December 8, 2014 at 6:30 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting
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I. Call Meeting to Order
Rationale:
STRIVE • COMMIT • SUCCEED - District Mission 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
Discussion:
Vice President Brabec conducted the meeting in President Jedlicka's absence. Other board members present were Cerny, Vavricek, Misek, and Semerad. Other administrators present were Principals Comley, Reinsch, Pavlik and Burton, Superintendent Hoesing, Activity Administrator Egr, Curriculum Director Gibbons, and Director of Grants Grammer. Others attending were Student Council representative Rosbin Ravanales, 2015 Board Member elect Holly Hild, and County Attorney Denise Kracl.
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I.A. Pledge of Allegiance
Discussion:
All those present participated in the Pledge of Allegiance.
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I.B. Declaration of Open Meeting
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 hallway outside the Media Center.
Discussion:
Vice President Brabec declared the meeting had been preceded by advance notice according to State Law 84-1411. The Open Meetings Law is posted outside the SCHS Library/Media Center Annex.
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II. Approval of Consent Agenda
Rationale:
Discuss, Consider and Take Action on the consent agenda
Recommended Motion(s):
Motion to approve the consent agenda Passed with a motion by Board Member #1 and a second by Board Member #2.
Action(s):
No Action(s) have been added to this Agenda Item.
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II.A. Agenda
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II.B. Minutes
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II.C. Acceptance of Claims
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II.C.1. Bills of $5,000 or more
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II.D. Financial
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II.E. Other Listed Reports
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III. Public Forum - We ask that all presentation be limited in their length.
Discussion:
Jose Luna and Kim Parsons were present to discuss the district intra-city bus transportation. They shared concerns about students getting on the wrong bus. The school board thanked them for bringing their concerns to the meeting.
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III.A. Recognition of visitors and guests
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III.B. Other topics (limited to 5 minutes - subject to guidelines of the Board Participation Policy)
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III.C. Student Representative's Report
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IV. Action Items
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IV.A. Negotiations
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IV.A.1. Discuss, consider, and take action to approve SEA request to be recognized as the sole bargaining unit for non-supervisory certificated staff for the 2016-17 contract year.
Rationale:
I received a request from the Schuyler Education Association (SEA) requesting recognition as the sole bargaining unit for non-supervisory certificated staff for the 2016-17 contract year. This is a formality each year. See attached letter.
Recommended Motion(s):
Motion to approve the Schuyler Education Association as sole bargaining unit for non-supervisory certificated staff for the 2016-17 contract year. Passed with a motion by Board Member #1 and a second by Board Member #2.
Action(s):
No Action(s) have been added to this Agenda Item.
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IV.B. Public Relations
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IV.B.1. Discuss, consider, and take action to approve Interlocal Agreement with Colfax County for a Truancy Officer to assist the School.
Rationale:
The Colfax County Commissioners approved an Interlocal Agreement to provide a part-time Truancy Officer for Schuyler Community Schools. This position is paid for by the County. By signing the agreement, the district agrees to provide the following:
1. Provide the appropriate office space and supervision to the Truancy Officer to perform his/her duties at SCHOOL as needed. (Office space is provided at the County Attorney's Office) 2. Provide information or training regarding SCHOOL's mission, regulations and guidelines outlined in the SCHOOL's staff/school handbook and personnel manual. 3. Work in conjunction with COUNTY in developing and improving strategies to assist juveniles in decreasing unexcused absences.
Recommended Motion(s):
Motion to approve the Interlocal Agreement with Colfax County for a part-time Truancy Officer for the 2014-15 school year. Passed with a motion by Board Member #1 and a second by Board Member #2.
Action(s):
No Action(s) have been added to this Agenda Item.
Discussion:
County Attorney Denise Kracl addressed the school board regarding the Interlocal agreement for the part-time Colfax County truancy officer. The Colfax County Commissioners have already approved this position. The position is paid for from a Nebraska state grant. The officer will be housed in the Colfax County Attorney's office.
