April 6, 2015 at 6:30 PM - Board of Education Meeting Agenda

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:  Administrative Recommendation: 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 attached Minutes of the March 9, 2015 Board of Education meeting were sent to all members of the Board of Education for review.

Administrative Recommendation:  Approve the Minutes of the March 9, 2015, Board of Education meeting.

Rationale:  Administrative Recommendation:  Acknowledge receipt of the Treasurer's Report for March, 2015.

Rationale:  Administrative Recommendation:  Approve the payment of claims totaling $1,103,533.70.

Rationale:  Administrative Recommendation: Release (1) Kelley Bell, (2) Bryce Brunswig, (3) Danielle Collins, (4) Heath Epperson, (5) Ruth Ferrante, (6) Patty Hall, (7) Jennifer Krzystowczyk, (8) Emily Kurz, (9) Sunny McKaig, (10) Tiona Mosby, (11) Jeremiah Saffold, (12) Patricia Smith, (13) Sarah Thober, (14) Bobbi Jo Williams and (15) Danielle Woodman from their contracts effective May 22, 2015

Rationale:  Administrative Recommendation:  Elect (1) Dana Martin to the certified staff for the 2015-16 school year effective July 1, 2015 and elect (2) Jamie Heinzen, (3) Jeremy Lenz, (4) Brittany Warby and (5) Kristina Ward to the certified staff for the 2015-16 school year effective August 6, 2015 subject to their release from any contractual agreements with other school districts.

Rationale: 

Public Law 111-296, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, was passed into law addressing the equity in school lunch pricing. While all of the guidelines have not been developed for the program, one guideline went into effect July 1, 2011, regarding the price for school lunches. With food expenses continually rising the lunch program prices needed to be increased. Bellevue continues to place an emphasis on serving a balanced breakfast and lunch program; due to previous changes with the USDA guidelines we will continue to see an emphasis on more whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, sub groups of vegetables, sodium targets, no trans fats served, etc.

 

During the 2014-2015 school year to date, Bellevue Public Schools’ food service program served 1,148,678 meals. In addition to the kitchens at our 20 schools, the District serves meals at three satellites: CHAP Center, St. Mary’s, and St. Matthews.

Based on planning for the 2015-16 Food Service Budget, it is recommended the price for lunches be increased by 10 cents: elementary lunch to $2.35, middle school lunch to $2.70, and high school lunch to $2.85.

 

Administrative Recommendation:  The administration recommends increasing lunch prices by 10 cents as presented.

 

 

Rationale: 

A proposal will be presented to increase the price of activity cards.  Students participating in high school athletics would be required to purchase an activity card.  The change is needed to offset rising costs and declining budget dollars.  The proposal would align Bellevue with other districts in the metro area.

 

Administrative Recommendation:  The administration recommends increasing activity card prices and requiring students that participate in high school athletics to purchase an activity card as presented.

 

 

Rationale: 

Board Policy 302.02 adopted in December of 2014 states - On an annual basis before April 15th, the board will: conduct an evaluation of the superintendent, review of the superintendent’s contract and take action as to whether the contract will be extended. For all other contract amendments, the board will take final action before June 15th unless there is an agreement to continue from both parties.

Due to the board’s work on budget issues, the timeline prescribed above has been delayed.  For this reason, the board will need to delay action on the superintendent's contract until the May meeting.  An amendment to delay the action on the contract is attached.

 

Rationale: 

Bellevue East High School has four teams advancing to the Econ Challenge State Finals on March 27, 2015.  The teams took the preliminary on-line (first round) competition on March 10th.  They had ten teams competing in this round; six were in the Adam Smith division and four in the David Ricardo division. The Adam Smith division is for students enrolled in Advanced Placement Economics classes, International Baccalaureate Economics classes, or for those that previously competed in the Econ Challenge. The David Ricardo division is for those new to economics. All of this year's competitors come from the Bellevue East Academic Decathlon class. 

