January 11, 2016 at 5:30 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Rationale:  The Norfolk Public School District's board of education meeting is called to order.  

Rationale:  If any board member is absent, there will need to be a  motion to excuse the absence.

Rationale: 

Building Goals and School Improvement Plans

* Scott Dodson-Woodland Park Elementary School

* Trisha Andreasen- Bel Air Elementary School

* Jo Roberts - Grant and Lincoln Montessori Elementary Schools

 

Rationale:  Please stand and join us in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Rationale: 

Dr. Thompson will call for nominations for President.

The President will then call for nominations for Vice President.

Rationale:  It is customary for the district's Business Manager to serve as the Board's Treasurer and for the district's Superintendent to serve as the Board's Secretary. Therefore I would recommend that Bill Robinson be appointed as Treasurer and Dr. Jami Jo Thompson be appointed as Secretary.

Rationale:  We are satisfied with the performance of our current legal counsel, which is Perry Law firm, based out of Lincoln, NE. I strongly recommend that we continue to use their services, when needed.

Rationale: 

Current Committees:

 

Negotiations Committee:

Purpose: Represents the full BOE in negotiations with recognized labor organizations

Meetings: Several meetings in November-January

Current Members: Bob Waite and Tammy Day

 

Curriculum and Americanism Committee:

Purpose: Examines recommended social studies textbooks and reports findings to the full BOE. Also reviews major proposals regarding the adoption of new textbooks, instructional programs, and graduation requirements.

Meetings: At least once a year; more if major proposals are being reviewed

Current Members: Bruce Mitchell, Patti Gubbels, and Arnie Robinson

 

Finance and Facilities Committee:

Purpose: Studies financial documents of the district, as well as finance and facilities proposals

Meetings: At least once per month; more frequently when needed

Current Members: Bob Waite, Bruce Mitchell, Arnie Robinson

 

Policy and Government Relations Committee:

Purpose: Reviews proposed policy revisions and participate in government relations activities, such as GNSA meetings

Meetings: Varies- typically once per month-may be more during legislative session

Current Members: Bob Waite, Sandy Wolfe, and Patti Gubbels

 

Activities Committee:

Purpose: Reviews activities budget, participation, and proposals

Meetings: 4-6 times per year

Current Members: Arnie Robinson, Sandy Wolfe, and Tammy Day

 

Staff member of the Month:

Purpose: Helps to select the Award for Excellence recipient

Meetings: 4-6 per year

Current member: Bruce Mitchell

 

Foundation Board:

Purpose: Serves as the BOE representative on the NPS Foundation Board

Meetings: Typically once per month

Current member: Sandy Wolfe

 

School Liaisons:

School	Board Member:
Bel Air	Patti Gubbels
Grant	Tammy Day
Jefferson	Sandy Wolfe
Lincoln	Arnie Robinson
Washington	Tammy Day
Westside	Arnie Robinson
Woodland Park	Bruce Mitchell
Middle School	Bob Waite & Sandy Wolfe
Junior High	Arnie Robinson & Bruce Mitchell
Senior High	Patti Gubbels & Bob Waite
Alternatives For Success	Sandy Wolfe & Tammy Day

 

 

Rationale: 

RESOLUTION

 

RESOLVED, that the official depository of school funds for this School District is hereby designated to be at Bank First, Elkhorn Valley Bank & Trust and Nebraska Liquid Asset Fund, and that the designation of any other institution as the depository of school funds is hereby withdrawn.  Bank First will be the primary depository for the General Fund; and Elkhorn Valley Bank & Trust will be the primary depository for all other district funds.  Nebraska Liquid Asset Fund will serve as a depository for cash reserves in the General, Bond, QCPUF, Special Building, and Depreciation Funds. 

This resolution specifically recognizes the financial institutions where district and taxpayer's dollars are deposited.  This resolution also meets the requirement of full public disclosure of financial institutions used by the district. 

