March 5, 2012 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 section D identified with an asterisk.

Rationale:  The Minutes of the February 6, 2012, 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 February, 2012.

Rationale:  Approve the payment of claims totaling $1,573,634.61.

Rationale:  Release (1) Nancy Cardisco-Preister, (2) Roxanne Hardebeck, (3) Linda Henjum, (4) Shawn Hoppes, (5) Heather Jones, (6) Susan Miller, (7) Denise Milton, (8) Mary Petersen, (9) Tami Slipsager, (10) D'Anna Smith, and (11) Monica Swan from their contracts effective May 23, 2012.

Rationale:  Elect (1) Megan Slattery to the certified staff for the 2012-13 school year effective August 9, 2012, subject to her release from any contractual agreements with other school districts.

Rationale:  The law requires the Board of Education of the option (receiving school) district to adopt, by resolution, specific standards for acceptance and rejection of applicants.  Attached is the proposed Enrollment Option Program Resolution.  The proposal recommends a March 15 closing date for option enrollment.

Rationale:  The Bellevue Public Schools' Business Department issued an RFP in October, 2011, 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.  In November, 2011, Board members received a report on the RFP to be issued regarding the analysis and recommendations for improvements of HVAC systems at the four school sites.  At the December, 2011, Board meeting a report on the bids was presented to the Board and a contract was awarded to Engineering Technologies Incorporated for $32,700 to conduct an analysis and make recommendations for improvements at the four school sites.  Mr. Harwood provided the Board an update on the project in January.  Engineering Technologies Incorporated presented their analysis study results and the options available at each school site in February.

Tonight we will hear from Mr. Harwood on his recommendations for the four school sites.

Rationale:  Board of Education Goal 2.5 is to participate in setting Budget Parameters for 2012-2013.  Budget Parameters are annually established by the Board of Education.  The parameters are the guidelines for staff as they develop the proposed budget to be brought back to the Board in July. 

A copy of the proposed Budget Parameters is attached.

Rationale:  Enrollment projections are the basis for staffing levels and budgetary plans.  The enrollment projection for 2012-2013 is 10,184 students.  This is a projected decrease of 11 students over last year's projection.

Attached is a detailed report of the projections.

Rationale:  First Count is the official District enrollment count required by the federal government.  This year's official First Count, which was taken on October 5, 2011, was 10,001 students. 

Attached is a summary of the First Count enrollment figures.

Rationale:  Bellevue Public Schools and Grand Island Public Schools comprise Region 7 of the NASB Legislative Committee.  We take turns having a member of the Board serve on the committee.  Grand Island's Board member is completing a three year turn.  It is now Bellevue's turn to nominate a member for this committee.

Attached are the Legislative Committee Duties and Expense Reimbursements.

Rationale:  The West Connection Show Choir took 3rd place in the AA Division at the UNO competition.  They received the Gold Award in the NCDA Show Choir Festival.  They also made the finals at the Ralston Ramegeddon Show Choir competition and were 5th runner-up.  Student Chris Beeman won the outstanding male soloist award at the competition.

Rationale:  Jacob Osier from Lewis and Clark, Joseph Collins from Logan Fontenelle, and Jacob Mikkelson from Mission won the Geography Bee in their respective buildings and will now advance to the Nebraska Geography Bee held at the University of Nebraska at Omaha on March 30.

Rationale:  Bellevue East student Christian Rush placed second at the National Forensics Qualifying Tournament in Humorous Interpretation, one of six students in the state to qualify for Nationals in this event.  Bellevue East also took the first and second alternate spots in Duo Interpretation, with Christian Rush and Kassy Pepper placing 5th overall, and Valencia Dotson and Abigail Herbert placing 4th.

Rationale:  Bellevue East students competed at the Metro Community College Culinary Arts Competition against industry standards and two teams were awarded silver medals.  First team students were Alicia Magnette, Tyler Pauly, Liz Russell, and Hayley Jannenga.  The second team of Sarah Howe, Johanna Crumb, Darren Renfrow, and Amanda Lyons received the silver medal and also took 2nd place out of 33 teams.

