April 10, 2017 at 5:30 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Curriculum Review: K-8 Math Program -- Curriculum Team Members

Accreditation Review -- Mike Hart & Jake Luhr

At this time I would like to open the hearing to discuss, consider, and receive input on the student fee policy.  Attached for your review are the following:

1. Current Policy 5416 (Attachment A)

2. Audited Student fee receipts and expenditures in 2015-2016 (Attachment B)

3. Proposed fees for 2017-2018 (Attachment C)

At this time, if any member of the public wishes to comment or give opinions on the student fee policy and proposed fees for 2017-2018, we ask that you come up to the microphone and state your name.

Comments

The district collected $142,002 in board approved student fees in the areas of instruction and activities during the 2015-2016 school year. These fee dollars can only be expended for the items for which they are collected.  The district had $143,432 in board approved disbursements for 2015-2016 which left the fund with a cash balance of $189,789 as of August 31st, 2016.  The cash balance is primarily composed of those fees which are not necessarily expended on an annual basis such as the technology, summer school and 21st Century fees.  The district reviews all items on the proposed fee list annually and only lists those fees which we believe are necessary to help offset the total cost to the district.  Proposed changes in district student fees for 2017-2018 compared to 2016-2017 are removal of the following:  

• Athletic Team Shoes (9-12)
• Electronic Projects (9-12)
• Jr. Statesmen (9-12)

All other fees will remain the same for 2017-2018.

Waiver Policy
The District’s policy is to provide fee waivers in accordance with the Public Elementary and Secondary Student Fee Authorization Act. Students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches under the United States Department of Agriculture child nutrition programs shall have available a fee waiver for use of all listed student fees (List of fees by grade configuration is attached.) in both curricular and extracurricular programs. Participation in a free-lunch program or reduced-price lunch program is not required to qualify for fee waivers for purposes of this section, but qualification is required. Students or their parents must request a fee waiver prior to participating in or attending the activity, and prior to purchase of the materials. Failure to do so will result in a loss of the fee waiver rights from such activity or materials. Materials, equipment, or specific uniform items to be provided to waiver eligible students shall be required to be approved by the administration, which shall apply a standard based on providing materials which are equitable to those purchased for comparable students.

This is the time during the meeting when the public may request to address the Board. If you wish to comment, we ask that you identify yourself and the topic that you wish to address. Each individual's comments will be limited to five minutes.

 Please note that  the Board cannot discuss or act upon matters that are not listed on the agenda. Therefore, Board  members will not respond to your comments or questions.  If you wish to request that an item be placed on a future Board agenda, you may contact the Superintendent or her assistant during normal business hours.

Also note that concerns related to school personnel need to be addressed to the Superintendent using the approved district protocol.

Curriculum:

• After hearing the Math presentation during Study Session, I hope you feel the same positive forces I have in working with this group. Your recommendation of the EnVisions Math Program is much appreciated.
• Finalized professional development with Mr. Hart. The Professional Development will start this summer and carry throughout the next school year. More details to come on this.

Federal Title Programs:

• NDE held a Stakeholders meeting at Central Office the evening of March 14^th. There is no new information to report regarding Nebraska’s rules for implementation of ESSA as of yet.
• All nonpublic Title Consultations are complete. The deadline is June 1.

Technology:

• The technology department has all new laptops distributed to elementary teachers. The MS and JH and some SH teachers are still waiting. The transition has gone really great so far due to the efforts of Pat Wolff and Matthew Arens.
• I have met with elementary building principals to evaluate and examine their technology in their buildings to determine priorities and set plans to meet needs. 
• There are a small number of teachers attending the NETA conference in April. 

• On Wednesday, April 19th, Kindergarten Round-Up will be held at all our elementary buildings.  There will be activities for students and information for parents/guardians. Kindergarten students may access the immunizations at the ELVPHD office located at Midtown Health Center on the same day.

• District Music Contest is scheduled for Friday, April 21st.  If you can‘t attend on the 21st, they are having a Pre-contest concert on Tuesday, April 18th at 7:00 pm in the Carson Theater.

• Saturday, April 29th is Prom, which will be held at Divots. Coronation will begin at 7:45pm. The dance will be held from 8:00 to 11:00 pm. Doors open at 7:00 pm.

• The Spring Play performance of Arsenic and Old Lace, will be May 4th, 5th and 6th at the Carson Theater starting at 7:00 pm, each night.

AdvancEd: School Accreditation Visit:

• At the end of March, an External Review Team (consisting of area educational experts) visited our district to analyze data and collect stakeholder feedback about the continuous improvement processes taking place in our district.
• Educational accreditation is a type of quality assurance process under which services and operations of educational institutions or programs are evaluated by an external body to determine if applicable standards are met. If standards are met, accredited status is granted by the appropriate agency. In our case, that agency is AdvancED.
• As a result of the visit, Norfolk High School was awarded accreditation status through AdvancEd. Special thanks to all of the staff members who worked hard to prepare for the visit!
• Preliminary results from the External Team were shared at the April study session.
• The External Team will submit a final written report and we will use this report to further analyze areas of success and targeted areas for improvement.