I am recommending that we continue with our current financial institutions (Bank First, Elkhorn Valley Bank & Trust and Nebraska Liquid Asset Fund), as we are pleased with their service and all three of these financial institutions provide banking services to the district at no charge while also fully securing all of our funds.

Rationale: 

This is the newspaper that we utilize to post official Board notifications, such as bids and meeting notices.

I recommend that we continue to use our local newspaper, the Norfolk Daily News.

Rationale:  State statutes require that School Board members disclose any Conflicts of Interest that they may have related to contracts and employment issues, as well as any other other matters that may have a financial impact on the Board member or his/her family.  The procedures for conflict disclosure and reporting have been provided to all Board members for their review. 

Are there any questions about these procedures--or any conflicts of interest that you would like to report at this time?  

These statutes have been put in place to protect the district. It is very important that if a conflict of interest arises at any time, the Board member disclose and report it immediately and refrain from voting on that issue.

Rationale:  Coding

Rationale:  Peggy Belt-Senior High English Teacher and Speech Coach

Rationale:  This is the time during the board meeting when the public may request to address the board regarding an agenda item. If you wish to comment, we ask that you identify yourself and indicate the agenda item to which you will be speaking.

Rationale: 

Total amount of claims to be approved in the consent agenda for the month of January, 2016 by specific fund are as follows:
General Fund = $752,352.86

Nutrition Services Fund = $87,553.28

Cooperative Fund = $4,615.64

Depreciation Fund= $520.50

Special Building Fund = $51.85

Student Fee Fund= $8,221.53

The total amount of claims for the month of December, 2015 in the Activities fund are as follows:
Activity Fund = $105,553.73

All the claims for the month of January and Activity claims for the month of December were reviewed earlier today by the Finance and Facility Committee.  The business office is currently working on the process of finalizing all payroll items for the calendar year 2015 and getting W-2's provided to all of our employees by early next month.  This year is also the first year of providing each employee a 1095C.  This is the form required by the IRS that large employers are to furnish each employee annually.  This form will be used by individuals when filing their taxes and helps determine qualifications for Affordable Health Care options either through an individual's employer, or by using local agents (market place).  This year the IRS is extending the deadline for employers in providing 1095C's to March 31st. Our business office does appreciate this extension since the 1095C itself was being revised up until this past month.  Starting in 2017 the 1095C will be provided to employees along with their W-2's.

Rationale: 

Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment

• Second semester always greets us with assessment challenges. The Teaching and Learning team is responsible for seeing that all administrators, teachers and para’s are appropriately trained on the testing administration process. For the NeSA Writing Assessment, that means proper training and protocol in place for 4th grade paper/pencil testing and electronic testing in 8^th and 11^th grade. There are many technical pieces to assessment that our team needs to have organized and ready to go for a smooth testing season. Various considerations are taken into account with our special needs populations and unique circumstances that affect the assessment process-all of which my team and I need to be prepared for or ready to appropriately react to when necessary. Deadlines with NDE are not flexible so we are constantly double checking the calendar. Writing is just the first round. It will be followed by the ELPA test (formerly known as ELDA) which is led by Mrs. Luhr and the ELL team, next will be NWEA MAP and finally the NeSA Reading, Math and Science tests.
• Continued work in PLC occurs with our teachers’, dependent upon the grade and subject matter.
• Curriculum development is occurring at various places. The Teaching and Learning team will be trying to line up a meeting time with school board curriculum members to review our process and our progress before the March board meeting.

Technology

• We’ll be seeking bids upon your approval for a server replacement. This is within our budgeted parameters of this year’s plan.

Big Red Keno Grant for STEM Project

• The team involved in the Big Red Keno Grant met via a conference call on Wednesday, Jan. 6^th to discuss details of the project.  Thursday, April 28^th is the date set for the “Project Problem Solve” day that will be hosted at the Lincoln Montessori gym. The day will consist of multiple hands-on STEM projects led by Senior High, Junior High and one group of 4^th grade students to all 3^rd grade students in the district. More information will be publicized about this day as we get closer. 

