March 14, 2022 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 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:  This committee is responsible for recommending the annual district calendar, strategic planning process, technology, and promoting positive public relations and communications program.

Rationale:  Attached is the 2022-23 school calendar recommendation.  The Schuyler Education Association (SEA), staff and administration have met several times and discussed calendar options for the 22-23 school year and are recommending the attached Draft #3 Calendar.

Rationale:  Attached is the 2022 Strategic Plan.   Staff and community members have been given an opportunity to participate in providing input on priorities for 2022.  Staff was then offered the opportunity to participate in developing action plans to address identified priorities.  The Strategic Planning Leadership Team compiled the recommendations and sent a "confidence survey" to staff and board members to see if they agreed on the priorities and action plans for 2022.  Below are the results of the survey and the recommended action plans for 2022.

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

Rationale:  The Nebraska Association of School Boards mailed out board member packets that will be available at the meeting.  Below is the cover letter and contract for 2022-23 Membership Dues.

Rationale:  Attached is the ESU 7 Special Services Contract for the 2022-23 school year.  The services outlined on the estimates are based on our use for the 2021-22 school year and anticipated services for the 2022-23 school year.  We only pay for the services we use. 

Rationale:  According to the early retirement policy, the board of education may approve up to 4 requests for early retirement annually.  The early retirement policy is attached below.

Attached are four early retirement requests.  We have no fully eligible requests so all four requests are for partial (2/3) early retirement benefits.  See attached requests below.

1. Barbara Saathoff:  2 yrs:  Meets Rule of 85 and Degree, but not years of service.
2. Lynne Rambour: 2 yrs:  Meets Rule of 85 and Degree, but not years of service.
3. Tom Nelson: 2 yrs: Meets Rule of 85 and Degree, but not years of service.
4.  Randy Martin:  2 yrs: Meets Rule of 85 and years of service but not degree.

Rationale:  Retirements at the end of the 2021-22 school year.
1.  Sally Jakub:  District Activity Fund, purchasing, and acting board secretary
2.  Gloria Gonzalez:  SMS Custodian/Housekeeper

Rationale: 
Tasha Eldridge:  Rural School Music Teacher
Jessica Wendt:  Rural School Special Education Teacher
Daryl Kubik:  SES Teacher
Ryan Baldwin: SMS Music Teacher
Lydia Quiring:  SCHS Language Arts Teacher
Bailly Ballard:  SCHS Social Studies Teacher
Riley Haug:  SCHS Science Teacher

Rationale: 
Katie Vavrina:  SES Teacher
Jamie Shaner:  SES Teacher
Allison Wooden:  SES Teacher
Jon Bos:  SMS Physical Education
Michael Madej:  SMS Math Teacher
Christopher Dietz:  SMS Art Teacher
Trumann Lauck:  SMS Math Teacher
Nestor Pelayo:  SMS Music Teacher
Jaden Cover:  SCHS Language Arts Teacher
Megan Morton:  SCHS Language Arts Teacher
Jennifer Swerczek:  SCHS Science Teacher
Rosalba Valerio:  SES Para Educator

Rationale: 

Priority Plan update
The administrative team met with our consultants and our state department representatives this past month.  Our days were used to discuss and participate in value- add coaching.  Ms. Lemus, Mr. Keairnes, Ms. Flores, and Mr. Paesl were teaching participants.  The process has been well received by our staff and we will continue this process over the next two months.   

We began our meetings with updates from administrators and moved into reviewing our ACT action plan as well as examining and reviewing data collections.  We spent a good amount of time discussing high school CTE programming for next year and ideas that we have for increased participation and opportunities for the future.  Dr. Gibbons presented on student data.  This was followed up with a lengthy discussion on data-informed instruction.  When we have good testing data, this will help drive our instructional practices.  We also discussed one of our program reviews that was completed during our in-service days.  The process was very successful and led to some excellent conversations.  Mark Brady also showcased his talent with cognitive coaching.  He is an amazing asset to us from ESU 7.

