November 7, 2011 at 6:30 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Rationale:  A motion will be necessary if a member of the elected Board is absent.

Rationale:  The Bellevue Board of Education abides by the Nebraska Open Meetings Law.  A copy of the law is posted on the wall of our Board room.

Rationale:  Approve by consent items in section B of the Agenda identified with an asterisk and receive the information and proposals in sections D and E identified with an asterisk.

Rationale:  The Minutes of the October 10, 2011, Board of Education meeting were sent to all members of the Board of Education for review.

Rationale:  Acknowledge receipt of the Treasurer's Report for October, 2011.

Rationale:  Approve the payment of claims totaling $1,497,040.19.

Rationale:  Release Jennifer Fundus from her contract effective December 31, 2011.

Rationale:  The Board reviewed the following Board Policies at the October Board meeting:  103, Equal Educational Opportunity; 501, Objectives for Equal Educational Opportunities for Students; 503.01, Compulsory Attendance; 508.15, Concussion Awareness; and 604.11, Citizenship.  The attached policies are being presented tonight for final approval.

Rationale:  For the seventh time in eight years, the Nebraska Association of School Boards has presented its Outstanding Board Award to the Bellevue Board of Education.  The award is presented for dedicating time to attend meetings and conferences to study the duties and responsibilities of school board members.

Three Bellevue Board members were honored with individual awards:  Denise Seaman received the Level VII Award, Lisa Rybar received the Level III Award, and Alicia Richards received the Level I Award.

Rationale:  Bellevue secondary school students excelled in the Newzbrain Current Events Challenge for September.  Bellevue East "Team Boyland" finished first in the nation in the high school division out of thirty teams from six states.  Team members were Roosevelt Boyland, Ryan Poland, Erik Ingram, Helen Timmins, Dan Gleason, and Tim Rolling.

Second place in the nation was won by the Bellevue West team "Sacra Vacca."  Team members were Kristen Hall, Sophia Otto, Daniela Cortes, and Debbie Steely.  Third place in the nation was won by the Bellevue West team "Alex and the Nordlies."  Team members were Alex Gangwish, Cole Burmeister, Matt Kruger, Kevin Hanna, and Jacob Wilkinson.  

The Newzbrain Current Events Challenge takes place eight times a year at the end of each month and features a fifty question quiz covering national and world news, people, geography, arts and entertainment, and sports events from the previous month.

In the seventh grade, the Mission team "Super Ninja Bananaphones" won first place in Nebraska out of sixteen teams and finished eleventh in the nation out of 167 teams.  Team members were Kelly Speltz, Samantha Seaman, and Hunter Dobson.  In the eighth grade, the Logan Fontenelle team "Whatch ya talkin' bout Willis?" finished in second place in Nebraska out of nineteen teams and finished twelfth in the nation out of 219 teams.  Team members were Blake Callahan, Ryker Bridge, Mikayla Martin, Caleb Eby, Joey Lydiatt, and Max Snodgrass. 

Rationale:  Bellevue East High School Marching Band competed in the Omaha Marching Invitational at Burke High School where they won 1st place overall, Best Guard, Best Visual, and Best General Effect.  Bellevue East won 2nd place at the NSBA State Marching Band Contest.  This competition has been going on for 29 years.  During that time Bellevue East and West bands have placed no lower than second place in the state.

Rationale:  Bellevue West Marching Band won the Nebraska State Bandmasters Association contest.  They placed 9th in the finals competition at the Bands of America Super Regional in St. Louis, MO.  This is the first time the band has qualified for a Bands of America Finals Competition since 2004.

Rationale:  Seventy-one Bellevue students have earned the designation of AP Scholar by the College Board in recognition of their exceptional achievement on the college-level Advanced Placement Exams.

The College Board's Advanced Placement Program offers students the opportunity to take challenging college-level courses while still in high school and to receive college credit, advanced placement, or both for successful performance on the AP exams.  Approximately 18% of the more than 1.9 million high school students worldwide who took the AP exams performed at a sufficiently high level to merit the recognition of AP Scholar.

Students took AP exams in May, 2011, after completing challenging college-level courses at their high schools.  The College Board recognizes several levels of achievement based on the number of year-long courses and exams.

