.

The next regular meeting of the Board of Education will be held on Monday, March 14. 2022. The Study Session will 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.