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IV.C. Personnel
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IV.C.1. Discuss, consider, and approve administrative hiring recommendations on support staff replacements.
Rationale:
Staff Changes and new hires: Isidro Adame and Jacqueline Pickhinke
Custodian: Eugene Barr recommended move to fill Tim Greveson's head custodial position at SES Isidro Adame recommended new hire for Gene's night custodial position at SES. Beginning wage: $14.00 plus family benefits Food Service: LuAnn Bender resigned at SMS and Marilyn Mattfield moved from SMS. Sheri Sobota moved up to head at SES to take Marilyn Mattfield's position. Vicki Mefford moved from SCHS to SES to fill Sheri Sobota's position. Jacqueline Pickhinke recommended new hire for Vicki Mefford's position at SCHS. Beginning Wage: $9.00 declined benefits (Currently on husband's insurance)
Recommended Motion(s):
Motion to approve administrative recommendation to hire Isidro Adame and Jacqueline Pickhinke for support staff vacancies. Passed with a motion by Board Member #1 and a second by Board Member #2.
Action(s):
No Action(s) have been added to this Agenda Item.
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V. Discussion Items and Reports
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V.A. Discuss results of staff strategic planning workshop.
Rationale:
Special thank you to the board members who attended the staff strategic planning session on November 26th. Attached are the results of the 2014 plan and proposed focus areas for 2015. Below is the community meeting schedule at each building:
Fisher's 24: Thursday, December 4th at 6:30 PM Elementary: Tuesday, December 9th at 8:30 AM and 5:30 PM High School: Thursday, December 11th at 7:00 PM Middle School: Monday, December 15th at 5:30 PM We will schedule two additional meetings at the Senior Center and Cargill in January.
Discussion:
Upcoming Strategic Planning workshops are as follows: Elementary: Tuesday, December 9th at 8:15 AM and 6:00 PM; High School: Thursday, December 11th at 7:00 PM; and Middle School: Monday, December 15th at 5:30 PM. Two more workshops are planned in January, 2015 at the Schuyler Senior Center and at Cargill.
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V.B. Discuss preschool 2nd floor fire escape plans presented by Hewgley and Associates.
Rationale:
Attached are plans for the proposed 2nd floor fire escape at the preschool building. These are preliminary plans to be submitted to the State Fire Marshall for approval. Final plans will be presented at the January board meeting for board consideration. See attached plans.
I have tentatively scheduled a building committee meeting with Hewgley and Associates for Wednesday, January 6th. If possible, we would like to meet at 1:00 PM at the superintendent's office.
Recommended Motion(s):
No Action Passed with a motion by Board Member #1 and a second by Board Member #2.
Discussion:
Architects Hewgley and Assoc. have submitted preliminary plans for a 2nd-story fire escape at the SCS Preschool to the State Fire Marshall for approval. Final plans will be presented at the January board meeting for board consideration. The Building and Grounds Committee will meet in January to discuss the plans.
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V.C. Discuss timeline for 2015-16 Contracts.
Rationale:
1. Superintendent's Contract: January 5th Board Meeting. In compliance with the Superintendent Transparency Act, information about the superintendents contract considerations must be posted on the district website prior to board action.
2. Principals, Directors, and Program Coordinators' Contracts: February 9th Board Meeting. 3. Certificated Staff Contracts: April 13th Board Meeting 4. Support Staff Contracts: May 11th Board Meeting.
Discussion:
The 15-16 contract for the Superintendent will be put into place at the January board meeting after the personnel committee makes a recommendation to the entire school board.
