October 9, 2017 at 6:30 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

STRIVE  •  COMMIT  •  SUCCEED  -  District Mission Statement

Schuyler Community Schools in partnership with parents, students, and the community is committed to educate students to become skilled, knowledgeable and responsible citizens in a global society - District Vision Statement

Notice of this meeting was given in advance according to State Law 84-1411, by giving notice of the meeting to the public.  Notice of this meeting was also given in advance to all members of the Board of Education

This meeting has been preceded by advance notice and is hereby declared to be in open session.  A copy of the Open Meetings Act is posted in the hallway outside the Media Center.

Carlos Alarcon is the student representative for the 2017-18 school year.

The Schuyler Education Association (SEA) submitted a letter requesting recognition as the exclusive bargaining agent for the district's non-supervisory certificated staff for the 2019-2020 contract year.  This is a formality that the NSEA recommends our local association get approval now for next year's negotiations process.  See attached letter.

Kelsey Dirkschneider:  SMS high needs para educator.

Attached are the past strategic planning documents.

1.  2013-16 Action Plans

2.  2017 Action Plans

The principals are working with their staff to update the 2017 progress.  These will be completed prior to the November regular board meeting for your review.

Preschool/3-5 Principal Report:  Mr. Comley

Parent teacher conferences will be Oct 10 and 11th. Please feel free to stop in and walk around. Some neat stuff happening.

Traffic has been moving smooth

Observations have started and there are some wonderful things going on in the classrooms. We are extremely lucky to have the teachers we have!

PK 105          K 132          1st 122             2nd 122

3rd 155         4th 131       5th 119            Total 886

Kindergarten - 2nd Principal Report:  Mr. Kovar

Things are going well at the Elementary. We are working very hard this year. Two of our biggest items are #1 weekly tests for K-2 students on state standards in math and language. Results are then used for re-teaching and spiraling.#2 external review information and data are being compiled with the help of our school improvement team, to be ready for our visit in January.

We are also still focusing on APL and Capturing Kids Hearts strategies. We are also very proud to say that with the help of our PTO and the vision of Mr. Comley, we have used fundraising dollars to purchase a new Warrior Tunnel, and Mascot to use in the district to help with excitement and pride at different schools events.

Rural Schools Principal Reports:  Mrs. Bebout

Enrollment Numbers

Fishers: K-6, 1st-12, 2nd-6, 3rd-10, 4th-9, 5th-10, 6th-8, 7th-5, and 8th-6 Total: 72

Richland: K-6, 1st-3, 2nd-3, 3rd-5, 4th-5, 5th-2, 6th-8, and 7th-1 Total: 33

Things are going well at both schools. Social contracts have been created by the staff at both schools and are being used following our training in Capturing Kids’ Hearts. Both schools in 3rd & 4th grade have turned in posters to the fire department for their contest for Fire Prevention Week.

Fishers:  We have had guest speakers: Jordyn Ratzlaff had her dad come in with 5 Golden Retriever Puppies. He runs a dog breeding kennel and also raises Alaskan Huskies. Jayda Sucha had her dad, Al, come in and talk about his world travels he does for his QC job. He shared pictures of his travels to China and showed what life was like there. Talon Andel's guest speaker was the K9 officer in Schuyler and his drug sniffing puppy that he is training to work for the Schuyler police. He showed us how he trains her, and answered a lot of questions! Red Ribbon week activities will be the week of Oct. 23rd-27th. Kids on the Block puppet show will be held on Tuesday, Oct 24th.

Richland:  We had a surprise guest show up! The Wolfe Family brought out their horses. The Wolfes answered questions and the students were able to feel the horses. The students were also able to learn how to lasso! Richland had a fundraiser week with a ‘Change War’ and a Bake Sale and was able to raise a LOT of money for new books in their library.

