August 10, 2022 at 6:00 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting
| Minutes |
|---|
|
1. Call to Order and Pledge of Allegiance
Discussion:
President Gould called the meeting to order at 6:00 PM and the Pledge of Allegiance was said.
|
|
2. Motion to Excuse Board Member's Absence
Discussion:
All members were present.
|
|
3. Open Meeting Law
Discussion:
The audience was reminded that Open Meeting Laws would be followed.
|
|
4. Consent Agenda
Discussion:
Motion by Matulka, second by Lange to approve the consent agenda as presented including the regular meeting minutes of July 13, 2022; July financial statement; and monthly bills. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
|
|
4.1. Regular Minutes of July 13, 2022
Attachments:
()
|
|
4.2. Financial Statement/Report
Attachments:
()
|
|
4.3. Monthly Bills
Attachments:
()
|
|
5. Correspondence/Recognition
Discussion:
Congratulations to Kay Maresh (UNL College of Business) named the Sue Vagts Faculty/Staff Partner of the Year by the Business Career Center for building relationships with employers and enhancing career development, education and opportunities to help College of Business students succeed.
Thank you to all the businesses and patrons who are helping in the effort to have a ScoreVision board realized on campus! A huge thanks to Dr. Gould for hosting the new administrator "meet and greet" last Sunday. |
|
6. Public Forum
|
|
7. Reports
|
|
7.1. Administrative Reports
Attachments:
()
Discussion:
Submitted by Scott Shepard, Jr-Sr High School Principal
Relationships - Since July 1, I have been able to meet the board, several staff members and spent some great time with the administrative team at the NCSA Administrators’ Days in Kearney. We had our open house this week, where I was able to meet and greet many of the students and parents as they came to finish the registration process and receive their chromebooks. Student Engagement - We are planning a first day of school to welcome the students into the RC Family that will include some required trainings (school safety, bus evacuations, dating violence) and some logistical items (guidance/counseling, student handbook) and I will also have time with each of the grade levels as we discuss what it means to be part of the RC Family! Fall sport practices also begin on Monday, August 8. Our initial staff development will focus on relationships and student engagement in the block schedule. We believe this will increase student learning over the course of the year. Beginning of the School Year - New staff start next week with mentors joining them on Tuesday. We are excited to work with the team to create positive experiences for our students. The handbooks are complete, but Tony and I do want to work with the staff early on and we may make a few recommendations for changes as we understand the culture and routines of Raymond Central. Lynn and I will hopefully have a recommendation for a 6th grade teacher at the board meeting on Wednesday following the late resignation. Celebrations - Last week, several of our students and their livestock performed well at the Saunders County Fair. I was fortunate to be able to watch some of them show their calves on Friday. What a great experience for our kids and also want to thank our Ag teacher Katie Donahue for the support she gives our students and families. Jared and his team have the facility just about ready for staff and students to return. Everything looks great! Tony Kobza has done a great job with filling coaching positions, raising funds for the scoreboards in the gym and preparing for the start of the fall seasons. I want to thank Lynn for the support over the past few months during the transition. She has handled most of the hiring and we have worked together on the handbooks to create some consistency across the district. It is refreshing to work with a positive team focused on doing what is best for kids. Submitted by Tony Kobza, Assistant Jr-Sr High School Principal/Athletic Director Athlete Summer Workouts - Summer workouts ended the last week of July. We saw great strides in commitment level from athletes, as well as gains in strength. We were very pleased to see our max numbers grow from the end of June to the end of July. Fall sports begin on Monday, August 8 so there is a lot of excitement for this week. ScoreVision Project - The ScoreVision project has made great progress over the first three weeks through family donations and business sponsorships. We have currently raised over $100k in working toward our $150k goal. We are still looking for business partners to advertise with us and are currently in discussions