Instructional Model Task Force:

• Our district continues the process of developing and implementing our own Instructional Model. Over the course of second semester, we collaborated with a small group of teacher leaders (representative of various grade levels and buildings across the district) to design an Instructional Model that will provide additional assistance to new teachers and consistency of instructional expectations for all teachers. Our Instructional Model will help to further enhance our instructional practices (Pre-K - 12).
• Work on the Instructional Model will align with our district strategic goals and our school improvement process and meet the recommendations of the External School Accreditation Team

Absence Management:

• On Monday, March 27th our district began using a new automated sub service system entitled Absence Management.
• The transition to the new program has gone very well and the system has received positive reviews from our staff and our subs. 
• Components of this system include each staff member and substitute being given a password and login to access and utilize the system.

Personnel Information:

Hiring season continues at a rapid pace. Listed below are the current openings for various staff positions.

Current Classified Openings;

• Activity Drivers
• General Maintenance
• Substitute Custodians
• Senior High School Night Supervisor Custodian
• Junior High School Media/SPED Paraprofessional

Current Certified Staff Openings;

• Senior High School ELL Teacher
• 7th Grade Math Teacher
• 8th Grade English Teacher
• Middle School PE Teacher
• Speech / Language Pathologist (3)

Current Coaching Openings:

• HS Assistant Softball
• HS Assistant Volleyball
• HS Assistant Baseball
• 9th Head Boys Basketball
• 8th Assistant Boys Basketball
• 8th Head Football
• 7th Assistant Football
• JH Speech
• JH Intramural Volleyball
• JH Intramural Football

Staff Appreciation:

Norfolk Public Schools is blessed to have many dedicated and talented staff throughout our district.  We will recognize and celebrate our staff with breakfast and awards this Thursday, April 13th at our Senior High School.  Please plan to arrive at the gym by 7:30 AM to help serve breakfast.

Our keynote speakers will be Sam Stecher and Mark Johnson, co-founders of MissionMonday.com and co-authors of It Happens in the Hallways. 

Federal Cuts:

President Trump's initial budget proposal to Congress would cut over $9 billion from public education and eliminate important Title programs.

These proposed cuts would eliminate all funding for Title IIa, a grant program that was designed to help schools better recruit, support and train educators in high-poverty schools. This funding is critical to Norfolk Public Schools, as well as our local parochial schools. We count on this funding to provide our staff with high-quality professional development and in-service training, as well as assistance with technology integration and curriculum development. Cutting this program would significantly reduce the amount and quality of staff development that we are able to provide for our teachers.

These proposed cuts would also eliminate funding for 21st Century Community Learning Centers, such as Norfolk Public Schools’ AfterShock Program. This program provides our Middle School and Junior High students with hands-on, activity-based learning opportunities after school and during the summer. Cutting this program would take away an outstanding enrichment program that serves as a building block to our Career Academies. This would be detrimental to all 5^th-8^th grade students in Norfolk, as AfterShock is open to all students in Norfolk, whether they attend Norfolk Public or one of the community’s private, parochial, or home schools. 

I have contacted Senator Fischer, Senator Sasse and Congressman Fortenberry encouraging them not to approve these cuts.

The committee met today at 12:00 noon and reviewed all claims for April, activity claims for March and current fund balances.  We also discussed the following items:

• Facility Updates on the Career Academy
• Recommendation on Roof bids for Washington, Westside, and Jefferson
• Recommendation and rationale for proposed lunch prices for 2017-2018
• Tentative timeline on full completion of the electrical gear replacement at the Sr. High
• Proposed student fees for 2017-2018
• Dr. Thompson provided an update on traffic discussions with the city

Our next meeting will be on May 8th at 12:00 noon.

The Government Relations Committee met on Monday, April 4th to discuss the bills that have made it out of committee and our strategy for the rest of this session.  We agreed that we are in a "wait and see" mode, but need to be ready to react quickly when bills come out of committee.  Since then, LB 409 and LB 640 have come out of committee.  We are preparing to contact Senators regarding these bills, as they have a significant impact on our school funding.

In addition:

Tammy, Sandy, and Dr. Thompson met with Senator Morfeld on Monday, 3/27 to discuss legislative issues. He is a member of the Education Committee and provided valuable insight regarding several bills.

Tammy and Sandy represented the district at a Rotary Luncheon where the Governor spoke about a variety of issues and Sandy and Dr. Thompson attended them Community Conversation where Governor Ricketts and Senator Scheer spoke about property taxes.