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V.D. Principals' Reports
Rationale:
S.E.S.'s December Board of Education Report: K-2
Our Friday's P.L.C. goal: The K-2 teachers are hard at work on curriculum alignment. Through File Maker Pro, teachers are able to see the Nebraska Standards, our curriculum and concepts being tested on the NeSA and MAPS assessments. Our goal is to complete math and reading alignments by May to ensure there are no gaps in instruction between grade-levels. We need to determine to what degree students will be held accountable for learning or mastering core concepts!! READ-IT Program: The K-2 classrooms are doing an excellent job of reaching their monthly reading goals. The reward for October was a HUGE popcorn party and movie. In November, students have been reading so they may have the privilege of eating lunch with their teachers in their classrooms!! (I am personally wishing that at least 80% 3-8 students are reading so that Mr. Comley has to wear a dress. What a sight that will be!) December is always a short but a busy month! But it is so exciting! Students are 1/2 ways done with their textbooks and our Kindergartners are reading. Everybody is so excited to get ready for Christmas and play in the snow! It was so awesome for our teachers to see/read at our Wednesday Celebration just how much all of the S.C.S. team has accomplished in a year's time! It has been a lot of work but it just shows what the S.C.S. team can do when they work together! Both Mr. Comley and I have been extremely busy with teacher observations and evaluations during the months of October, November, and December! I just would like to add...these are the best new hires I have worked with in the classrooms! They are awesome! I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and the Happiest New Year!! Respectfully submitted by: Darli Jo Vrba  Preschool and 3-5 Report:
Rural Schools Report: Enrollment Summary Report: 6th-120 students 7th-124 students 8th-114 students Total-358 students SMS Students recently participated in the downtown Christmas celebration. Mrs. Kudera's 6th-8th students made ornaments and various decor items that were used in the display. Student Council recently sponsored the final dance of the semester and invited their friends from the rural attendance centers to join in the fun. We will finish up December with MAPs testing, an engineering Field Trip for our 7th and 8th Industrial Tech students, and the instrumental and vocal concert. The Middle School December Newsletter can be found at: https://www.smore.com/xw9m5-sms-warrior-new High School Report: Mrs. Saathoff has informed us that one of our students at the Alternative Education attendance center has meet the requirements for graduation. Thank you to Mrs. Saathoff and Mrs. Rambour for working with our alternative education students and thank you for your continued support of this program. Mr. Kovar and I attended a 3 day A.P.L. Effective Supervision Training in West Point. An applicable statement from a Learning-focused Supervision workshop that I attended this past summer was The learning-focused process requires conversations between supervisors and teachers that are focused on growth, not remediation or repair. In this way, the conversations move from “How did I do?” to “How can I get better?” The APL instructional process for teachers and the supervision process for administrators will help in facilitating these Learning-focused conversations. The 9-12 Instrumental and Vocal Holiday concert will be held on Sunday December 14th at 2pm in the SCHS East gym. Please consider this your personal invitation. The SCHS staff met in their Target Area Goal committees to begin using MAP data to revise the Target Area Goals in Reading, Math, and Writing. SCHS One-Act performers finished 2nd in District competition on Friday. Congratulations to Mrs. Hoesing & Mrs. Hellbusch for their leadership and coaching as well as to the students that were part of the cast and crew! There are a couple of Service Learning projects that are underway at SCHS… Project “S” is in the process of their “Warrior Angel” project and the Warrior Angel tree is in the East gym. They are accepting donations of cash, toys, food, and clothing to help families in need during the Holiday season. Project “S” works with the Colfax County attorney on this project. The SCHS student council is also collecting food for the food pantry and gently used coats, hats, and mittens for those in need. We are very proud of our students efforts to support the community, not only now, but throughout the year.
Discussion:
NET (Nebraska Educational Television) is featuring a segment from the event held at SES. The public may view it at http://netnebraska.org/media/media.php?bin=NET&vidgroup=40170255. 30 students from SES attended the Science Olympiad sponsored by the ESU.
SMS raised $310 for the local food pantry at their school dance.
SCHS has reported the first graduate of 2015 from the Alternative Education site. Principals Kovar and Pavlik attended a three-day APL training in West Point, NE. A one-day workshop will be offered to the staff in February to share the information.
