November 10, 2014 at 5:30 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

1. Short-Term Options to Address Elementary Growth

2. Boundary Exception Guidelines

Total amount of claims approved in the consent agenda for the month of November, 2014 by specific fund are as follows:
General Fund = $701,883

Cooperative Fund = $2,865.72

Student Fee Fund = $7,843.78

Special Building Fund = $160.47

QCPUF Fund = $792,012.57

Nutrition Services Fund = $129,693.98

Depreciation Fund=$150.00

Bond Fund=$1,160,805.00

The total amount of claims for the month of October, 2014 in the Activities fund are as follows:
Activity Fund = $118,744.31

The Facility and Finance Committee reviewed all claims for the month of November, 2014 as well as all activity claims for the month of October, 2014.  NDE will be conducting an audit of the lunch program starting November 12th.  This happens approx. every four years and is more of a focus on menus, procedures, food prep areas, etc.  I will be filing first quarter reimbursements at the end of November for our Title and IDEA grants as we get to the end of our first fiscal quarter for 2014-2015.

Curriculum Technology & Assessment:

Teachers and principals continue to work on SAP Curriculum during PLC times. We are finding ourselves pushing up against the deadlines we set for ourselves. This year is probably the most difficult because English Language Arts is made up of four separate domains within the curriculum.  The steps we put into place in the SAP are appropriate but do require relentless dedication and time to complete. 

On Wednesday, Oct. 29^th the PLC was reserved for buildings to review the MAP data from the fall.  This allows teachers to dig into specific data on students to review their individual needs.  It’s a piece of doing good school business. 

The state provided a practice NeSA test with technology-in particular Chrome books.  The notion of using our devices for those tests becomes a little more complicated technologically than one would hope. Through the practice we learned some things, as the state has also.  We will need to be sure we have all of our details covered before we are ready for an actual state test.  There are some pieces in the management part of technology and secured web browsers that make the process a little messy and the function is tedious and time consuming for students and teachers.  We are on a mission to create the best testing scenario we can.  

The 4^th, 8^th and 11^th grade writing teachers participated in a regional writing workshop where they took student writing samples and collectively shared rating tasks.  This was beneficial to NPS because we were able to have our own writing pieces evaluated as well as it gave us an opportunity to see other schools work and we were able to collaborate with teachers outside of our district.   

A team of five teachers and students attended a Digital Citizenship Symposium in Columbus.  This group attended sessions that focused on responsible digital use.  The team also began developing a digital citizenship plan.  This work will be expanded to include more teachers and students within the district.  This is a part of our SAP for technology.   

TITLE

Application submitted for approval to NDE.

1. Tomorrow, November 11 is Veteran’s day.  All district buildings will be having a ceremony or celebration of our veterans.
2. November brings Thanksgiving vacation of NO school on Wednesday, November 26th- Friday, November 28th. 
3. Title III AMAO (Annual Measures of Achievement Outcomes): 

NCLB requires an annual determination of the progress of English Language Learners for all districts that receive Title III funds for Limited English Proficient students. There are three objectives to this grant: 

• AMAO I - The number of ELL students making progress in learning English
• AMAO II - The number of ELL students becoming proficient in English, and
• AMAO III - The number of ELL students making AYP (Annual Yearly Progress) 

Both our number of ELL students making progress in English and our number of students becoming proficient in English increased, resulting in a met for AMAO I and II.  However, our 2013-2014 assessment results indicated that English Language Learners attending the Norfolk Public School district did not reach the AYP goal as a group of learners for three years. Therefore, we have notified parents of our English Language Learners of these AMAO results. Although we did not meet AYP in all subgroups, our scores did increase.  Therefore, we will continue with the goals set in our plan of improvement from the 2012-2013 school year to help our English Language Learners continue to improve  in the reading and math areas.

    4.   Most of the district’s NCLB grants have been reviewed for the 2014-2015 school year.  Final submission will be completed by November 18th, 2014.

    5.   I encourage the Board of Education and the Norfolk community to continue to use our website  http://www.norfolkpublicschools.org and check out the many school activities that may be of interest to you and we hope to see you at those you can attend.

