February 12, 2018 at 6:30 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Rationale: 

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

Rationale: 

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 back of the meeting room.

Nebraska Open Meetings Act:  http://nitc.nebraska.gov/documents/statutes/NebraskaOpenMeetingsAct_current.pdf

Rationale:  Discuss, Consider and Take Action on the consent agenda

Rationale:  This committee is responsible for recommending the annual district calendar, strategic planning process, technology, and promoting positive public relations and communications program.

Rationale:  Committees appointed by the president of the board.  These committees are created for specific tasks of seeking information or investigation and will report back to the board for its consideration and action.  Committee action is considered to be advisory only.  The following committees are appointed for 2018.

Foundation Committee:  Responsible for working with the Schuyler Community Schools Foundation.  2 Members Required in Bylaws.  Foundation meets the first Monday of the month at 12:00 PM.  2018 Members:  Brian Vavricek and Virginia Semerad

Americanism, Curriculum, Assessment and Instruction:  Responsible for reviewing curriculum recommendations, textbook selection, staff requisitions and inventory.  This is the only committee required by law (79-724)  3 members required.  2018 Members:  Virginia Semerad, Holly Hild, Mynor Hernandez

Board Policy/Handbooks/Support Programs:  Responsible for annual review of board policies, handbooks, and safety/crisis plan. 2-3 members recommended.   2018 Members:  Virginia Semerad, Holly Hild, Rich Brabec

Public Relations/Strategic Planning/Calendar:  Responsible for recommending the annual district calendar, strategic planning process, and promoting positive public relations and communication.  2-3 members recommended.  2018 Members:  Mynor Hernandez, Holly Hild, Chuck Misek

Building/Grounds/Transportation:  Responsible for recommending approval of the building and grounds and transportation programs, vehicle replacement schedule, building maintenance and upgrade schedule)  3 members recommended.  2018 Members:  Chuck Misek, Rich Brabec, Brian Vavricek

Budget/Finance/Negotiations:  Responsible for budget, finance, contract negotiations with administration, certificated staff negotiations and support staff contracts. 3 members recommended.  2018 Members:  Chuck Misek, Rich Brabec, Brian Vavricek

*  Special temporary committees of the Board, except as specified by statute, may be appointed by the president or chosen by a vote of the Board as needed.  The function of all such committees shall be fact-finding, deliberative and advisory, but never legislative or administrative.  When the specified purpose of all sub-committees appointed to conform to statute.  The superintendent shall be an ex-officio member of all such committees.
 

Rationale:  After several months of input, the SEA and administration are presenting the 2018-19 school calendar for board approval.  Highlights of calendar changes:
1.  Later starting date.  Starting with students on Monday, August 13th
2.  Change in professional development/Tech Fair schedule
3.  Change in P-T Conferences to one full day (8:00- 4:00, 5:00 - 9:00)
4.  Graduation:  3rd Sunday (Not on Mother's Day)

Rationale:  Attached is the 2018 strategic plan.  We will meet with the Community Leaders on February 19 at 5:30 PM.  Marcia Herring from NASB will be here to conduct the community engagement workshop.  Participants will be able to sign up for committee work on the Schuyler Community Development and School District Strategic Plans. 

Rationale:  This committee is responsible for budget, finance, and contract negotiations with administration, certificated staff, and support staff.

Rationale: 
1.  Amanda Pettygrove:  2nd Grade Teacher at SES
2.  Karen Tschida:  SES Music Teacher
3.  Brant Peters:  Vocational Agriculture Teacher/FFA Sponsor
4.  Jill Hoesing:  SMS English/Language Arts (Hired for 2017-18 2nd Semester)
5.  Gerry Reinsch:  Rural School Principal/Director of Music Programs

 

Rationale: 
1.  Guadalupe Ramirez:  SES Teacher
2.  Lesli Osorio: SES Teacher
3.  Samantha Ladwig:  SMS English/Language Arts
4.  Staci Shonka:  SCHS Math Teacher

Rationale:  I met with the board negotiations team to review the administrative array comparability study and determine their recommendation for principal and director salaries for the 2018-19 school year.  See attached recommendation.

