April 20, 2020 at 5:30 PM - Regular Meeting

Mr. Ken Curry, newly appointed board member received the oath of office from Dr. Loeffelholz. Mr. Curry said he was pleased to be back on the board, glad to support staff, they do great stuff for CPS.

Andy Luebbe, Centennial Principal, shared the Radar Chart with data, including DIBELS and MAP testing results. He feels they had good gains from fall to winter.  Centennial's goals are the same as the other elementary schools with all students at the 61st percentile. Also noted was the reading and math goals and the tools they are using to meet these goals, high frequency words, numeral relationship skills, literary and informational characteristics of text, rounding numbers, number sense. 

Mr. Luebbe reviewed the new faces at Centennial this year and the increase in a couple of staff throughout the year for the needed support in some areas based on the number of students. He also said there are two teachers that will not be returning next year, they are moving out of the district. 

There are many traditions at Centennial that Mr. Luebbe shared with the group, UBUNTU which means family, this is a popular activity they use.  They mix grade levels to work on specific projects, it is a great time for older students to interact with the younger students. The school celebrates with quarterly assemblies, golden awards, and student awards. The students are very excited about inviting some of the older groups from CHS and CMS to perform, this shows the students CPS Pride and the opportunities they have at the next levels.

Student Council is a great program, they help Mr. Luebbe hand out awards, Valentine’s Day activities, acceptance of the Kindness Challenge. The Centennial PAC is super involved, attendance at meetings is not great, but they organize some great, very well attended events.  Next year Centennial is celebrating their 20th Anniversary, and plans are being made for a big celebration.

Mr. Luebbe talked about how student learning is going now during COVID-19. They are using online learning and paper packets. They are tracking the data on the on-line learning, the graph shows number of attending students. Staff organized a Teacher Parade, they had 21 cars decorated with signs and balloons and drove many streets in the Centennial attendance area. Staff is coming in to help distribute lunches to be able to see their students and parents from afar.  Centennial is putting out nearly 300 lunches per day. Mr. Luebbe is keeping in touch with his staff with ZOOM meetings, trying to maintain a family feeling and being together virtually. 

Dave Melick, Director of Business Operations and Human Resources read Statute 79-213 regarding a suggestion from the attorney to take action to keep our accreditation in order with the Nebraska Board of Education.  The hope is that the Commissioner of Education would be handling this for the state, but we want to take all action to keep CPS safe. The request for approval to sign and send in the application.

Dr. Troy Loeffelholz, Superintendent explained the resolution which was a recommendation of the school attorneys. Some districts are waiving the credits needed for seniors to graduate. CPS is not waiving required credits. To maintain our accreditation with Rule 10, we will not waive. The requirement at CPS is 235 credit hours, no freebies, must be completed.  If we have students that are not eligible because of the building closures, we will help them develop a plan. If they have met all the requirements, they will receive  a letter on May 17, 2020, that says they have graduated. Mr. Hiebner says we are where we normally would be with the students that have met requirements, we always have few that need to finish up by a deadline to graduate.  The new timeline will help those students as graduation is set for August 2, 2020 if the direct health measures have been lifted to allow 1000 people to gather. 

Dr. Loeffelholz says CPS is fortunate that we had completed 3 quarters of the year, the student’s grade at the end of the third quarter will be the final grade. Grades cannot be lowered, however, they can increase the grades by the e-learning work they are doing. Candy Becher, Board President reminded everyone that this does not pertain to their college credit courses. The Board asked what is motivating students with good grades to do the work and participate in the instruction being offered? Mr. Hiebner said he felt it was important to be transparent with students regarding this information, he didn’t feel it was fair to ding a student if they were unable to participate in the e-learning opportunity, obviously having a great teacher sitting in front of them is optimal.  These are difficult times, this is all new to all of us. Counselors and administrators are calling students to encourage them to finish out strong. Many students are in touch because of the strong relationships they have at CHS.  We also may find some of those students have moved from the district. We can definitely track students that did not do anything through the e-learning process. 

