February 10, 2020 at 5:30 PM - Committee As A Whole

Discussion: 

Amy Haynes, CMS Principal updated the board on CMS academics, activities and statistics.  Mrs. Haynes said they put out a weekly newsletter for teachers called Vision and Purpose.  
Amy Mancini talked about how they are helping teachers become more proficient at understanding and responding to data received from NWEA/MAP Tests. At this time they are working on a book study with the book, "Responding to Data".  The BIST Vision Team is taking action to tighten up procedures. Dr. Mancini says they are using a behavior flow chart to pull information together. BIST Consultants visit 5 times per year. Dr. Mancini and Mrs. Haynes recently attended a BIST conference, and webinars. CMS is placing a lot of focus on this. CMS is using a PLC Playbook to organize their meetings, and conducting Vertical Alignment meetings 2 times this year. Administrators are offering extra training to teachers to help get the most from collaboration time. 

Mrs. Haynes shared that CMS has increased by 40 students and teacher numbers have remained the same. Ethnicity has gradually increased.  Free and reduced students show a higher average in their building than the state averages.

She showed the radar chart growth and a snap shot from the AQuestt report. This will be the last year of the old standards, new standards will begin next school year. 

The five CMS School Wide Goals were discussed, each department has chosen one of these goals to work on. SMART Goal Data was shared, and it is being posted around the building to show growth in student’s scores.

Adriana Carnes, CMS Assistant Principal, spoke about attendance and the way they are increasing communication with parents by sending letters once a week and utilizing the attendance monitor.  Many families are in need in our district, CMS is trying to connect with these families and get help and share resources. Jordon Anderson, Assistant Principal, talked about increasing participation in activities, not just sports. We do continue to have large numbers out for sports, but CMS has many other activities to participate in.  Mr. Anderson also said we have a great facility for hosting events. CMS has hosted a Quiz Bowl, Honor Band and Robotics, it is great for the community to know that our facility is available for all types of events.

The Student Council Sponsors, Christina Nilson and Ana Harms reported on the Discoverer Den Project/School store. The ideas is for students to earn Discoverer Bucks, once a quarter they can use their bucks to purchase items from the store.  This project started with the Superintendent’s Academic Incentive Grant and donations from staff, all the inventory from those sources sold out in one day. The next time they opened the store, students purchased with money to use to open the store the next time. Some students are receiving so many Discoverer Bucks they are unable to use all of them.  The plan is to be open once a month. There is lot of excitement with this project.  

Discussion: 

Nicole Anderson Executive Director of Columbus Public Schools Foundation/Marketing and Communications spoke about the Branding Guide.  The goal is to standardize the use of our logos and colors. The guide shows main use colors, STEM colors, and main typefaces that are approved to use. When creating the guide, they tried to keep it easy for everyone to identify what can be used.  If branding with another group, our logo always stands out. The guide shares the graphic element that has been approved.  We had many looks of the compass, schooner, and the anchor, so it has been cleaned up to include what should be utilized. 

Mrs. Anderson shared that groups do have the ability to use some creativity. The guide offers templates for changing out school names for each building for stationery, email, labels, fax cover sheets, power points, etc. Club logos changed out in logos that were already being used.  

State or national trademarks will be honored, we will eventually trademark our logos.  Clark Creative Group is working with CPS on this project. 

Discussion: 

Dr. Loeffelholz discussed the calendar for 2020-21, there was one meeting with the committee that included teachers, administrators, and parents to go over 4 calendars. A few options were discussed such as beginning dates, ending dates, and length of breaks. The calendar was then sent out to staff for feedback.  Dr. Loeffelholtz received information about the state ACT testing set for the Tuesday after Easter and how that may be affected if we had Easter break through the Monday before. Again, feedback was requested, and it was decided to make a change according to the information and feedback. Feedback included information regarding possibly having a day off in the 7 weeks between break and the end of the school year.  The calendar reflected those ideas.

Discussion: 

Dr. Loeffelholz shared the numbers for each grade level and the limits on class sizes. Third and fifth grade are the only grade levels open to Option Enrollment. According to our numbers.  Also mentioned was the fact that any in district students have to be provided a slot for education regardless of our numbers. Dr. Loeffelholz shared the district philosophy that when we take a family, we keep the family and continue taking the younger siblings. Jason Harris, Executive Director of Student Services and SPED said we try to stay within the the policy, we do consider some special circumstances regarding transportation.  CPS works with the Columbus Community Hospital and The Project Search Program. We take high needs students from other districts and there is a fee that is paid for that service of $40,000.00. 

Discussion: 

Dr. Loeffelholz talked about the human resources and business operations position being advertised separately and jointly. There was conversation about how that looks for CPS. Board Member Doug Molczyk asked for a comparability study which included 13 districts plus Columbus, the study looked at number of students, number of buildings, and total number of staff. The study was to answer the question of how many administrative positions each district had to handle all the business. Some districts have assistant superintendents, several executive directors. Other districts listed classified staff as holding district office positions.  There was a wide variety of staff and numbers. More information will be shared in the Executive Session. 

Discussion: 

Mr. Dave Melick, Executive Director of Business Operations and Human Resources summarized the financial statements. Financial Report M2 show receipts for scoreboard ads. Mr. Melick explained that some local businesses were recruited to help pay for scoreboards, CPS received $29,000.00, this money is used to repay the district for scoreboards.  CPS has five year contracts, they get advertising on the scoreboards in the CHS gym. Financial Report M3 shows a line item for $862,000.00 in property taxes and $27,660.00 ESSA Title IV Grant money. Also included is some Medicaid in public schools revenue for working with students for specialized needs and nursing services. 

