November 9, 2020 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 included in the agenda and posted in the front 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: 

• Fall Break was good - could always use more time off

• Winter sports have started conditioning - basketball will use the new gym - will put the starters on the screen in a hype video - students are excited about this!

• One-Act starts competing November 21st - run through all memorizing - fastest time was 31:00 - explain timing -

• Jeans Day money was collected on behalf of student council and the money was donated to Terry Spale.

• Thanksgiving Break is coming up - November 25th, 26th, 27th.

• Band got a superior rating at the last home game - now getting ready for Winter Concerts

• Speech practices have started - working on memorizing lines

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: 
Included below is an explanation of the NASB final board policy update for this fall.  Most changes from this year’s Legislative Session have already been dealt with in previous Policy Updates, but this email includes three more revisions and one new policy.
Policy 402.15 Staff Conduct With Students has some revisions to incorporate mandates from LB1080 and has had a general cleanup of prohibited conduct descriptions. As in the past, this policy may require some discussion within your administration and staff to determine whether all the prohibitions are appropriate for your district, but the various requirements of LB1080 must be kept. I’ll be glad to answer any questions that may arise.
Policy 404.02 Employee Injury On The Job meets the requirements of LB1186 which adds a seven-day period of Injury Leave for certain cases of employee injury.
Policy 404.13 School Closure Under Extraordinary Circumstances address a paragraph in 79-8,106 and is also a policy that may be requested by federal authorities if staff pay during emergency closure involves federal grants.
Policy 503.04 Addressing Barriers To Attendance has one brief revision to add illnesses related to mental health as a reason for consideration in addressing barriers to attendance for individual students.

I have also attached redline versions of the three revisions for your use.  Thank you for your interest in school policy.
Jim Luebbe,  NASB Director of Policy Services

Rationale:  The certificated staff Early Retirement Incentive Program Policy, 406.05 sunset at the end of the 2019-20 school year. 

"The ERIP program and policy, and all benefits provided herein, shall expire and be of no force and effect with regard to eligibility under this ERIP as of August 31, 2020, and as to participation in this ERIP as of August 31, 2023. "

At the present time, the board of education is currently in negotiations with the SEA on the 2021-22 Certificated Staff Master Contract.  The negotiations committee recommends tabling this item until contract negotiations for 2021-22 are settled.

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

Rationale: 
Members of the finance committee met with Pekny and Associates to discuss the 2019-20 AFR and Audit Report.  In the past, Pekny's attended the meeting and went through the documents at that time.  Again, this year members of the finance committee met at Pekny and Associates to review both documents. 
          If other members of the board would like to have a more formal review, we will arrange a time to meet and review this information.  The two reports were reviewed and submitted to the Department of Agriculture, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, and Nebraska Department of Education by November 1st and 5th as required by law. 
          The board should go on record as accepting the reports as filed.  See the attached electronic copy of the 2019-20 Audit and Financial Reports as filed with the Department of Education.

Rationale: 
1.  Alexandra Carrera:  Para Educator - Richland Dual Language Program

Rationale: 

High school administrators met with KLK on October 26th, and 27th via zoom.  We also had KLK and our state department representatives on site on November 2nd and 3rd.   During this time we once again conducted teacher observations utilizing zoom technology and the coaching strategy called 5 minute feedback with value add.  We started using a google form to collect data on engagement as well as APL strategies.  The main focus of our discussion over the last few weeks have been on data use to drive our instruction at the high school.  Mark Brady from ESU 7 has played a key role in helping prepare and utilize data to make our programs stronger. This information represents work being done for our improvement goal on "Graduation Rate and Staff and Student Culture."

Section 1 of our priority plan addresses the importance of a "Mission Driven" school.  During our priority meetings, we have discussed our strategic plan, the power of Thoughtexchange to hear all voices in this process as well as creating core beliefs, and norms in our schools.  Our admin team created a list of the "Big 10" walkthrough items that we are looking for during our coaching sessions.  It is just one more way we are trying to keep all staff on the same page when it comes to instructional improvement.

