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

Rationale:  Washington Elementary School --DIBS for Kids (Delivering Infinite Book Shelves)

Rationale:  I am pleased to announce that Brittany Newland, Health Tech, Washington Elementary School, is the winner of the NPS Award for Excellence for November 2022.

Rationale:  A seat on the NPS Board of Education is open due to the resignation of Dr. Jenna Hatfield-Waite. This open position was advertised in the Norfolk Daily News and on our NPS website. Seven candidates submitted applications. Those applications were reviewed by veteran Board members and four were chosen to be interviewed tonight.

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

1. Beth Shashikant
2. Kenneth Ramsay
3. Soshia Bohn
4. Ben Collins

Each candidate will be asked the same questions. Therefore, we will ask candidates to leave the room while others are being interviewed.

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. 

Once a candidate is selected (via board vote or special election) he/she will be seated at our next regularly scheduled board meeting (December 12, 2022) and will remain seated until after the next general election (November 2024).

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 November, 2022 by specific fund are listed below:

General Fund =$1,592,472.91

Nutrition Services Fund =$327,861.80

Cooperative Fund =$3,395.99

Depreciation Fund =$507,740.10

Special Building Fund =$15,835.50

QCPUF = $804,956.94

Student Fee Fund = $3,561.10

The total amount of claims for the month of October, 2022 in the Activities Fund is listed below:
Activity Fund =$108,168.99

All of these claims were reviewed earlier today by the Finance and Facility Committee.  A final audit report has been provided for each board member this evening.  The audit of the 21-22 financials went well. A summary of the auditors' results can be found on the final page, which is page 55.  I am pleased to report that as a district there were no findings, control or compliance issues.  The audit for 21-22 is attached and can also be found on the district website along with audits from previous years.  We also had our Fall Nutrition Program review with Lunch Time Solutions.  This review provides LSI with feedback from students, parents and staff about the Nutrition Program.  A follow-up to this meeting will be in February.  LSI shared what is going on with the program and how they are working through the supply chain and labor issues.  The feedback really centered around some quality control issues and a system to provide feedback that is easy to have access to.

Rationale:  Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment
 

• The Teaching and Learning Department has dedicated much of their time this fall to supporting teachers through curriculum cycle work and studying the new standards in math adopted by the state school board. Small study sessions are scheduled with middle school, junior high and senior high math teachers to review the changing shifts shown in the updated standards. We are planning to provide districtwide professional development to math teachers on the January ESU professional development day.
• Public release of statewide assessment data will be going out the week of Thanksgiving. As mentioned before, a review of district data and statewide classifications will occur during the December study session.
• The October professional development day included follow up training on newly purchased materials for teachers. We received good feedback from teachers on this training.
• The October professional development day also included a short session with teachers that are piloting math programs. Illustrative Math, iReady Math, and Amplify Math are under consideration for purchase at various grade levels. The dedication of our pilot teachers needs to be commended. They have amazing insight and desire to serve our students with the best possible materials they can find. When the pilot teachers pose a recommendation, the TnL department will take it to the curriculum committee for review.

Rationale: 

Our October 1st count for 2022 shows an increase in the number of students in ELL and Special Education.  The increase for ELL went from 4.7% to 5% (increase of 20 students), Special Education went from 16.2% to 18% (increase of 95 students) of the student total population.

The Tri-State Special Education Law conference was held November 3rd and 4th.  There were breakout sessions regarding transitioning of students beyond high school, mental health for both staff and students as well as special education staff shortages.   

Rationale: 

Members of the District Safety Team and I attended the 2 day NDE Safety Summit in Kearney on October 18th and 19th. I presented on a panel to provide information regarding our implementation of Safe2Help as our anonymous reporting system. Our team also attended multiple sessions to gather information about Psychological First Aid (PFA), Standard Response Protocol (SRP) and Active Threat Assessment.  Along those lines, the I Love You Guys foundation will be in Norfolk on Nov 17th to provide Train the Trainer instruction on SRP and SRM for members of our Safety Team, emergency response personnel and other educators across Northeast Nebraska. If there are people in those fields who are interested in attending, please reach out to me for more information.  

Finally, we completed our fall parent teacher conferences near the end of October. Attendance numbers are posted below. As a district for the fall 2020 conferences we were at 65.7%, fall attendance last year 70.08%, and this year we are at 72.66%. As always it is great to see parents at those conferences. If you were not able to attend conferences for your student, I encourage you to reach out to your student’s school. They would be happy to discuss your student’s educational plan and progress with you. 

