July 11, 2022 at 6:30 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

1. Call to Order

1.1. Roll Call

1.2. Recognition of Open Meeting Law

1.3. Pledge of Allegiance

2. Reports, Communications & Public Participation

2.1. Board accepts public comments

3. Consent Agenda

3.1. Approve the consent agenda which includes the minutes and financials

3.2. Approval of Expenditures/Payroll for June

4. Reports from Staff Members and Committees

4.1. Finance Committee Report

4.2. Facilities Committee Report

4.3. Technology Integration presentation by Tina Williams

4.4. Career and College preparedness presentations

5. Administrator's Written Reports: Please review prior to the board meeting

6. Superintendent's Comments

• Interlocal agreement with the city concerning the swimming pool and ball parks is still likely to come, but it has not yet been approved by the city council. We may need to have a special meeting if we cannot delay it until the August board meeting. 

 

• The TeamMates program has a new director. Marisa Hoins, special education teacher at Central, will be taking over the role of director for the 2022-2023 school year. 

 

• We are in the process of working with a local resident on obtaining teaching credentials that will enable them to teach journalism. This process requires us to seek a transition certificate through NDE via the University of Nebraska Kearney. Individuals that go through this process receive an initial teaching certificate as they take coursework in the area where they are seeking full certification.  
  • I think it is important to understand that the teacher shortage is becoming evermore critical, and this shortage is undoubtedly a statewide issue, and it is no longer contained to specific content areas.  

 

• FYI: Rule 21 - Teacher Certification
  • The percentage schools are allowed to have teachers teaching out of their endorsed area and remain in compliance. 
    • Elementary 5%
    • Middle School 10%
    • High School 20%
  • If a school is higher than the percentages listed above, they can submit a wavier to NDE for approval. 
  • Currently, MPS is in compliance at every level.

 

• Introduction to the "Rooted Campaign". A public school movement in Nebraska that was started by the members of Greater Nebraska Superintendents (GNS) to foster positive environments through education, encouragement, and engagement, and encourage difference makers in our community to pursue a career in education. Rooted in academics. Grown to greatness.
  • We educate all students to find success in their next phase of life, ultimately becoming valuable employees and involved community members.
  • We encourage and support all of our students' unique needs, and desire to work collaboratively with the community to grow our youth into productive young adults with the desire and mindset to give back to our communities.
  • We value parent engagement and their perspectives and involvement in student activities. Their investment in student success is what brings Nebraskans together to consistently improve our schools year after year.
  • Nebraska Public Schools are valuable contributors to our local economies and invite youth and community members to become part of our talented educational community. Nebraska public schools are also working hard to spread the message that, as an educator, you can make a positive difference in someone's life every day. 

 

• The new technology instruction bill may get a rewrite due to the poor quality of the legislation. NDE is having difficulty establishing standards for schools to follow based on the language in the legislation.

 

• There are statewide concerns over the new state assessment tool. It appears, based on district level evaluations of the assessment data across the state, that student scores taken from the state assessment do not reflect student performance results on other national standardized assessments. The state assessment results show a grim picture of student performance statewide in traditionally very high performing school districts. We should expect changes to the state assessment or the assessment process in the upcoming months.
  • I agree with these findings. As you may recall, I hinted at the low quality of assessment data in my presentation in February when I discussed how the cut scores were determined. Our local data and standardized assessment data did/does not sync with state assessment data. This is likely due to the attempt to make the state assessment both adaptive and summative. These two approaches to assessment do not inherently correlate, and to a certain extent are at odds with each other. 
  • The state assessments have become overly complicated in their application and data interpretation processes. In other words, the state wants the state assessment to do more than it actually is capable of, resulting in low quality data that has little value.
  • A quality summative assessment should consistently and accurately measure each student's level of mastery of specific essential learning objectives (power standards), which is something the state assessment does not do. 

 

• Student teacher pay
  • Among GNS member schools
    • 2 are paying $9,000
    • 2 are paying $4,000
    • 1 is paying $1,000
    • 1 advanced placement on the salary schedule if they take a job in the district

 

7. Business Manager Comments

8. Board Comments

9. New Business

9.1. Accept Resignations

9.2. Approve contract for Norabel Chessmore - High School Journalism 

9.3. Motion to approve administrator salary package with a maxim total salary increase of $32,500

9.4. Approve the Tennis Canopy project

9.5. Gratefully accept an anonymous donation in the amount of $2,500.00 for the Tennis Canopy project 

9.6. Gratefully accept an anonymous donation in the amount of $15,000.00 for the Tennis Canopy Project

10. Positive Comments

11. Adjournment

12. Items for Review