Work is still being done with the "chronic absenteeism" portion of our plan.  We continue to meet with students and develop plans for intervening with students who have missed school and working with our county attorney to help families in need.  

The final section of our plan is our "English Learners."  Our consultants made a trip to visit our newcomer’s program, and were very happy with the way things are progressing.  When reviewing our Renaissance data, we have seen some excellent growth from students and know our program is making a difference.  We will continue to work on utilizing language acquisition strategies in the classroom and differentiation strategies in all areas.

Below is a link to our priority plan.  Again, if you have any questions or concerns, don’t be afraid to contact one of the high school administrators.

https://core-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/908802/Draft_2018-2021_Schuyler_Priority_Plan__1_.pdf 

Rationale: 
Preschool and SES 3-5 Principal's Report:  Mr. Comley
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  This month I want to highlight Tori Oehlrich. Mrs. Oehlrich has done an outstanding job helping SES students, parent, and teachers through the medical questions that may come up during these trying times. When Mrs Oehlrich does not know an answer she will find out the answer and does so with a smile. I want to say thank you Mrs Oehlrich! We appreciate all you do!

SES K-2 Principal's Report:  Mrs. Neesen
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  This month I would like to highlight the work of Isidro Adame. Isidro is someone who we can always count on, then go above and beyond the call of duty. On top of his work duties, he always greets staff and students with a smile and friendly greeting. He builds relationships with students ensuring they have positive relationships with all adults in the building. Thank you Isidro for being a positive influence at SES!

Fisher’s, & Richland Principal's Report:  Ms. Bebout
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  I would like to highlight Aaron Thumann this month.  He was born and attended grade school in Seward, Ne.  He went to middle and high school in Utica, NE and considers himself from Utica.  Aaron has earned two degrees; Bachelor of Science in K-12 Physical Education and a Masters Degree in Curriculum and Instruction.  He has worked in Schuyler for 13 years, four years as a sub and nine years as a full time teacher.  Aaron has taught PE, weights, and Alt Ed.  He has also coached high school and middle school football, high school soccer, and high school powerlifting.  Aaron has one son named Tucker who is 7 years old.

     Aaron is the PE teacher at both Fisher’s and Richland School.  He has an amazing ability to build relationships with students.  Students look forward to sharing their good things with Aaron at the start of every class.  He also has such a positive attitude and outlook on life.  We enjoy having him in our building. 
      What I really wanted to highlight is Aaron won the SHAPE Nebraska Physical Education Teacher of the Year!  This is such an honor and well deserved.  A quote from the person who nominated Aaron states, "Thumann’s passion, hard work, care, and dedication to the health and well-being of his students is unmatched. He strives to make sure that his students are pushing themselves to be better athletes and healthier people in general.  Over the course of a year, his students have worked extremely hard and broken 55 school weightlifting records, as well as approximately 2000 personal records. As a colleague of Thumann’s said, "These numbers are simply staggering and truly demonstrate Aaron’s ability to push students to be the best versions of themselves." 
     I could not be more proud to have Aaron as a teacher in the Schuyler School District!!! 
**IT IS A GREAT DAY TO BE A SCHUYLER WARRIOR**

Middle School Asst. Principal's Report:  Mr. Banahan
Program/Staff Member Spotlight: For my staff spotlight, I want to recognize Paula Kment, Counselor at the Middle
School. Mrs. Kment does a great job working with our students and staff to help resolve behavioral issues that arise during the school day, and also helps with lunch duty throughout the week. Most recently Mrs. Kment has worked really hard to help implement some changes to our SAT program to help get students the interventions they need to help them improve both academically and behaviorally. 
     She has worked with our teams to help them identify students that need extra support in the areas of Math, Language Arts, and Behaviorally. She then meets with each of our teams  to help provide ideas and strategies for our teachers to use with the identified students. She is a great resource for our teachers and students, and it is very apparent she wants the best for every student that walks into our building.

