June 12, 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. Board accepts public comments

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

3.1. Approval of Expenditures/Payroll for May 2023

4. Reports from Staff Members and Committees

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

6. Superintendent's comments:

Principal evaluations

• Principal evaluations have been completed with only one district level evaluation remaining. 

McCook Elementary Playground

• Progress is being made on McCook Elementary's playground update. Designs have been rendered and currently modifications are being made. While it is unlikely that the updates to the playground will be complete by the start of the 2023-2024 school year, they could very well be completed prior to the end of the first semester. The funds for the project are coming from several sources: school depreciation, grants, and fundraising. 

Committee on American Civics

• The Committee on American Civics will meet prior to the board meeting next month. The start time will be at 5:45 p.m., if that works for the committee members. Committee members will review criterion reference test folders, which include the district curriculum and local benchmark assessments. 

Finance and Facilities Committees 

• The Finance and Facilities Committees will need to meet in the next several weeks to discuss movement on the Jr. High bond issue.

Central/Business Office

• The updates for the central/business office have begun. The district's maintenance crew is working hard to complete the task by mid July. The updates will include new drywall, ceiling and lights, electrical, and technology upgrades.

Tax Equity & Educational Opportunities Support Act (TEEOSA)

• The act was originally passed in 1990, and has undergone several revisions since that date. 
• The purpose of TEEOSA is to provide tax equity for both taxpayers and schools, and to provide equity of educational opportunity for students no matter what school district you attend.
• TEEOSA is broken into several parts and one of the main parts of TEEOSA is equalization aid. This is aid that is distributed to schools who cannot fully fund their school systems from local efforts, generally due to low property values. This support is supposed to help provide dollars to schools with low property values so that they can provide their students a quality education. 
• Most schools receive some amount of TEEOSA dollars, but only  schools that qualify via a needs assessment receive equalization aid. 

Equalized and Unequalized School Districts (Part of the state aid formula also known as TEEOSA)

• An equalized school district is a school district that cannot raise enough money to operate their school system off of local property tax and needs additional support from the state in the form of equalization aid, which is part of the state aid formula. These districts have low property values compared to the number of students they educate. McCook is an equalized district.
• An unequalized school district is a school district that can raise enough money to operate their school system off of local property tax and does not need additional support from the state. These districts have high poverty values compared to the number of students they educate.
• For the most part, unequalized school districts have lower levies than equalized school districts. 

Foundation Aid

• Dollars are only distributed to unequalized schools based on an amount per pupil. For example, $1,5000 per student times 100 students equals $150,000 of foundation aid.
• Please note: foundation aid comes from state coffers and ultimately affects the amount of financial support the state can provide for the needs of equalized school districts.

New School Finance Formula

• Projections have been released for the new school finance formula, also known as the Pillen plan, and McCook Public Schools does not benefit from the plan as was previously believed. According to the projections provided by the Nebraska Department of Education, McCook is advised to raise its current levy to the maximum amount allowed by law to offset losses in state aid and to help with inflationary costs. This is due to the fact that the plan cuts state aid to MPS by about $450,000 rather than seeing an increase, which is generally the expectation. The reason for a sizable portion of the cut in state aid is due to a reduction in allocated poverty dollars and the formula's distribution of state dollars to schools that had not received state dollars previously because they could generate the funds needed to operate their schools. These are schools that had high property values and low student numbers who previously did not receive such state support (unequalized school districts). Under the Pillen Plan, they now do in the form of foundation aid.
• State resources once focused on helping schools with low revenues so they could provide their students with a quality education are now being shared universally. This lowers the amount of funding available for equalized schools because more state dollars are now being funneled to school districts that almost universally had lower levies before the plan existed. This means that schools around MPS and across the state that already had lower levies will most likely be able to lower them even more.
• The plan may be more nuanced than how I have explained it above, but the fact of the matter is that McCook, which already had a high levy, will be left with a high levy, and schools with lower levies will likely maintain them or lower them further. The plan clearly did not help McCook patrons, and most class B and A schools across the state. 
• We hope to find some reprieve via increases to special education funding, so we will have to wait to see how this will all ultimately impact our 2023-2024 budget. But, considering how this projection forecasts our finances for next year, it is hard to see how we can avoid a levy increase. 
• Please note: the current projection does not match projections we received earlier in the year. Likely due to inaccurate projection process and changes to the plan. 

7. Business Manager Report/Comments

8. Board member comments

9. New Business

9.1. Approve new contract for  Jill Patel - SH Special Education Teacher

9.2. Approve a district administrator salary package with a maximum total salary increase of $35,500. 

9.3. Approve Municipal Advisory Contract with First National Capital Markets.

9.4. Approve an increase to school lunch and breakfast prices by $0.10 for the 2023-2024 school year, which is in accordance with federal guidance. 

9.5. Approve the 2023-2024 Jr. and Sr. High student handbook

9.6. Approve the 2023-2024 McCook Elementary and Central Elementary  student handbook

10. Positive Comments

11. Adjournment

12. Items for Review