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V.E. Directors' Reports
Rationale:
Director of Grants Report 21st Century Grant—After School Program • The After School program continues to grow and develop as a viable program at SMS & SES. • On Friday November 21st the After School Program sponsored a motivational speaker to present to the middle school staff and for our After School Program Students. Demoyne Adams, former Nebraska football player spoke at SMS and SES. At SMS he spoke on being a SuperHero for your students and at SES on doing your best and having good character. Demoyne did a wonderful job with both staff and students. • At this time we have 155 students enrolled at SES and 95 students attending on a regular basis. We have 45 students enrolled at SMS and growing every day. For the first seven weeks we have 200 students attending on a regular basis to the After School Program. School Improvement Grant (SIG) Discovery Education • On Monday through Wednesday, December 1st through the 3rd , Discovery Ed trainers, Judy Martin and Suzanne Wesp, were here to work with our staff on different ways to work with technology and they demonstrated lessons for our teachers. Teachers signed up to be observed and have these “push ins” demonstrated for them. They did this activity in October with half our staff and they did the other half of our staff on these days. • On November 17th through the 21st the middle school administered the second quarter benchmark assessments from Discovery Education. The scores showed some promising growth and the areas that did not, this data gives us some direction on what we need to be looking at for the remainder of the school year. • On Tuesday, December 9th, Judy Martin will meet with the administration of the middle school discussing how the training this past week went and review the data from the second benchmark assessments. A good reflective piece for our school. Community Training and Assistance Center (CTAC) • Lee and Jessica with CTAC will be visiting our school on Friday, December 12th . They will meet with the Leadership Team for an hour and then work with the full staff for the remainder of the day. Middle School Athletics Report • Our winter seasons of Wrestling and Girls Basketball have gotten off to a smooth start. Thank you to our coaches for their time, dedication, and hard work for this winter. • Our SMS Wrestling Tournament will be on December 6th at SCHS West Gym. We have 14 teams coming to the tournament, with about 200 wrestlers participating in the tournament. Will have results from the tournament by the board meeting. Director of Curriculum, Assessment, and Special Programs Report: The 2014-15 Persistently Lowest Achieving Schools (PLAS) list was recently released. I have attached the list, but it can also be found with the State of the Schools Report on the Nebraska Department of Education website. As fully expected, Schuyler Central High School is a Tier II school while Schuyler Elementary School is a Tier III school. Here is an explanation of the Tiers:
School Improvement – Teams have been working on their reading and math action plans. We have also been implementing the district action plan which is about implementing the reflective teaching practices we learned last year. Curriculum Cycle – I have met with the high school math team and have scheduled a meeting with ELL. I am working on scheduling PE and Social Studies. Student Services – We have been working on creating a Section 504 Handbook. Section 504 is in place to provide services for those students that have a medical condition or situation that may substantially limit a major life activity. High School Activities Director:I am off to District One Act today and excited for our students. Their performance at Conference was perfection. The students are able to see that their hard work has paid off. They placed third at conference and missed second by one point. The judges gave some effective pointers and there is a level of anticipation for the kids that they are able to compete with the best! Go Warriors! All our activities have been putting in extra time and effort. FFA, FCCLA and Dance Team and many more are getting ready for competitions and some have already competed. A new addition to our activities is winter guard. We are proud of their accomplishments! Winter athletics for the high school have kicked off. The Jamboree Basketball Game went well. I do not have the final figures as what we raised for the Hall of Fame, but any amount is appreciated. The Hall of Fame in Lincoln has seen a lot of changes in the last 12 months. Hope you are able to stop and see the facility sometime. The holiday basketball tourney is set. We have had two meetings. Games are in Lakeview. I wish each of you and yours a Happy Holidays!
Discussion:
The 21 Century Grant After-School Program has 155 students registered at SES and 45 registered at SMS. Additional volunteer adult supervision is always welcome so more students may participate.
Schools will begin administering winter MAP assessments the third week in December. The NeSA Writing Assessments for 4th, 8th, and 11th graders will be given at the end of January with the ELDA Assessment for all Limited English Proficient students starting in February. The NeSA Reading, Math and Science tests will start at the end of March.
The 2014-15 Persistently Lowest Achieving Schools (PLAS) list was recently released. The list can be found with the State of the Schools Report on the Nebraska Department of Education website.