Middle School Principal's Report:  Mr. Zavadil
Program Spotlight:  School is moving along and students and staff are putting in extra work this year to make it as normal as possible while keeping our students safe.  I would like to highlight the work that Mrs. Kment and Mr. Banahan are doing to provide a good system within Schuyler Middle School to help our students that are struggling academically and behaviorally.  Mr. Banahan and Mrs. Kment have really add quite a bit of structure or our school’s SAT/RTI process.  I feel this added emphasis to this process will be a great proactive approach to helping our students.
Staff Member Spotlight:  I would like to also Highlight the work of Mrs. Lopez.  Mrs. Lopez is the office manager at Schuyler Middle School.  She is a welcoming face to all of our staff and students that need to come into the office.  She, like all office managers in a school is the glue that holds our whole operation together.  She does a great job of reminding me of items that I may have forgotten.  She does a great deal of translating for our office and the district.  She was instrumental in setting up translation for our parent/teacher conference and is very supportive of our office staff and reminds us to slow down and enjoy each others’ company.  We are lucky to have a staff member like her in the office.
Upcoming Events:  Schuyler Middle School had 82% attendance at our parent teacher conferences this year, which I feel shows how much our parents were happy to have their children back in School.  P/T Conferences were a huge success.  The Middle School is also gearing up to participate in the Schuyler Community Schools strategic plan.  We recently started discussions in our School Improvement meetings and are holding staff meetings to start gathering feedback on last year’s plan and to start getting ready to make the plan for the next school year.

High School Assistant Principal's Report:  Mr. Kasik
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  I would like to spotlight our Ag Education  Department this month.  Mr. Hosier and Mr. Harper lead this program and have been very flexible this year as we have had to make adjustments to a number of things that they do.  They continue to build relationships with folks in the community and lead this program, good work!
Staff Member Spotlight:  For person spotlight I want to recognize Renee Brabec.  She has really picked up the slack during those times when I am busy with Academic programs.  Much of her work with transportation and schedules has required a lot of last minute adjustments.  She is very detailed and dependable.  My job would be much more difficult without her help!
Upcoming Events:  We are just coming off of a week of Professional Development that was really well received by our staff.  We will be getting their feedback as we plan our next PD events.

High School Principal's Report:  Mr. Grammer
Program Spotlight:  Our high school has for the past few years been searching for ways to assist our high school students who struggle in their classes and fall behind in their graduation progress.  These past two years the High School has implemented the Alternative Education Program, which is housed in the Schuyler Community Schools District Office. We were fortunate to have a teacher on staff, who has a passion to work with these students.  He genuinely cares about his students and i developing a strong Alt. Ed. program. Mr. Thumann has been a physical education teacher for these past ten years and has worked hard to develop a quality physical education program in our rural schools, middle school and high school in our district, as well as a quality Alt. Ed. program.  Congratulations to Mr. Thumann for his hard work and dedication to our school district.
Staff Member Spotlight:  The program spotlight and staff member are the same person.  That’s why it is an honor to recognize the Society of Health and Physical Educators of Nebraska would like to announce the recipient of the 2020 Nebraska High School Physical Education Teacher of the Year, Mr. Aaron Thumann of Schuyler Central High School.
     Mr.Thumann’s passion, hard work, caring attitude, and dedication to the health and well-being of his students is unmatched. He strives to make sure that his students are pushing themselves to be better athletes and healthier people in general.  Over the course of a year, his students will have worked extremely hard and broken 55 school weight lifting records, as well as approximately 2000 personal records. As a colleague of Thumann’s said, "These numbers are simply staggering and truly demonstrate Aaron’s ability to push students to be the best versions of themselves." Thumann truly cares for his students and they know it. As a student once said, "Thumann is inspiring. I only come to weights because I know that he really cares about me and my teammates and our success." He not only focuses on the physical fitness development and emotional needs of his students, but also doing so through goal setting to add investment of his students.  Thumann states, "One of the hardest things for students to understand is that wellness is not something that happens overnight or in an isolated situation, instead it is a combination of training both physically through strength training and other physical activity and mentally by having patience to allow the changes to happen and a positive mindset to keep pushing forward.  Congratulations Mr. Thumann for being honored and recognized by your peers in the field of physical education.
Event Highlight:  We are continuing our work with the state priority team, UNL EL team, DE cohort groups, with the SIG grant, and PBL through DE.  It is cumbersome at times to schedule and plan for all the groups.  But, it is worthwhile as we see growth and development of our students.   