SMS Asst. Principal Report:  Mr. Zavadil

• Classroom observations are in full swing, we are using the data to continually improve instruction for each classroom.
• Student attendance reports are continually reviewed and information is shared with our attendance officer.
• Our new behavior/discipline model at the middle school has been implemented and we are working with students regularly to help them be successful in the classroom.
• We attended the premier of the "Seeds of Hope" movie at the Colfax County Theatre. Many school district employees were in attendance and it was a quality movie that is meant to share with the public the work that public schools are doing for immigrant and refugee students in Nebraska.

SMS Principal Report:  Mrs Burton

Current Enrollment:  

6-131        7-142          8-125            Total -398

• We have reinstated the Schuyler Middle School Student of the Month program for our students. Teachers are asked to recognize students that display a high level of responsible and respectful behaviors, as well as consistently demonstrate valuable work ethic. This month’s award winners are: Ricardo Rosas (6^th grade), Jenny Valora (7^th grade), and Precious Ramirez (8^th grade). We look forward to acknowledging more deserving Warriors as the school year goes on!
• I would like to thank our fall coaches for their dedication toward our young Warriors.  A special congratulations goes to our four students will have competed at the state track meet on Saturday.  The qualifiers are:  Emmanuel Zuniga, Luis Gomez, Joel Jacinto, and Marisol Deanda.  
• Parent Teacher Conferences are upon us. Our goal at SMS is 100% parent contact for our students. We recognize that some of our parents are unable to attend conferences, so we make sure to follow up with all of our parents with letters, email, and/or phone calls home. We also regularly engage parents with the Blackboard App and Remind App throughout the year.
• Mr. Zavadil and myself have done several informal observations over the last six weeks. As we move into October, we will begin utilizing staff and student performance data to assist teachers in improving the use of strategies in the classroom. We will rely on previous training, the Discovery Education Math Cohort, and our partners at ESU 7 for these continued growth opportunities.
•  We welcome all SCS Board of Education and SCS Foundation members to come in throughout the school year to see learning in action at SMS. We hope that you also stop in to enjoy the lunch program that has been reinvigorated by Mrs. Jamie Ramirez.

SCHS Asst. Principal Report: Mr. Kasik

• I am completing walk through observations for staff members and have been seeing some great things in our classrooms from our teachers.
• Recently we have had a lot of staff members out of the building for various meetings and trainings. Securing substitutes for their classes is a daily challenge, but we are meeting this challenge at this time.
• I continue to make use of Saturday School for students who need retraining sessions. These numbers are down from last year.
• I continue to work with Ms. Pavel and Mrs. Dimas on student attendance issues. Our overall numbers of students tardy has also been decreasing from last year.
• I also have been working with law enforcement, probation and CHI with random drug testing. On October 4^th we had our 2^nd session of drug testing.

SCHS Principal Report:  Mr. Grammer

1)    Enrollment: October 1^st: 

Seniors—           128             Juniors—          140

Sophomores—    164             Freshmen—      148

Total = 580

2)  Warrior Showcase:  On Tuesday, October 10^th the high school will have a night of celebration, instead of the usual Parent Teacher conferences. We will be highlighting work our students and staff have been working on for the first quarter. An open house will be from 1:00 until 8:00 p.m. of the high school’s new band room and classrooms. A meal will be served for free to our students and parents from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. Students will be performing throughout the evening. Hopefully with this new format we will have more parents attending. Please join us for a night of honoring our students.

3) School Improvement:  Our Engagement Review (formerly known as our accreditation visit) will be on January 28^th through 31^st. Our district and SCHS school improvement teams are working hard to prepare for this visit. Our school improvement team has been working on getting survey/inventories information collected for the site visit. More information will follow as we get closer to the Engagement Review dates.

4) I Love Public Schools: The I Love Public Schools organization showed the film, Seeds Of Hope, across the state. The film highlighted our school and community about the past and present school year at SCHS. They presented a preview of the documentary on Wednesday, September 20^th at 6:30 p.m. at the Colfax Theater. Good reviews of the film were given by community members who attended the preview.

5) Our Sertoma students of the Month for September are: Freshman- Liliana Farmer;

Sophomore- Alexandra Carrera; Junior- Evelyn Hernandez; and Senior- Yareth Chavez. Congratulations to these students for their hard work and diligence for the first quarter.

