May 15, 2024 at 6:00 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting
| Minutes |
|---|
|
1. Call to Order and Pledge of Allegiance
Discussion:
Vice President Burklund 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:
Motion by Heyen, second by Benes to excuse the absence of Brad Breitkreutz and Derek Matulka. RCV 4-0. Motion carried.
|
|
3. Open Meeting Law
Discussion:
The audience was reminded that Open Meeting Laws would be followed.
|
|
4. District Mission Statement
The Raymond Central community is committed to providing a positive, challenging learning environment which prepares each individual to be a responsible citizen in an ever-changing society. |
|
5. Consent Agenda
Discussion:
Motion by Lange, second by Benes to approve the consent agenda as presented including the regular meeting minutes of April 10, 2024; April financial statement; monthly bills; and Maggie Reed as substitute teacher. RCV 4-0. Motion carried.
|
|
5.1. Regular Minutes of April 10, 2024
Attachments:
()
|
|
5.2. Financial Statement/Report
Attachments:
()
|
|
5.3. Monthly Bills
Attachments:
()
|
|
5.4. Certificated staff hires/reassignment/resignations
|
|
5.5. Substitute Teachers
|
|
6. Correspondence/Recognition
Discussion:
Congratulations to the 61 seniors who graduated on Sunday and to the parents/guardians of these students who enabled them to reach that accomplishment.
Sophia Novoselov was asked to sing the National Anthem on Tuesday for the Boys State Soccer Championship. |
|
7. Public Forum
|
|
8. Reports
|
|
8.1. Administrative Reports
Attachments:
()
Discussion:
Submitted by Mark Smith, Jr-Sr High School Principal
STATE TESTING RESULTS: We recently completed spring state testing. Students in grades 6-8 took the Nebraska Student-Centered Assessment System (NSCAS) tests. Our juniors took the ACT. We won’t know all of our finalized results until later, but below are some of the initial results:
ITEMS OF NOTE: Class of 2024 Graduation was held on May 11. We celebrated the successful graduation of 61 students from Raymond Central Public Schools! The Seniors last day was May 8. Seniors visited the elementary buildings, we honored our seniors in our Senior Signing ceremony, and held the annual Senior vs. Staff basketball game. I am happy to report that the Staff was once again victorious with a close score of 47-46. Dr. Chip Lange was recognized on May 8 for his years of service to this district-primarily teaching junior high math. We wish Dr. Lange all the best in his well-deserved retirement! Submitted by Tony Kobza, Asst Jr-Sr High School Principal/Athletic Director Basketball hoops and motors will be replaced in May in the Main Gym. Stage and wall mats are scheduled to be replaced on May 26. Stage top mats have been taken down to be replaced already. Shot clocks were delivered. They will be installed in June after the backboards are updated. Water couplings will be installed on the new practice area and grass seeding will occur later this spring. We are getting additional quotes. Outdoor concessions have been improved. More equipment will be needed to complete the upgrades. KCAV finished installation of the new Football and Track sound system. It was utilized during our home track meets and sounded great and usability enhanced the track meet. Initial conversations are being had to generate ideas and options to create a baseball/softball facility at the JH/HS campus. This is INITIAL planning to look at ways to generate funds from outside of the district budget as well as determine next steps that can be taken if any. Hazard Engineering has donated planning time and concept imagery for big picture planning purposes. Meetings have continued within committees and our community open house is May 17 at 7:00pm in the Main Gym. Flyers, Brochures, imagery, donation boards have been created and printed. The timeline for this project as well as phasing remains flexible as there is a chance this could begin sooner than anticipated based on conversations with potential partners to begin dirt work. The 1st phase will remain a single turf baseball/softball field with pressbox and parking lot. A second driveway would enhance the flow not just for the new facilities but also for the school as it stands. We will be communicating with the county to get input for requirements and standards for adding the additional entrance to the field. We hope to be prepared with this information so if dirt work would begin, the correct planning and execution can be done. Submitted by Steve Rose, Elementary Principal and Deb Kruse, Assistant Elementary Principal Professional Development The elementary teachers worked on curriculum pacing and planning guides for Wit & Wisdom and Orton Gillingham for the upcoming year. The work