         School Improvement

1. On October 23 and 24, Jake Luhr, Jason Settles and Chris Begeman attended a Nebraska Continuous Improvement Workshop that was facilitated by the Nebraska Department of Education.  The workshop primarily focused on using data to make school improvement decisions.  During the 2016-2017 school year, NPS will host an AdvancED External Review Team to renew our AdvancED Accreditation. 

   Safety

2. As part of Rule 10, (Title 92, Chapter 10) all school systems must maintain safe, healthful, and sanitary conditions.  On October 23, 30, and November 5, an outside consultant did safety reviews on all of our buildings.  Based on the summary, I am happy to report that our school facilities and general environments are safe, orderly, and supportive of quality learning for all students.  Any recommendations for minor improvements will be shared with each building administrator.

    

3. The NPS Safety Committee – LB 757 (Tim Kwapnioski-Chair, Aaron Rang-Maintenance,  Diane Schilling-School Nurse, Bruce Strong-Principal, Greg Putjenter-Custodian) On October 14 the NPS Safety Committee convened to examine district accident reports and review safety topics for first semester.  First semester safety topics include:  Bloodborne Pathogens & Attack on Asthma Protocol, Harassment and Discrimination, General Slips and Trips, Germs, and Winter Slips/Trips/Falls. This committee meets each quarter during the school year. 

   Human Resources

4. We are currently taking applications for a resource teacher.  This position opened as the result of a late resignation in July.  Currently, this position is being filled with a long-term sub. We are also taking applications for a food service position at the high school and a detailer/sub driver at the maintenance building.

    

5. Kathie Downie of Norfolk and Bonnie Johnson of Pilger have been approved as local substitute teachers. 

   Public Relations/Communication

6. Norfolk Public Schools has been presented with a Certificate of Accreditation from the Nebraska Department of Education.  By the official action of the NE State Board of Education, Norfolk Public Schools is recognized as an accredited school for the 2014-2015 school year.

    

7. Recently, 7 teachers from Norfolk Public Schools received grants tallying about $3,500 from the US Cellular Calling All Teachers Grant Project.  Teachers receiving grants included:  Mrs. Payne, Mrs. Prokopec, Mrs. Ruterbories, Mrs. Brommer, Mrs. Thompson, Mrs. Walker, and Mrs. Farlee.  The grant money was able to purchase digital cameras, an iPad, audio books, headphones, a wii and wii games.  The grants are awarded to support teachers/students by funding classroom projects that school budgets may not be able to provide.

I would like to congratulate Bruce Mitchell, Tammy Day, and Patti Gubbels on their election (or re-election) to the School Board.  Patti is with us tonight as part of her Board Orientation. She will officially join the School Board at our January School Board meeting, when she will take her Oath of Office.  We will also elect officers and discuss committee assignments at that meeting.

I would also like to thank all of you for helping with the NPS Foundation's Traditions Breakfast.  We had a great turnout and we raised over $42,000 for the Foundation.

According to our current policy, students will make up two snow days if we miss more than three days. 

Information regarding Weather-Related School Closings has been placed on the website for students and parents...although I am hoping that this will not be necessary.

We will not have a Second Meeting of the Month in November, as we will all be attending the Nebraska School Board Associations' State Education Conference at that time.  This is a great professional development opportunity for School Board members and Superintendents.

The committee met today at 12:00 noon and as stated earlier reviewed all claims and financials being presented this evening.  We also reviewed our current facility projects as well as upcoming projects.  Dr. Thompson finished the meeting with a discussion on our district growth and planning for 3 to 5 years out.  Our next meeting will be on Dec. 8th at 12:00 noon in the CO board room.

The Policy and Government Relations Committee met at 7:00 A.M. on Wednesday, November 5th.  

We reviewed the remaining policies in our "old manual" to determine if they should be rescinded, revised, or reaffirmed.  As we cross-referenced them with the policies in our "new manual" we determined that the vast majority of them had already been covered by a new policy and should be rescinded.  A few of the "old policies" were simply out-dated, and a few were moved to administrative rule (staff or student handbooks). 

We found nine policies that we felt needed to be revised or reaffirmed. These will be sent to Perry Law Firm to be be reviewed and reformatted to fit our new Policy Manual.  Once Perry has completed their review, they will be brought to the Board for First Reading.

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The Policy and Government Committee also reviewed and revised Policy 6910 (Dispensing Medications) to include recommendations by our school nurses, and Policy 5206 (Early Completion Plan) to include recommendations by our senior high school counselors.  -- I will talk more about those revisions later this evening.

