November 9, 2016 at 5:00 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Total amount of claims to be approved in the consent agenda for the month of November, 2016 by specific fund are as follows:
General Fund = $751,225.64

Nutrition Services Fund = $245,446.29

Cooperative Fund = $8,470.45

Depreciation Fund= $283,915.31

Special Building Fund = $423,727.18

QCPUF = $916,520.50

Employee Benefit Fund = $9,922.58

Student Fee Fund= $1,932.61

Bond Fund= $1,816,100.00

The total amount of claims for the month of October, 2016 in the Activities fund are as follows:
Activity Fund =$123,753.83

All of these claims were reviewed earlier this evening by the Finance and Facility Committee.

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Curriculum & Assessment

• NDE held a Math workshop at the LLLC. We had 6 teachers attend. The new assessment item types that are going to be field tested during NeSA of 2017 and implemented 2018 were reviewed. Teachers also worked on practice item types for the Check for Learning Program. This is the program where teachers can have students practice similar assessment items that appear on the NeSA test.
• There is continued work and updates needed in the K-2 ELA curriculum. The writing curriculum pieces needed to be updated and fine-tuned to be used with the new Wonders program and the assessments also needed to be reviewed and adjusted.
• A handful of elementary teachers are working to redesign the report card. They will use the different report card with the existing report card to reflect the end of 2^nd and 3^rd quarter. They have gathered information from their peer teachers and will continue to review before we make any final decisions on its operation for next year.
• I attended a meeting with a handful of various NECC representative and our senior high administration and guidance counseling department to discuss details involving the ACT Test administration. I was so impressed with the solution oriented attitude on tackling this large testing feat.

Technology

• I attended an after school Fall NETA Conference follow up with a large room full of teachers. Presentations were done by Becky Miller and Tina Saucer from ESU 8. The collaboration and sharing of information amongst teachers was awesome. Just another one of our technology learning and training opportunities.

1. The first season of Unified Bowling started on Tuesday, November 1st. Please access the Norfolk Activities calendar, located on our district website, to follow all of our activity events.
   
   
2. This Friday, November 11 is Veteran’s day.  All district buildings will be having a ceremony or celebration of our veterans.
   
   
3. November brings Thanksgiving vacation, there will be NO school on Wednesday, November 23rd - Friday, November 25th.

School Accreditation:

• This school year is an accreditation year for our school district and we are scheduled to have an External Team review March 26-28, 2017.
• One of the ways all principals are preparing for the accreditation visit is by updating their individual building data books.
• The data books contain summary information about student demographics and achievement. This information was shared with our Board of Education members on Tuesday, November 1st.
• Our External Team leader is Dr. Chad Dumas, Director of Learning from Hastings Public Schools.
• The high school accreditation process is completed through an organization named AdvancED.

Teacher Recognition:

• Please congratulate Mrs. Jennifer Carlisle (Art Teacher at Norfolk Middle School) on her recent award for being named named Nebraska Middle School Art Educator of the Year.
• Jennifer received the award on Friday, September 30th at the Nebraska Association of Teachers of Art (NATA) conference in McCook.
• Congratulations again to Mrs. Carlisle on a well deserved honor!

APL Training:

• Twelve teachers recently finished the final three days of intensive training on APL. The teachers enjoyed the training and their responses were very positive.
• APL is our district instructional model and the training provides “in depth” information and practice on consistent instructional strategies implemented across the district.  
• Twelve additional staff will participate in APL training in the spring.

Safety Training / Information:

• All “frontline” office support staff participated in crisis response training on Wednesday, October 19th from 3-5 p.m at Central Office. Participants enjoyed the training and had excellent suggestions for future presentations.
• SGT Chad Reiman and CPL Richard Frank from the Norfolk Police Division conducted the training. They did a wonderful job of providing relevant information focused on student and staff safety.
• More crisis response training will take place during our staff development day on Monday, January 23, 2017.