6) New Mascot and Tunnel. At Homecoming a new mascot and run through tunnel were unveiled. Players and fans were excited to see the new additions added to our athletic programs. A great big ‘Thank You’ goes to our Schuyler Elementary School PTO for purchasing these items. Thank you for thinking of our students at SCHS and building spirit in the district.

7) NebraskARTS Award: This year Schuyler Community Schools and Seward have both been selected for this Award. This award is given to the top fine arts schools in the state. The two schools will be honored on October 18^th at the State Capital. What a great honor for our students, staff, parents, and community.

8) Observations: I have completed my walk through observations at this time and starting to do a few formal observations.

9) 2017 SCHS Tech Fair: The annual Tech Fair for SCHS students will be held om Wednesday, October 11^th in the high school and the Tech Fair for staff will be on Thursday, October 12^th. The district tech team has worked hard to put together a outstanding Tech Fair and speakers for our students and staff. Please stop by and check out both days of the Tech Fair.

Youth Activities Director Report:  Mr. Kovar

• Two programs are currently underway. First is Schuyler Youth Football. There are two levels, 3rd & 4th and 5th & 6th. There are around 50 boys total, and they have already played 3 games. On Sunday, October 8th, both teams will be playing a game against Stanton.
• The other program under way is Youth Volleyball. Again there are two divisions, 3rd & 4th and 5th &6th. There are 3 teams of 12 in the 3-4 division, and two teams of 12 in the 5-6 division. We are in our 3rd week of practice, with a plan for games to come.
• Programs for the near future include flag football, which will start when the tackle season is over, and basketball which will start in January.

SMS Activities Director Report:   Mr. Zavadil

• Football season is not over we finished the season last Tuesday with a game Vs. Seward. Our 8^th grade team finished 1-5 and our 7^th grade team finished 2-3.
• Cross Country had a great year they finished their season Saturday competing in the State cross Country meet. We had four qualify for the meet out of our 20 runners, they were Marisol Deanda, Joel Jacinto, Luis Gomez, and Emmanual Zuniga.
• Volleyball is finishing up competition today Vs. Lakeview, All of our teams got to play multiple games and we even hosted scrimmages during the dates that we couldn’t provide games for our lower teams.
• The Field-House is seeing great attendance and operating smoothly. We helped host the Knights of Columbus soccer goal challenge while working with the warrior academy. We were told that it was the best attendance they have ever had for that event. We also have worked with the Schuyler Police department, we allowed them to use the Field for their PT testing for potential recruits.

SCHS Activities Director Report:  Mr. Kasik

• On 10/18 we will take a group of students to the Capital to perform as we accept our NebraskArts Award, which is given to the top Fine Arts school in the state. What a great honor for our staff, students and our community.
• Fall Competitions are already nearing completion
  • Girl’s golf completed their season with districts this week.
  • Our Varsity Boys Cross Country team continues to finish near the top of their meets with Conference at Aurora on 10/5
  • Our Varsity Volleyball team is currently 7-9 and competing well.
  • Softball districts are 10/5 and 10/6 at Wisner- Pilger.
  • At the time of this meeting, Football has only two regular season games left. Both are home games against Columbus and South Sioux City.
• As we wrap up our fall sports we will start gearing up for winter sports with practices starting November 13^th.
• Our Band competes at their first marching contest in Pierce on 10/4.
• I am conducting monthly meetings with our coaches to discuss policies and procedures.
• Play Production practices have started with 88 students involved in this activity.

Special Education Director Report:  Mrs. Vrba

Current special education students served:

Birth to 5: 20        SES: 111      Rural: 15       SMS: 50     SCHS: 41          Parochial Schools: 6            Total: 244    

*We do have one student attending school in Olathe, KS.

Our Team Sped has been very busy with MDTs/IFSPs/IEPs which means April has been extremely busy testing our students. Since the first quarter is ending which "usually" is your review time of the prior grade, we are starting to see an influx of students being referred to the SAT process due to the difficulty of content matter being taught.