Twenty Bellevue East and eighteen Bellevue West students qualified for the AP Scholar Award by completing three or more AP exams with grades of 3 or higher (on a 5-point scale).  AP Scholars from Bellevue East are:  Dannielle Ackerman, Lubna Benalaya, Christina Bladow, Roosevelt Boyland, Jacqueline Craft, Aileen Gelb, Sarah Gentes, Nora Gnabasik, Kyle Kenny, Samantha Lovell, Justin McCully, Kristin Newmaster, Charles Peck, Jonathan Poarch, Jace Prokupek, Weston Secrist, Hunter Severin, Blake Stewart, Aime Vallani, and Tyler Zubke.

AP Scholars from Bellevue West are:  Daniel Beeman, Alexander Clauson, Taryn Derickson, Samuel Eiserman, Ethan Griger, Taylor Imhof, Trevor Jackson, Kasey McCusker, Chad Parde, Michelle Pham, Bradley Schrag, Taylor Scott, Andrew Simmons, Brianne Steffensmeier, Aaron Stirewalt, Andy Turnbull, Deborah Warner, and Lucienne Yunevich.

Six Bellevue East and thirteen Bellevue West students qualified for the AP Scholar with Honor Award by earning an average grade of at least 3.25 on all exams taken and grades of 3 or higher on four or more of these exams.  AP Scholars with Honor from Bellevue East are:  Nathan Guericke, Anthony Jeanetta, Andrea Meinders, Marie Rodriquez, Jamie Thomas, and Nicholas Trojanowski.  AP Scholars with Honor from Bellevue West are:  Jared Beyersdorf, Nicholas Claggett, Christopher Clark, Devin Freese, Samone Hinsley, Josiah Hood, Michael Humm, Kaitlyn Klein, Brittany Marvin, Katrina Moses, Andrew Peterson, Joshua Ramsey, and Marissa Schneider.

Seven Bellevue East and seven Bellevue West students qualified for the AP Scholar with Distinction Award by earning an average grade of at least 3.5 on all AP exams taken and grades of 3 or higher on five or more of these exams.  AP Scholars with Distinction from Bellevue East are:  Patrick Curington, Kayla Penny, Kathryn Reinhard, Trevor Savage, Kristine Speltz, Ryan Splichal, and Veronica Zuccarello.  
AP Scholars with Distinction from Bellevue West are:  Cameron Crockrom, Ian George, Kristin Hanna, Mackenzie Irvine, Mark Kruger, Jack McDonald, and Jedd Patterson.

Rationale:  The Bellevue West Connection won the AA Show Choir division at the Peru Show Choir Festival on October 25.  This is the sixth consecutive year that they have won.

Rationale:  The Bellevue Middle School Quiz Bowl was held on October 29 at Mission Middle School.  The Logan Fontenelle team of Alec Stroud, Joey Lydiatt, Ramon Gutierrez, and Christopher Bean won 2nd place and the Mission Middle School team of Jacob Mikkelson, Tommy Casart, Andrew Nelson, and Michelle Ruzicka won 4th place.

Sixteen teams from nine middle schools in the Metro area competed in the event.  The Logan team is coached by Christine Daniels and the Mission team is coached by Brent Myers.

Rationale:  The Bellevue West Quiz Bowl team of Alex Gangwish, Kevin Hanna, and Matthew Kruger won 3rd place out of 30 teams from the Metro area at the Ralston High School Quiz Bowl.  The West team of Ashley Weed, Cole Burmeister, Max Lydiatt, and Kenny Cotton tied for 5th place in the tournament.  The teams are coached by Britton Sullivan and Bradley Nord.

Rationale:  The Bellevue East Young Women's Quiz Bowl team tied for 3rd place at the Quiz Bowl held in Seward on October 19.  Bellevue East competed with seventeen other teams.  Team members were Morgan Goldsberry, Mary-Francis Laporte, Helen Timmins, and Sydney Hanson.  The Bellevue East team is coached by David Bossman.

Rationale:  Attached is a letter from Jason Henderson, Vice President and Omaha Branch Executive for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.  Mr. Henderson recognizes Robin Kratina, a teacher at Bellevue West High School, for her continued service on the Omaha Branch's Economic Education Advisory Council.