	Attendance at P/T Conferences including Zoom	Total School Enrollment	% attended
Little Panther Preschool	232	236	98%
Bel Air	333	340	98%
Jefferson	234	235	100%
Grant	219	226	97%
Lincoln	193	193	100%
Washington	223	232	96%
Westside	208	216	96%
Woodland Park	207	207	100%
Middle School	578	606	95%
Junior High	449	644	70%
Senior High	382	1349	28%
District Results	3258	4484	72.66%

 

Rationale: 

HR Update:

Since the last board meeting, I have attended the Wayne State College Student Teacher Fair, spoke to WSC NENTA students, and was one of five participants in the WSC: Cohort to Career Symposium.  This symposium was designed to provide students with information and experiences on navigating from college to a career.  I am continuing to work to gain the interest of potential teachers to apply at NPS for teaching positions.

Rationale:  Enrollment Projections/Strategic Growth Plan

Rationale:  The committee met at 12:00 today.  The claims for the month of November and activity claims for October were reviewed.  The vendors who submitted proposals for insurance services provided additional information to the committee as requested. A recommendation for insurance services will be brought to the board in December.  Other items reviewed and discussed:

• Updates on current district projects
• Review of request to hire an engineer for the 6th Street track project
• Review of the chromebooks purchases
• Review of the Certified Negotiations process for 2022-2023

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

Rationale:  The Policy Committee met on October 28th to review Board policies 1200-1320 related to Community Relations. Only minor, non-substantive changes were recommended. For instance, a redundant sentence was removed from policy 1320 and a spacing issue was remedied in policy 1240.

The policy committee recommends the approval of the first reading of the policies contained in this section.

Rationale: 

The Activities Committee met on October 17, 2022.

John Erwin and Amber Lenton provided the committee with an update on Fall sports and uniform purchases.

Mr Erwin told the committee that shot clocks have been installed in the main gym at the senior high school, per NSAA guidelines. They will only be used at the varsity level, so they are not needed in the auxiliary gym.

Dr. Thompson let the committee know that the extra duty schedule will be discussed as part of the negotiations with the NCEA.

Dr. Robinson shared information regarding the need for repairs to the junior high and senior high tracks.

Our next meeting is scheduled for noon on December 19, 2022.

Rationale: 

The Norfolk Public Schools Foundation Board of Directors met on October 17, 2022 at 4:30 p.m. at the NPS Administration Building. Nine board members were present, plus 6 guests including 2 prospective new board members. Board President Jake Claussen called the meeting to order at 4:32 p.m. The Board reviewed the meeting minutes from September and the financial reports from August.

NPSF is preparing for our Traditions Breakfast on Thursday October 27th at 7:00 a.m. at the Lifelong Learning Center. This is our main fundraiser for the year where we plan to celebrate the tradition of academic excellence at Norfolk Public Schools. All funds raised by this event will benefit the NPS Foundation and will help support students and teachers in our District. So far over 70 donors have helped sponsor the event and have raised over $35,000 surpassing our goal. Thank you to our sponsors! 

Board members were asked to consider serving as an officer or committee chair for next year. The slate of officers will be approved at the Annual Meeting in January 2023. Members will also choose what committees they serve on: Scholarships, Grants, Marketing, Finance, Board Development, and Executive. 

The next Board meeting will be November 21, 2022 at 4:30 p.m. at the new Middle School Makerspace.

Rationale:  Minutes of the October 10, 2022 and October 26, 2022 board meetings are attached.

Rationale:  None at this time.

Rationale:  Bobby Bernt--1st grade teacher at Grant Elementary School

• Resignation was submitted for Dec.31, 2022, due to relocation for husband's job

Acceptance of this resignation is contingent on finding a suitable replacement.

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

Rationale:  The JH track is in need of extensive repair.  The surface is getting beyond basic repairs of cracks that have been occurring over the past several years. The cracks throughout the track have become quite large and are now posing potential safety issues.  Having a qualified engineer review and determine the best course of action is our next needed step.

Rationale:  We have been notified that we will have 7-8 more students arriving from Ukraine in November.  Our ELL teachers already have full caseloads, which means that we need additional help.  Fortunately, we have a teacher on staff who has an ELL endorsement, but is teaching reading in the morning and subbing in the afternoon.  She is willing and able to teach ELL in the afternoon, instead of subbing.  This will not increase our cost, as she is on a full-time contract. However, we are technically adding a 1/2 time ELL teacher, which requires Board approval.

Rationale:  We have received $380,000 in additional Emergency Connectivity Funds to purchase 950 Chromebooks for Kindergarten, first, and second grade.

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

Rationale:  There will not be a 2nd meeting in November.

The next regular meeting of the Board of Education will be held on Monday, December 12, 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.