May 14, 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 annual review of board policies, handbooks, and crisis/safety plans.  This committee is also responsible for the support and development of support programs(nursing, food service) in the district.

Rationale:   We have not received our updated policy revisions for the 2018-19 school year following the 2018 legislative session.  However, the board needs to take action at the May board meeting for the revision to policy 503;07 (Pregnant or Parenting Students)  See the updated policy along with the redline policy outlining the required changes.

 Last year the Legislature passed a set of laws designated as 79-2,149 to 2,152 directing NDE to develop a model policy relating to certain protections for pregnant and parenting students.  Statute 79-2,150 reads in part:
 
"Beginning May 1, 2018, the school board of each school district shall adopt a written policy to be implemented at the start of the 2018-19 school year which provides for standards and guidelines to accommodate absences related to pregnancy and child care for pregnant and parenting students. Such policy shall include procedures and provisions in conformance with the minimum standards set forth in any model policy developed by the State Department of Education... and may include any other procedures and provisions the school board deems appropriate."
 
Based on the model policy recently released by NDE, I am forwarding the following:
NASB’s recommended model Pregnant or Parenting Students Policy 503.07;

NDE’s model policy, and;A redline showing NASB’s changes to the NDE model policy.
 
This replaces our previous version of 503.07 -  Pregnant Students.  I have included a redline of the changes from that version since the policy is greatly changed and expanded.
 
As stated above, Nebraska statutes require the adoption of a model policy by May 1, 2018.

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

Rationale: 
1.  Trever Reeh:  SCHS Math Teacher
2.  Brian Irsik:  SMS Physical Education Teacher
3.  McKayla Arlt:  SMS Science Teacher
4.  Sue Steffensmeier:  SMS Language Arts Teacher (Retirement)
5.  Caitlin Debower:  SES Teacher
6.  Gladys Kuzel:  SES Para Educator (Retirement)
 

Rationale: 
1.  Richard Godejohn: SCHS Math Teacher
2.  Ashley Faltin:  SMS Physical Education Teacher
3.  Chad Wiseman:  SMS Physical Education Teacher
4.  Jennifer Hanna:  SMS Science Teacher
5.  Carol Shockley:  Food Service
 

Rationale:  Holly Hild, representative from Agri-City Insurance Agency, LLC met with Penny Janousek and I to review the district insurance renewal premiums with EMC for the 2018-2019 school year.  See attached renewal summary and property value changes.
 

Rationale:  Summer school runs for 3 weeks in June and 3 weeks in July.  Attached is the recommended list of summer school contracts.

Rationale:  Attached is the salary schedule adjustments proposed for the 2018-19 school year.  This proposal also includes no increase in health insurance costs and the same number of support staff positions for the 2018-19 school year. 
        This is the 4th year of the adopted salary schedule for support staff.  When instituting a salary schedule, there are times when veteran staff is negatively affected when compared to new or replacement personnel.  When considering support staff contracts for 2018-19 we recommended a review of current employee salary comparisons.  We completed a study of area schools and found that, other than nurses, our salaries were competitive.  The salary issues were mostly centered around comparisons within the district. 
          After months of working through issues, we are recommending a "one-time" salary adjustment for experience and/or special considerations to improve our "fairness" position within the district.  The adjustments are less than 1% overall but does much to improve comparisons within the district between new and veteran staff. 

Rationale: 
See attached list and corresponding assigned positions for the 2018-2019 school year.

Rationale: 
          Mr. Zavadil and Mr. Kasik have spent months working on this plan and believe the recommendations reflected on the attached list support our program goals for next year.  With the many new faces in our programs at all levels, it will be important that our veteran staff mentor these new staff members over the summer and into the next school year. 
          This is only on for your review at this time.  We still have a couple of teaching positions to fill that my affect our extended contracts, clubs, sponsors, etc... at each building.  We will finalize when we are fully staffed for 2018-19.  See the attached list.
 

Rationale: 
Preschool and Grades 3-5 Principal's Report:  Mr. Comley

Preschool 109       Kindergarten   138        1st Grade  121        2nd Grade  124
3rd Grade  156     4th Grade  127              5th Grade  118                   Total 784

Preschools last day is May 10th Had a great year at preschool. Teachers did an outstanding job!
Last day for SES is 15th. SES as well is lucky to have so many outstanding teachers! Had a great year at SES
Summer planning has started for maintenance and they will start the moment students leave to start preparing for next year.
Want to thank you for all your support on another great year! 

