May 8, 2023 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. Language Arts writing presentation - 8th grade students

2.2. Recognition of students for Teens in the Drivers Seat Award

2.3. Recognize Student board member - Samantha Rodewald

2.4. Student board member report

2.5. Board accepts public comments

3. Approve the consent agenda, which includes the minutes and financials

3.1. Approval of Expenditures/Payroll for April 2023

4. Reports from Staff Members and Committees

4.1. Finance Committee Meeting

4.2. Facilities Committee

4.3. Committee on American Civics

5. Administrator's written reports: Please review prior to the board meeting

6. Superintendent's comments

Professional Development

• McCook Public Schools will be hosting a professional development training session on August 10 for all McCook schools and other area school districts. Ken Williams is the author of the book "Ruthless Equity," which is an instructional training system that places high expectations on all students to reach high levels of academic achievement. The training focuses on the teachers' role in ensuring all students succeed in mastering essential learning objectives, regardless of their backgrounds.

Staffing Update

• High School
  • Addition of a new position
    • Members of the administration and instructional staff have met on several occasions to discuss student needs at the high school. During these meetings, it was determined that the high school needed to replace a special education teacher position that was cut a number of years ago. The decision to replace this position was made after lengthy discussions about the number of student needs at the high school and how the addition of this position was needed. A contract for this position has been offered and verbally accepted. We are now waiting for the teacher to be released from their current contract with a different school district. 
  • A science contract has been offered - waiting for a return
  • A math contract is on the agenda for approval
• District

School Improvement

• The district school improvement committee has held its final meeting of the year; however, building-level teams are currently working on finishing up some building-specific work. Specifically, they are reviewing perceptual data collected from a teacher survey that was conducted earlier in the year. Their goal is to look for trends in the data and develop action plans to address any concerns that are identified.

Graduation

• Graduation will take place this Friday at 6:00 p.m. at the Graff Event Center on the McCook Community College campus. Board members are asked to congregate in the northwest corner of the competition gym 20 minutes prior to the start of the event to go over procedures and work through the details of the graduation ceremony. Please make sure to bring your mortarboards and gowns.

Classroom Remodels are Complete

• All of the classroom remodels at the high school have been completed, and now it is time to renovate the superintendent's office space. This will take place immediately following the end of the school year and will likely take up the entire month of June and be completed in early July. During this time, the superintendent and the business office staff will be located in other areas of the high school, where it will be possible for the business of the district to continue during the renovation period.
• Following the renovation of the superintendent's office space, the district will begin the process of remodeling the hallways and a couple of bathrooms at the high school that have not been addressed. This next phase will begin sometime during the 2023-2024 school year.

7. Business Manager Report/comments

7.1. Presentation Documents-Role of Municipal Advisor in your facility improvement process

8. Board member comments

9. New Business

9.1. Approve resignations

9.2. Approve new teacher contracts

9.2.1. Evans Kojo Appiah - High School Math

9.2.2. Patricia Cale - High School Science

9.3. Approve contracts for certified staff

9.4. Approve Science Materials Adoption 

10. Positive Comments

11. Adjournment

12. Items for Review