Rationale: 

K-6 Youth Sports Director's Report:  Mrs. Neesen      
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  Youth Boys Basketball has been scheduled for and will be starting November 10th. Thank you to Dana Schultz for coaching and mentoring our young Warrior Athletes! Due to COVID-19, we opted to not do the traditional sign up night with families coming in. Rather, students are bringing in their signup sheets back with jerseys and activity passes given out while at school.

Warrior Academy - After-School Program Director's Report:  Ms. Bebout
Program Spotlight:  Warrior Academy co-hosted a Trunk-or-Treat with the Schuyler Chamber on Thursday, Oct 22nd.  It was a very windy and chilly day, but the rain/drizzle stopped an hour before we got started so it was dry!!!  We had around 340 children walk through and over 500 people total.  Through our partnership with the Schuyler Chamber we were able to partner with 22 businesses participating in the trunk-or-treat.  Everyone wore a mask and businesses handing out candy also wore gloves.  It was a great night seeing all of the dressed up children and we look forward to this partnership again next year!!

SMS Activities Director's Report:  Mr. Banahan
Program Spotlight: My program spotlight this month is our winter sports teams that started practicing on October 26th. Currently we have two sports in action Girls Basketball and Wrestling which has both boys and girls. For basketball we currently have 46 girls (21 - 7th graders and 25 - 8th graders). For wrestling we currently have 46 wrestlers out this season with 11 girls and 35 boys out for wrestling. Our first competitions for both sports take place next week and our athletes are excited to get started competing this season!
Spotlight Upcoming Events: Upcoming events for middle school athletics include two home basketball games on Monday vs Aquinas and Thursday vs Madison. Our wrestling team is looking forward to their first meet next Thursday with a Triangular at York High School along with Crete.

High School Activities Director's Report:  Mr. Kasik
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  I would like to spotlight our Play Production Program led by Hope Petersen.   The students in this program have been working very hard to put a production together and they are doing this with Covid Protocols as well as not really having the best place to practice since our Performing Arts facility is under renovation.  They are hopeful that they will get to perform this season and continue to do a great job!
Staff Member Spotlight:  For person spotlight I want to recognize Melissa Bulin our Athletic Trainer.  She does a great job with meeting the needs of our kids and our athletic programs.  Her position is paid by Columbus Community Hospital and she has been a great asset to our Athletic programs.
Upcoming Events:  We are preparing for winter sports and activities and all that comes into play this year.  It has been a challenge but we are excited to provide these opportunities for our kids.  On October 20^th we opened phase #1 of our construction project by hosting our last home VB games in the gym.  We were also able to host a D-2 Volleyball game between Exeter-Milligan and Wynot.  The facility was very well received for these events and we are excited to use them this winter as well.

Student Services Director's Report:  Dr. Lefdal
Program Spotlight:  I would like to highlight our EL and Newcomer’s program.  With the addition of our Newcomer’s program and the collaboration between our EL teachers at the high school, we are starting to see some great growth with our students.  It is also great to see our newcomer students having a voice in their education and acclimating to their new surroundings.  We have created an amazing space for these students.
Notable Topics:  I am excited to see the renovation of our event space moving ahead.  I have shown the work in progress to a few people and they love it.   This project is such a great opportunity for our students, staff, and community.
Looking ahead:  I am excited for a number of things that are happening in our district.  Our priority plan has some great ideas and strategies that will make our school better including utilizing data to drive our instruction as well as using walkthrough data to improve our instruction.  It is truly a great day to be a Warrior!