with several. Submitted by Amanda Coufal, Director of Special Education CPI (Crisis Prevention Intervention). Staff were trained using practical skills and strategies to safely manage disruptive or difficult student behaviors. CPI certification training supports PBIS strategies. We have 30 staff recertified in CPI and 10 new staff certified in CPI. Current SpEd List - During the summer months, we had two special education students transfer to a different school district and we had three students enroll that are on an IEP. Current Special Education numbers: Ceresco - 26; Valparaiso - 11; MS/HS - 71 = 108 verified students. TIP (Targeted Improvement Plan). Each school district has to review their student data and establish a targeted improvement plan. Each TIP is required to have: A focus for improvement; A measurable goal with annual targets; A student-centered, evidence-based strategy to affect the outcome for students with disabilities; An implementation plan; Criteria to measure fidelity of the student-centered, evidence-based strategies selected. The TIP must be aligned to the overall general education improvement activities being implemented at the district. Raymond Central’s TIP was submitted in May and we just received our review summary back. We have met the criteria in all areas! RC Tip Review Summary I want to thank Caitlin Roussan (school psychologist) and Jenifer Highstreet (HS SpEd teacher) for helping with this process and agreeing to be a member of the TIP team. They dedicated their time and expertise to make this possible. They spent many hours dissecting data, collaborating, and creating a plan that will benefit the students at Raymond Central. Their hard work definitely paid off! Submitted by Steve Rose, Elementary Principal and Deb Kruse, Assistant Elementary Principal Beginning of School - we have many new teachers and assignments that are being worked out (Ceresco 1st, 3rd, and 5th grade; Valparaiso Kindergarten; Counselor to both buildings). We also have three new paras. School Year Focus - Science of Reading. This will begin during pre service with all elementary teachers and will continue throughout the year in various sessions to train teachers in the research based best practices for teaching reading. This will also culminate in the evaluation and adoption for our new curricular resources for the 2022-2023 school year. MTSS
|
|
7.2. Superintendent's Report
Attachments:
()
Discussion:
The Raymond Central Education Foundation golf outing will be held on Saturday, August 20 at the Hilltop County Club in Wahoo.
All staff opening events are scheduled for Friday, August 12. We will also be handing out service awards on and board members are invited to be a part of the celebration. Wednesday, August 24 is the NASB regional meeting in Fremont. We have previously contracted with Diane Wolfe to provide the Birth to 3 services in our District. This year we will contract 1 day a week with ESU#2 and Erin Gangwish will provide our B-3 services. She will also have time to consult with our PK-3 staff on all things early childhood, inclusive of assisting in the evaluation of student needs and development of effective learning plans. Steve, Deb, Amanda and I had the opportunity to meet with Erin this week and she is going to be a great addition to our team. We are starting the school year off with five (5) routes. We ran with the same number last year but we were hoping to get the sixth route added back in. There are a couple of leads that we have on drivers and we will continue looking for additional ones. We spent considerable time developing routes (as usual) with an eye to efficiency, practicality and particular student needs. Unfortunately, the pick-up in the morning at Valparaiso will be earlier than usual and earlier than desired, but it appears to be the best solution at this time. We will continue to evaluate routes and make changes as conditions change. |
|
7.2.1. NASB Monthly Update
Attachments:
()
|
|
7.2.2. Important Upcoming Dates:
|
|
7.3. Facilities Report
Discussion:
Following is a proposed timeline of dispensing and receiving information relative to facility analysis:
|
|
7.3.1. Hail damage claims
Attachments:
()
|
|
7.3.2. Update on the facility analysis with architects BVH
|
|
7.4. Technology Update
Attachments:
()
Discussion:
Firmware - We need to renew our firmware subscription for our fortinet Firewalls at RCH, Ceresco, And Val. This will be done with the help of the ESU. This subscription will run for three years, 2022-2025. The High school/Jr High will cost $7,791.36. Val and Ceresco will cost $5,674.85 each. The renewal will cost $19,141.06 in total.