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The only change made to Policy Section 7000 since our First Reading is that we added a statement to Policy 7021 (Facilities -- Remodeling) that indicates the priorities listed for remodeling projects are not listed in the order of importance.  This change was recommended at our October Board meeting.

The Activities Committee has not met since our last Board Report.  Our next meeting is scheduled for noon on Monday, December 1, 2014.

Title I meeting minutes are attached.

There are no contracts to approve at this time.

There are no resignations to approve at this time.

 A resolution authorizing the district to enter into an interlocal cooperative with one or more Nebraska Public Schools Districts and/or educational service units; authorizing such cooperative to issue bonds on behalf of the district in a principal amount not to exceed $100,000 to finance the cost of any item of hardware or software used by the district in providing for the delivery of information, including the purchasing of upgrades or related improvements to information technology operated by the district; delegating the authority to determine the principal amounts, maturity of such bonds; designating the bonds as Qualified Tax-Exempt obligations; authorizing certain actions and documents; publishing notice of intent to issue such bonds; and prescribing other matters relating thereto 

Based on 100's of survey results from teachers, students, parents, and community members, such as, “I believe a top performing school is a well-balanced school, where students are performing well in academics and extra-curricular activities.  I believe that top performing schools value the importance of preparing students for life outside of the classroom and for a future career and/or positive college experience.”  We concluded that our definition of a Top-Performing school must be multi-faceted and it must focus on student growth. 

After multiple revisions, we decided on the following definition, which I am bringing to you tonight for your approval/adoption:

A Top-Performing School maintains a culture of high expectations and prepares students for their futures.

Maintaining a culture of high expectations is characterized by:

• A belief that all students can and will learn at high levels

• A focus on student growth and success

• Engaging learning opportunities for all students, and

• High quality professional educators.

And, preparing students for their futures is evidenced by high levels of continual improvement in the areas of:

• Academic achievement (NeSA, MAP, and ACT)

• Graduation rates

• Student participation in dual credit classes, articulated courses, and career academy courses

• Student participation in extracurricular and community activities, and  

• Post-secondary outcomes, such as employment, college attendance, or military service.

Specific Performance Levels will be set annually via Building School Improvement Goals, which will be presented both to the superintendent and the Board of Education.

Survey responses to our question regarding what our school improvement goal should entail were very similar to the responses we received regarding a Top-Performing School.  In general, constituents felt that our goal should focus on growth and it should include multiple measures--rather than one specific test.

After multiple revisions, we drafted the following goal, which I am asking you to approve tonight:

All students will demonstrate improved academic performance on grade level achievement tests.

* Note: Specific performance levels will be set annually via Building School Improvement Goals.

As our Senior High Guidance Counselors were preparing for Early Graduates, they noticed the following error in our revised policy:

We had revised the policy so that the Superintendent approved early graduates, but forgot to strike the language that required parents and students to attend the April Board meeting.  

We are recommending that this language be removed from the policy and that we add a statement that allows exceptions to deadlines based upon extenuating circumstances.

After "living with" our new Dispensing Medication Policy 6910, our school nurses recommended several small changes, which have been incorporated into the revised policy presented today.

For example: Parents do not need to obtain a separate signed, dated authorization for prescription medication, as long as it is presented to the nurse in its original prescription bottle.  Similarly, parents do not need to hand-deliver medication to the school.  It can be sent with responsible children, if they turn it in to school officials immediately upon their arrival.

In addition, minor changes have been made regarding the maintenance of competence certificates and the monitoring of non-medical staff that dispense medication.

All of these changes were recommended by our school nurses and our Director of Student Services.

The only change made to Policy Section 7000 since our First Reading is that we added a statement to Policy 7021 that indicates the priorities listed for remodeling projects are not listed in order of importance.  

This change was recommended at our October Board meeting.

The Policy and Government Relations Committee reviewed the remaining policies in our "old manual" to determine if they should be rescinded, revised, or reaffirmed.  They determined that all of the policies listed above should be rescinded.  As we cross-referenced them with the policies in our "new manual" we determined that the vast majority of them had already been covered by a new policy.  A few of them were simply out-dated, and few were moved to administrative rule (staff or student handbooks).