During our second day of meetings, the conversation continued to focus on data-informed and mission-driven instruction.  We spent a large amount of time working on our data and testing protocols, as well as our MTSS framework.  Shirley Vargas also joined us on the second day to see the progress that had been made at Schuyler.  I believe everyone walked away from the second day's meetings with a positive attitude, a belief that we are doing the right things, and a to-do list that sets the work for the next couple of weeks. KLK is back four days in March, to continue our work.

We closed the last day with a reflection on how the days went by, sharing "Glows and Grows" from the meeting.  We all felt the days were very worthwhile and really gave us some great insight into how our programs are running and where we can focus our energy during the fourth quarter.  

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

https://5il.co/nlww   (Newsletter)

Rationale: 

Preschool/SES 3-5 Principal's Report:  Mr. Comley
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  This month I would like to highlight Vanessa Stanek. Mrs Stanek is our technology coordinator at SES. Vanessa does an outstanding job helping everyone around the school when called on. Mrs Stanek always has a smile on her face and is liked by so many.  Mrs. Stanek also helps out with Family Literacy, PTO, TeamMates, Sixpence, and many more programs at SES. I just want to give a big thank you to Vanessa Stanek for all she does for Schuyler and SES!
 

SES K-2 Principal's Report:  Mrs. Neesen
Program/Staff Member Spotlight: This month I would like to highlight the effort and work of Mrs. Doreen Gibbons. Mrs. Gibbons has taken on the new form of co-teaching for Schuyler Elementary with eagerness and professionalism. She has scheduled her grade level so that all students are able to receive her expertise in specially designed instruction. Her efforts have not gone unnoticed by her teammates and students. Thank you Mrs. Gibbons!

DO Dual Language, Fisher’s, & Richland Principal's Report:  Ms. Bebout
Spotlight Program:  I would like to highlight the spring concerts coming up and other activities! 
          On Monday, April 4th Fisher’s School will be presenting their Spring Concert at 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.  "Yee-Haw" will be performed in the lunchroom.
          On Thursday, April 7th Richland School will be presenting their Spring Concert at 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.  "Yee-Haw" will be performed in the gym at Richland.
          On Tuesday, May 17th District Office Dual Lang will have their spring program & Kindergarten graduation at 6 p.m. in the high school auditorium.
          We would love to have you attend and see this amazing program!
Other upcoming events:
Grandparents/Very Special Person Day
Fisher’s - March 25 at 12:30
District Office Dual Lang - April 13th at 2:30
Richland - April 29th at 12:30

Kindergarten Signup:
Dual Lang Program - March 22nd either 10:00 a.m. or 5 p.m. - you only need to attend one!
Fisher’s - April 8th

Graduation & Certificates
Fisher’s - May 17th - 2 p.m.
Richland - May 18th - 2 p.m.
 

Middle School Asst. Principal's Report:  Mr. Banahan
Spotlight Upcoming Events: As we move into March and April, we move into the state testing and track season, which creates a very busy couple of months for our teachers and students! We are excited to see the results of all of the hard work our staff and students have put into the school year. As we move forward, it is important to continue to celebrate the success we have in the classroom with our students and our teachers, as this becomes a very stressful time of the school year.
Spotlight Staff/Program: I would like to celebrate our front office staff of Marisela Lopez, Kiara Healy, and our nurse, Jenna Banahan. Our administrative assistants do an outstanding job of communicating with our students and families. They have various tasks they must accomplish each day, with various interruptions that constantly disrupt whatever they are working on at the time, and they always handle it with so much poise and professionalism. They truly make our school run smoothly, as they know where everything is located, who does what, where people are located, and any extension you could need to contact anyone in the district. Our school nurse also does an excellent job of helping out wherever she is needed and is always willing to help out with answering phone calls, or locating students when parents need to pick them up. Along with helping all of the students that come into the office because they aren’t feeling well, or collided in P.E. class. She does an amazing job of advocating for the students she treats, and ensuring that they get everything they need in order to be successful while at school. We are extremely grateful for all of the work these ladies do each and every day in our building. Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication to our staff and students.