Professional Development Update:

• On Monday, October 24th, Dr. Tina Boogren from the Marzano Institute was in our district leading our certified teaching staff through the process of creating and sustaining highly engaged classrooms.
• The workshop was a great opportunity for our teachers to add strategies to their instructional toolboxes. Continually increasing our proficiency with teaching and learning adds additional positive impact to student achievement.
• The workshop centered around four questions teachers should remember as they guide their own practice to keep students attentive and engaged. These four “student-centered” questions are listed below:

1. How do I feel?

2. Am I interested?

3. Is this important?

4. Can I do this?

• Additionally, our Winter Workshop (a collaborative staff development day with a multitude of area schools) will take place here in Norfolk on Monday, January 23, 2017. The keynote speaker for the event will be George Couros. He is the author of the book The Innovator’s Mindset.
• This event will provide teachers with a wide range of relevant topics designed to enhance their instructional effectiveness. 

Traffic Safety

Bill Robinson, Mike Hart and I met with several City Officials to review traffic safety around our schools due to the increase in car/pedestrian accidents that we have seen this year.  We are trying to take a comprehensive look at this issue from all sides, including what the school can do, what the City can do, and what students and parents can do to improve safety. 

We have already repainted some crosswalks in several of our parking lots, and we added a parking lot at Lincoln Elementary to assist with preschool drop-off. We are also in the process of purchasing a property near Washington, pending Board approval tonight.  This would allow us to move staff parking off the street and alleviate congestion in that area. 

We have also issued a joint press release with the City asking for everyone to be extra diligent and cautious around our schools.  

We will continue to work with the City on this issue, as student safety is a paramount concern for us.

ESU 1 & 8 Legislative Meeting

ESU 1 and 8 superintendents met on October 19, 2016 to discuss the upcoming legislative session. We are now in the process of updating the brochure that we use when we meet with state senators.  Our goal is to present a unified message, centered around the common goals of increasing early childhood education, career and college readiness experiences, mental health resources and improved infrastructure.

NASB Update:

1. The annual State Education Conference will be held in LaVista November 16-18. Dr. Patti Gubbels, Bob Waite, Bill Robinson and I will be attending. This year's theme is "Today's Vision, Tomorrow's Reality." The Delegate Assembly will be held Friday, November 18th at 8:00 AM. We will elect a Board member to serve as our delegate for this assembly later this evening.

2. The Legislative Issues Conference and Budget and Finance Workshop will be held at The Cornhusker in Lincoln January 22-23. Please notify Mary Hoien if you would like to attend.

Superintendent Evaluation:

We recently received notice that NDE approved our revised Superintendent Evaluation. I am proposing the following timeline:

Monday, November 14th: Superintendent's Supporting Evidence Complete

Monday, November 28th: Individual Board Member's Evaluations Complete

Thursday, December 8th: Board President/Secretary's Compilation Complete 

Monday, December 12th: Evaluation Discussion during Study Session/Executive Session

Thursday, December 22nd (or sooner): Board President and Vice-President meet with Superintendent to discuss evaluation prior to the holidays

The Finance and Facility Committee met today at 4:00 pm.  The agenda included the following:

• Review of November claims
• Review of October activity claims
• Review of budget and percent comparisons
• Facility update including Career Academy
• Traffic Study Update
• Property purchase by Washington School
• Update on hail claim
• New overtime rules and regulations 
• Skyline redevelopment
• Chamber bucks

Our next meeting will be at noon on December 12th at Central Office board study room.

The Policy and Government Relations Committee has not met since our last regular Board meeting. We will not review a new section of policies until after the holidays.

No changes have been made to the policies that are up for 2nd reading.

The Activities Committee met at 1:00 on Thursday, October 27th.  We discussed our current Cooperative Activities Policy #5304.  We decided that no changes needed to be made to the policy, but that our caps needed to be revised. 