Technology Support Services - We will also not be renewing our support contract with Kidwell. We are at a point that we do not require their services. We will be supplementing out technical staff with a service contract with the ESU#2. With the ESU#2 service contract we will purchase 150 Hours at $7500, anything past 150 hours will cost $50/hr. This will allow us to get our network to be remodeled creating a proper and secure segregation of data. Update our current servers to a supported operating system and any higher level maintenance we require. With the termination of our Kidwell contract we will have to purchase anti-virus(AV) software on our own as it is rolled up into our contract with Kidwell. We are looking at joining an ESU 7 mass buy of Sophos AV. This will cost us a total of $1,720.20. This will give us licensing for 200 end point computers and for all of our servers. Before the end of our contract with Kidwell we will have them complete an addition of 3 new VLAN’s, Students, Staff, and Guest. This will allow us to segregate Student and guest traffic to be isolated and go directly out to the internet while our staff will still have the necessary access to the internal network they require to do their jobs. With this we will be locking down our staff network to only school owned devices. Any staff phones or other personal devices will only be able to utilize the guest network. We will also be adding a password to our guest network, this will be known to the public and add a layer of security to our guest network. Email Filter - We are currently shopping around for an email filter. This will allow us to protect our students and staff from phishing, and malware embedded emails. The two we are looking at are Sophos email gateway and Avanan. We have had a trial of Avana going since 7/30/2022. From that trial we have seen that we are a hot target. In the first 72 hours we had 25 emails flagged as phishing attacks. With the recent phishing attack targeting board members this is a top concern for the technology department. Server Replacement - We will also need to replace out current server infrastructure. The servers we have in use are all at least 10 years old, most of them are closer to 15 years old. The typical lifespan of a server is at most 7 years. We are working with the ESU#2 to get quotes on the cost to replace our current infrastructure. |
|
7.5. Review of Safety Plan
Discussion:
Technology Audit - There have been four different instances in the past couple of weeks where it was recommended to us that we have card access to our buildings. Meeting with Deputy Piitz, technology audit associated with BVH facility review, technology review by ESU#2 tech staff, and in the reunification drill that we participated in at Fremont. That will definitely be on our facility needs short list.
Reunification Drill - Deputy Piitz and I attended a reunification drill that was held at Fremont Middle School on Thursday. We walked away with some good information and insights on how to do a drill and how to develop our reunification plans. Rule 10 Safety Audit - School Districts are tasked with having a safety audit by August 31 each year to be compliant with Rule 10 regulations. Toby Tortilla, who is the loss prevention specialist with our insurance company SFM, performed a safety audit of the high school campus this past week and will be setting up audits of the Valparaiso and Ceresco facilities. In the audit he noted two (2) actionable items and then also offered others suggestions that could improve safety in his opinion. The two action items include: 1) Extend ladder rails or provide handle to hold to prevent falls during entry and exit from boiler room from outside. (Currently there is nothing to assist with maintaining balance), and 2) add a door closure mechanism to the same door in the boiler room. Officer Piitz will cover SRP safety protocol with all staff during our preservice meetings on August 12th. |
|
7.6. Board Committee Reports
|
|
7.6.1. Committee on American Civics (Breitkreutz-chair, Burklund, Matulka)
|
|
7.6.2. Transportation Committee (Breitkreutz-chair, Lange, Matulka)
|
|
7.6.3. Finance Committee (Blanchard-chair, Breitkreutz, Burklund)
Attachments:
()
|
|
7.6.4. Facilities Committee (Blanchard-chair, Burklund, Matulka)
Attachments:
()
|
|
7.6.5. Negotiations Committee (Blanchard-chair, Gould, Lange)
|
|
7.6.6. Curriculum Committee (Gould-chair, Burklund, Lange)
|
|
7.6.7. Policy Committee (Gould-chair, Lange, Matulka)
|
|
7.7. Review Public Forum Presentation(s) - Consider, discuss, and take anll necessary action
|
|
8. Old Business
|
|
9. New Business
|
|
9.1. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to Approve Staff Resignation(s)
Attachments:
()
Discussion:
Motion by Burklund, second by Breitkreutz to approve the staff resignation of Laci Pebley, 6th Grade Teacher. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
|
|
9.2. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to Approve Staff Appointments
Discussion:
Motion by Breitkreutz, second by Matulka to approve staff appointments of Mark King, PE Teacher; Jennifer Crees, Health Tech; Kate Gralheer, Preschool Para; Bruce Theye, SpEd Van Driver; and Jennifer Hoffschneider, Jr-Sr High Cook. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
|
|
9.3. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to Approve Substitute(s)
Discussion:
Motion by Matulka, second by Burklund to approve Kinzie Beutler, Derek Farmer and Wes Kramer as substitute teachers; and Carrie Woods as a substitute bus driver. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
|
|
9.4. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to approve student/guardian handbooks and teacher handbooks
Attachments:
()
Discussion:
Our goal was to have the teacher and student/guardian handbooks more consistent across the district. There are some changes and additions to the handbook but most of the changes are adding elements that legal counsel advises us to include to protect the interests of the district. The eligibility guidelines for the Jr-Sr High students has changed. Students that have two or more F's will be ineligible for a full week Monday-Sunday. They will continue to be ineligible unless that get that down to one or less F. Additionally, if a student holds an F in the same class for three weeks in a row, they will be ineligible.