Rationale: 
Preschool and 3-5 Principal's Report:  Mr. Comley
Enrollment
K- 134                1- 120                         2- 123                          3- 157
4- 128                5- 119                   Total K-5:   781           Preschool- 108?
Observations have been going really well. 
Traffic is going smooth.
Custodians have been doing a great job with snow removal
Registration for 2018-19 Headstart/Preschool:  March 6th from 1:00 - 7:00

K-2 Principal's Report:  Mr. Kovar
We are very happy at the Elementary level with how our engagement review went. We felt that we were very prepared, and organized for the visit, and a lot of that goes to Dr. Gibbons and our school improvement team.
My focus will now shift to formal observations, of both tenured and probationary teachers. This is also the time that we start looking ahead to next year in terms of our staff, and if there are any changes or openings that we need to fill in order to build our staff for next year. This can be a very difficult time for staff to stay motivated and up-beat during the long winter months. We look forward to Friday the 16th as a day to re-charge our batteries moving forward and looking ahead to warmer weather!!
 

Rural Schools Principal's Report:  Ms. Bebout

Enrollment Numbers:
Fishers: K-6, 1st-12, 2nd-6, 3rd-10, 4th-10, 5th-10, 6th-8, 7th-5, and 8th-7 Total: 74
Richland: K-4, 1st-3, 2nd-3, 3rd-4, 4th-5, 5th-2, 6th-8 Total: 29

Mr. Burton is conducting a Jump For Heart donation drive with K-8th grades at Richland and Fishers.  It will end on Friday, Feb. 9th.  Proceeds go to the American Heart Association for research and financial assistance to students with heart illnesses.

Winter Map testing is completed in both buildings.  It was encouraging to see the gains the students made since fall testing.  The data gathered from this test will help teachers see any gaps the students have and where they need to reteach and firm up before the end of the year.

A BIG thank you to Brian Vavricek and Paul Doerneman for snow removal at Fishers! We greatly appreciate all of their work.

Scott Reiner, Colfax County 4-H Assistant is finishing up a five-session lesson with grades K-1 about magnets, technology and engineering. The students were involved in a lot of measuring and recording of experiment results.  They loved it!!

Grades 7 and 8 have been doing a lab to determine the rate of seafloor spreading and another lab to reconstruct the supercontinent of Pangea.

SMS Assistant Principal's Report:  Mr. Zavadil
The primary focus for the remainder of this month is to complete second semester formal evaluations.  We are using the i-observation tool along with the Schuyler instructional model to drive discussions about growing our teachers.  February is a great month that has minimal distractions which gives us the opportunity to grow our students and staff.
 

SMS Principal's Report:  Mrs. Burton

SMS Total Enrollment - 403 students

6th Grade-134                 7th Grade-146                      8th Grade-123

Thank you to Dr. Gibbons, Mrs. Perrin, Mr. Gutierrez, and the SMS School Improvement Team for a productive and positive external engagement review.  We also could not of had such a successful event without the help of parent and community volunteers and student leaders that welcomed our visitors to our building.  We look forward to further building collaborative and lasting processes upon receiving the final report.

Mr. Zavadil and myself have begun the second round of formal observations.  We look forward to this next month as we provide a different level of staff coaching and feedback!  

We are almost completed with MAP testing.  Our initial results have demonstrated larger than average student gains in almost academic category.  We will work with teachers to capitalize on gains, as well as address areas where expectations have not been met.

We recently celebrated the SMS Students of the Month.  They are:  6th Grade-Carly Wemhoff, 7th Grade-Max Moran, and 8th Grade-Samuel Rivas.  Each student has demonstrated leadership amongst their peers in the areas of respect, responsibility, and work ethic.

This past week, we had an opportunity to continue our math training with Discovery Education.  We have observed teachers making concentrated actions that have lead to increased student success.

Mrs. Shanda Hall recently participated in a teacher showcase at ESU 7 for area administrators.  She was able to highlight the broadcasting program and partnership with Nebraska News Team, as well as showcase SMS student work.

I am currently participating in a Teacher Vacancy Initiative through the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and University of Nebraska-Kearney.  The applications for teacher programs nationally is down 30%.  In order to search for proactive solutions for our community, Dr. Hoesing has granted me permission to serve on this statewide committee.  I will report back information and progress made as the initiative develops further.  

The hiring season has begun for our district.  We are hiring sooner than we have the past three years that I have been here.  I believe that this has led us to having access to the top candidates in the area.  Our recommendation for our 8th grade English/Language Arts candidate has been submitted.  Pending the board’s approval, I look forward to welcoming her to building a future as an employee at Schuyler Middle School!

Thank you for the opportunity to lead Schuyler Middle School!  I am continually thankful that my family is a Schuyler Warrior family!