Dr. Loeffelholz said this policy needs to be reviewed each year.  It was in need of an upgrade. This policy shows how the credits will change over the next few years with the change of block schedule to period scheduling. The required credits need to reflect 80-85% eligible of what a student is able to receive, CORE classes are included.  There is a difference of 10 credits because of the block schedule vs period scheduling.  There is less opportunity to get 235 credit hours with the 7 period offering. We had more mid-term graduates this year than in the past, the goal is to keep them in the building for their entire senior year. 

Mr. Melick said after researching about 12 companies, they found the Wordware System met the criteria for what CPS was looking for in a payment system for lunches and activities. Leonard Kwapnioski,  Director of Buildings and Sites/Technology said the program had to interact with our system, it needed to be user friendly for families. This system is used by Kearney Public Schools and Gretna Schools, so LunchTime Solutions has some experience with this system.  Parents will have the ability to turn off buying of specific items as they see fit for each student. Cost is $9877.00 for start-up and $6000.00 for the Chromebook touch screen devices.  Devices were already in the works to be purchased as others at this time are out of date.  Equipment needs to be purchased right away so that training can begin.

Lunch payment deficits are at approximately $30,000.00 at this time, Mr. Melick says a plan is being made, a collection agency may be used. Not all of this balance is from this school year, some has rolled forward from the last few years.

Jimmy Johnson, Varsity Baseball Coach is requesting approval to begin fundraising for this trip.  He has received information from Westside High School regarding the positive training a trip like this is for the team, playing several games over 3-4 days in nice weather.  Our Nebraska weather doesn’t usually permit the boys to get the preliminary games in that are typically on the schedule. He is hoping they could include a couple of college campus visits, maybe even see a college game along with their own games.  The plan would be to leave on March 17 or 18 and return on March 21, 2021. Coach Johnson said they have some ideas for fundraising, selling discount cards, concession stand duties, youth camps. He would like to see this trip become something the team does every two years. He said it would be great to run a camp this summer if the situation with COVID-19 changes and makes that possible.  Dr. Loeffelholz said we do this so far in advance so the board can approve the team fundraising, we will have another opportunity a couple of months before they go to approve the trip and look at how the fundraising process worked out. 

Nicole Anderson, CPS Foundation Director/Director of Communications shared the nominations for Employee of the Year and Operations Employee of the Year with the board. There were 12 EOY candidates, a very nice mix across all levels.  OEY had 13 nominations, also a great mix of paras, health aides, technology staff and custodial/maintenance staff. The selection committee was comprised of Dr. Fred Bellum, a secretary from CMS and Stan Emerson from the Foundation Board. 

Mr. Melick discussed a few entries on each report, there are two payments to RVW, which should be the last two for the pre-building designs for Kramer Education Center. The general fund revenue report shows no change and is comparable to the last couple of years.  Concerns regarding property taxes during this shutdown period are still at the forefront, he said we will see what next month looks like. There is an entry from the Department of Education for textbooks for the parochial schools, this is a yearly revenue that CPS receives. There is also a reimbursement showing of $70,940.00 for Special Education. Also on the report is a reimbursement that is from 2018-2019, the department has cut back on staff and this is part of the backlog of reimbursements.

Mr. Melick also mentioned expenditures to Quadient Finance USA, Inc. for postal machine supplies, the time management system fee, and Marzano training fees for next year.  ServiceMaster is fulfilling this year’s contract, they are doing some summer cleaning now and Mr. Kwapnioski thinks we can keep them busy with some construction clean-up as well.  Boys Town students are receiving online lessons or packets, the staff there is trying to service their needs with visits and assistance where needed. 

Dr. Amy Romshek said all trainings that were paid for have been completed. Also included is payments made for some repair to security cameras, Edupoint technical assistance, boiler repairs at CMS, and mower repairs. 

The Classified Report shows Joan Von Ruden Kruger has been rehired for an EL Para position, a much less aggressive schedule requirement.  

The travel report is very short as district travel was suspended.  