Jesse Brichacek, a former SCHS graduate, deserves a HUGE thank you for being our being our Sped taxi driver.

Curriculum/Instr/Grant Report:  Dr. Gibbons

2017 - 2018 State Assessments - At the 11th grade level, we will continue to use the ACT as our state test.  The 3rd through 8th grade test will be new, however.  It will be built by NWEA, the same company that develops the Measure of Academic Performance (MAP) Assessment.  Last year, the new College and Career Ready Language Arts Standards were assessed.  This year, the new College and Career Ready Math Standards will be assessed.  We adopted a new Math Series last year that corresponds quite well with the new standards.  

Change in Proficiency: It is likely that the percentage of students who are proficient in a school/district will be different from other NeSA assessments. We expected this change in proficiency and have been communicating this expectation for over a year. The rigor of these assessments was increased to reflect the increased rigor of the College and Career Readiness ELA Standards.

• I have seen the scores for 3rd - 8th grade Language Arts and as expected, they are down, however, it looks like we will be similar to state averages.  Please also remember, I can’t share scores with you yet because...

Embargo: All NeSA data is currently embargoed and should not be released to the public. At this time, this data is still preliminary. Data can be shared internally with district/school staff. Individual scores can be shared with students and their parents/guardians. NDE is working on timelines for public release, which will include the lifting of the data embargo.

Warrior Academy - The Warrior Academy After School Program is off and running.  We have had 246 students attend at the elementary school with 36 attending at SMS.  That means that we 16 clubs for the students.  We are always looking for more workers.  We need adults that can run clubs. The workers do have a monthly training to help them better work with students.

We had 96 kids participate in the soccer shootout.  This upcoming month the middle school students will take a field trip to Behlen MFG and then SES will be going to Thielen’s pumpkin patch. Please note that you are all welcome to attend our Lights On! Event at Schuyler Elementary on Thursday, October 26. This event is for our ASP students, their families and our community partners.

School Improvement Grant - We had an onsite visit from grant administrators at NDE on Wednesday, October 4.  They came in, visited classrooms and interviewed teachers.  They were happy with our progress. This month we have seven PD days with Discovery Education: October 9 - PBL Coaching; Oct. 10 - PBL Coaching; Oct. - 11 PBL Stemtastic; Oct. 16 - DLC Admin/Leadership Day #1; Oct. 17 - coaching individual teachers; Oct. 18 - coaching individual teachers; Oct. 26 - DLC #3 Whole group (with Suzanne)

Accreditation

• Please be aware that we have will have our Engagement Review January 28-31, 2018.  Our School Improvement teams are working on preparing for that visit. We will be attending a School Improvement Workshop October 24th and 25th.

1.  SCHS Open House:  We will have a ribbon cutting at 4:00 PM tomorrow for the new building addition. We would like to have as many board members attend if possible.   The Open House will be in conjunction with our high school parent-teacher conferences.  Supper will be served after the initial ceremony.

2.  New Addition Move:  Our students will move the rooms in the morning.  The floor installers will be working on the music room floor tomorrow.  We will use this wing for the tech fair on Wednesday and Thursday.  They will have to come back on Friday to install the base and complete punch list items.

3.  Parking lot and sidewalks:  With the completion of the interior rooms, we still have the parking lot and sidewalks to complete this fall.  Depending on the weather, we may need to delay the landscaping until spring.

4.  Removal of Portable Classrooms:  NuTrend will be here tomorrow to begin the removal of the portable classrooms.  Depending on the weather, these buildings are scheduled to be off site by Friday.

1.  NASB Board Awards:

• Mynor Hernandez:  Level I
• Chuck Misek:  Level V

2. NASB Area Membership Meeting:  Thank you to Rich Brabec, Chuck Misek, Brian Vavricek, and Mynor Hernandez for attending the Area Membership Meeting in Fremont on September 27th.

3.  State Convention:   November 16-17 at the LaVista Conference Center.

4.  Foundation Meeting:  See attached agenda