June 20, 2016 at 5:00 PM - Work Session Regular Meeting

Discussion:  There were no recognitions.

Discussion:  The board of education toured the new High School Site with Hausmann and DLR representatives.

Discussion:  Doug Molczyk read the Mission Statement.

Discussion:  No one spoke to the board.

Discussion:  Superintendent Dr. Troy Loeffelholz recognized public comment at both May board meetings. His goal was to be informative about the facts that surrounded the agreement. In the process, the administration found there was no policy to govern the cooperative. The policy covers softball, tennis, swimming/diving, and baseball. Students who play in a cooperative sport from another school must buy "C" stamp for $25, and nonresidents of CPS must also pay a $275 fee per sport their child participates in. The regulation will govern the policy. Regulations include participants must wear CHS attire or neutral attire during games and practices. Clothing from other schools will not be allowed. Dr. Loeffelholz said he will add in that clothing from youth organizations will also not be allowed for the second reading. There will be a maximum number of students before coaches can release players. Coaches can release after this number is reached. The coach must develop a scoring system to evaluate kids, to be added to the policy. Dr. Loeffelholz said there is cancellation clause within the cooperative agreement if one of the schools does not meet the expectations. The agreement will be reviewed with the activities committee from CPS and Scotus Central Catholic at least once a year. The cooperative school will receive a minimum of a two-year notice if the agreement is not going to be renewed. Mike Goos said it was a great opportunity for the community to be involved in and now everyone knows the expectations.

Discussion:  This agenda item was removed from the agenda to be acted on in July.

Discussion:  CMS Assistant Principal Jordon Anderson and CHS Principal Amy Haynes attended a handbook workshop with some attorneys. Anderson realized there were a lot of things missing from the CMS Handbook. Some of the key areas missing included: severe weather, automated calls being allowed.

Discussion:  Executive Director of Business Operations/Human Relations Dave Melick said the board wanted a offer a three-year contract with a $7,000 increase each of three years. Theresa Seipel thanked Melick for all the work he did on the contract and thanked Dr. Loeffelholz for all his hard work. She said a three-year contract gives the district a more stability. Ken Curry also thanked Melick and said he was glad Dr. Loeffelholz will be here more years. Mike Goos agreed and said Dr. Loeffelholz is a leader in the community and the state.

Discussion:  The board asked why they needed to approve the turf package as a separate item for the high school construction project. Dr. Loeffelholz said this is outside the scope of the high school project. This will allows the district to control costs and not pay a Construction Management fee or change order fee. He said the district will also be the ones to apply for the recycled tire refund grant. There were eight bids received and they ranged in price from $332,000 to $359,000. Dr. Loeffelholz said the administration is recommending Sporturf Powerhouse 44 oz. He said this is a dual parallel split sports turf. Dr. Loeffelholz said another product was close, but this one is more durable and will last longer. He said this is the turf used at Peru State College. The cost of the turf is $336,500, but after the tire grant will be $252,000.

Discussion:  There were no recognitions.

Discussion:  CMS Principal Amy Haynes said they have been talking about middle school programming for a year and a half. The purpose of the programming committee was to establish a shared knowledge; reach consensus on guiding principles; and build the program. Haynes said they used the books Forgotten Middle and Breaking Ranks to help in the process. Breaking Ranks had three focus areas: collaborative leadership and PLCs; personalizing the school environment; and curriculum, instruction, assessment. These three groups spent time looking at information to develop guiding principles for grades 5-6 and 7-8. Items considered most important from the data team include: select priority standards; clearly define what students need to know and do per standard; develop proficiency scales; adopt a data team process; provide a refresher on PLC team meetings/collaboration; and search for ways to show examples of what it looks like. Rigor is another area. The first step was coming up with a definition. She said the committee plans on working on this part next year. The curriculum assessment group looked at the Forgotten Middle and ACT information. The committee answered the following questions to begin their process. What are the essential knowledge and skills? Who is responsible for the essential knowledge and skills? How often are the essential skills taught and practiced? How are the essential knowledge and skills measured? How will teachers respond to students needing additional instructional support? In order to personalizing the learning environment, the group felt advisory period was needed. An advisory is where one adult and a small group of students get to know each other well for two years. Haynes said this will help promote community. The 5-6 guiding principles are: development of a program based on academic and social emotional needs of students; a program more developmental and structured; divide students into smaller teams to establish more personalized learning; provide more core time for reading, language arts and math; finish the school day with the same teacher that they started with; guidance services will provide strong emotional support and monitoring college and career readiness. Haynes said the Guiding Principles for 7-8 are very similar. Some of the difference are the program is developmental structured with a very gradual release of autonomy; students will be offered different exploratory opportunities; and collaborative time will be provided to look at data. Guiding Recommendations for the 7-8 grades include: common planning time; go back to periods instead of blocks; no A/B days in core classes; making reading and language arts separate classes; having health/fitness all year long; having a daily advisory period; and having a strong career and college readiness piece for 8th grade; having special education teachers for every team; having three teams per grade level; having a counselor for every grade level; having an additional administrator; making keyboarding and technology required; and having a test administrator. A proposed schedule would include having music and PE alternate every day. There would be STEM, keyboarding or art for a tri-semester. Fifth grade could be pulled out in WIN time for band, and in sixth grade, students would need to make a choice between band and choir. In grades 7-8, they want smaller teams but don’t want to reduce reading, language arts or math time, so these would still be a double period. Science and social studies will still be shared by one teacher. The earliest lunch would begin at 10:30 a.m. Haynes said the middle school will be doing two different programs under one roof. She said they will meet with Dan Keiter and started looking at the CHS building layout on July 5-6. At this time, the different departments will look and see what they need. She said the staff is aware that some things cannot be changed. Haynes said many of the changes will not be that different but some things will be a lot different for the sixth grade teachers. She said they will be teaching reading and this is something they have not done in a while. She said they will be given training before the change is made. Hopefully people can be placed in the right spot.