centered around pacing out the year for their grade level and then having conversations with grades above and below about what has been covered and what skills or gaps may need to be shored up as we enter the second year of implementation. Part of this discussion centered around the creation of our Master Schedule to ensure that all grade levels are allotting the required amount of time for each subject area to meet the needs of each program. Assessment NSCAS and FastBridge testing has wrapped up at the Elementary Schools. We have been able to look at some preliminary data and the testing window for the state wrapped up the week of May 6. The data is incomplete at this time for NSCAS as math standard setting will happen at the NDE this summer. Our Elementary scores for ELA are still consistently above the state average, but we definitely see areas that we can target for improvement. There are great data points that we can use to target specific skills for the upcoming year. A more detailed look at the assessments will happen once the window closes and we as administrators can dig deeper into each data point that we can access as they become available. A big part of improving our performance data will be the work that we are doing in relation to our instructional model and strategies starting this summer with our teacher professional development team. Cool Happenings The PTO Spring Carnival was a great success. There was a great turnout from the teachers and community. The support and events that our PTO gives us is invaluable. There were also a lot of great volunteers from high school students that gave up their time to support the carnival and earn credit for their respective clubs and organizations. Kindergarten Visitation for the 2024-2025 Kindergarten class was held on May 3. Mrs. Carlson and Ms. Fredrickson hosted next year’s group and it was so much fun getting to meet the next great class to come to our schools. The Elementary 3-5 Music and 5th Grade Band Concert was held on May 7. On top of some great performances led by Mr. Ochsner and Ms. Graue, we also had some amazing work on display from our Art and STEM classes that was set up and displayed by Mrs. Rockemann and Ms. Morgan. We have some amazingly gifted students and cannot wait to see where those artistic talents take them in the future. Upcoming Events May 20th Field Day @ Valparaiso Submitted by Amanda Coufal, Director of Special Education Unified Track Meet: The Special Olympics Unified Track Meet was held on May 9 at Ashland-Greenwood. We had 16 total athletes and participants! There were two opening ceremony speakers who gave inspirational messages. The first message was from a gentleman that has been wheelchair bound since birth due to spina bifida. He played wheelchair basketball starting at age 8 and through college. He is now a Mental Health Therapist at Boys Town. His message to everyone in attendance was: Half the Battle is Showing Up and Don’t Let Others Tell You What You Can’t Do. Everyone definitely showed up at the Unified Track Meet to make a difference and we are extremely proud of our RC team. The second message was given by three Nebraska volleyball players. Their message was to Run Your Own Race and Don’t Compare Yourself to Others. Everyone has a different path and a different goal therefore, always run your own race to get to where you want to be. It was a perfect day for a track meet and an event that our athletes look forward to each year! The events were: 100m run, 50m walk, 4x100 relay, 4x50m walk, long jump, frisbee throw, shot put, and javelin throw. A special thank you to Stacey Doan for organizing practices and making sure everything was ready for the big day. A special thank you to our amazing paraeducators for all their hard work: Ashley Matulka, Jessica Knopp, Jody Albrecht and LeAnn Wiese. A huge thank you to our unified track athletes: Travis, Isaac, Lizzy, Marissa, Brielle, Grace, Brianna, Jasmine, Shanna, Elizabeth, Michael, Deacon, Lyliend, Adam, Katelyn, and Kaitlyn. May is National Speech Language Hearing Month: The month of May is a time for celebration in the world of education, with graduation on the horizon and a full week to recognize the noble work done by teachers. May is also designated as National Speech Language Hearing Month by the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA). When meeting with my students this month, I told them that this is the time to celebrate all the hard work that they’ve accomplished over the past year. Speech therapy, while viewed by some as "just talking", is not nearly as easy as it may seem when you look past the surface level. Students with articulation and phonological disorders are working to create new motor plans in their brains as