Financial Report M4a includes a payment to CPS Foundation for STEM Equipment through a reserve fund to replace equipment that comes from the depreciation fund, it runs through the Foundation where the initial purchases were made. Edupoint, new student information service, first year's payment which includes training. 

Discussion: 

Mr. Melick spoke about the elementary principals interviewing and hiring  teachers anticipating the need for the 2020-21 school year. They have interviewed 6 and hired 3 to start next fall.  Interviews are done by all elementary principals. Placement is based on the needs for the district. Joan Van Ruden Krueger resigned from Sixpence. 

Discussion: 

Much of the report is for the After-School Program, 5 resignations and 5 hires. Comments were made about the turnover and possible reasons. They seem like tough positions to fill because of the number of hours and time of day. They have tried to link paras with ASP to create more hours.

Discussion: 

Some items listed on the report NSAA Meeting, UNK Recruiting, Football Clinic, BIST, Legislative Meetings.

Discussion: 

Dr. Loeffelholz mentioned the contributions for December as $37,747.84. $194,114.12 total 2019-20.  Community & Family Partnership are still using the Foundation as a flow through until they are able to get accounts set up. A correction will be made to the report-North Park PTO, Santa Claus PTO Night payment  should be be $429.06.

Discussion:  Mr. Melick said these are fundraising projects that we have done in past years. 

Discussion:  Mr. Melick shared the 5 people that have  applied for TERIP:
Barb Leu
Karen Maurer
Dave Melick
Kris Wurtz
Tom Bock

There is 173 years of of education represented with the 5 educators listed. 

Discussion:  Items for surplus are outdated kindergarten banners, books, and library materials.

Discussion: 

Mr. Melick gave updates on trainings for administrators, Rater Reliability training.  It was three days of training with live teachers, and then debriefing. Reports were very positive.
Last summer there was a grant for some kitchen equipment for LunchTime Solutions.  They have applied for for this grant again this year, to purchase a cold bar for salad for CMS.
The Food Service Advisory Council met last week, there are students from each building and Randi Masek, the LunchTime Solutions Food Service Director. The discussion was regarding likes/dislikes and concerns. Mr. Melick felt the meeting was nicely done with great information.

Discussion: 

Leonard Kwapnioski, Executive Director of Building and Sites/Technology, shared the issue regarding one of the two cooling towers at CMS being down.  His research has shown it is much cheaper to do the coil pack. The cooling tower is $240,000.00. The coil pack needs to get ordered as soon as possible, it will take 8 to 12 weeks to arrive. Money from maintenance and repair will be used. Beard-Warren will be doing the work.

Discussion: 

Mr. Kwapnioski updated the board on the start of implementation of Edupoint.  He also shared that a new food service program will be needed to use with the new student information program.  The one being looked at is easy to use, accepts online payments, and handles free and reduced forms well. This program will take payment for all activities as well as lunch money. Bennington Public Schools uses this program, called My School Bucks. The fees are paid by payee. 

Information to share from the Building and Sites meeting on Kramer bids, the committee looked at the top three, lowest bids. References were contacted for the top 3.  Interviews will be take place before next Monday’s meeting. Interviews will help clarify what is included in the bids. We are looking for referrals from other districts closer to CPS size.  Waiting for some call backs. If we are not ready with the information, we can have a special meeting to vote. 

Discussion:  Dr. Amy Romshek, Executive Director of Curriculum updated the board on the work that is being done to integrate technology in Physics Class.  Focus on Physics, piloting a new program. Piloted by Brian Townsend and Trudi Noonan. Students - creative processes to build models and think about how the world works. Teachers have to take the training for 3 weeks in Arizona. Clips from two different classes. Focus on growth, technology, coding. Quality Technology Integration, needs to be collaboration between the students. Critical thinking and creativity.  Choice will come in their assessment. 

Discussion: 

Jason Harris, Executive Director of Student Services/SPED, commented on the SPED Projection Numbers, he shared the June snapshot for state reporting. CPS is serving 701 total special education students, we are looking at 724 for next year, this is right around 15%. Numbers of birth to 3 is 42, Sixpence serves birth-3 years, these students may not have special education needs but they have a risk factor such as single parent, teen parent, poverty, etc.  Any child in foster care is automatically declared for special education services because of trauma. 

Discussion: 

Mr. Harris talked about the January 30, 2020 Committee mtg.  Providers look at infant /toddler care. Parenting classes and how we would partner with other offerings.  What does programming look like? Also shared that C4K Core Team meets on the February 19th at the Administration Building.

The iJAG Program was discussed, Mr. Hiebner, CHS Principal shared this information, the program guarantees 85% of those participaing are free/reduced students based on DHHS criteria. Fifty students involved now, CHS is at 66%. 

Discussion: 

Dr. Loffelholz  and Board Member Doug Willoughby updated on the Legislative Issues Conference they attended. The conference was attended by the Lieutenant Governor, Mike Foley, along with Senators Groene, Linehan, and Brewer. LB 974 Funding bill, proposed increased aid $707,000.00 does not make up what we would lose. Our levy would have to go to $1.07.67. Other topics included equalization of schools, foundation aid, and LB 1202 which provides 10 million to pay for private education.
Dr. Loeffelholz also talked about the district snow days, replacing, and making up those days. Some districts give 1 or 2 free days, and then make up if there  are more.

Discussion:  Board Sharing will be at the regular meeting next week.