Mrs. Anderson said the report shows a pretty typical month of giving, next month will look much different. Total for March is $30,712.29. She also talked about some funding that has been applied for through the United Way, that may help pay for the equipment for the access points placed on buildings. Columbus Area Future Fund and the Community and Family Partnership are interested in providing internet. Looking for ways to make the service available to all in the community, not just CPS.  If we can make it public without sacrificing the security needed for our business systems, a reimbursement of $38,400.00 could be reimbursed to the Building and Sites Fund. Mr. Kwapnioski says Technology is working on making it work properly so the public side does not overlap into the private side. 

Mr. Melick shared the surplus list which includes Interactive Science books for grades 1-4 and Science Fusion books for Kindergarten that will be discarded at the end of the year. 

Mr. Melick talked about the negotiated agreement, he says the group is always very cordial. The changes that were agreed upon were a gap in BA18 and BA27. Internal sub pay changed rates to $6.00/15 minutes of time. Insurance premiums have increased so the stipend has been increased from $670.00 to $715.00. Sick leave was discussed along with the amount of split leave time, it has always been ¼ of a day, now the agreement is 1/8 of a day can be requested. Base salary has been increased to $38,400 for 2020 and $38,650 for 2021, a package increase of 3.46%. CEA has not voted yet but will vote by noon Thursday, April 23rd. This increase puts CPS right in the middle of the array of districts. Board Member, Theresa Seipel said the committee felt this kept CPS in good standing with all the unknowns of the legislative decisions that may be made for the next couple of years. Doug Willoughby, board member also commented that it really helped that the other districts in our array had already settled. 

Mr. Melick welcomed Mr. Curry to the board. He also updated the group on the distributed lunch number, 61,199. Mr. Melick said he feels the board made the right decision in paying our staff during this time, people are very grateful. He noted that there are only 2 districts that he knows about that are not paying staff.  Our school attorneys believe this was the best way to handle this difficult situation. Candy Becher, Board President also commented that she was very happy with this decision. 

Mr. Kwapnioski updated the board on the strategic plans for updating buildings that are being done now, he invited the board to come and see the improvements.

Dr. Romshek’s update included information regarding what curriculum is working on. K-4 Science Teachers are working on the new science materials. English 9 reviewing 4 resources and have narrowed the choice down to 2. The K-4 health curriculum goals and scales are being updated.  They continue to conduct business as usual to prepare for next school year. 

Mr. Harris updated on SPED e-learning, they have found many students are being cared for by a family member that is not able to use the e-learning sites or internet. He also spoke about the Grading for Learning Training/proficiency scales and how to report. Jan Hoegh will present at the November board meeting.

Dr. Loeffelholz said there is a letter that will go out regarding graduation and prom, this includes the dates and what needs to happen to have these events.  Teacher's last days will be May 18, 19, and 20. Graduation will be held on Sunday, August 2, 2020 if the DHM has been lifted to 1000 participants by July 17, 2020, if not, there will be a virtual graduation.  Prom is scheduled for July 31, 2020. If the DHM has not been lifted, Prom will be canceled. 

Graduates will receive a box containing cap, gown, cords, award letters and certificates, diploma, letter from Mr. Hiebner, Ms. Becher and Dr. Loeffelholz.  The box has been designed with class photo and other information specific to CHS students as a keepsake, Dr. Loeffelholz feels they deserve something special because of these unprecedented circumstances during this time.  

He shared that he is working on school calendars for next year to reflect when we may be allowed to start school.  The Nebraska Commissioner of Education has said do not plan on a normal start to school. 

The school attorneys are recommending that CPS fulfill contracts to the best of our ability through the closure.  He also mentioned that NDE will be auditing all Continuation of Learning Plans. Dr. Loeffelholz shared information regarding the Turn on the Lights event and the frustration with the City not communicating so CPS could help keep things safe for students. He did talk with Mayor Bulkley about his frustration. 

Dr. Loeffelholz is recommending that work on Kramer Education Center be pushed back about 6 months, because we do not know where the tax receipts will be with property tax.  The architects will continue with the design work at this time.  With the delay, it is felt we would have a better handle on the financial picture. 

Everyone welcomed Ken Curry. Mike Goos is running for Nebraska School Board, they wished him good luck and asked how this group could support him.