Rural Schools Principal's Report:  Mr. Reinsch
2018-19 Rural Schools Enrollment
Richland         Fishers
     4          K        6
     4         1st       6
     3         2nd    12
     4         3rd      6
     4         4th     10
     5         5th     11
     2         6th     10
     5         7th       5
     0         8th       5
    31      Total     71

There will be NO pre-school at Richland next year as only one parent has expressed interest.

Thank you to all for allowing me the opportunity to work at SCS for the past 7 years.  It has been a memorable and rewarding experience.  I'm sorry I am not at this meeting to personally express my thanks and appreciation.  I am attending an important civic/community activity and doing my very best to represent our school.  Let's call it my final supervision assignment.
Go Warriors!

SMS Assistant Principal's Report
-The month of April is always busy, we finished up both NSCAS and MAP testing
-We recently hosted the 5^th grade parents as they prepare to transition their children to the Middle School.  Our meeting had over 100 in attendance on April 30^th
-End of year evaluations are underway for MS staff Mrs. Burton and I are working to complete that process very soon.
-Hiring of new staff has been completed at the Middle School.  Our staff will be seeing a number of new members and we are very happy with all of our new staff that will be joining us next year.  We have multiple experienced teachers as well as award-winning teachers from other districts that will be joining us at the Middle School

SMS Principal's Report:  Mrs. Burton
6th Grade-128         7th Grade-146         8th Grade-124        Total Enrollment-398

SMS is busy with activity this May!  Our calendar is full of events, but we are most looking forward to our 8th grade graduation on Tuesday, May 15th at 10:30 a.m. This is an opportunity for the staff of SMS to prepare the students to celebrate the year, as well as take the plunge into high school!  We would love board members to attend, if you are able!

The MVP Community Service program continues at SMS.  This was a program originally started by Mr. Grammer that requires all students to complete 20 hours of community service throughout the school year.  Almost 3,000 hours have been served by this year's graduating group!  We are incredibly appreciative of their efforts, as well as the support of the community.  It truly does take a village to raise a young person.

CHI continues to be a strong partner with SMS.  The Behavioral Health Coalition has approved to pay for a national speaker in August for both parents and students.  His name is Fabian Ramirez.  Information on Fabian can be found at https://www.fabianramirez.com/  We are very excited for this opportunity!

Summative evaluations are completed, and we look forward to getting to work this summer with our new and returning staff members.  We also wish our four retirees the very best as the transition into the next chapters of their lives.  

SCHS Assistant Principal's Report:  Mr. Kasik

• Mr. Grammer and I are completing class schedule for next year.
• We are finalizing our teaching staff and coaching/sponsor staff at this time except for any late resignations.   We feel great about our staff next year.
• Mr. Wemhoff had a Perkins grant funded for a Laser Engraver in an amount of $5000
• Mr. Wemhoff also received partial funding for a portable plasma cutter in the amount of $700.

SCHS Principal's Report:  Mr. Grammer
Enrollment as of May 14th:  Seniors—120;  Juniors-130;  Sophomores—155; Freshmen—145.   Total—560

On April 19th, The Fred Arnold Track Meet was  held at SCHS.  It was a great day related to weather and our teams competing.  Both girls and boys teams competed well and improved  their performances throughout the day.

Congratulations to these (5) student athletes on their hard work and for successfully  qualifying for the State Track Meet.  The following five state qualifiers are: Rachel Shonka, Mason Kovar, Cristobal Gonzalez, Edith Oliden, and Miguel Cassasco.   Congratulations to the coaches and teams for a successful season.

On April 20th the SCHS Prom was held at the Oak Ballroom.  Prom dinner was held at the Schuyler Country Club and the Prom followed with students walking the Promenade to enter the ballroom. The students had fun the entire night, which ended with After Prom at the high school.

We have finished up our spring formal observations.  We are seeing improvement in our instruction in the classroom. Classroom. Discovery Ed coaching, provided by, DE in our classes has been beneficial.  By working with Discovery Ed our staff are demonstrating growth and improvement of their instruction.

We had a successful 8th grade visitation on Monday, April 30th.  The 8th grade at lunch at the high school, eating with high school student council members.  STUCO students served as tour guides for a group of 8th graders.  They toured the building and attended sessions on our core classes and electives.  The day ended with 8th graders getting an opportunity  to talk with coaches and activity sponsors.  It was a great day for 8th graders and they are now able to build their schedules.