they learn how to say new phonemes like /l/ and /r/. Students with expressive and receptive language disorders are learning how to organize their written and spoken ideas, while also applying memory strategies to recall what they have learned. Students who stutter are utilizing fluency strategies so they can communicate their thoughts smoothly and confidently. Students who communicate with augmentative and alternative communication methods like speech generating devices and sign language are learning how to share personal messages with a communication mode that best suits their needs. It has been quite the year in speech therapy, with 67 students from kindergarten to the 18-21 program receiving services in some capacity while making progress towards their goals. While that number may seem large, it is important to remember that nearly 1 in 12 students between the ages of 3-17 in the United States has some sort of speech/language/voice/swallowing disorder that can be treated by a speech-language pathologist. Of those children in our country, half go unverified. The work I do as a speech-language pathologist would not be possible without the resource and general education teachers I work with on a daily basis, the audiologists, teachers of the Deaf, and physical and occupational therapy specialists that I collaborate with frequently, and the administration who has supported me in many ways over my past two years at Raymond Central. After all, communication doesn’t stop when a student leaves the speech therapy room. My goal as therapy provider is that my students take the skills they learn back to their general education classroom, home, and community. With your continued support, this goal continues to be achieved by all 67 students (and counting!) Happy National Speech Language Hearing Month! -Clair Turman, MS, CCC-SLP |
|
8.2. Superintendent's Report
Discussion:
Absence Management and Time Clock Software - The district has purchased software to move us from paper records to digital records and management. The absence software includes subfinder components. After previewing three different vendors and making calls to current customers, we have chosen to move forward with Red Rover/TMS software.
Standard Communication Software - Next year we will be implementing a standardized communication software platform across our district. Teachers, coaches, sponsors and all employees will communicate with parents/guardians via this software product. Parents/guardians have long expressed a desire for more consistency in the apps and products that we are using. We will be using another Aptegy product, ROOMS, for this endeavor. We currently use Aptegy for our website management and Aptegy Thrillshare as our push and emergency notification system. Athletics will pay for a portion of the annual subscription for this software. The annual subscription is $7,737. All coaches, sponsors, teachers will be required to use this software as their communication tool. Final School Day - The final student and staff day will be on Wednesday, May 22. Students will have a noon dismissal and the certificated staff will use the afternoon to complete checkout and get rooms ready for summer maintenance. |
|
8.2.1. Classified Staff hires/reassignment/resignations
Discussion:
Elayna Uhing has been hired as Paraeducator. Angie Marshalek submitted her resignation as HS cook.
|
|
8.2.2. NASB Monthly Update
Attachments:
()
|
|
8.2.3. Safety Report
Discussion:
The state had a competitive grant available to all public and private schools for security/safety items. We did submit an application for door access and camera security and we were awarded $22,000. We will use this to pay some of the Kidwell invoice for elementary school door access and cameras.
|
|
8.2.4. Facilities Report
Discussion:
"More Than a Field" Project. The Board discussed amending our rental agreement if this project moves along quicker than originally expected so not to lose out on work that has been donated or donated at a reduced cost. This will be discussed further at the June meeting.
Summer Maintenance. In addition to the normal summer maintenance, the following projects are slated for this summer: Carpeting (Sr Hall/Valparaiso floor 1); Retrofit lights to LED (Jr/Sr building); Gym floor refinish; Wall mats, backboard, shot clock installed; HVAC at Valparaiso; Finish IT storage shed; Exterior lighting at Ceresco; Landscape cleanup at Ceresco. Solar Power. Superintendent Johnson has been communicating with a consulting firm regarding the cost and benefits of solar power. There are currently grants that could realize the coverage of about 80% of installation. |
|
8.2.5. Important Upcoming Dates:
Discussion:
May 17 - "More Than a Field" Open House @ 7:00 p.m.