Two of the Adam Smith teams and two of the David Ricardo teams scored well enough to advance to the State Finals at UNL. There were a total of 46 Adam Smith teams and 107 David Ricardo teams in Nebraska that competed in this first round. The top ten teams in each division advanced to the State Finals. Bellevue East’s advancing Adam Smith teams finished #2 and #4 out of the 46 teams competing in that division, and the David Ricardo teams finished #1 and #8 out of the 107 teams in that division.

At State Finals the Bellevue East teams will face separate tests in Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, and International economics. The overall State Champions are determined in a final round where the top two teams in each division face each other in a quiz bowl style competition. The questions in this last round can come from any area of economics.

The students on the Bellevue East teams are as follows:

Bellevue East Hurrikeynes (Ranked #2 Adam Smith Division - Out of 46)

Joshua Jones

Morgan Gallagher

Jameson Poth

Kelly Speltz

 

Bellevue East Tycoons (Ranked #4 Adam Smith Division - Out of 46)

Nathaniel Brown

Noah Madrigal

Marina Madrigal

Nathaniel Crouch

 

Bellevue East Differentiators (Ranked #1 David Ricardo Division - Out of 107)

Andrew Godwin

Colton Patrick

Greyson Kreis

Zachary Correll

 

Bellevue East Invisible Hands (Ranked #8 David Ricardo Division - Out of 107)

Joseph Walther

Annette Rhoades

Justin Calixte

Nicholas Walker

 

Should Bellevue East win either of the divisions on March 27th, there is a National Semifinal round in April and then the top four teams in each division of the semifinals would advance to the National Finals in New York City in May. 

Rationale: 

Nearly 150 Nebraska high school students recently attended professional development workshops and participated in competitive events at the annual Nebraska Future Educators Association (FEA) State Career Development Conference in Omaha.

Many Nebraska FEA students will now join hundreds of other students from across the nation at the 26th annual National FEA Conference in Washington, D.C., in April.

Nebraska FEA’s mission is to recruit and provide experiences and skills for students who are exploring teaching as a future career. FEA students develop essential skills that will better ensure that Nebraska has highly trained and qualified teachers. FEA helps students gain a realistic understanding of the nature of education and the role of a teacher.

The following BPS students were FEA award winners:

FEA Moment Event-Group A
Second Place: Madison Baird, Bellevue East High School

Job Interview Event-Group A
Second Place: Kate Arnold, Bellevue East High School

Rationale: 

Congratulations to Bellevue West High School on receiving the Class A 2015 Girls State Basketball Sportsmanship Award. 

Rationale: 

West Connection competed at the Best of Show in Sioux Falls on Saturday, March 14. They took 4th place and also tied with other school groups for top vocal scores. West Connection member, Da'Jon Skaggs, won best performer award and received a partial scholarship to UNL's summer show choir camp. This competition was the first for Explosion and they earned 2nd runner up in the prep division.

Rationale: 

West Connection competed at the Hinton Soundsational on Saturday, March 21. They made the finals and were 2nd runner up in the competition. Marcel Daly won the "Best Performer" award.  

Rationale: 

Congratulations to Ann Feldmann, BPS district technology trainer, for being selected to serve on the NETA (Nebraska Educational Technology Association) Board of Directors. This appointment is a three-year term. 

Rationale: 

Monica Evon, teacher at Bellevue Elementary, took 1st place in the PK-4 App Smashing Contest for NETA (Nebraska Educational Technology Association). App smashing is the process of using multiple apps in conjunction with one another to complete a final task or project. The winning projects showed evidence of meeting state/national standards and used free apps.

Mrs. Evon was also a winner in the 3-6 What’s Your Impact? Video Contest. This contest was open to Midwestern PK-6 public and private school teachers. Participants were asked to create a video that featured students, showcased their work, and explained how technology has enhanced teaching and learning in their classroom. 

Rationale: 

The National Speech & Debate Association recently announced Becca Hier as its newest diamond coach. Becca is an English/Forensics teacher and Forensics coach at Bellevue West High School; she received a First Diamond Award after earning 1,501 points on 3/11/15.