Rationale: 

1. January 21st and 22nd I will be attending the Nebraska Association of Special Education Supervisors (NASES) Legislative Conference in Lincoln.  At this conference we are given the opportunity to meet with our State Senators to discuss our District’s Targeted Improvement Plan (TIP) showing high expectations for special education.  This semester our leadership team is implementing some interventions based on Marzano’s Building Academic Vocabulary. The district special education staff will be trained January 13th at a PLC.  There will also be follow up sessions provided on Thursday, January 14th at our district Professional Development Day.

2. On January 4th our students attending our Alternatives For Success (AFS) program walked into a new building.  The students and teachers alike are very excited about the new building and opportunities that will come with the new location. An Open House will be held February 10th from 3:00-5:00 p.m.

Rationale: 

School Improvement/Professional Development

On January 14, Norfolk Public Schools is teaming with ESU 8 and school districts served in the ESU 8 area to host Dave Weber, a motivational speaker on relationship building.  Breakout session themes following the keynote include: instructional technology, math, vocabulary, student behavior, science, writing, early childhood, autism, and multiple round table discussions to mention a few. If you click on updated link you can find a more comprehensive schedule.  Beth Nelson and I are working with Heidi Rethmeier from ESU 8 to confirm final arrangements.  We anticipate around 1,100 teachers and administrators will attend.

Safety

On December 1 the NPS LB757 team assembled for the second time this year.  We reviewed accident reports from October and November and provided clarification to reduce the chance of incident re-occurrence.  Our next meeting is scheduled for February 2.  I have invited Scott Williams, from Insurance Associates to update us on the new safety training options that are available. 

Human Resources

Nathan Leader from Norfolk has been approved as a local substitute teacher. 

Public Relations/Communication

Each year the Nebraska School Activities Association and the Nebraska Chiropractic Physicians Association recognize students who have been nominated by their schools, based on their individual academic excellence, leadership and significant contributions made to their NSAA activity.  The following students from Norfolk Public Schools have been identified as recipients:

Girls Golf:                   Whitney Lindsay and Mariah Yago

Boys Tennis:               Jacob Albrecht and Clay Carter

Softball:                      Kaleigh Griffith and Hannah Mathies

Girls Cross Country:    Aurora Gates and Emily Wicker

Boys Cross Country:    Andrew Meuret and Travis Millikan

Volleyball:                   Jenna Jochum and Emily Walker

Football:                      Lane McCallum and Aaron Wilken

 All-Nebraska Football Team:  Lane McCallum

Rationale: 

Athletic Conference Affiliation:

Our application to the Heartland Athletic Conference (HAC) has been submitted and received. Per HAC bylaws, they are required to wait a minimum of 60 days before acting on our request.

The HAC has indicated that they will not consider our request if it creates an uneven number of schools in the conference. Currently 3 schools have applied, which would be an uneven number.  However, the HAC has indicated that they will talk to other schools regarding the potential of joining the conference to make this an even number.

If the HAC approves our application, an entire school year will need to transpire before full acceptance into the HAC.  This means that we will be in the GNAC for at least one more year.

Legislative Update:

The 2016 State Legislative Session began last Wednesday, January 6th. A variety of bills have already been introduced, including bills related to property taxes, the closure of private schools, special education funding, and student transportation. I anticipate many more bills being introduced by our State Senators between now and January 20th. Monitoring these bills and their potential impact on Norfolk Public Schools will be a priority for me from now until the end of the session, which is April 20th.

 

LB 883:

Senator Scheer introduced LB 883 today, which would provide an annual payment to each school district to offset the amount of the district's budget which relies on property tax revenue.