Special Education Director's Report:  Mrs. Vrba
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  My spotlight this month is on our 4th grade special education teacher, Leigh Schnoor.  Leigh has the innate ability to know exactly what each student needs without drawing undue attention to him/her in the classroom. She has risen above all what could be called "normal" expectations to develop meaningful tools, learning activities and learning opportunities for all of her students. I honestly believe that Leigh hasn't had the same schedule for a week since school has started due to the fact that she is consistently readjusting/shuffling her schedule around so she may give her students more instructional time. All of Leigh's  paperwork is impeccably done and turned into our office in a very timely manner! Leigh, simply put, is one of the best advocates for "our kids"!

Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment Director's Report:  Dr. Gibbons
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:   We had a very successful PD in October.  It couldn’t have happened without the staff members who stepped up and presented to their peers.  Here is a list of the people who presented and their topics:
Elizabeth Lickei - Writing Across the Curriculum
Brandi Zavadil - Using Tech with EL Students
Penny Janousek - Payroll 101
Don Seehusen - Going Digital with Vocabulary
John Sayer - EdPuzzle; Discovery Education
James Watts - Edmodo; Classcraft
Joel Carrillo - The Newcomer Program
Jared Severson - Google Classroom with Google Meet; Google Meet with Whiteboard; Transfer Grades from Google to IC
Paula Kment and April Becker - Social Emotional Considerations; Mental Health Workshop
Bobbie Rocheford & Jenna Saalfeld - Apple Classroom
Rachel Wood - Teaching with the iPad Pro - The Best of Both Worlds
Samantha Ladwig - Show Me AppRick Carter - Teaching Through Zoom
Staci Shonka - Google Slides - Making it Interactive; EdPuzzle
Joey Lefdal - Apex Learning
Jeff Droge - Tech Tips and Troubleshooting
Jeff Duranski - Zoom 101 - How to Host a Meeting; Screen Recording - Mac & iPad
Kim Powell - Infinite Campus Q&A
Dan Rinkol - Tech Tips and Troubleshooting
Vanessa Stanek - Tech Tips and Troubleshooting
Mindy Perrin - SafeSchools Videos Help
Kady Arps - Tech Tips and Troubleshooting
Spotlight Upcoming Events: We are continuing to host our Discovery Education events across the district.  We will have STEM Leader Corps and Digital Leader Corps (DLC) the third week of November.  We will have our STEM K-8 activities through the month of November, including an Admin team professional development on November 30.

Rationale: 
1.  Construction Update:  The next bi-weekly construction meeting is scheduled for Thursday, November 12th at 9:00.  The punch list for the auditorium rennovation is on Tuesday, November 24th at 9:00.

2.  Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  With the recent completion of the annual audit I am reminded of the attention to detail and cooperation between staff who work with finances in the district.  Penny Janousek, Sally Jakub, and Shelley Friesz are responsible for the managing the books in all district funds including the activity fund and school lunch program. 
Additional thank you and recognition to the administrative staff assigned to supervise all activities across the district.  This shared responsibility requires consistent oversight and attention to detail in protecting the segregation of duties and ensure gates, concessions, fund raising, and many other programs that handle cash receipts are managed and deposited without error. 

Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  Thank you and recognition to the school nurses:  Carol Reha, Cori Vavricek, Jenna Banahan, Tori Oehlrich and for their work in support of school health and safety during this COVID-19 Pandemic.  As of Monday, November 9th, we have moved from the Yellow to ORANGE on our school COVID Operational Zones.  See attached "Return to School TEMPLATE" document outlining this process.  Also, see COVID-19 District-wide Data Report.

4.  2020 Strategic Plan Draft Report:  See attached report.  We will present the final report in December. 
 

Rationale: 
1.  Foundation Meeting Report:  Agenda, minutes and finance reports found on the Foundation webpage.  https://www.schuylercommunityschools.org

2.  NASB State Convention:   Conference:  Thursday and Friday, November 19-20, 2019 at CHI Health Center, Omaha

3.  Superintendent's Evaluation:  Attached below is the superintendent's evaluation form.  Please complete and send to Rich or bring it back to the December meeting.  There will be paper copies for you at the meeting.

4.  New Board Members:  Congratulations to Renee Sayer and Guadalupe Marino on their election to the school board.  Sally sent information to them on the new-board member workshops  coming up on December 2nd or virtual workshops as scheduled.  See attachment.