December 5, 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:  At this time I would like to invite the following students to come forward and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a briefing on the Sportsmanship Summit they attended:

Mission- Collin Richards and Markel Riley
Bellevue East - Danielle Milos, Bri Anson, and Kyle Chandler
Bellevue West - Enrique Alvarez and Marissa Brazda

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 November 7, 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 November, 2011.

Rationale:  Approve the payment of claims totaling $1,290,544.29.

Rationale:  Accept the audit report for the 2010-2011 fiscal year, as presented by the District's external auditors, Deloitte and Touche.

Attached is a copy of the auditors report and the Management Letter.  A representative of Deloitte and Touche will be present to comment on the report.

Rationale:  Accept the proposal of ALIO by Weidenhammer to implement a new Business and Human Resources software program at a total cost of $227,923 with on-going annual support of $40,066 per year.

Bellevue Public Schools has used the CIMS Business and Human Resources Software since 1999.  The support for this software will end December, 2012.  Staff have looked at alternative software to accommodate the needs of the District.  Attached is a report on the software examined, software capabilities and cost.

Rationale:  Award a contract to Engineering Technologies Incorporated for $32,700 to conduct an analysis and make recommendations for improvements to four school sites:  Bellevue East and West High Schools, Avery Elementary, and CHAP Center.

Attached is a list of projects that have been included in the 2011-2012 budget.  Tonight members of the staff and Board will discuss the projects, providing priorities for the projects that will be accomplished as funding becomes available.  At the November meeting, Board members received a report on the RFP to be issued regarding the analysis and recommendations for improvements of HVAC systems at four school sites.  The proposals have been received and members of the staff have interviewed the companies regarding their bids.  A report on the bids will be presented to the Board so that this project can be incorporated into the priority discussion.

Rationale:  Bellevue elementary students collected $3,989.75 in a pennies drive.  The funds collected will go to the Food Bank for the Heartland.  This program currently provides 300 backpack snacks for Bellevue students.  With the drive, we will be able to provide over 100 more backpack snacks.  Twin Ridge Elementary School raised the largest total, $635.59, followed by Central Elementary School at $585.48. 

Rationale:  Bellevue students competed in the 2011 ESU#3 Middle School Quiz Bowl.  The Lewis and Clark team of Ethon Koehler, Alex Wheeler, Tucker Tyler, Sara Zawistowski, and Dolan States won 3rd place out of twenty-four teams.  The team is coached by Charles Owen.

Rationale:  Bellevue teams competed in the Norris Middle School Quiz Bowl in Firth, Nebraska.  The Logan Fontenelle team of Alec Stroud, Michael Kochera, Tejiri Smith, Mikayla Martin, and Casey Jones won 1st place out of twenty-four teams.  The Mission team of Tommy Casart, Trevor Fellbaum, Andrew Nelson, and Michelle Ruzicka won 4th place.  The Logan team is coached by Christine Daniels and the Mission team is coached by Brent Myers.

Rationale:  Bellevue East and West Forensics Teams competed in the Papillion LaVista Invitational.  Bellevue East's Christian Rush won 1st place in Humorous Interpretation and Nate Crawford won 3rd place in Extemporaneous Speaking.  Bellevue West's Bailey Anstey won 3rd place in Novice Original Oratory and Courtney Hansen won 1st place in Varsity Poetry.

Rationale:  Bellevue East and West Forensic Teams competed in the Millard South Squashfest.  The Bellevue East team finished in 3rd place.  Charisa Martin won 1st in Humorous Interpretation, Christian Rush won 2nd in Humorous Interpretation, and Nate Crawford won 6th in Extemporaneous Speaking.  Charisa Martin, Gillian Tuppa, Josh Fluellen, Ben Hoffman, and Daniel Brinkman won 2nd place in Oral Interpretation of Drama.  Bellevue West's Courtney Hansen won 5th place in Poetry and 5th in Humorous Interpretation.  Caroline Engwell won 1st place in Dramatic Interpretation and 1st in the Triathlon competition.  Kayla Starbuck won 2nd place in the Triathlon competition. 