Discussion:  No itmes were removed from the consent agenda.

Discussion:  Dr. Loeffelholz said the Foundation has asked that the board approve Kim Kwapnioski as the new Foundation Executive Director. Dr. Loeffelholz said Kwapnioski is hopeful that she can reach out to the alumni for the foundation.

Discussion:  The total contributions back to the district for May were $9,861.23 from the Foundation, Centennial Pac, Lost Creek PTO, North Park PTO, Alumni Basketball Tournament, Emerson PTO, West Park PTO, Sports Boosters and Band Boosters.

Discussion:  Melick said policy allows some bills that do not exceed $2,500 to be paid without board approval. He said this has been happening more frequently because depending on when the bill is received it could take a month and a half before it is paid. Melick said the bills paid early are for personal reimbursement, local vendors or other credit cards. He said when this is done he will submit a list to the board of those items that were already paid. He said this way the board will know what is paid.

Discussion:  The board made a motion to accept all surplus items under one motion.

Discussion:  Melick said he will pay out early retirement from next year’s budget. Approval had to be given from the Department of Education. He said his staff has spent the past year tracking sub hours. According to the new Affordable Health-Care Act any sub that works an average of 30 or more hours is entitled to health insurance. He said this year there was no one who met that criteria. He said it would be difficult to get to that level.

Discussion:  Dr. Loeffelholz said there was good news about the Over the Road Bus (OTR); however, the district is still looking for another potential OTR. He said the two yellow buses were just purchased a couple years ago. An OTR bus will not be cheap. He said they are also looking into 18 passenger vehicle, a CDL will not be required to drive it.

Discussion:  Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction Amy Romshek said the ACT pilot project at CHS has ended. She said for the past four years, all juniors were taking the ACT test, and the state covered the $35 cost per student. She said the idea was to look at the correlation between scores on the ACT and NeSA. There was not a strong enough correlation between the two tests to make the change. The other factor studied was, did taking the ACT test increase the number of students going to college. There was evidence that this was not the case in all the schools except CHS. At CHS, there was a 6 percent increase in the number of students who went to college. Romshek said the Legislature has decided all juniors will take some type of college entrance exam, but she is not sure it will be the ACT because the state must go out for bids. She said once a test is settled on, the state will fund it.

Discussion:  Dr. Loeffelholz requested a change of date for the July board meeting because the food service bid opening will be on July 18 and in order for the board to accept a bid, it must be posted on the agenda 48 hours prior to the meeting. He said the board will still meet at 5 p.m. and go to West Park to look at the kindergarten renovations. The meeting will be July 20. There are 50 teachers going to the Millard West Behavior Intervention Strategies Training. Next week there will be PLC leadership academy at CHS, and there will be 40 people from Norfolk, 67 plus from CPS and 6 from ESU7. Dr. Tim Brown from Solution Tree will be the presenter. Dr. Loeffelholz said before the final reading of the cooperative agreement, he will meet with the Scotus Board to make sure they are in agreement. He said this way both sides can make sure it is in the best interest of their school. East Central Health District has approach the administration about entering into a cooperative with them for physical, mental and behavioral health. Dr. Loeffelholz said mental health is a top priority for a lot of school districts. Families are doing the best they can but just don't know where to go. This grant would provide a mental health practitioner to work out of schools and give kids more support. There is another part that looks at medical component. Dr. Loeffelholz said there are a lot of young children that are not getting the early check-ups and shots that are needed. He said by the time they come to school, they are three years behind on medical care. He said the grant would bring a physician practitioner in two or three times a week to hold a clinic to get these students the medical care they need. Dr. Loeffelholz said this would not cost the district anything and would be paid for through grants. He thanked the board for approving his contract.

Discussion:  Tim Pospisil appreciated everyone’s work on the superintendent’s contract. He said there was a lot of good discussion. He said he appreciates Dr. Loeffelholz and all staff. Candy Becher said she is happy the co-op has been defined, and the decision the board made was the best for all the community. She said she is happy to have Dr. Loeffelholz as superintendent. Doug Molczyk thanked the principals for a great job they did throughout the school year. He said a lot of hard work was put in. He also appreciates Melick’s work on the superintendent’s contract. Ken Curry said he just returned from a trip to South Korea and China and this helped him realize how blessed people in the U.S. are. He said the timeline at high school construction has slipped, and he would like to have Hausmann address why at the next meeting. Theresa Seipel said she is glad it is summer and appreciates that the principals still come to the meeting even though they are not on contract. She said a lot of the talk at the meetings centers around the middle school and high school, but it all starts at the elementary level. The changes at the other levels will have a positive impact on the elementary level as well. Seipel also wished all Dads a Happy Father Day and said they are the cornerstones of the family. She said it is sad that many students don’t have a dad present in their lives. Mike Goos said it was great to see the high school but it is disappointing that they are behind schedule. Goos said he is glad that Dr. Loeffelholz is at CPS. He said a board retreat needs to be scheduled some time in August before Sept. 1.

Discussion:  The Board did not go into executive session.