SMS Principal's Report:  Mr. Zavadil
Program Spotlight:  I would like to highlight the work of our district and building school improvement teams.  These teams are doing the work of implementing our district initiatives as it relates to teaching and learning under the direction of Dr. Gibbons.  Lately, our school improvement team has been working with Dr. Gibbons on our academic rigor as it relates to the writing and implementation of learning targets based off of proficiency scales.  This sounds a little dry, but it is the foundation of what we teach at Schuyler Middle School and is very important.  We look forward to the work that we are about to do with LSI when we are given that opportunity.
Staff Member Spotlight:  This month I would like to highlight the work of Mr. Rick Eller.  Mr. Eller is the lead custodian and maintenance worker here at Schuyler Middle School.  He helps to coordinate the cleaning and maintenance.  Mr. Eller works tirelessly and selflessly to ensure that our building is ready to go every day for our staff and students.  Often, when I come into the building at night or on Saturdays, I will have a good short chat with Mr. Eller and he is hard at work.  We very much appreciate all of Mr. Eller’s efforts.

Upcoming Events:  The district just finished parent-teacher conferences last week and we had great attendance. We will be starting our NSCAS testing during the last week of March and it will be given at different times for different classes through the Month of April.  All of our teachers have worked very hard to grow students and we look forward to receiving this data as validation of their tireless efforts.

High School Asst. Principal's Report:  Mr. Steinhoff
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  This month I would like to spotlight Drey Keairnes for his work in the library, in his English classes, and for all the work he does outside of the required hours he needs to be in school.  Over the past few months, Drey has consistently worked with the administration and the state to help improve our students' reading and writing abilities.  He is always willing to use both the administration’s and the state’s suggestions and resources to improve his classroom.  Recently, he has been working on paired reading and lit circles in order to improve engagement in his English classes.  Drey has a unique ability to get all of his kids to engage in their work.  He has even been willing to co-teach and work with other teachers.  This attitude not only improves student performance, but staff morale as well.  Mr. Keairnes is a true asset to our school.

High School Asst. Principal's Report:  Mrs. Ladwig
Program/Staff Member Spotlight: I would like to highlight the work of Mrs. Brandi Zavadil. Mrs. Zavadil is currently serving as both our EL Transition Counselor and Instructional Coach. On any given day, you can find Mrs. Zavadil meeting with both students and staff to help them in any way she can in order to make SCHS a better place for everyone. She has helped lead our Newcomer Program toward success, and the teachers in our EL department look to her for guidance and support. In addition to the work she does with our EL department, Mrs. Zavadil also plays a key role in MTSS at the high school. She is a team player and is always willing to collaborate with the others on the team. Mrs. Zavadil also just recently spent countless hours getting everything lined up for our successful Parent Teacher Conferences. She truly is an invaluable member of our team at SCHS.
Notable Topics: Our spring Parent Teacher conferences went well on Tuesday, March 8th. Many students had the opportunity to showcase their creativity through either their entrepreneurship class or culinary arts class by selling products they created and food from their "food truck". During the supper hour, all the tables in the auditorium were full of students, teachers, parents, and community members who came out to support our kids. It was a positive experience for all involved!

High School Principal's Report:  Dr. Lefdal
Program Spotlight:  I would like to spotlight Mr. Steinhoff and Mrs. Ladwig for the work that they are doing at the high school.  This team of administrators is making a huge difference for our students and staff.    They have stepped up for our district and are truly making a huge impact on our students.  Their ideas and suggestions on how to improve our programming and school have been nothing short of excellent.  They make it fun going to work. Great work! 
Notable Topics:  The speech team and its coaches have been simply amazing.  The team has worked diligently to make this one of the best years they have had!  The students are excited, willing to put in the time and effort that is necessary to succeed, and their behavior and professionalism at meets is nothing short of amazing.  Bravo!

Looking ahead:  I am excited to see the spring musical.  I know the students and coaches have been putting in so much time this spring to make sure their play is a success.  I am also excited to see how far we can go in our spring sports.  We have some very competitive teams, and it is exciting to watch them.

Rationale: 

K-6 Youth Sports Director's Report:  Mrs. Neesen

Program/Staff Member Spotlight: Softball season is wrapping up. This year we had 17 athletes sign up. This is down from last year, so the Youth Sport team is going to problem solve how we will grow our numbers for next year.