• For 2016-17, no district would receive less in state aid than it received in state aid calculated for the previous school fiscal year;
• For 2017-18, no district would receive less in state aid than an amount equal to 75% of the state aid it received in state aid calculated for 2016-17;
• For 2018-19, no district would receive less in state aid than an amount equal to 50% of the state aid it received in state aid calculated for 2016-17;
• For 2019-20, no district would receive less in state aid than an amount equal to 25% of the state aid it received in state aid calculated for 2016-17; and
• For 2020-21 and each year thereafter, each school district would receive in state aid the amount calculated pursuant to the state aid formula.

* stay the same in 2016-2017

* decrease by $100,000 in 2017-2018

* decrease by $160,000 in 2018-2019

* increase by $1.7 million in 2019-2020 and 2020-2021.

 

Therefore, I do not plan to join the GNSA in opposing Senator Scheer's bill. However, we will want to watch it closely, as amendments could impact its effect on our district.

Rationale: 

The Facilities and Finance Committee met today at 12:00 noon in the central office board room. The January claims were reviewed as well as the Activity fund claims for December 2015. The committee reviewed the recommended compensation packages for our Nurses, Classified staff, and District Administration for 2016-2017. We also discussed projects that took place over the winter break as well as updates on the Central Office renovations.  The committee also reviewed a new stage system that would be used for graduation and other events.  The new stage system would meet current ADA requirements and fit well within the space we have. The next meeting is scheduled for February 8th, 2016 at 12:00 pm.

Rationale: 

The Policy and Government Relations Committee reviewed Board Policies 4001-4013 and 4110 electronically.  These policies are the first of four sections of our Personnel (4000) Series. They are being presented for first reading this evening. 

4001: Recruitment and Selection

4002: Equal Opportunity Employment

4003: Anti-discrimination, Anti-harassment and Anti-retaliation

4004: Duty Hours of Employees

4005: Absence of Employees

4006: Absence From Building

4007: Family and Medical Leave Policy

4008: Adoption Leave

4009: Drug and Substance Use and Abuse

4011: Bloodborne Pathogen Compliance Plan

4012: Infectious Disease

4013: Personnel files

4110: Contract

 

The Norfolk Area Chamber of Commerce's Government Affairs Committee had their first meeting for the upcoming legislative session on Thursday, January 7th.  We will have weekly video conference calls with Senator Scheer throughout the legislative session.

The GNSA has not met since our last School Board meeting. Our next Legislative and Executive Committee meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 13th, and our next General membership meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 20th.  

Rationale: 

The Activities Committee has not met since our last School Board meeting. Our next meeting is scheduled for noon on Monday, January 25th.  

 

Rationale: 

Jo Roberts, Principal of Grant and Lincoln Montessori Elementary School, is retiring at the end of the 2015-2016 school year. 

Mrs. Roberts indicated that this was a difficult decision for her to make, but that she believes it is in the best interest of her family.  She also indicated that she has enjoyed being a part of the administrative team at NPS, and she appreciated the opportunity to work with the amazing teachers and support staff in her buildings. 

 

Rationale:  Attached for public review are the claims for the month of January, 2016.  These claims have been reviewed by the Board of Education Finance and Facilities Committee prior to this meeting.  I am recommending to the Board of Education to approve the claims as posted.

Rationale: 

The Superintendent's Four-Year Staffing Proposal was discussed at length during our December Study Session.  It includes the addition of approximately $550,000 in staff during the 2016-2017 school year, including:

* 2nd grade teacher at Bel Air

* Additional Specials' time

* Principal for Lincoln Elementary

* Two Title I Teachers (Reading and Math Interventionists) for the Middle School

* Additional 0.3 FTE Counseling time at the Middle School

* Technology Specialist to be shared by the Middle School and Junior High School

* Reading Interventionist for the Junior High School

* Math Interventionist for the Junior High School

* Assistant Activities Director to be shared by the Junior and Senior High School

* Curriculum Specialist

* Preschool teacher and two preschool para-educators

* Social Workers (if a grant can be obtained)

 

The proposal also includes smaller staffing additions in 2017-2018, 2018-2019, and 2019-2020.