Rationale:  Bellevue Public Schools began a new staff recognition program, "Making a Difference."  The program recognizes the outstanding efforts of Bellevue Public Schools' staff members that have gone above and beyond to make a difference in the lives of students and/or staff members.

Each month students, staff, parents, community members, etc. are invited to nominate a staff member for the recognition program.  The deadline for the nominations will be the end of each month.  Then during the beginning of the following month a staff member will be recognized and awarded $250.  All nominations for the month will be sent to the nominees at the end of each month.

This program is sponsored by Bellevue Public Schools in partnership with Great Western Bank.

Rationale:  The Bellevue Public Schools Business Department issued an RFP in October to determine a cost effective means of upgrading equipment and/or HVAC systems at four school sites:  Bellevue East and Bellevue West High Schools, Avery Elementary, and CHAP Center.  Specifically the RFP requests a firm to conduct an analysis and make recommendations for improvements to the four school sites.  November 12 is the deadline for proposals.  Attached is a copy of the RFP.

Rationale:  Greg Boettger, Director of Technology, will provide the Board with an update on technology in the Bellevue Public Schools.  An evaluation of the network, devices, and student access to technology has been completed.  Greg has worked with principals, the technology team, web managers, and staff to determine changes for this year with the goal of developing a long-range technology plan to provide direction of where we need to go.

Rationale:  In September Bellevue Public Schools' staff members presented a testing report that focused on NeSA results and nationally norm-referenced assessments.  On October 19, the state rolled out this year's "Report Card" which listed demographic information by school and by district, as well as NeSA results by subgroup, by school, and by district.  Tonight we will take the Board to the Nebraska Department of Education website and highlight some of the information including attendance and graduation rates.

The current attendance rate listed on the NDE site was incorrect.  We have been working with officials who have determined that there was a computer glitch--the computer program was not pulling all of our information.  The site was reporting that our attendance rate was 84%.  NDE corrected the information last week and is now reporting our attendance rate at 95.23%.

Another area that will be different this year is graduation rates.  This year there will be 2 graduation rates--one that will reflect the current method of determining graduation rates and the second method which will reflect the new formula.  The new formula penalizes school districts that follow federal law and serve a mobile population.  Federal law requires school districts to serve special needs students from birth through age 21.  Under the new graduation rate formula, a student who does not graduate in their fourth year of high school will count against our graduation rate.  Also under the new formula, a student that enters Bellevue Public Schools as a freshman and then leaves will count against our graduation rate if we cannot track where the student goes.  And a student that needs one class to graduate and completes the class one month later will count against our graduation rate.

The next step will be the determination of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) by subgroup, by school, by district.  If a school has not met AYP for two consecutive years in the same area, they are then listed as a "School in Need of Improvement."  Federal guidelines require 100% proficiency in all subgroups and schools by 2013-2014.  While this is something school districts always strive for, it is an unrealistic goal.  By 2013-2014 virtually all schools will be listed as not meeting AYP.  

Rationale:  In October the Board approved its four primary goals for the year.  The top goal was to improve student achievement.  Mr. Harwood has been working with principals on their building assessments, their strategies for improving student achievement and their building goals.  Beginning in December, schools will share their School Improvement Plans and strategies for improving student achievement.

Rationale:  The first of two official Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences was held on October 17-20.  The conferences were well attended.  Approximately 96% of our elementary parents and 86% of our students attended the conferences.  At the middle school level, approximately 78% of our parents and 76% of our students attended the conferences.  And at the high school level, approximately 60% of our parents and 55% of our students attended the conferences.

The number of parents attending conferences at the secondary level is slightly down.  We believe that this is because so many of our parents are using the Parent Portal where they can receive updated information on their child at any time. 

Rationale:  An oral report will be provided on the recent meetings of the Learning Community.

Rationale:  November 17, Food Service Day
November 17-18, NASB State Education Conference, LaVista Conference Center
December 5, Board of Education Meeting, Welcome Center, 6:30 pm

Rationale:  Adjourn the November 7, 2011, meeting of the Board of Education.