Rationale:  Bellevue West AFJROTC students competed at the UNO JROTC Drill Meet on February 25.  The following rewards were received:  Color Guard-Men's Team:  1st place; Armed Regulation-Ladies Team:  3rd place, Men's Team:  Tied for 1st place and received 2nd place after tiebreaker; Unarmed Regulation-Ladies Team:  3rd place and Men's Team:  1st place; Armed Exhibition-Ladies Team:  3rd place and Men's Team:  1st place; Unarmed Exhibition-Ladies Team:  2nd place and Men's Team:  1st place; Armed Duals-Christopher Harris and Jose Garcia:  2nd place; Armed Solos-Taylor Scott:  3rd place, and Travis Otto:  2nd place; IDD-Emily Fenoglio:  1st place; Regulation Overall-Ladies Team:  3rd place and Men's Team:  1st place; Overall Exhibition-Ladies Team:  2nd place and Men's Team:  1st place; Overall Armed and Unarmed-Bellevue West Men's Varsity Drill Team:  Champions; and Champions of UNO Drill Meet-Bellevue West Men's Varsity Drill Team.

Rationale:  Bellevue West JROTC competed in the Lee's Summit Drill Meet on February 4.  Results were:  Men's Unarmed Regulation, 4th place; Men's Armed Regulation, 3rd place; Ladies Unarmed Exhibition, 4th place; Men's Unarmed Exhibition, 1st place; Men's Armed Exhibition, 1st place; Armed Duals:  Chris Harris and Jose Garcia, 1st place; Armed Solo:  Travis Otto, 1st place; Armed Overall, 1st place, and Unarmed Overall, 1st place.

Rationale:  Students from Wake Robin Elementary School submitted winning entries in this year's Metropolitan Reading Council 2012 Writing Contest.  Allyson Riley, 3rd grader, took 1st place.  The following students received Honorable Mention:  Elaina Matuszewski, 1st grade; Tegan Vanderzyl, 2nd grade; Logan Wolford, 2nd grade; Jessica Sunclades, 3rd grade; Hannah Potts, 4th grade.  The students, their parents, and teacher will be recognized at the "Meet the Author" celebration on Saturday, March 3, at UNO's Strauss Performing Arts Center.

Rationale:  The Bellevue East Academic Decathlon team competed at the Nebraska State Tournament held at Creighton University on February 17 and 18.  Students competed in multiple events and in three divisions:  Honors, Scholastic, and Varsity.  The high scorer and medal winner was Sam Ervin and he also won 3rd place in Scholastic Speech.  Alexander Campbell took 1st place in Varsity Economics and 3rd place in Varsity Language and Literature.  Dalilo Alconini took 3rd place in Varsity Economics; Katie Waite took 2nd place in Scholastic Interview; and Erik Ingram took 3rd place in Scholastic Essay.  In the Alternate Division, Helen Timmins took 3rd place in Honors Humanities, and Kyle Camplin took 3rd place in Alternate Scholastic, both Hard and Soft Science.  Also competing for Bellevue East were Brianna Boehne, Ryan Boyland, Justin McCully, and Ryan Majka.  The East team finished 6th overall in the state for the Large School Division.  The team is coached by PK Simmons. 

Rationale:  East and West High Schools' engineering teams competed in the regional competition for TEAMS (Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics, and Science) which was held at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on February 16.  The Bellevue West Grades 9-10 team took 1st place in their division out of nine teams from across the state.  Team members were Matt Thompson, Michael Edwards, Nicole McElroy, Daniela Cortes, Monica Pham, and Samantha Ramming.  Both the East and West Grades 11-12 teams tied for 3rd place out of eighteen teams.  East team members were Sam Ervin, Trevor Savage, Roosevelt Boyland, and Zach Smith.  West team members were Brad Schrag, Aaron Kruger, Matt Kruger, Mitch Clark, Daniel Moses, Michelle Pham, Jacob Wilkinson, and Andrew Peterson. 

Rationale:  The Bellevue East and West Drill Teams competed at the Smith-Cotton Drill Meet in Sedalia, Missouri, on February 18. 

