February 13, 2023 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:  Comprehensive Finance and Facilities Plan--Dr. Bill Robinson
Board Visits-- Board Members

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

Rationale:  Senior High--Seal of Biliteracy
 

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 February, 2023 by specific fund are listed below:

General Fund =$710,969.01

Nutrition Services Fund =$278,690.85

Cooperative Fund =$6,287.02

Depreciation Fund=$745 

Special Building Fund =$95,455

QCPUF = $156,421.56

Student Fee Fund = $2,296.34

The total amount of claims for the month of January, 2023 in the Activities Fund is listed below:
Activity Fund =$136,872.88

All of these claims were reviewed earlier today by the Finance and Facility Committee. 2022 1095's have been provided to NPS employees.  1095 C's are required for large employers to provide their employees and the IRS for income tax purposes.  Employees do not need them when filing their federal and state taxes, which is why they go out at a later time than the W-2's.

Rationale:  Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment

• Curriculum working groups that have met this last month include; Kindergarten Science, Senior High Art and Business, 5^th, 6^th , 7^th and 8^th grade Math, and 7^th grade English. Each of these groups are at different spots of the curriculum process. I cannot overemphasize the importance of curriculum work days. It organizes and prioritizes the foundational learning for individual classrooms.
• We are coming to a close on the piloting of math programs and will be meeting with the curriculum committee soon to go over our findings and present a recommendation for math program purchases this year.
• I have been watching the development of LB 374 and I have strong concerns about the unnecessary and endless workload that would create a burden on our district and our teachers. In essence, the bill is requiring curriculum, lesson plans and classroom resources to be posted online for public viewing. My biggest concern is the amount time and labor it would require to do so. We would need to hire additional staff, purchase a more robust website and work through numerous copyright issues in order to comply. The shear list of resources used is quite extensive and ever changing. Best practice would state that teachers respond to the learning of their students throughout units of instruction, so posted lesson plans may not be accurate. I believe a large portion of intent behind the bill is to seek transparency. But following the outlined requirements of the law wouldn’t present an accurate account of the learning taking place. Just a listing of learning and resources doesn’t really meet the intent of the law.  We respectfully follow Policy 6400 Parental/Community involvement in Schools where anyone with question about curriculum can request a copy at any time. Without hesitation, we will provide it for them. We also have policy 6320 Parent Request for Exclusion where parents are welcome to seek exclusion of topics covered in school for their student.  As the Director of Teaching and Learning, I would like to remind folks we hold parent/teacher conferences to communicate about curriculum and student learning with parents. I encourage parents to take advantage of this opportunity to ask questions firsthand with their child’s teacher and to contact the school if they have questions or concerns. 

Rationale: 

I attended the Nebraska Association of Special Education Administrators (NASES) conference last week in Lincoln.  The leadership conference focus was inclusive education. 

Our English Language Learner (ELL) students began taking the English Language Proficiency Assessment (ELPA) last Monday, February 6 and the assessment window goes through March 17, 2023.   This assessment evaluates our students' proficiency in speaking, listening, reading and writing the English language.  

Rationale: 

Reminder to our families that this week is parent teacher conferences week. Each building has sent out information about their conference schedule. We will have an 11:30am dismissal on Thursday for afternoon conferences and there is no school on Friday 2/17 or Monday 2/20.

Members of our district Crisis Response Team (CRT), our Licensed Mental Health Practitioners (LMHP’s), and I completed day 1 of Psychological First Aid (PFA) training in January. There are 2 more days of this training, 1 in February and 1 in March yet to complete. Due to Covid we had not been able to provide many training opportunities for our CRT members over the last few years. This PFA training was a good start in getting our team to discuss response and recovery to tragic events in our community.  CRT members are available to respond at our school buildings in the event of a student or staff member's death. The team members provide a safe, caring place for students and staff to go to as they process through their grief.  We also provide assistance to other local schools if they request it. 

Finally we are making progress on our Strategic Action Planning Goal centered on Safety. Our team is meeting again in February to put together our objectives and action steps. We anticipate sharing that information with the BOE in the coming months.

