June 8, 2015 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.

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Facilities Update

Lunch Program

Bussing

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

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.

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CURRICULUM & ASSESSMENT:

 Curriculum work is scheduled throughout the week of June 15-19 and June 22-25 for the areas of Math, Family Consumer Science, Skilled Technical Science and Ag. The Teaching and Learning Team will be working on unit assessments in Wonders and HOLT Literature program for a few days. 

Curriculum and Instruction state reports are being completed for the June 15^th deadline and curriculum orders and purchases are being made.

TECHNOLOGY:

The server was successfully moved from the Central Office Building to the DCC building. We are happy with the movement and organization so far. Yearly updating and maintenance of the district technology is under way.

The new website is under construction and is a gradual process. More to share on the website in July.

Rationale: 

Art teachers from our elementary schools have collected and organized school art entries for the Madison County Fair. These Fair Cards will be displayed at the fair. If you are able to attend the fair this year we hope that you will take the time to see the display in the Octagon Building on the Madison County Fairgrounds.

Our School Nurses - Blair Brink, Diane Schilling, Cori Pena and Cindy Fox - are attending the State of Nebraska’s School Health Conference in Kearney on June 8th and 9th. The purpose is to stay current with the new health regulations and immunizations that affect students wishing to enter our public schools. This is always a very worthwhile conference.

An oral report on the Sixpence Grant will be included.

Rationale: 

School Improvement/Professional Development

On June 3, 11, and 26 our building principals, in collaboration with our CO administrators, will be working on our school improvement process.  The work will consist of a district profile, building profile, past goals, and a discussion on goals for the 2015-2016 school year.  On July 27 this information will be shared with all of you at our board/administrator work day.

Safety

On Monday, June 15 I will be meeting with Norfolk Chief of Police, Bill Mizner and other city crisis response staff to review NPS safety protocols.

Human Resources

Summer Projects:

1. Job description updates
2. Classified evaluations
3. New hiring software (Recruit and Hire)

Openings:

High School Guidance

Speech Language Pathologist

Public Relations

Congratulations to Mr. Chuck Hughes, the newest addition to our administrative team. He takes over for Jennifer Lohrberg (Norfolk Middle School Assistant) as she moves on to take a new administrative position in Colorado.

Congratulations to Mr. Michael Hart who was named Nebraska Middle Level Academy Administrator of the Year.

Rationale: 

Middle School Assistant Principal:

Middle School teacher, Chuck Hughes, has been selected to serve as the new Assistant Principal of Norfolk Middle School. We had many good candidates for this position, but were very impressed during Mr. Hughes' interview.  He has developed many good leadership skills during the thirteen years that he has served our district as a teacher and coach.  It is always nice, when we find that our best administrative candidates come from within our own teaching ranks.  I think it says something very positive about the professional development and leadership opportunities that we provide our staff.

Because we are so close to the beginning of softball season, we will allow Mr. Hughes to continue coaching softball for one more year if we are unable to find a suitable replacement. This would place extra work on Mrs. Robinson at the beginning of the school year, but she has graciously agreed to do this, if necessary, to ensure that we have a quality coach.

Administrative Retreats:

We had the first of four Administrative "Retreats" last week and have another planned for this Thursday. The focus of these "retreats" is to provide professional development and leadership training to our administrative team. A large portion of our time is focused on the new School Improvement process that we are implementing this year. Other topics include: PLC leadership, curriculum training, an administrative walk-through and instructional rounds, and the development of a long-range staff development plan. We do our best to provide on-going training to administrators during the school year, but summer is the only time that we have large blocks of time with minimal interruptions.

Rationale: 

Rationale:  The Policy and Government Committee did not meet this month.  The legislative session has come to an end, and we will not begin our policy revision cycle until fall.  This committee deserves a little break after all the work they put into adopting our new policy book.

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The Activities Committee met at noon on May 18th.  

Head Girls' Basketball Coach, Jared Oswald; Head Boys Basketball Coach, Ben Ries; and Head Volleyball Coach, Sarah Klug; discussed their programs with the committee. They shared their coaching philosophies as well as information related to the scheduling of gyms, and camps/clinics.

Activities Director, Dennis Dolliver, shared information regarding Booster Club donations and our conversations with the City regarding possible updates to the softball complex.

The next Activities Committee meeting is tentatively scheduled for noon on August 24th.

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Chuck Hughes-Middle School Assistant Principal

Sonya Nielson- District Speech Language Pathologist

Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders and Master of Science Degree in Speech Language Pathology from the University of North Dakota

Currently a Speech Pathologist at South Middle School in Grand Forks, North Dakota

 

Rationale:  See attached regarding handbook changes for 2015-2016

Rationale:  Motion to Approve the Pay-to-Ride Bussing Proposal

Rationale:  Our next regularly scheduled meeting will be held at noon on Thursday, June 25th at the Central Office Administration Building.