Bellevue East results:  In the Armed Categories-Regulation (1st place), Overall (2nd place).  In the Unarmed Categories-Exhibition (3rd place); in Color Guard (4th place) and Overall (2nd place).  In the Overall Drill Meet the East team took 2nd place.

Bellevue West results:  In the Unarmed Regulation, Men's Team (4th place); in Armed Regulation, Men's Team (2nd place); in Unarmed Exhibition, Men's Team (1st place) and Ladies Team (2nd place); in Armed Exhibition, Ladies Team (2nd place) and Men's Team (3rd place); in Armed Overall, Ladies Team (3rd place) and Overall, Ladies Team (3rd place).

Rationale:  Bellevue East art students competed at the State Visual Arts Competition.  They were recognized at a ceremony on Saturday, February 25.  The gold award winners will advance to the national level for competition.

Gold Key Awards:  Michaela Knipp-Drawing, Mariah Moncada-Sculpture, Alexis Wheeler-Drawing, MaryKate Wray-Drawing, and Bryson Yumul-Drawing.

Silver Key Awards:  Taylor Burbage-Drawing, Marisa Figueroa-Drawing, Cassarah Kennedy-Drawing, Angel McGeorge-Painting, Lindsey Pfender-Ceramics and Portfolio, Ala'a Rayyan-Drawing and Portfolio, Henry Tsai-Drawing, and Bryson Yumul-Drawing.

Honorable Mentions:  Lindsey Pfender-Drawing, and Amiera Rayyan-Ceramics.

Rationale:  Peggy Speer, Bellevue West High School head swimming coach, was named to the Metro Conference Swimming Hall of Fame on Saturday, February 11.  Peggy has coached five state champions, all americans and academic all americans, along with former swimmers who have set numerous school records.  Two of her former swimmers are coaching Division I NCAA programs and many others have gone on to coach USA Swimming and high school programs.

Rationale:  The Bellevue West Kids Against Hunger DECA group, consisting of Jennifer Will and Amy and Ashley Dryden, set the Guinness World Record for the largest hand print painting on Friday, February 10.  The current world record is 46,862 square feet and West DECA groups' painting was measured at 49,904.99 square feet.  The Kids Against Hunger DECA group also donated $5,000 to a local organization called Children Against Hunger.  The students will be submitting their project at the Nebraska State Career Development Conference later this month.

Rationale:  Bellevue middle school students from Lewis and Clark, Logan, and Mission competed in the Annual History "Histeria" Bowl on February 3 hosted by Mission Middle School.  The teams competed in three categories:  General History, Presidential Identification, and Historical People.  The 7th and 8th grade teams were scored separately.  Mission Middle School won the event and the traveling trophy.

The Mission 7th grade team of Justin Calixte, Kelly Speltz, Paige Haskins, and Samantha Seaman won 1st place in General History, 2nd place in Historical People, and 3rd place in Presidential Identification.  The 7th grade Mission team of Noah Sautter, Christian Howell, Jacob Brown, Syres Basnet, and Jonathan Jenkins won 2nd place in both General History and Presidential Identification and 3rd place in Historical People.  The Mission 8th grade team of Trevor Fellbaum, Michelle Ruzicka, Tommy Casart, Dominick Lewis, and Andrew Nelson won 2nd place in Presidential Identification and 3rd place in General History.  The 8th grade Mission team of Michael Lohrman, Luke Reestman, Devlin Reavis, and Jon Golden won 2nd place in General History.  The 8th grade Mission team of Jacob Mikkelson, Ryan Dolezal, Libby Dolezal, Kennedy Evans, and Vegan Windorski won 4th place in Historical People.