Rationale:  The Bellevue West novice forensics team competed at the Millard West GOLD Tournament.  Catherine Jones won 2nd place and Renee Pineda won 5th place in Informative.  Madison Larimore won 6th place in Original Oratory.

Rationale:  Bellevue West Forensics competed at the Lincoln East/Pius X Invite.  Austin Brown won 6th place in Novice Extemporaneous and Courtney Hansen won 5th place in Humorous Interpretation.

Rationale:  Bellevue East competed in the 2011 UNL Math Day.  Trevor Savage's score on the initial P.R.O.B.E. test placed him in the top fifty in the state out of 1,500 students from more than 100 Nebraska high schools.  The Bellevue East Math Quiz Bowl tied for 5th place out of twenty-four Class A teams.  Quiz bowl team members were Trevor Savage, Roosevelt Boyland, Sam Ervin, Nate Crawford, and Zach Smith.

Rationale:  Bellevue students won 1st place in the November competition of the Newzbrain Current Events Challenge.  The Newzbrain Challenge consists of 50 questions about the news of the previous four weeks.  Teams have 30 seconds to answer each multiple-choice question.  Questions are drawn from national news, international news, sports, entertainment, science, and consumer news items of the month.

Bellevue East "Team Boyland" finished 1st in the nation in the high school division out of twenty-five teams from five states.  Team members were Roosevelt Boyland, Dan Gleason, Erik Ingram, Tim Rolling, and Dalilo Alconini.

Logan Fontenelle "Team Don't Touch My Drumset" finished 1st in the nation in the eighth grade division out of 222 teams from sixteen states.  Team members were Joey Lydiatt, Connor Emmert, Max Snodgrass, Blake Callahan, Mikayla Martin, and Caleb Eby.

In the high school division, the Bellevue West team "Alex and the Nordlies" finished in 3rd place nationally.  Team members were Alex Gangwish, Cole Burmeister, Max Lydiatt, Zach Williams, Jacob Wilkinson, Kevin Hanna, and Mark Huebner.

In the seventh grade division, the Mission team "Superninjabananaphones" tied for 3rd place in the nation out of 376 teams from eighteen states.  Team members were Kelly Speltz, Samantha Seaman, Paige Haskins, Hunter Dobson, Syres Basnet, and Samantha Quiroz-Hernandez.  Also in the seventh grade division, the Lewis and Clark team "Summa" finished in 6th place in the nation.  Team members were Karen Goeschel, Emma Larson, Trey Taggart, Alec Brown, and Brandon Simms.  

Rationale:  The Bellevue Middle School English Open second annual challenge was held at Lewis and Clark Middle School.  Mission won the 7th grade division, Logan Fontenelle won the 8th grade division, and Lewis and Clark had the highest overall score and won control of the traveling trophy.  The English Open consists of three challenges:  Literary Detective, Words, and Mixed Bag.  The top three teams in each grade in each division won ribbons.

In the 7th grade, Mission team 3 won 1st place in Literary Detective and Mixed Bag and won 3rd place in Words, Words, Words.  Team members were Kelly Speltz, Paige Haskins, Patience Thomson, and Meghan Gray.  Mission Team 2 won 1st place in Words, Words, Words and 3rd place in Mixed Bag.  Team members were Jonathan Jenkins, Samantha Seaman, Noah Sautter, and Christian Swan.  Logan Team 2 won 2nd place in Words.  Team members were Morgan Deters, Jacob Kunes, Maren Schuttler, and Rebecca Adams.  Lewis and Clark Team 2 won 2nd place in Literary Detective and Mixed Bag.  Team members were Sierra Karst, Elaine Stueve, and Amanda Horbach.  Lewis and Clark Team 1 won 3rd place in Literary Detective.  Team members were Audrey Lausterer, Celeste Kenworthy, Emma Larson, Brandon Simms, and Daniel Young.