 

Rationale: 

HR Update:

Principals have begun interviewing to fill our open positions for the 2023-2024 school year.  I anticipate being able to start offering contracts yet this week.  

Mary Luhr and I have attended educator career fairs at the University of Nebraska Lincoln and the University of Nebraska Kearney.  We were encouraged by the large turnouts and were able to connect with a variety of potential applicants.  I will attend upcoming fairs at UNO, Sioux Falls, and Wayne State College.  Below are the current certified openings that we have for the 23-24 school year.  This includes the new positions that were approved last month and any staff that are retiring or resigning.

‘23-’24 Certified Positions:

• 2nd Grade Teacher
• 3rd/4th Grade Teacher
• ELL Teacher, K-4 and 5-8
• Art Teachers, Elementary & Secondary
• 6th Grade Teacher
• Physical Education Teacher 7-8
• Science 7-8
• Industrial Technology Teacher 7-8
• Business/Computer Science Teacher
• English Teacher 9-12
• Career Academy Coordinator
• Educational Diagnostician
• District Behavior Specialist
• Special Education Teachers
• School Psychologist

Rationale:  Annual Report
Recruitment Video

Rationale:  The committee met at 12:00 today.  The claims for the month of February and activity claims for January were reviewed. Other items reviewed and discussed:

• Updates on current district projects
• Review of action item for chromebooks and updates on tech rotation for these devices
• Review of action items for Activity bus, Vehicles, Ta-Zouka (softball)
• Initial review of the funding options for the Strategic Facility / Bus-Vehicle Plan 

The next meeting will be Monday, March 13th, at 12:00 noon.

Rationale:  The Policy Committee met on February 8th. We reviewed Board Policies 1400-1470 related to Community Relations.  We had a good discussion, but are not recommending any changes at this time.
We also discussed Board Policy 5101 regarding Student Discipline. Per our attorney’s advice, we have added a section regarding firearms. It is closely aligned with state and federal laws which indicate that a mandatory one year expulsion must be given to students that knowingly possess, use, or transmit a firearm on school grounds.  Specific details regarding short-term suspension, long-term suspension, expulsion and mandatory reassignment are outlined in our student handbooks.
The Policy Committee recommends the approval of the reaffirmation of policies 1400-1470 and the first reading of policy 5101.

Rationale: 

The Government Relations Committee met on January 24th and February 7th.  Members also attended the Nebraska Association of School Boards’ Legislative Issues Conference, the Norfolk Area Chamber of Commerce’s Government Affairs meetings, the Greater Nebraska Schools’ Association membership meeting and Senators’ Reception.

We are monitoring numerous education bills to determine the effect that they may have on Norfolk Public Schools, and we have taken official action regarding the following bills:

• LB 374: A bill that would require schools to share all curriculum, lessons, resources and activities on a web-based transparency portal for review by patrons.  Norfolk Public Schools supports transparency and parental involvement and has several policies in place to protect parent rights. Parents can inspect our curriculum and may choose to excuse their child from any portion that they want.  Unfortunately, our website is not robust enough to hold all of our materials-nor do we have the manpower to place it on our website. This would require a significant investment in staffing and would likely be a violation of copyright laws.

• LB 589: A bill that takes local control away from school boards and places a hard cap on their revenue during a time of record inflation and staffing shortages.  

• LB 440: A bill that would eliminate a school board’s ability to use the building fund to purchase land, build or renovate facilities, or even purchase temporary classrooms.  This fund has been instrumental to improvements to our safety and infrastructure over the last 10 years and is critical to our district moving forward.  

• LB 201: A bill that would make completion of the FAFSA (Free application for Federal Students Aid) a graduation requirement for all students. It is not necessary for students who are not planning to go to college or whose parents are above the federal financial threshold to complete this cumbersome form which asks for confidential financial information. Nor is this feasible for schools to implement, especially schools like ours, where multiple languages are spoken and translators are not readily available.

• LB 630: A bill that would require the Nebraska Department of Education to create a model dress code for the state -  and each local school board to adopt a similar policy. This is unnecessary, as schools already have dress codes. It is also government overreach and results in a loss of local control.