I continue to meet weekly with the GNSA Legislative Committee and the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce Government Relations Committee. I also attended NCSA's Government Relations Information Team Conference, where I heard several key Senators speak and had a productive lunch conversation with Senator Scheer.

Shana Chamberlain

Norfolk Middle School, High Needs Special Education Program (ED)

Bachelor of Science Degree in Education in Special Education K-12 from Wayne State College

Currently is an in/out home provider for DHHS.

Erika Beltz

Norfolk Junior High School, Resource Teacher

Bachelor of Science Degree in Education in Special Education K-12 from Wayne State College

Currently is a substitute teacher for Norfolk Public Schools

Amy Wattier

Norfolk Junior High School, 8^th Grade Math Teacher

Bachelor of Science Degree in Education in Mathematics from Midland Lutheran College in Fremont, Nebraska

Currently teaching Math 7^th, 8^th Math, Algebra, and 9-11^th Pre-Algebra at Twin River Public Schools in Genoa, Nebraska.

Keri Messersmith

Norfolk Public Schools District, School Psychologist

Will complete her internship with Norfolk Public Schools to receive her Educational Specialist Degree in School Psychology from the University of Kearney in Kearney, Nebraska

Currently is a substitute teacher for Wakefield Public Schools.

Kristine Herley

Bel Air Elementary, Resource Teacher

Bachelor of Science Degree in Education in Special Education K-12 from Wayne State College

Currently is a substitute teacher for Norfolk Public Schools.

Deb Buresh -- Special Education Teacher at Bel Air Elementary School

Nancy Jacobs -- ELL Teacher at the Senior High School

Samantha Bayer -- School Pyschologist

Chandler Nielson -- Junior High Math Teacher

Wendy Clayton--Middle School Physical Education Teacher

At our March Board meeting we approved Board Policies 8156 and 8158 which separated the Policy and Government Relations  Committee into two separate committees. After visiting with interested Board members, I am recommending that Bob Waite, Sandy Wolfe, and Dr. Patti Gubbels remain on the Policy Committee and that Sandy Wolfe, Dr. Patti Gubbels, and Tammy Day serve on the Government Relations Committee.  

We also approved Board policy 8157 which created a Superintendent Evaluation Committee.  The policy stipulates that this committee is made up of three members, including the Board President, Vice President and one other member. Therefore, I am recommending Board President, Arnie Robinson, Board Vice President, Sandy Wolfe, and Dr. Patti Gubbels serve on this committee.

All other Board committees will remain the same, as they were approved in January.

Annually we are updating Chromebooks for our 1:1 student devices at the Senior High as well as updating pockets of devices throughout the district. In some cases where growth is eliminating the space for computer labs, mobile Chromebook labs are being replaced. The existing end of life Chromebooks will be evaluated/assessed to determine if they are usable or used for repair parts. 

I have listed qualifying bids that were submitted on April 6th, 2017 for roof projects at Jefferson, Westside and Washington Schools.   Details on the pricing for each bid is listed as well as pricing for required alternates. Alternates will only be utilized if recommended and approved by our architect once the project begins and the existing roof is removed.  I am recommending that the district except the bids from Western Roofing for Jefferson, Westside and Washington schools.  Funds for these projects will be paid from our Special Building Fund.

Jefferson Elementary

Guarantee Roofing and Sheet Metal – Lump sum proposal $249,530.00, $15.00 sq ft metal deck, $1.75 sq ft roof insulation, $750 per roof drain

Western Roofing Company, INC – Lump sum proposal $182,747.00, $6.00 sq ft metal deck, $1.10 sq ft roof insulation, $600 per roof drain

Westside Elementary

Guarantee Roofing and Sheet Metal – Lump sum proposal $220,483.00, $15.00 sq ft metal deck, $1.75 sq ft roof insulation, $750 per roof drain

Western Roofing Company, INC – Lump sum proposal $194,364.00, $6.00 sq ft metal deck, $1.10 sq ft roof insulation, $600 per roof drain

Washington Elementary

Guarantee Roofing and Sheet Metal – Lump sum proposal $229,774.00, $15.00 sq ft metal deck, $1.75 sq ft roof insulation, $750 per roof drain

Western Roofing Company, INC – Lump sum proposal $195,442.00, $6.00 sq ft metal deck, $1.10 sq ft roof insulation, $600 per roof drain

The second meeting of the month is scheduled for noon on Thursday, April 27th at the NPS Central Administration Office. This meeting will be cancelled if no action is necessary.

The next regular meeting of the Board is scheduled for Monday, May 8th at the NPS Central Administration Office. The Study Session will begin at 5:30 and will be followed by the regular business meeting at 6:30.  All components of the meeting will be open to the public unless an Executive Session is required to protect the interest of the district or to prevent needless hard to the reputation of an individual.