SCHS Assistant Principal's Report: Mr. Kasik

• We just completed our External Review, I am sure others will talk about this, but I feel that our staff was well prepared and did a great job!
• We are starting to look at scheduling changes and ways to make our school better for next year.  There will be challenges with this as we continue to see our student numbers increase.
• This is a busy time as we finalize teacher observations and evaluations.
• We will begin looking at filling openings for next year as we look at teaching and extra-curricular needs.  It is always beneficial to work on this as early as we are made aware of openings.

SCHS Principal's Report:  Mr. Grammer
•The following four students were recognized for being the Jnuary Students of the Month.  The four students are 12th grader-Vanessa Garcia; 11th grader - Marisol Marino; 10th grader - Jacquelin Escobar; and 9th grader - Jocelyn Tena.  Congratulations to these four students for being recognized by their teachers and peers, for their hard work, dedication, and character.

•Enrollment as of January 9th.:  Seniors—120;  Juniors-135;  Sophomores—165; Freshmen—150.   Total—570.

•Our High School Art Teacher, Mr. Trotter, was awarded a grant through the Nebraska Arts Council.  The grant was for a visiting artist to come and work with our students for two weeks.  The visiting artist is Kim Darling from the Omaha area. This is a great project and opportunity or our art students at SCHS.   Over the two weeks they will work to complete murals at the new library in the children’s section.  Congratulations to Mr. Trotter.

•Our professional development opportunities are continuing throughout the second semester with Discovery Ed.  The trainings we have received already during the second semester have been very beneficial.  During our classroom observations I have seen our staff implementing the instructional strategies learned from Discovery Ed, especially with  Project Based Learning.

•Our classroom observations will continue for the remainder of the school year.  Both I and Mr. Kasik have seen improvement of instruction in the first semester in our classrooms.   Our new teachers are learning what we want to observe when we come to their classes.

•We are continuing to prepare for our District School Improvement process.  Our Engagement Review is on January 28th through the 31st.  We are looking forward to the state visiting our district in January and having the opportunity to show our review team all the good programs and staff that we have at SCS.
 
On Wednesday, January 31st, Senator Bostelman introduced a Legislative Resolution recognizing Schuyler Public Schools for receiving the NebraskARTS Award this year.  The resolution was listed on the Unicameral Agenda.  This is a great honor and recognition at the state level for school, staff, and students.

Mr. Trotter and some of our art students have completed the mural for the community library.  The mural is in the children’s section of he library.  Take time to check out the mural and the awesome job our students did with this project.  Congratulations to Mr. Trotter and his students for a job well done.

 

Rationale: 
K-6 Youth Activities Director's Report:  Mr. Kovar
Youth basketball is in full swing with teams from Kindergarten through 6th grade. Multiple practices are taking place every night, with games also now starting. Our numbers from last year have almost doubled, with over 100 kids participating. We look forward to growing that number every year, as more kids hear and see our program. Thank you to all of the volunteers that are helping to make this happen! 

After-School Program Director's Report:  Ms. Bebout
Warrior Academy Attendance: Elementary School - 236 Middle School - 67
We received a grant in the amount of $2,500 from Beyond School Bells!  With this money we will be able to have STEM/Career exploration programming participating in a design challenge.
I will visit with Sen. Bruce Bostelman this month about the importance of the after-school program and how it benefits Schuyler School district, our community, and our families.
Warrior Academy would like to thank Anytime Fitness, Kim & Glen Ennen, for their donation of $700 from the Labor Day Run.  These funds will help supply the after-school program with fitness ?supplies for clubs offered throughout the year..?

SMS Activities Director's Report:  Mr. Zavadil
Boys Basketball will be wrapping up in a week, our last game will be Vs. Seward on Monday the 19^th of February.  As the winter season is wrapping up varsity track is already working to book time in the Field-House in order to start their early conditioning.  At the conclusion of this season our plan is to work with the JH basketball coaches to improve the schedule for next season and find opportunities to grow our players.  Mr. Kovar and I plan to meet later this month with youth sports coordinators in the community to continue to increase collaboration.

SCHS Activities Director's Report:  Mr. Kasik

• Winter seasons are well underway.  Our Wrestling team will travel to Districts this week at Beatrice.  They are 10-2 in duals and have the following tournament finishes:  1^st- Schuyler Invite and Wisner-Pilger Invite, 2^nd -Boys Town Invite,  Aurora Dual Invite, 3^rd - York Invite, Raymond Central Invite.  Our JV team also won the Schuyler Invite and Ground Hog Tournament.