A diamond award recognizes a professional career that combines excellence and longevity. The Association provides diamond awards based on coach points received. Coaches receive one-tenth the points earned by their students and one-tenth of the points earned as a student member of the Association. After a minimum of five years as a National Speech & Debate Association member, a coach who attains 1,500 points is awarded a first diamond; he or she receives a second diamond for 3,000 points, a third for 6,000 points, and so on. Five years must pass between each diamond award.

Becca will receive special recognition at the National Speech & Debate Tournament this June, 2015 in Dallas, Texas. Each year, the tournament draws more than 5,000 students, coaches, and parents from across the nation.

Rationale: 

Representatives of the District Grading Committee will present information about planned next steps and future recommendations.  

Rationale: 

Bellevue East/Roddy Field is in need of a new baseball scoreboard.  A report will be provided detailing a plan that would replace the old scoreboard with a scoreboard that would allow for advertising.  The advertising spaces would generate revenue that would be used to support athletics/activities at Bellevue East.

Rationale: 

In January 2015, an External AdvancED Accreditation visit was completed as part of the required 5-year accreditation cycle.  A summary of the final visiting team report will be reviewed. 

Rationale: 

At the January and February meetings, the Board was presented information about the cost of providing transportation to students living closer than four miles to their assigned school.  State law only requires that transportation be provided if a student lives more than four miles from their assigned school.  Possibilities that have been discussed are the elimination of all transportation not required by state law or the option to allow parents to pay for transportation that is not required.  Tonight, possible changes in regulation will be presented for discussion.

Rationale: 

During the recent budget reduction conversation, the public comment procedures were discussed.  The Policy Committee is recommending a change in the regulation that governs public comment during meetings.  The recommendation is to limit public comment for items on the agenda to three minutes instead of five and a total of thirty minutes.  For items not otherwise on the agenda, the time limit would stay at five minutes but be limited to a total of thirty minutes.  The revised regulation is attached.

Rationale: 

The kindergarten registration process for 2015-2016 began the week of February 23, 2015.  This is an opportunity for the parent/guardian to complete registration and orient the child to the kindergarten environment and staff.  To date, 485 students have registered for kindergarten. By state law, a child must be five years of age on or before July 31 in order to enter kindergarten.  The law also includes a provision for early entrance testing.

Rationale: 

Parent Teacher Student Conferences were held in each Bellevue Public School the week of March 9.  The home and school connection is evidenced by the participation of parents and students as well as their access and use of Power School on a regular basis.

 The following indicates the average attendance of parents and students at each level.

                                                  Parents                       Students

                    Elementary               94%                            87%

                    Middle School            69%                            55%

                    High School               41%                            38%

 

Activities held in conjunction with conferences included book fairs, College 101 for Juniors, scholarship meetings, PTA/PTSA/Booster Club school product sales, and student council activities.

Rationale:  Lori Bonner wishes to address student attire.

Stacey Tyner wishes to address bullying.

Rationale:  Learning Community - Nina Wolford
BPS Foundation - Doug Cook, Lisa Rybar, Frank Kumor
MABE - Cindy Copich
NASB Legislative Committee - Cindy Copich
Board Policy Review Work Group - Cindy Copich, Doug Cook, Mike Kinney
District Safety Committee - Doug Cook

Rationale: 

April 23, PTA/PTSA Service to Youth Reception, Lied Activity Center, 6:00 p.m.

April 29, 3rd Annual BPS Foundation Breakfast, Lied Activity Center, 7:00 a.m.

May 1, BEA Retirement Banquet

May 4, Board of Education Meeting, Welcome Center, 6:30 p.m.

Rationale: 

Administrative Recommendation: Adjourn to Executive Session to consider matters relating to strategy sessions with respect to negotiations with outside agencies and personnel which are necessary to be considered in closed session for the protection of the public interest and for the needless injury to the reputation of an individual.