June 13, 2022 at 5:30 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Rationale:  June 6, 2022

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: 

This is the time during the meeting when the public may request to address the Board. According to state law, if you wish to comment you must identify yourself, including your address, the name of the organization you represent and the topic that you wish to address. "Public Comment" cards are located at the Media table, in the back of the room.  Please pick up a card and provide the required information, if you plan to speak.  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 June, 2022 by specific fund are listed below:

General Fund =$1,124,709.38

Nutrition Services Fund =$292,109.21

Cooperative Fund =$20,468.37

Depreciation Fund =$5,796.02

Special Building Fund =$89,656.76

QCPUF = $35,871.00

Student Fee Fund = $1,279.05

The total amount of claims for the month of May, 2022 in the Activities Fund is listed below:
Activity Fund =$86,922.24

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

Rationale:  CURRICULUM, INSTRUCTION AND ASSESSMENT

• The end of the year always has multiple tasks before we can say the year is over. The collection of end of year reports, scheduling of summer training, curriculum workshops, and data collection, are just a few of these things.  
• Our first workshop with a group of senior high teachers occurred on May 24^th. John Eller was the speaker. The day was interactive and focused on understanding student behavior, brain development and professional practices that can recognize and respond to student needs. The junior high will have the same speaker on June 15^th with similar topics.
• Training for K-8 summer schoolteachers was held on May 31^st. Summer school is well underway.

Rationale: 

In compliance with the State Board of Education Rule 10 and LB 79-719 Norfolk Public Schools has completed multicultural education requirements for the school year 2021-22. 

The philosophy of the multicultural education program is that students will have improved ability to function as productive members of society when provided with: (a) an understanding of diverse cultures and races, the manner in which the existence of diverse cultures and races have affected the history of our nation and the world, and of the contributions made by diverse cultures and races and (b) the ability and skills to be sensitive toward and to study, work and live successively with persons of diverse cultures and races. The mission of the multicultural education program is to prepare students to: (a) value and respect their own culture and race and cultures and races other than their own and (b) eliminate stereotypes and different treatment of others based on culture and race. The mission shall also include preparing students to eliminate stereotypes and discrimination or harassment of others based on ethnicity, religion, gender, socioeconomic status, age, or disability. 

Total lessons in required reporting categories are as follows. 

African Americans-1434 
Hispanic Americans-1075 
Native Americans-1069 
Asian Americans-899 
European Americans- 1635

Rationale: 

RE: LB 399 Americanism Compliance Report June, 2022 

In compliance with Nebraska State School Law LB 399, the American Civics Bill, all building Americanism Compliance Reports have been submitted to the Director of Teaching and Learning Office.Teacher reports have been submitted to building administrators on American Civics and are filed within the building for review as needed. 

Compliance reports confirm that the building’s social studies curriculum stresses the required patriotic themes. Above curriculum requirements, buildings have conducted appropriate patriotic exercises for the following observations as well as the senior high required American Civics Assignment: George Washington’s birthday, Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, Native American Heritage Day, Constitution Day, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and Thanksgiving Day.

Rationale: 

Special Announcement: Jill Hoffart will be presented with the Dr. Turk Excellence in Education Award at the Nebraska Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing board meeting on June 17, 2022.   Jill is the Coordinator for Northeast Nebraska Program for Children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing.  

Special Education- Summer school is held June 1 through June 24, 2022, the following schools host the special education classes: Westside elementary for K-4 students, Middle School for 5-8 students and Senior high for 9-12 students. 

Rationale: 

We have completed a week and a half of summer school so far and will officially end summer school on June 24th. Our summer AFS graduation ceremony will be held at 6pm on June 16th at the Senior High Main Gym. 

On May 24th approximately 30 students and NPS staff participated in the Region 11 Emergency Management Hazmat event. We appreciate the partnership we have with local emergency responders. Learning together from training opportunities like these helps us all grow and be better prepared. On that same note, on June 8th and 9th I traveled to Lincoln with both our Activities Directors, Bobbi Risor our Region 11 Emergency Manager, and Captain Rieman from the Norfolk Police Department. Together we all participated in Sports Event Risk Management training. The training was to build capabilities for multi-agency collaboration pertaining to risk management for sports events. We all continue to work together to ensure our students, staff, and community are as safe as possible at school and community events.

Rationale: 

HR Update:

On Tuesday, June 21 Norfolk Public Schools will host a job fair for classified staff here at Central Office from 4:00 - 6:00.  Building principals will be available to talk with job seekers about available positions.  Currently we are looking to hire classroom paraprofessionals, special education paraprofessionals, custodians, substitute paraprofessionals, and a building secretary.  There are positions available at all levels, PK-12.  Candidates can learn more about our available positions and complete applications on site.  I encourage you to spread the word on the NPS Job Fair!

Rationale:  Summer administrator training and other updates
 

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

• Updates on current projects
• Reviewed RFP for district insurance
• Review of proposal for compensation of student teachers and Interns
• Review of Debit card request by Midwest for using Panther Mascot on cards
• Request to sell old coach bus, mini-van and truck

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

Rationale: 

The Policy Committee met on May 31st to discuss policy revisions recommended by our school attorney to ensure our policies are consistent with new state statutes.  Those policies included:

• 1211 related to Title IX Complaints of Sexual Harassment
• 3132 related to Internal Controls
• 3540 related to Bidding Construction Projects
• 4009 related to Drug and Substance Use and Abuse
• 4133 related to Substitute Teachers
• 6600 related to Special Education
• 8346 related to Public Participation at Board Meetings
• 8343 related to Agenda Construction and Control
• 9340 related to Board Minutes

The Board also discussed a new policy 9141 related to Board Member Attendance, which clarifies when and how a board member's absence is excused, as well as when a Board member's seat becomes vacant due to absenteeism.

