February 13, 2012 at 7:30 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

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

Rationale:   

 

It is the vision of the Norfolk Public Schools to actively engage all students in learning
through a relevant and comprehensive standards-based curriculum that integrates
 21^st century skills, tools, context, and assessments.  

 

Goal #1:  All students will succeed at each grade level and graduate from high school well-prepared for a variety of post-secondary pursuits.

 

 

Goal #2:  All students will feel connected with the school and the learning process.

 

 

Goal #3:  District resources, programs, and departments will be aligned to attain high levels of student achievement and instructional excellence.

 

 

Goal #4:  The community will be engaged to support high levels of student achievement.

 

 

 

The mission of the Norfolk Public Schools is to prepare studentswith the skills and knowledge to meet the challenges of a complex, global society.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rationale:  January 9, 2012 -- 4:30 Study Session

January 9, 2012 -- 7:30 Regular Session

January 26, 2012 -- 2nd Meeting of the Month

Rationale:  The board will consider the following resignations, effective at the end of the 2011-12 contract year:

1. Anita Theophilus, Elementary School Guidance Counselor
2. Chad Boyer, Washington Elementary School Principal
3. Timothy Goede, District School Psychologist

Rationale:  This agenda item will be presented next month.

Rationale:  There are two groups tonight:
 

1. A brief performance by an orchestra string trio under the direction of Denise Bender.
2. The HOPE Program presentation by Norfolk High staff and students.

Rationale: 

1. Principal Search
2. Activity Update

Rationale:  The bills for the month of February, as approved in the consent agenda are as follows:

General Fund	$277,730.26
Cooperative Fund	$  41,284.73
Lunch Fund	$100,229.94
Spec. Building Fund	$ 77,390.00
Bond Fund	$      450.00
Depreciation Fund	$      965.47

The SPED IDEA application has been approved and we will begin to request reimbursement for the various segments of that grant. 

The Business office is in the very preliminary stages of budget planning for the 2012-2013 fiscal year.  How the budget is developed and finalized will depend greatly on state aid and District valuation growth.

Rationale:  Technology--Google Apps for Education

Norfolk Public Schools is in the process of setting up Google Apps for Education for our staff (and students beginning with the 12/13 school year).  This system, powered by Google, will replace our current email system with Gmail, and will also provide a suite of other Google products such as Google Docs and Sites and will enable us to better communicate, share, and collaborate.  We will be joining over 8 million other students and teachers that are already using Google Apps at schools around the world.

We are excited to offer Google Apps as it represents an important step towards developing a 21st century approach to curriculum and learning.  These tools will support the high levels of collaboration that are required in today's classroom to prepare students with the communication and collaboration skills they're going to need.  

You might ask, "What is the driving force behind this change?"  There are multiple factors that have influenced this decision.  First of all, Google Apps provides many collaboration tools for staff and students.  Second, cloud-based systems such as Google provide great flexibility and accessibility across a variety of platforms.  Last, Google Apps for Education is completely free.  While we will continue to pay a nominal fee for email archiving services, apps like Google Docs will allow us to forego the future purchase of products like Microsoft Office.  This will be a large savings to the district.

There is currently a small pilot taking place in the district while the set up is finalized.  There have been few issues so far.  Over the next 45 days, we will bring the entire staff over the the Google platform.  Our target date for completion is March 22.

We are excited about this change and believe it will help us to continue to move forward in our district.


School Calendar

During the action items, we will be asking you to approve the school calendar for the 2012-2013 school year.  The calendar presents minimal changes from the current school year's calendar.  The one tweak we have made has to do with parent-teacher's conferences.  We have elected to extend the Thursday afternoon conferences to all schools in the district (going from K-6 to K-12).  The reason for this change is to give parents at the upper levels one more option to attend their children's conferences.  In addition to that change, during parent-teacher conference week, all schools will dismiss at the same time each day (2:00 on Monday-Wednesday, 11:30 on Thursday).  This was done to reduce the confusion that comes when you have children who attend different schools who are all getting out at different times each day of the conference week.

Rationale: 

v  Norfolk Public Schools had 12 students attend the UNMC Dental Day in Lincoln, NE on Friday, February 3^rd.  All students received necessary dental work that will improve their overall dental health. Our students were accompanied by Diane Schilling, RN, one of our Norfolk Public School nurses.  We wish to thank PATCH for contributing funds for the trip, Elkhorn Logan Valley Health Department for organizing the activity and the transportation, the Norfolk Community Health Care Clinic for the dental screenings of the students, parents for allowing their children to participate in this dental activity and Norfolk Public Schools.

 

v   February 6^th-9^th Parent–Teacher Conferences were held in our Norfolk Public Schools.  As soon as the conference results are complete I will share them with you.

 

v  On February 16^th, Norfolk Public Schools is organizing the 4^th Annual Northeast Nebraska Crisis Response Team Training from 1:00-4:00 p.m.  The training afternoon is being held at Northeast Community College.  We currently have 5 teams from the area planning to attend this activity.

 

v   February 13^th our ELL students begin their ELDA (English Language Development Assessment).  This assessment measures student growth in the areas of: reading, speaking, listening and writing the English language.  The closing window for this assessment is March 23^rd.  We anticipate having student results returned to the Norfolk Public Schools by July 1, 2012.

 

v   Norfolk Public Schools continues to run newspaper ads for school bus route and activity drivers.  We are seeking a sufficient number of qualified drivers to help us meet these daily route and activity needs.

 

v  Building principals have been asked to start listing summer maintenance items for their respective buildings.  I will be meeting with each principal after March 1^st in an effort to prioritize these needs and then assign budget dollars to those selected items.

 

Rationale:  The Activities Committee met on January 23. Reports were heard on the following items:

1. Girls State Golf
2. 2012 Coaching Openings
3. Public Service Announcements (PSA's) at school events

Rationale:  The board of education received an email on January 25, 2012 from the Norfolk City Education Association regarding contract negotiations.

Rationale:  The District needs to expand its available bandwith and join into a network contract for Internet services. Area school districts work with their ESU's to obtain bids. This motion would authorize the ESU #8 Administrator to contract with Nebraska Link to purchase 100 mg of bandwith for $2,614 per month for the next four years totaling $125,472.

This is a service for which the district can be reimbursed up to 70% through Erate.

Rationale:  The second meeting of the month will be held on Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 12:00 noon in the Central Office board room.

The next regular meeting of the board of education is scheduled for Monday, March 12, 2012. The study session will be held at 4:30 p.m. at the central office board room and the regular business meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. at the city council chambers.