We are very carefully monitoring LB 583: A bill that would continue TEEOSA, provide $1500 foundation aid per student, and increase special education funding from 42% to 80%. We are optimistic that this bill could provide Norfolk Public Schools with additional special education funding, but we need some assurances that TEEOSA would be prioritized for full funding.  We are working through the GNSA and the Governor’s office on relevant amendments and will withhold our official position until we see the final bill with those amendments.

Rationale: 

The Norfolk Public Schools Foundation held its Annual Meeting on January 16, 2023 at 4:30 p.m.  Thirteen board members and four 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 2022 financial reports, 2023 annual budget, board member terms, election of officers, and annual vendor relationships.  The board welcomed three new board members: Doug Burkink, Karl Morgan, and Leann Widhalm. 

Annual distributions from the foundation’s endowments and funds for scholarships and grants were also approved for 2023 programming.  Members of the NHS graduating Class of 2023 have the opportunity to apply for 66 Traditional Scholarships equal to $77,975 through the Norfolk Public Schools Foundation.  The scholarship application will be available on the website in February. 

Rationale:  Minutes of the January 16, 2023 meeting are attached.

Rationale:  None at this time.

Rationale: 

• Arienne Goode--Senior High English/Language Arts teacher, Student Council and Publications sponsor--resigned and is moving to Sioux City, IA
• Colby Eymann-Junior High Industrial Tech teacher--resigned
• Tracy Trumper--Junior High Science teacher-resigned
• Mackenzie Jones--Middle School 6th grade Math and ELA-resigned to help run her husband's business
• Rylee Bessmer--Lincoln Montessori 3rd/4th grade teacher--resigned to accept another position in a different school district
• Brenda Oswald--Washington Elementary 2nd grade teacher--retiring

Rationale:  Attached are the claims for the month of February, 2023.  These claims were reviewed earlier today by our Finance and Facility Committee.  There are conflict statements for this month that will need to be read before voting.

Rationale:  See attached documents.

Rationale: 

The Little Panthers Preschool calendar is very similar to the K-12 calendar except that home visits are included in the preschool calendar, per NDE guidelines. This calendar meets NDE’s Rule 11 requirement of 450 hours of instructional time for 4 year old classrooms that are funded via TEEOSA.

Rationale: 

See attached.

Rationale:  It is the time of year where we need to start looking at student devices for next fall. In our Chromebook rotation plan for 2023/2024 we will need to purchase 1 grade worth of Chromebooks to cover 7th grade. I anticipate and have budgeted for 350 devices. I am requesting permission to put out an RFP for those devices. Once we have collected those RFP's our tech team will evaluate them and submit a recommendation for purchase to the board at next month's meeting.

Rationale:  See attached.

Rationale:  As discussed in our study session earlier this evening, the district is in need of a new activity bus for all the variety of activities the district transports.  This bus would be added to our current fleet to enable us to have more coach bus availability when one of the current coach buses is down for repairs.  A recommendation will be brought for approval at the March board meeting if the bid process is approved this evening.

Rationale:  As discussed in the study session earlier this evening, the district is in need of two full-size SUVs for our activity vehicle fleet.  Two of our current full-size SUVs have over 300,000 miles on them and have served us well, but their overall reliability, especially on longer trips, becomes a concern.  A recommendation will be brought for approval at the March board meeting if the bid process is approved this evening. 

Rationale:  The policy committee reviewed and discussed these policies and recommends that they are reaffirmed, as written.

Rationale: 

This policy has been revised to include a section regarding firearms. It is closely aligned with state and federal laws which indicate that a mandatory one-year expulsion must be given to students that knowingly possess, use, or transmit a firearm on school grounds. This information was posted in our Student Handbooks previously, but needs to be included in policy, as well.

Rationale:  The 2nd monthly meeting of the Board of Education has been scheduled for noon on Thursday, February 23, 2023.

The next regular meeting of the Board of Education will be held on Monday, March 13, 2023. 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.