May 22 - Last student/teacher day June 5-6 - NASB Leadership Workshop @ Lincoln June 12-13 - School Leaders and Law Conference @ Kearney |
|
8.3. Board Committee Reports
|
|
8.3.1. Update Board Committee's
|
|
8.3.2. Curriculum & American Civics Committee (Burklund-chair, Lange, Matulka)
|
|
8.3.3. Facilities & Transportation Committee (Matulka-chair, Burklund, Lange)
|
|
8.3.4. Finance Committee (Breitkreutz-chair, Burklund, xx)
|
|
8.3.5. Negotiations Committee (Lange-chair, Benes, Lange, xx)
|
|
8.3.6. Policy Committee (Breitkreutz-chair, Benes, xx)
|
|
9. Old Business
|
|
10. New Business
|
|
10.1. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to Approve Required Annual Policy Updates
Attachments:
()
Discussion:
Motion by Lange, second by Benes to approve annual annual policy updates as presented: 1050-Access to Records; 3130-Purchasing Policies; 3140-Contracting for Services; 3571-Meal Charge Policy; 4141-Teacher Training; 5006-Option Enrollment Policy; 5008-Attendance; 5101-Student Discipline Policy; 5201-Promotion & Retention; 5205-Graduation; 6111-Classroom Environment; 8240-Membership in School Board Associations; 8342-Designated Method of Giving Notice of Meetings; 8346-Public Participation at Board Meetings; and eliminate Policy 6310-Textbook Loans. RCV 4-0. Motion carried.
|
|
10.2. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to Adopt Policy 5013-Preschool Enrollment
Attachments:
()
Discussion:
Motion by Benes, second by Heyen to adopt Policy 5013-Preschool Enrollment. This policy will determine eligibility guidelines for children to enroll in the District’s preschool program. RCV 4-0. Motion carried.
|
|
10.3. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to Consider Adopting Policy 3241-Emergency Response Mapping
Attachments:
()
Discussion:
Policy 3241-Emergency Response Mapping - LB 1329 allows (but does not require) school boards to adopt a policy on emergency response mapping. The Board will need to decide whether to move forward with this policy but has requested further information. Item was tabled at this time.
|
|
10.4. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to approve the substitute teacher pay rates for the 2024-2025 school year as presented
Discussion:
Motion by Benes, second by Lange to approve substitute teacher pay rates for 2024-2025 at $170.00/day and long term at $200.00/day. RCV 4-0. Motion carried.
|
|
10.5. DIscuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to approve the quote from American Playground to hard surface playgrounds and replace some slides at Ceresco
Attachments:
()
Discussion:
The Board has decided to hold off on moving forward with the playground project at this time. We have been discussing putting a hard surface in place on the main playgrounds at both Val and Ceresco. We've had two different vendors entertain quotes. During this process we found out that the Ceresco playground was created with the equipment being installed lower than desired which would create a need to remove and replace slides in an effort to create a level hard surface. One vendor questions whether or not it can be ground level and still maintain adequate fall zones from the other playground equipment. The cost to pour hard surfaces would be close to a quarter million for both playgrounds. We don't want to rush into something without knowing that it is a good and 'right' permanent solution. In addition to the concerns regarding grade at Ceresco we are also concerned that the playground itself might be better located south of the school for safety reasons, cementing in playground equipment that is 24 years old needs to be considered, and if we decide to move to different grade configurations at the two elementaries, then the playgrounds will need to look different. For all of these reasons, we decided to delay this action until we have a better sense of this being a good permanent solution.
|
|
11. Next Regular Board Meeting
Discussion:
The next regular Board of Education Meeting will be held Wednesday, June 12, 2024.
|
|
12. Adjournment
Discussion:
Motion by Benes, second by Lange to adjourn the meeting at 6:47 PM. RCV 4-0. Motion carried.
|