Our Boys Soccer team won their district against Norris, which qualified them for the State Soccer Tournament.  The soccer team played on Friday, May 11th at 11:00 am at Creighton.  Unfortunately, our boys team lost to South Sioux City by a score of 1 - 0.  Congratulations to our boys, Coach Beebe, Coach Reeh, Coach Thumann, and Coach Salinas for a great season.

SCHS Graduation was held on Sunday, May 13th at 2:00 pm in the west gym. 



 
 

Rationale:   

After-School Program Director Report:  Ms. Bebout

Warrior Academy Attendance:

Elementary School - 240                    Middle School - 45

Warrior Academy would like to thank everyone involved in the after-school program this year for their hard work and dedication.  We have had a very successful year.

June Summer Camp will be offered June 4th - 22nd from 8:00 - 12:00, Monday - Friday. We expect around 350 students to attend.

Youth Sports Director's Report:  Mr. Kovar
We had our final youth sports meeting last week. We are working to have better communication between groups, and continue to improve how we communicate with parents and students. We hope the use of the web site will help all of this as we continue to improve the opportunities and resources for our students.

SMS Activities Director's Report:  Mr. Zavadil
-Inventory and requisitions of athletic supplies is underway with the process to be completed by May 1^st.   
-Mr. Kasik and I have all of the coaching assignments finalized for next year.
 -Middle School Track is wrapping up.  Our 8^th grade boys have had a fantastic season bringing home multiple trophies.  Our teams have shown improvement every meet.  Our Girls teams at the end of the season are scoring nearly double the points at every meet than they were scoring at the beginning of the year.
-Our middle School track meet was a success and we had great weather and a great turnout.
-SMS Field-Day took place May 2^nd
-Our coaches are scheduling summer planning meetings with our athletes as well as getting physical information and weightlifting plans for them.
-Over the summer, Mr. Kasik and I will be meeting to bolster our coach evaluation tools.  We plan to write a new evaluation tool that will allow us to collect better data on coaches performance.

SCHS Activities Director's Report: Mr. Kasik

• Track has seen improvements from last year as their numbers are up.  We have a handful of athletes who are on the bubble to qualify for state.  If they perform up to their ability they have a great shot at qualifying for the state meet.
• Soccer is nearing the end of our season.  At the time I wrote this our girls had completed their season finishing with 4 wins, up from one win last year.  Our boys qualified for the State Tournament with a 14-2 record entering as a #5 seed.
• We did host the B-1 Boys sub-district and district finals.  It was a challenge getting through this with our weather issues but everyone helped with this.

• Boys Golf finally has good weather to compete in.  They will have districts on the 15^th at Wayne.
• On April 30^th we had 8^th grade visitation at the High School.
• We have spring physical dates set at CHI for next year’s athletes, they will be May 22^nd and one date in July.  
• I will be meeting with our booster club soon to discuss coach requests.
• End of the year Activity and Academic Awards also completed last week with great attendance.

Special Education Director's Report:  Mrs. Vrba
Current special education students served:
Birth to 5: 42  (with 3 more pending)  SES: 88  (with 2 more pending)
Rural: 9                                 SMS: 44                                 SCHS: 34  (1 pending)
Speech in SCS: 31              Parochial Schools: 6          Total: 254  (6 more pending)
(Pending SPED students will now be tested right away in the fall.)

Some major celebrations:                                             

• We have seven graduates who have worked extremely hard to be able to walk across "the big stage" to receive their diplomas. (I have one senior gentleman tell me every time I see him...I am going to walk across "the big stage" He is so excited! Some of these students are looking forward to their community college or four year college experience. I believe that is one of our main purposes as educators...we have to help students understand that they can succeed and reach their dreams even with challenges!
• We welcomed April Becker, our new school psychologist, into our school district in last August. She has challenged us to expand our knowledge in the realm of special education and has made our program stronger. BUT most importantly...she absolutely loves working at SCS and is excited to work side-by-side with all of us next year!! (I think Pattie and I have something to do with that!!)
• We have started the whole encompassing process of "pushing in" special education students into a general classroom setting at SES. Our co-teaching partnerships are Jodi Brabec~Doreen Gibbons, Lindsay Beaumont~Caitlin Wiedel, Megan Holub~Kari Weihl, Lauren Burkey~Eileen Gahan and Jason Wehner~Brianne Mize!!

Thank you for all your support this year, but I know the 2018-2019 school year will be even more awesome!!