Upcoming Events:  Soccer season is upon us! This year we will have a micro-soccer league that will include preschool-aged athletes. As of now, this will be our largest league! 

Warrior Academy - After-School Program Director's Report:  Ms. Bebout
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  I would like to highlight our Get Connected State Conference that we attended on February 28th. Our ASP staff and college students had the opportunity to attend this conference. This gave them great ideas on clubs that they could possibly run during the after-school program or June summer camp. We were able to attend different workshops, including "Creating An After School Bird Club" and "Entomology in Afterschool". This quarter one of our college students that attended this conference will be running a bird club from one of the workshops that were offered that day. We are hoping to use our Entomology kits for our summer programming! ! We are so excited to see what our students will learn!

Middle School Activities Director's Report:  Mr. Banahan
Staff spotlight: This month’s staff spotlight is Mr. Jermey Hlavac and Mr. Drey Keairnes. Both of these coaches have taken it upon themselves to get our student athletes ready for next year at the high school level, by having spring weights for those students not involved in a spring sport. We have a number of 8th grade students that are looking forward to making some positive gains in the weightroom, but also building positive relationships with high school coaches as they get ready to transition from middle school to high school next school year. Both of these coaches have done a great job of not only developing these relationships, but also working with our middle school coaches on prepping for the upcoming fall season.
Spotlight Upcoming Events: For the Middle School our upcoming season is track. Our coaches are ready to get the season underway and we will be having track sign-ups on Thursday March 17th, and our first meet will be at Wisner-Pilger on April 7th.

High School Activities Director's Report:  Mr. Steinhoff

Activity Spotlight:  The high school activities are full of news as winter activities come to a close and spring sports kick off.
Speech:  Our speech team has qualified 7 for state!  The following young men and women will compete at state in Kearney.  Our speech team has been phenomenal all year and it is great to see their hard work rewarded.  
Ben Lefdal - Humorous Prose
Colin Gibbons - Poetry
Gina Alba - Poetry
Elizabeth Harding - Persuasive
Janey Parra - Duet Acting
Josue Fuentes - Duet Acting
Piper Lefdal - Serious Prose
Band:  We had 14 Warriors qualify for Conference Honor Band! 
Josue Fuentes - Alto Sax
Ben Lefdal - Bass Clarinet
Vincent Wegner - Bassoon
Vanessa Uriostegui - Baritone
Fredy Vasquez, Litzy Avila, Erika Quezada, Elizabeth Harding - Clarinet
Marisol Deanna, Piper Lefdal - Flute
Joel Medina, Janey Parra - Trombone
Omar Barrios, Colin Gibbons - Trumpet

Schuyler FFA had two teams qualify for state FFA. We are proud to send nine students.
Congratulations to the district runner-up Nursery and Landscape team and their 2nd place finish.
     Eliza Bailey 4th place, Anna Soto 6th place, Kathryn Novacek 8th place, Makayla Cerny 10th place.
Also, congratulations to the District Champion Agriscience team! 
     Bela Jedlicka was 4th, Ally Vavricek 6th, Abby Reyna 9th, and Addy Vavricek 12th
     Emma Jedlicka has also been selected to receive her state degree.
     Kathryn Novacek and Eliza Bailey also have been accepted into the agricultural issues academy. Where they will get to work with students from several schools across the state.
FCCLA has been busy all year working on their projects.  In January they competed at districts in their category.   Five out of six will be competing at State. Gina Alba qualified in a national category and made her way to nationals.  
Lucy Mendez- Career Investigation Level 3 Gold Medal, District Champion, State Qualifier!
ViviAnne Sayer- Fashion Construction Level 3 District Champion, State Qualifier!
Emily Daviu- Professional Presentation Level 3 Silver Medal, District Runner-up, State Qualifier!
Josue Fuentes- Baking and Pastry Level 3 District representative for the Baking Competition. 
Alex Aldana- Fashion Construction Level 2  Silver Medal, District Runner- Up, State Qualifier!
Spring sports are also kicking off!  Boys and girls track, boys and girls soccer, and boys' golf have all started practicing.  We are looking forward to a successful spring season.