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V.F. Superintendent's Report
Rationale:
1. Legislative Preview Conference is scheduled for December 11th at the Cornhusker Hotel in Lincoln from 8:30 AM to 1:00 PM. See attached information.
2. The County sent official results from the school board election. See attached results.
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V.G. Board Member/Committee Reports
Rationale:
SCHUYLER COMMUNITY SCHOOLS FOUNDATION MEETING 12/01/2014 @ 12 NOON – 1:00 P.M. @ SCHUYLER CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL MEDIA CENTER Membership: Lumir Jedlicka-Treasurer, Brian Vavricek- President, Virginia Semerad, Joyce Baumert, Sandy Seckman- Vice President, Victor Lopez, and Dan Hoesing Guests -Patty Schmidt– Chamber Executive Director -Kem Cavanah – Economic Development Coordinator -Shelley Friesz –shelley.friesz@schuylercommunityschools.org – 402-352-3527 Ext 216 Foundation Assistant -Sheri Balak – sheribalak@gmail.com – Alumni Honors consultant Vision: To support the enrichment of educational programs and student life experiences Goals: -To promote education in Schuyler Community Schools -Additional giving of $100,000 by August 31st, 2014 -Conduct feasibility study on possible new construction at high school building Secretary Report/Minutes – Review and Approve (refer minutes e-mailed by Shelley Friesz – November 3, 2014) Treasurer’s Report – unofficial total balance $115,037 · Invoice from Schuyler Chamber of Commerce for $50 for annual dues · $250 check for down payment for Lemon Fresh Days band for Labor Day 2015 dance New Business: Review the Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws Committee Reports:
· Performing Arts Center: Joyce &Virginia Next Meeting –January 5, 2015 @ 12:00 Noon @ Schuyler Central High School Media Center Minutes December 2014 foundation meeting Members Present: Brian, Lumir, Dan & Joyce Others Present: Shelley Members Absent: Sandy, Victor & Virginia Brian called the meeting to order Brian read the Vision and Goals of the foundation Secretary Report/Minutes from Nov. 3, 2014 meeting were approved Treasurer’s Report were read · Motion made Joyce and 2nd by Lumir to pay invoice to Schuyler Chamber of Commerce for $50 annual dues · Motion made by Lumir and 2nd by Dan to pay a down payment of $250 to Lemon Fresh Day · Brian did present an invoice he received from Paul Erenberg for $200 for posters he made for Labor Day Dance ° Will review and speak to Paul regarding a charge for the design of the posters New Business · Reviewed and discussed the current articles of incorporation and by-laws of the foundation · Motion made by Dan and 2nd by Joyce to hire Dick Seckman to look over and advise how to update the documents · Brian will contact Dick Seckman and meet with him · Shelley to get Brian copy of last year’s minutes for review Committee Report Labor Day- Brian, Victor & Sandy · Contract and down payment has been sent to Lemon Fresh Day Scholarships- Lumir & Sandy · Nothing new to report Education- Lumir & Brian · Brian presented the outstanding educator and para educator certificates at the staff meeting on Nov. 26th picture was taken by Schuyler Sun · Possibly expanding the certificates to include the support staff next year Alumni Website- Dan & Virginia · Working on the new website- need to start gathering information to put on the website Alumni Honors Committee- Joyce & Sheri · Discussed some ideas for information to be put on the website Brian adjourned the meeting at 1:04 pm Next meeting- January 5, 2015 at 12:00 noon @ Schuyler Central High School Principal’s conference room
Discussion:
The SCS Foundation will have an attorney review their by-laws. They are looking forward to the Strategic Planning results to help them focus on the direction the foundation will take in the future. They would also like to see the formation of an Alumni Association.
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VI. Correspondence Items
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VII. Adjournment
Recommended Motion(s):
Motion to adjourn Passed with a motion by Board Member #1 and a second by Board Member #2.
Action(s):
No Action(s) have been added to this Agenda Item.
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