Curriculum/Assessment/Federal Programs Director:  Dr. Gibbons

2017 - 2018 State Assessments - I would like to thank Mindy Perrin, Meredith Riha, Ingrid Rodriguez, Paula Kment, Katie Betrand and Amy Johnson for their work on the state assessments. They were very well organized and kept us on track to assess our students.

School Improvement Grant - We’ve been winding down our training.  We had Discovery Education consultants in on April 17 working with specific staff members on Digital Leadership.  Our PBL Consultant has finished her days in the district but we are expanding her role next year. Our last day with Discovery Ed this year will be Wednesday, May 16.  They will do an end of the year celebration/event at the Benedictine Mission House.

Accreditation - We have started building action plans based on our Improvement Priorities, but nothing is really set with them yet.

Dual Language School - We hosted parent meetings on Wednesday, May 9th.  One meeting was held at 8:30am and the other was at 5:30pm.  Information was presented in both Spanish and English. We had a total of about 30 parents at the meetings.  At the time of this writing we are discussing the need for an additional meeting.

Curriculum Materials - A purchase order has been submitted for the K-5 program Wonders.  We will implement that program across the district. Teachers will be trained prior to the school year next year.  I plan on also bringing in more than one coaching date to ensure that teachers have the ability to properly implement the new program. Other programs -

• SMS Language Arts has chosen a program also from McGraw-Hill called StudySync.  Teachers have piloted it in their classrooms and found that it works with our technology and curriculum plans.

• HS Art - brought in teacher resources from Davis Art to help with planning.

• HS Ag - Most of the curriculum materials hadn’t been updated since the 1990’s.  We are working to get updated versions of the curricular materials. This year we updated the Introduction to Horticulture text.

• Our HS ESL English class will receive an update with a program called iLiT ELL.  Independent research has shown that students have grown in skills one and a half times faster than without this program.

• We also have programs that we need to do a yearly purchase of workbooks or online subscriptions.  However, eliminating Reading Mastery has reduced that bill by about $26,000.

Rationale: 
1.  All Staff Recognition:  We will be hosting our end of the year all staff meeting on Wednesday, May 16th beginning at 8:00 AM. 

2.  Field House:  We are recommending a change in summer Field House Hours.  Based on past admission we are recommending 5:00 pm to 9:00 PM Monday through Thursday.  Closed on Friday.  1:00 to 9:00 on Saturday and Sundays.  See attached report.

3.  Board Committee Meetings: 
Handbooks:  The principals and directors are working on updates to their handbooks and will need to meet with the board committee prior to the June Meeting.

Board Policy:  We are waiting for policy recommendations following the 2018 legislative session.  I will forward the policy updates via email and also forward them to NASB for them to codify them with our policy numbers.  These take two readings, so not sure if we will meet in May or if our meeting will be in June.

Program Recommendations:  We are finalizing program updates, new programs and curriculum recommendations, and staffing recommendations for 2018-19.  This committee will need to meet prior to the June meeting.

Building and Grounds:  This committee will need to meet periodically throughout the months of June and July as we progress on the high school building project.

4.  Final 2018 Legislative Report:  See attached


 

Rationale: 
Minutes from May 2018 Foundation Meeting
Members Present:  Lumir, Virginia, Joyce, Victor & Dan
Members Absent:  Brian & Sandy
Others Present:  Shelley & Brian Bywater
Lumir called meeting to order
Lumir read the Vision, Mission Statement and Goals
Secretary Report/Minutes for April 2018 were approved
Treasurer’s Report was reviewed and approved
·     A motion was made by Dan and 2^nd Virginia to pay a $75 invoice from Schuyler Baseball Corporation to hang a banner at the baseball field
Results from the Survey were discussed and will have further discussion at the June meeting
Committee Reports
Labor Day- No new business
Scholarships
·    The Academic Banquet is May 7^th Amy will hand out Foundation Scholarships
Education
·     Wed at 10:00 am committee will meet to select 3^rd quarter winners and year end winners
     °     Shelley will contact Winnie at the Chamber office to get the $750 chamber bucks and certificates
PR/Communications- Nothing new to report
Alumni Honors Committee
·     Joyce reported that the selection has been made and dinner is all set up appox. 25 people attending then Brian will be at graduation ceremony
Fundraising- Nothing new to report
School Facilities
·     Dr. Hoesing discussed timelines for projects at the high school
Lumir adjourned the meeting
Next meeting is June 4, 2018 at noon at Schuyler Central High School Superintendent’s office