(They were Conf. Runner-ups with 12 wrestlers placing in the top 5)

• The Girl’s basketball team recorded another win, beating DC West recently and our Boys basketball team currently has 3 wins on the season. 
• We are fast approaching State Wrestling and District Basketball.  All three groups will be busy these next couple of weeks.
• Speech is now well underway.  Our speech team continues to attend meets and is competing well at these meets.  They have conference at Lakeview on 2/19.
• We just hosted National Honor Society Induction last Sunday with a large group being inducted.
• 2/11 is our band Pops Concert in the east gym.
• It is also hard to believe but February 26^th will start spring practices already.  I am sure we will be using the Field House on inclement days for practices.
• Our coaches are finalizing action plans for next year.  Mr. Zavadil and I will be meeting in the next couple of weeks to look these over and make final decisions regarding our Head Coaches for next year as well as Activity Sponsor assignments.

Special Education Director's Report:  Mrs. Vrba
Current special education students served:
Birth to 5: 38 (with 4 more pending)        SES: 104  (with 5  more pending)            Rural: 12           SMS: 54         SCHS: 36        
Parochial Schools: 6           Total: 250  (with 9 more pending)

My center of attention through the month of February will be to  perform my second rounds of formal iobservations. I only have three probationary teachers but I still am doing walk-throughs because I love being in our classrooms. It is like an inspirational breath of fresh air watching our students learning and being successful.

On February 1st & 2nd, I attended the NASES, Nebraska Association of Special Education Supervisors,  Legislative Conference at the Graduate in Lincoln. Senator Pansing Brooks addressed our group by sharing the elements of her Dyslexia Legislation along with other similar bills that are focused on the teaching of reading. Glen Parks, from the Nebraska Attorney General's Office, spoke on the topic of Human Trafficking. His program was designed to teach education professionals the three ‘R’s of human trafficking:  Realize, Recognize, & Respond.  Participants will realize that human trafficking does exist in Nebraska, be able to recognize a trafficking situation or potential trafficking victim. The most important point of his presentation was that our special education population is becoming the "most desirable victims"...the predators are searching for easy targets! Our last day together was all about the changes happening at NDE along with all the changes in SPED laws and procedures.

Director of Teaching and Learning:  Dr. Gibbons
2017 - 2018 State Assessments - We will be starting the assessments soon.  Dates of the assessments are as follows:

• ELPA - Feb. 5 - March 16, 2018
• NSCAS ELA, Math, Science - March 19 - May 4, 2018
• ACT - April 3, 2018 (Make-up date April 24)

School Improvement Grant -  We held a workshop January 3 and then had job embedded coaching with Discovery Ed consultants on January 8th, 9th, 16th, 17th, and 18th.   

Accreditation - Thank you for your participation in our AdvancED Engagement Review. It was a very positive experience for us and the team noted some powerful practices.  This process has changed this year in that they do not give out many details in an exit report.  We should receive a thorough report in about 45 days.  They did notice a few themes throughout the district that they shared with us:  They experienced autonomy at all levels, from the board trusting administration to each building having the authority to run their own schools. They were impressed by our maintenance of low per pupil expenditures while still making sure that resources were available.  The transparency in our processes was also highlighted as a theme.

They noted some strengths such as how we have had a number of external evaluations done and are open to them, our diversity, early release Fridays and the strategic planning process.

The Engagement Review Team is also required to point out areas where we can do better.  When we receive the report, we will be presented with improvement priorities so we will learn more about our expectations then.  They noted that we should strive for having high expectations for all students across the board and that we should individualize our approach to instructional delivery and required experiences.  I am certain that we have the capacity in our district to make those improvements. 

Federal Programs -

Title IA - Title IA is a federal grant designed to help economically disadvantaged students.  We received funds based on the number of students that qualify for free or reduced price lunches. Across the district, 80% of our students qualify.  Our total allocation this year is $639,247.  Aside from some money that must be set aside for parent and family engagement, homeless student support, and instruction of students from Schuyler who attend nonpublic schools, this money is spent on teacher salaries in order to maintain smaller class sizes.