The Lewis and Clark 7th grade team of Brandon Simms, Dolan States, and Trey Taggart won 1st place in both Presidential Identification and Historical People.  The Lewis and Clark 7th grade team of Sierra Karst, Amanda Horbach, and Celeste Kenworthy won 3rd place in Historical People.  The team of Emma Larson, Bethany Dart, Audrey Lausterer, and Elaine Stueve won 4th place in Historical People.  The 7th grade Lewis and Clark team of Daniel Young, Nick Hodge, Alec Brown, and Jerod Boswell won 4th place in General History.  The Lewis and Clark 8th grade team of Omar Mora, Troy Wilewski, Dillon Hike, and Dayne Thomas tied for 2nd place in Presidential Identification, won 3rd place in Historical People, and tied for 4th in General History.  The 8th grade Lewis and Clark team of Callie Pancoe, Courtney Morehead, Hannah Dubas, and Joe Hart tied for 2nd place in Presidential Identification.  The Lewis and Clark 8th grade team of Jessica Schlupp, Aaliyah Moseley, Nina Gomez, and Sierra Mendez tied for 4th place in Historical People.

The Logan 7th grade team of Rebecca Adams, Nathaniel Raffety, Sydney Stricklin, Emily Wilson, and Maren Schuttler won 4th place in Presidential Identification.  The Logan 8th grade team of Joe Collins, Mikayla Martin, Tejiri Smith, and Alec Stroud won 1st place in Historical People, General History, and Presidential Identification.  The Logan 8th grade team of Chloe Akin-Otiko, Amber Menard, Joe Lydiatt, Robbie Harbin, and Caleb Eby won 2nd place in Historical People.

Rationale:  The Bellevue Newzbrain Current Events Challenge teams participated in the January competition.  The Newzbrain Challenge consists of 50 questions about the news of the previous four weeks with teams having 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.

The Mission 7th grade team "Superninjabananaphones" tied for 1st place in the nation in the 7th grade division out of 395 teams from sixteen states.  The Bellevue East "Team Boyland" finished 1st place in the nation in the high school division out of 42 teams from six states.  The Bellevue East team "Muy Bueno" and the Bellevue West team "Eat It, Sacra Vacca" tied for 2nd place in the nation in the high school division.  In the 8th grade division, the Lewis and Clark team "Boon Docks" tied for 4th place in the nation out of 182 teams from fifteen states. 

Team members of the Mission 7th grade team "Superninjabananaphones" were Kelly Speltz, Paige Haskins, Noah Sautter, Nolan Marshall, and Quan Myers.  Team members of the Bellevue East High School "Team Boyland" were Roosevelt Boyland, Ryan Boyland, Dan Gleason, Erik Ingram, Tim Rolling, Devlin Bishop, and Helen Timmins.  Team members of the Bellevue East high school team "Muy Bueno" were George Timmins, Shannon Smith, Ben Walther, Beth Alexander, Allyah Rayyan, and Mary-Francis Laporte and they tied with the Bellevue West high school team "Eat It, Sacra Vacca."  Team members were Cole Burmeister, Max Lydiatt, Alex Gangwish, Kevin Hanna, Mark Huebner, and Zach Williams.  Team members of the 8th grade Lewis and Clark team "Boon Docks" were Omar Mora, Kinsey Boughner, Jake Osier, Isaac Yunevich, Tyler Imhoff, and Meghan Weber.

Rationale:  Bellevue East JROTC students competed at the Lee's Summit North Invitational Drill Meet on February 25. In the Armed Categories, they took 2nd place in both Regulation and Exhibition. In the Unarmed Categories, they took 1st place in Exhibition.

Rationale:  The Bellevue West Forensics team competed at the Papillion-LaVista GOLD on January 27 and the Lincoln Northeast Tournament on January 28.  Award recipients from the Papillion-LaVista GOLD were:  Madison Larimore, 6th place in Dramatic Interpretation and 3rd place in Original Oratory; Catherine Jones, 6th place in Informative; Katie Cashin, 3rd place in Entertainment; Jasmine Rosemond and Renee Pineda, 3rd place in Duo Interpretation; Kaitlyn Buresh and Bailey Anstey, 1st place in Duo Interpretation.  Award recipients from the Lincoln Northeast Tournament were:  Loriana Harkey, 10th place in Humorous Interpretation.

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, Bertha Barber Principal Sue Fjelstad and members of the Bertha Barber staff will present some of the structures, strategies, and activities they are implementing in their building's ongoing school improvement process.

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

Rationale:  None

Rationale:  March 6, Tribute to Teacher Day
March 14, Board of Education Retreat, Bellevue University, 6:00 pm
April 2, 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.