These include the addition of a third and fourth grade teacher at Bel Air Elementary, additional Special time, preschool teachers and paras, and our current Career Academy Coordinator and AfterShock Coordinator Positions (when those grants run out).  

 

The addition of staff takes serious consideration, especially given the uncertain nature of school funding. However, our student enrollment has increased by over 300 students in the last nine years and our percentage of students who qualify for Free and Reduced Lunch has increased by 8 percentage points during that same time period.  I believe the proposed additions are necessary in order for us to realize our vision of providing outstanding educational opportunities for all students. We know that we can afford these additions today and we have some "safety nets" built into our plan in case we see a decline in revenue in the future.  I cannot say with absolute certainty that those "safety nets" would be enough if state aide is changed in the future, but I can say that the additional staff would have a positive impact on our students' learning and that they are necessary if we want to continue to grow and improve as a district.

Rationale: 

Currently, we are 1 to 1 at the Senior High with ChromeBooks and we are 1 to 1 at the Junior High with ipads.  The Junior High will be updating their devices next year and have determined that they will be switching to ChromeBooks at that time. Not only will ChromeBooks give the Junior High more flexibility in terms of assessment, they are actually much less expensive than ipads.  This cost savings is enough for us to purchase enough ChromeBooks to go 1 to 1 at the Middle School as well. 

This is very timely for us as a district, because we will have fourth graders moving from Jefferson Elementary to the Middle School next year, who have had 1 to 1 devices available to them this year.  

Therefore, I am asking permission to let bids for approximately 325 ChromeBooks, so that we can implement a 1 to 1 technology initiative at the Middle School at the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year.  

Rationale:  I am recommending to the Board of Education to approve the Employment Agreement with our Nurses for 2016-2017 and 2017-2018.  This is a 6% package over two years that includes increases of $500 annually to their benefit package with the remaining percentage going to the base of their pay schedule.  This also includes an increase of 2 contract days which will go from 191 to 193 days starting in 2016-2017.  I did meet with all the nurses individually to discuss this proposal and everyone was in agreement at the time we met.

Rationale:  I am recommending to the Board of Education to approve the hourly and salaried classified compensation increases for 2016-2017.  This compensation proposal includes an overall 3% package increase for the salaried employees and 3% increase for individuals on an hourly basis. Both packages include $500 increase annually to each groups benefit package.  The base wage for the hourly classified positions will be increased of 3% for 2016-2017.  Attached are the proposed hourly and salaried classified compensation formats for 2016-2017.

Rationale:  I am recommending to the Board of Education to make a motion to approve the administrative compensation proposal and salary structure for 2016-2017.  This proposal is a 3% package increase which includes an additional $500 annually to each administrators benefit package. The proposed administrative salary structure which is attached has a $2,000 dollar increase to the base salary for 2016-2017. 

Rationale:  Our district needs to continue to move forward with upgrading our transportation fleet.  During our last board meeting I shared how the upcoming transportation needs would be financed in our district over the next several years by using a combination of dollars that have been depreciated and also dollars budgeted for vehicle and bus replacement.  I am recommending to the Board of Education to make a motion to start the bidding process for two replacement yellow activity buses and two vans.

Rationale:  These policies have been reviewed by the Policy and Government Relations Committee. Only minor revisions have been made, as these policies were adopted within the last 2-3 years and are still very relevant and current.

Rationale: 

This policy has been updated and revised to clarify our position on Certificated Staff's release from contract-particularly when that release is requested after April 30th.  Specific language has been added to the policy, which states, "an employee under contract will be granted a release from his or her contract if the request is received on or before April 30. Unless extreme extenuating circumstances apply, a request for release from contract received after April 30 will only be granted after a suitable replacement has been found.  The Board of Education reserves its right to contact the Nebraska Professional Practices Commission for those certificated personnel who may breach their contract obligations."

This is common practice for many school districts, as it prevents the district from late resignations which may be difficult (even impossible) to fill.

Rationale:  Our second meeting of the month is schedule for noon on Thursday, January 28th at the Central Office Administration Offices.