Rationale: 

The Norfolk Public Schools Foundation Board of Directors met on May 16, 2022 at 4:30 p.m. Fourteen board members were present.  

President Jake Claussen shared with the board that he and Callan Collins were at Honors Night on 5/12 to award 57 NPSF scholarships worth over $72,000 to the NHS graduating class.

NPSF received 51 Classroom Grant applications from NPS staff that have been reviewed and scored. The NPSF selection committee will meet immediately following the board meeting for final selections. The committee will award over $20,000 in grants for the 2022-2023 school year. Recipients will be notified in June if they have been selected. 

The NPS Foundation's Dual Credit Scholarship application is now open. NPSF is again offering 125 Dual Credit Scholarships at $100 each for tuition to Northeast Community College. Courtesy of the Margaret Robinson Memorial Endowment. Only NHS students enrolled in dual credit courses through NECC for the 2022-2023 school year are eligible to apply. The deadline to apply is 8/12/2022 at 10:00 p.m.  

Rationale:  Minutes of the May 9, 2022 and May 23, 2022 meetings are attached.

Rationale: 

~Jessica Sherman

• 2022-2023, 3rd Grade Teacher, Woodland Park Elementary
• Bachelor’s Degree, Early Childhood Education, University of Nebraska-Kearney
• Jan.-May 2022, Long-term Substitute Teacher, Reading Title I teacher, Washington Elementary

Rationale:  None at this time.

Rationale:  Attached are the claims for the month of June, 2022.  These claims were reviewed earlier today by our Finance and Facility Committee.  There are no conflict statements for this month that will need to be read before voting.

Rationale: 

With the addition of sections needed to teach the required financial literacy class, the senior high needs updated and an increased number of textbook resources. Teachers reviewed several publishers and found them all to be very similar in content. Two were chosen to pilot.

McGraw Hill’s Personal Finance Fourteenth Edition was selected over Goodheart-Willcox Personal Finance 11th Edition due to the online functionality for teachers and students. I recommend the purchase of the personal finance textbook from McGraw Hill. 

Rationale: 

NPS offers 2 advanced placement courses in the English department. AP Language and Composition and AP Literature and Composition. The purpose of an advanced placement course is two- fold. One, to allow senior high students an opportunity to experience and expand access to college level English Language Arts and two, to potentially earn college level ELA credit by passing the advanced placement examination. 

Advanced placement courses are governed through the College Board. In order for schools to offer an advanced placement course, the school teacher must submit a course syllabus for approval. An audit of course materials and syllabus are reviewed by college faculty to provide clear guidelines on curriculum and resources to ensure that the rigor meets or exceeds the expectations of a college and secondary school faculty for college-level courses.

Specific standards are required to be within the advanced placement courses. Those concepts are similar to senior high standards but are taught and practiced at a higher rigor with more mature and complicated text. The text chosen for the class meets the requirements expected from the AP course guide. It does include excerpts of stories that hold mature concepts but no pieces of explicit text are within the textbook.

Entire novel stories are taught in the AP Literature and Composition class. They are chosen based upon the provided guidance from the AP course guide which specifies novels referenced on the exam. Novel selections chosen by the College Board emphasizes exposure to different cultures and time periods. The novels used at Norfolk Senior High may change from year to year based upon the teacher’s discretion and availability of such novels in school. The specific novels used in 2020-2021 were, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Huston. 

The stories/novels in and of themselves can contain mature themes and sensitive topics but are used as a means to address the priority standards of the course. The priority standards in AP Literature and Composition are the function of the character, setting, plot, structure, narrator, word choice, imagery, symbols and comparisons, and to develop textually substantiated arguments to evaluate or interpret text. The priority standards in AP Language and Composition are rhetorical analysis, writing process, argumentative writing, and formatting and documentation. 

The advanced placement courses are electives and not required courses. Teachers and guidance counselors communicate with students the contents of the course and the rigorous expectations of AP courses. The course is intended for college ready students. 

Based upon the advanced placement guidance of the College Board and teacher’s discretion, I recommend the following purchases:

• Literature and Composition, Essential Voices, Essential Skills for AP Course Third Edition 
• Critical Thinking, Reading and Writing. 

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Rationale:  The district currently has an old Setra coach bus, a 2000 Mini-Van and a 1977 Ford Truck.  All of these vehicles need substantial work and it would not be cost effective for the district to continue to maintain them.  If the vehicles do not sell, the district will take them in for salvage and get salvage prices for them.  Someone who is a handy mechanic with access to older car or bus parts may be interested.  These items, if approved for sale, will be listed for sale through the Daily News, which will list contact information if someone is interested. 

Rationale:  Over the past several months, the Finance and Facilities Committee has had discussions about putting out an RFP (Request For Proposals) for district insurance services.  It has been several years since the district has done this and the committee felt it was in the district's best interest to go through the process before renewing for 2023.  Attached for Board members is the RFP that will come out if approved.  The RFP will be for Property & Casualty, General Liability, Auto Liability, Professional Liability and Workers Compensation pursuant to Neb. Stat. 79-515.  The process takes several months, which is why the request is being made this evening.  

Rationale:  The 2nd monthly meeting of the Board of Education has been tentatively scheduled for noon on Thursday, June 23, 2022.

The next regular meeting of the Board of Education will be held on Monday, July 11, 2022. There will not be a Study Session.  The regular business meeting will start 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.