Title II -    The purpose of this title is to provide grants to State educational agencies and subgrants to local educational agencies to-

1. Increase student achievement consistent with the challenging State academic standards;
2. Improve the quality and effectiveness of teachers, principals, and other school leaders;
3. Increase the number of teachers, principals, and other school leaders who are effective in improving student academic achievement in school; and-  
4. Provide low-income and minority students greater access to effective teachers, principals, and other school leaders

Title III -  Title III is split into two sections.  The first is for supplementing educational programming for Limited English Students and the second is for helping immigrant students.  One of the required actions with Title III funds is to provide professional development to our staff.  The plans that we had fell through because the costs came in higher than originally planned.  I worked with the Title III office at the state department to reallocate funds and put a plan in place for this year.  The Commissioner’s statement that we did not spend these funds was extremely misleading.  We use our Title III funds to pay the salary of a teacher that was added due to the high influx of LE students at the high school over the last few years, summer school activities for LE students and we are going to build professional development workshops that connect strategies for LE students to our instructional model.   


 

Rationale: 
1.  Priority Designation:  Rich Brabec, Dave Gibbons, Stephen Grammer and I met with the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Education on Friday afternoon.  We asked for an audience with the State Department of Education to present information about our district and ask for reconsideration of "priority" status.  From our meeting with Department Officials, we were led to believe this status would provide resources to help us meet the needs of more of our students.  In the meeting, the Commissioner stated there was no money allocated by the legislature for this program, just supervision, monitoring, and program support.  We explained that the data used and reported in the paper to justify our designation was not accurate and we wanted an opportunity to correct the record.  We also asked that we wait until our Advance Ed. Accreditation report was completed so that we could share that information with the State Board.  They agreed to allow us to meet with the State Board, they were not sure how they could remove the designation, but we would be given a chance to plead our case.  I visited with the high school staff and we will work over the next month to prepare the report and explain our involvement in the school improvement grant process and our efforts to meet the needs of ALL our students.

2.  Advance Ed. Visitation:  Big thank you to the board, staff, students, parents, district patrons who participated in the Advance Ed Review this past week.
 
3.  NASB Legal Workshop:  The NASB Spring Legal Workshop will be held at ESU 2 in Fremont on March 21st.  Registration at 5:00 followed by dinner and workshop.  Adjournment at 9:00 PM.  Please let Sally know if you are interested in attending.

4.  2018 Legislative Update:  See Attached Information.

Rationale:  Minutes from February 2018 Meeting
Members Present:  Brian, Dan, Virginia, Victor and Lumir
Members Absent:  Joyce & Sandy
Others Present:  Shelley & Jackie
Brian read the Vision, Mission and Goals
Secretary Report/Minutes for January 2018 meeting approved
Treasurer’s Report was submitted and approved
New Business
·     Foundation will host After Hours on Feb. 22^nd at 5:30 pm at the Schuyler Golf Club
·     Shelley has called Lou to set up the event and will order vegetable and meat and cheese tray from Didier’s and all other board members will bring food
·     Members should be there at 5:00 to help set up for the event
Committee Reports
·    Labor Day:  Brian, Victor, Virginia & Sandy
·    Brian will start looking for someone to organize a 3 on 3 basketball tournament
Scholarships:  Lumir & Sandy
·     They have been in touch with Amy Johnson at school to set up the new Community Service Scholarship
Education:  Lumir & Brian
·     3^rd quarter and year winners will be selected by the end of April and be presented on May 16^th
PR/Communications:  Dan, Sandy, Sheri & Virginia
·     Dan spoke about the AdvancEd Engagement Review that the school just went through and about the article in the papers given by the State Education Department regarding the high school
Alumni Honors Committee:  Joyce & Sheri
·     Sheri reported that she had one nomination so far and gave details on how to nominate an individual
·     A motion was made by Dan and seconded by Virginia to pay $15 to advertise the nomination information in the chamber newsletter and the motion carried
Fundraising:  Sandy & Holly
·     Reminder that the annual golf tournament is set for Aug. 4^th and will be organized by Sandy but another member needs to run the event since Sandy cannot attend the day of the event
School Facilities:  Dan, Joyce & Holly
·     Nothing new to report
Dan did report that the Community Leaders meeting has been rescheduled for Feb. 19^th at 5:30 pm starting with supper in the east gym then moved to the band room at the high school
Brian discussed the next meeting is scheduled for March 5^th but was decided to meet at 6:30 for the annual work night meeting
Jackie from the chamber told the members about the Community Events calendar they are setting up on their website and how to submit upcoming events contact Jackie
March 22^nd is the annual soup cook off for the Habitat for Humanity
Brian adjourned the meeting
Next meeting will be March 5, 2018 at 6:30pm at the Schuyler High School