Motion by Burklund, second by Breitkreutz to approve the Student/Guardian Handbooks and Teacher Handbooks as presented. RCV 6-0. Motion carried. |
|
9.5. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to approve the purchase of firewall protection
Discussion:
We need to renew our firmware subscription for our fortinet Firewalls at RCH, Ceresco, and Valparaiso. Our current contract expires this month. This purchase will be made through the ESU#2. The actual vendor is Sterling Company. We received quotes for 1, 3, and 5 years and are choosing the three year subscription. The three year subscription will be for 2022-2025. The Jr-Sr High School will cost $7,791.36. Valparaiso and Ceresco will cost $5,674.85 each. Motion by Matulka, second by Lange to approve the renewal of our firewall protection subscription through the ESU #2 for three years at a cost of $19,141.06. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
|
|
9.6. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to approve the purchase of two new servers
Attachments:
()
Discussion:
Motion by Breitkreutz, second by Matulka to approve the purchase of two new servers which will replace the three current, aged servers that are being used for our virtual environment for a total cost of $9,891.52. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
|
|
9.7. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to approve the sale or disposal of surplus items
Attachments:
()
Discussion:
Motion by Matulka, second by Lange to approve two computer charging carts, eight reception chairs with casters, a rectangular table and a round table as surplus. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
|
|
9.8. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to transfer $300,000 from the General Fund to the Depreciation Fund
Discussion:
Motion by Breitkreutz, second by Blanchard to transfer $300,000.00 to the Depreciation Fund to be earmarked for transportation acquisition, technology upgrades, safety upgrades and curriculum. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
|
|
9.9. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to transfer $100,000 from the General Fund to the Employee Benefit Fund
Discussion:
Motion by Matulka, second by Gould to transfer $100,000.00 to the Employee Benefit Fund to prepay a portion of our 2022-2023 health insurance premiums. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
|
|
9.10. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to approve property line of insurance premiums for the 2022-23 school year
Attachments:
()
Discussion:
The EMC summary page shows that the valuation has increased and when a 9% premium hike is applied to the increased valuation, the result is a 19% premium increase from the previous year. Motion by Lange, second by Matulka to approve the renewal of the district’s annual insurance policy through EMC for 2022-2023 for $164,983.00. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
|
|
9.11. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to approve the installation of a metal roof on the concession stand
Discussion:
Motion by Matulka, second by Breitkreutz to approve the replacement of the concession stand roof with a metal roof and to use insurance reimbursement to pay for the roof. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
|
|
10. Approval of Next Regular Board Meeting and potential Special Meeting to approve tax resolution and budget
Discussion:
Motion by Lange, second by Matulka to approve the Budget Workshop on August 31, 2022; Regular Board Meeting on September 14, 2022; and Special Board Meeting to approve the budget/tax resolution on September 21, 2022. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
|
|
11. Adjournment
Discussion:
Motion by Breitkreutz, second by Matulka to adjourn the meeting at 7:16 PM. RCV 6-0. Motion carried.
|