In the 8th grade, Logan Fontenelle Team 3 won 1st place in Mixed Bag and 3rd place in Words.  Team members were Della Wilson, Regan Hefner, Emily Brandon, and Amber Wolfe.  Logan Team 1 won 1st place in Words.  Team members were Joey Lydiatt, Katie Carlson, Caleb Eby, and Adonis Dotson.  Logan Team 2 won 2nd place in Words.  Team members were Michae Kochera, Tejiri Smith, Abby Newcomer, and Robbie Harbin.  Lewis and Clark Team 1 won 1st place in Literary Detective.  Team members were Omar Mora, Sandy Griffin, Jordan Ullam, and Moriah Hood.  Lewis and Clark Team 1 won 2nd place in Mixed Bag and 3rd place in Literary Detective.  Team members were Alex Wheeler, Burke Griffin, Grace Glotfelty, Ethon Koehler, and Luis Jaime.  Lewis and Clark Team 3 tied for 3rd place in Mixed Bag.  Team members were Ryland Jones, Sarah Goodrich, Kylie Fenger, Sydney Chaney, and Meghan Weber.  Lewis and Clark Team 6 also tied for 3rd place in Mixed Bag.  Team members were Riley Herringer, Alex Furlow, Kaylyn Sahs, Courtney Morehead, and Sydney Slie.  Mission Team 3 won 2nd place in Literary Detective.  Team members were Lydia Granahan, Cameron Dacanay, Colin Hensel, and Trevor Fellbaum.

Rationale:  As a part of the AdvancED District Accreditation process and in accordance with Nebraska Rule 10, each school building in the Bellevue Public Schools must participate in an ongoing, continuous school improvement process.  School staff analyze student performance data to plan and implement strategies to continually move the school toward improvement and increased student performance levels.  Tonight, Logan Fontenelle Principal Doug Schaefer and members of the Logan staff will present some of the structures, strategies, and activities they are implementing in their building's ongoing school improvement process.

Rationale:  The Bellevue Public Schools Foundation was formed in April, 1985.  The Foundation is a 501(C)(3) organization organized and operated on a not-for-profit basis and exclusively for educational purposes.

The primary purpose of the Foundation is to develop and maintain programs that are in the best interest of the Bellevue Public Schools Foundation and community.  The Foundation can inform the public regarding activities and programs of the Foundation and District through written and other communication means.  The Foundation can solicit and receive contributions, gifts, grants, devises or bequests of real or personal property or both from individuals, foundations, partnerships, associations, governmental bodies, or public or private corporations.  These gifts, grants, etc., shall be used directly or indirectly to carry out the purposes of the Foundation.

Some of the programs that have been established through the Foundation include:  Kids' Time, the Employee and Family Assistance Program, scholarship programs for seniors, enrichment programs, international school-to-school partnerships, alumni program, adult education services, educational alternative programs, and a wellness program for staff.

Rationale:  As part of the Superintendent's contract, the Board will evaluate and assess the Superintendent's performance in writing twice during the first contract year and at least once per year in the contract's subsequent years.  Attached are the proposed evaluation materials to be utilized by the Board.  The evaluation documents include the Board and Superintendent's goals for 2011-2012.

Rationale:  Attached is revised Administrative Regulation 508.13, Wellness and Nutrition.  This regulation is submitted for Board review.

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

Rationale:  None.

Rationale:  Denise Seaman will report on the November MABE meeting and NASB State Education Conference sessions she attended.

Attached are two handouts received from the NASB State Education Conference sessions.

Rationale: 

December 7              Holiday Reception, East High School, 3:30-5:30 pm

January 9                  Board of Education Meeting, Welcome Center, 6:30 pm

Rationale:  Adjourn to executive session to consider matters relating to strategy sessions with respect to negotiations with outside agencies which are necessary to be considered in closed session for the protection of the public interest.