Special Education Director's Report: Mrs. Vrba
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  Lynne has been a very dedicated Special Education teacher for her eight years at SCHS. She has devoted her whole professional life to a career in Special Education. At the completion of our 2021-2022 school year, Lynne will have been serving various students on the eastern side of Nebraska for 39 years! She has covered the entire gamete of services in her career which entails  being an Early Childhood Coordinator to watching her students march through graduation ceremonies.
   Honestly, Lynne has been "my rock" and "pillar of stability" within the SCHS Special Education Program. Over my time as SPED Director, we have had quite a turnover of staff at the high school level. Lynne has always stepped up to help our new teachers learn the SCHS way of teaching, doing paperwork, find ways to help struggling students and figuring out the schedules. As an administrator, I could never ask for anyone who is more of an advocate for our students, who compiles information for SRS and IEPs that is more methodical and systematic and who is a "walking comprehensive SPED regulations" authority. Her knowledge of the "World of SPED" is going to be very hard to replace at the high school level.
   As Lynne moves forward with her plans of retirement at the end of this school end, I want her to know how lucky our kids have been to have her as a teacher and case manager. We do tease Lynne, a little, about being the "government whisperer"...she has helped numerous students through that extremely difficult course...really all of the history classes. I, personally, find it irresistible not to listen to Lynne teach our students about our world, our country and our government. Thank you Lynne for your years of implausible service, your laughter as we have made a few long-lasting memories and your dedication to "our kids"!
 

Curriculum, Assessment and Instruction Director's Report:  Dr. Gibbons
Spotlight Program/People: I am going to highlight our School Improvement Teams.  We have a structure in place where we have a district steering committee made up of an administrator from each building and the chair of each building committee.  The chair is always a teacher.  The chairs of each building are Alicia Keairnes - Schuyler Elementary, Lisa Terrell - Richland, Jennie Stutzman - Fisher’s, Guadalupe Ramirez - Dual Language, Bill Policky - Schuyler Middle School, Nick Wilcox - Schuyler Central High School and Alexa Stephenson - Schuyler Central High School.  These teams write action plans that align with the building needs and strategic plan.  They help prepare the Title I SchoolWide Plan for each Title I building and they prepare for our external review for our Cognia Accreditation.  I am bringing this up now because we will be hosting our external review next year, so we are beginning to prepare now.  Cognia has updated their standards and review process so we will have a lot of work to do between now and next year.
Since the Last Board Meeting: One of the items that we have been working on with the School Improvement Teams has been a discussion of how we can improve the curriculum writing process.  Not change what we have done, but instead take it deeper.  We started this conversation after examining ACT and NSCAS data last year.  We know that we typically score between 19% and 29% of our students meeting the ACT benchmark.  We have often attributed much of this to the fact that we get so many newcomers directly enrolling into the high school, however, I did a review and found that 68% of the juniors who took the ACT last year started with us in either Kindergarten or First Grade.  We know that we cannot prepare students for the ACT while in high school, so we have been looking for ways to ensure that instruction and learning reach the same level of rigor as the state standards.  Our school improvement teams met with representatives of Learning Sciences International, the same company that produces our evaluation instruments, to discuss their standards-based planning workshops.  With your approval of the strategic plan, we will begin planning dates that their expert consultants can come help teachers develop learning progressions, learning targets,identify success criteria for meeting those targets and ensure activities align to those targets.

Important Spring Semester Dates

• February 7th - March 18th ELPA21 Language Proficiency Assessment Window
• March 21 - April 29 NSCAS Summative Assessment Window
• April 5 ACT

 

Rationale:  Building and Grounds Update
1.  Renovation at the District Office began this month.  They are in the demolition stage of this project.
2.  Middle School Window Project:  The windows on the north side of the middle school (6th Grade Wind) are being replaced.  They began the project over spring break.

Rationale: 
1.  Foundation Meeting Update:  Brian Vavricek and Alejandrina Lanuza
2.  NASB Monthly Update:  See Attached