The cap is the maximum number of participants that an activity can have and still be eligible for coop.  This is the highest and most manageable number of students that our coaches and administration believe can participate and still be competitive at the varsity level.  Our baseball cap is being increased to 48 and our softball cap is being increased to 42. Both the boys and the girls swimming cap will be set at 25.  In addition, we noted that golf is listed as a sport that is eligible for coop, but a cap was never set. We decided to set both the boys and girls golf cap at 12. 

The cap for both boys and girls tennis will remain at 24, and the cap for both boys and girls soccer will remain at 38. 

These caps will be reviewed again next year, as dictated by policy.

Our next Activities Committee meeting is scheduled for noon on Monday, November 28th.

The NASB's Delegate Assembly will be held at the State Education Conference on Friday, November 18th at 8:00 A.M.   During this meeting, delegates will determine the NASB's 2017 legislative and leadership agenda. In addition, this assembly serves as the NASB's governance meeting for the 2016-2017 school year. 

Each board selects one board member to represent the district as the voting delegate. Additional board members may attend the meeting, but only the delegate can vote.

Dr. Patti Gubbels served as our delegate last year.

The 2016 Advocacy Handbook has been attached for your convenience.

The Policy and Government Relations Committee reviewed the following policies prior to the October Board meeting:

6283 (Concussions), 6284 (Initiations, Hazing, Secret Clubs and Outside Organizations), 6286 (Return to Learn From Cancer), 6290 (Dedications and Commencement), 6310 (Textbook Loans), 6320 (Parent Request for Exclusion), 6360 (Recognition of Religious Beliefs and Customs), 6361 (Acknowledgment of Religious Holidays), 6362 (Religion in the Curriculum), 6363 (Purpose of Religion in the Curriculum), 6370 (Multicultural Education), 6380 (Equal Opportunity: Instruction Program), and 6390 (Controversial Issues).

No additional changes are recommended to these policies at this time.

The Calendar Committee and I are recommending that the attached calendar be approved for 2017-2018. The calendar is very similar to 2016-2017. However, the following changes should be noted:

1. Students will start school on a Thursday, rather than a Monday.

2. Our second additional professional development day has been added on January 4th. This will allow students to have a two week break over the holidays, and staff to participate in training when their minds are fresh from the break.

3. We are moving our first Parent Teachers Conferences back to October 23-26. This will allow teachers to know their students better and it will allow more coaches and parents to participate in conferences.

4. We are also moving our Parent Teachers Conferences from 5:00-8:00 to 4:00-7:00, but we will continue to have regular dismissal times for students.

Our Strategic Action Plans were updated at our Board Retreat, with input from administration and the original Strategic Planning Steering Committee. We have made huge steps towards meeting each goal, but decided to keep them for at least one more year, to insure that they are fully in place. It is possible that one or more of these goals may be "met" next year, meaning that it would be time to start a new Strategic Planning Cycle.

However, this does not mean that these goals would disappear. Technology, Curriculum Revision, and Career Academies will continue to be areas of focus for the foreseeable future. They will simply be replaced with other Strategic Planning Goals when we feel confident that these areas have become "a part of the way we do business at NPS" and they no longer need to be a Strategic Planning Goal in order to insure that they happen.

What I am asking you to approve tonight, are the revised and updated Strategic Planning Goals, based on the feedback that we received at the Retreat and what has been accomplished so far.  Action Steps that have already been completed have been deleted or marked as "on-going" and Action Steps that have not been completed have been given revised completion dates.

On a side note, I want to thank each one of you for volunteering an entire day to be a part of this important process.  It was a long, but important day, and your attendance was very much appreciated.

We will have a special board meeting on Tuesday, November 15 at noon in the NPS Central Administration Office to accept the bid for the Career Academy.

The next regular meeting will be Monday, December 12th at the NPS Central Administration Office. The Study Session will begin at 5:30 in the Small Board Room and the Business meeting will begin at 6:30 in the Large Board Room.  All components of the meeting are open to the public (unless an Executive Session is called).