October 8, 2018 at 5:30 PM - Committee As A Whole
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I. Committee As A Whole
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I.A. Call to Order
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I.B. Roll Call of Board
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I.C. Pledge of Allegiance
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I.D. Notice of Open Meeting Posted
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I.D.1. President insures all can hear proceedings
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I.D.1.1. Opportunity for Public to be Heard
Discussion:
No one spoke to the board.
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I.E. Board Special Functions
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I.E.1. Presentations
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I.E.1.1. Columbus ICE-Liz Blaser
Discussion:
Liz Blaser, senior at Columbus High School, gave an update on the Columbus Ice Project. She began working on it in 2015. The viewing structure will have concrete floors, drywall and a ceiling. Blaser said the design will also fit in with the look of the high school. There will not be a kitchen or kitchen equipment, but there will be a public restroom. CPS will also use 30 percent of the overall building as storage. Blaser said she hopes to start work this fall on the project if the weather cooperates and be finished by next summer. The total cost of the project is $95,000. She has raised more than $25,000 in cash and has gotten 16 contractors to donate some materials and labor, which is not included in the amount of cash raised. Blaser said she would like the district to help fund the cost of the storage area, which would be $20,000-$25,000. The storage area is 12 feet by 32 feet and currently has a 10-foot door, but Dr. Loeffelholz said this is something the district may want to consider making wider. Blaser said although the project has grown significantly from the original $5,000 starting point, she is glad this project is better quality and will be around a lot longer. She said a lot of people helped her get her foot in the door, and she has learned a lot about the industries in town. Blaser said this project wouldn’t have been possible without the people of Columbus’ help. She said she would like an answer within 30 days if the board would be willing to help. The board will vote on this issue next Monday. Superintendent Dr. Troy Loeffelholz said he will work with Brian Kearney to get a final cost on the project, and he will contact Blaser after next Monday’s meeting.
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I.E.1.2. CHS Presentation
Discussion:
CHS Principal Steve Woodside said workplace experiences are very important. CHS Assistant Principal Jason Schapmann said the people in industries want the employees to possess soft skills. He said when he gives students an assignment, he wants them to think like an employee. Schapmann said soft skills like communication, attitude, teamwork, networking, problem solving and professionalism go a long way in the workforce. He said he also covers cell phone use and proper dress. CHS student Sierra Guilliatt said she is interested in physical therapy, and she has gone to Columbus Physical Therapy and Columbus Community Hospital. She said it has been helpful to see how the job works first hand. CHS student Kade Nelson is interested in engineering and has worked with Jay Zwingman, a consultant who does a lot of work in Columbus, and he has gone to NPPD to talk with different engineers. He said he likes it because it is not the typical classroom setting, and he gets to learn what engineering will be like. Students can do the job shadowing for an hour or can go over Lead time for a little longer. Guilliatt said she has enjoyed learning about all areas of the hospital and the different medical jobs available. Schapmann said many students don't know what jobs are out there, and it is good to expose students to multiple job paths. He said there are currently 24 students in the class and 23 are doing job shadowing and one is in an apprenticeship.
Woodside said the administration is working on college readiness. Several students went through a program this summer and received certificates. The idea is to give students exposure to different situations. They had the opportunity to tour many different colleges and industries. Students in grades 10, 11, and 12 went to Central Community College-Columbus for a job fair. Students in special education also participated in a transition services program through Central Community College and Northeast Community College. The students had the opportunity to see the campus, go in to a classroom, eat in the cafeteria and learn about areas of study There have been 364 certifications awarded in Snap-On certifications as of today. Woodside said this certification is an industry standard. Multi meter certification has the most students certified with 88. He said this area of certification is growing and expanding. Certifications and dual credit will help students get a step ahead in the workplace. Woodside said CHS is currently constantly changing over the past five years. The enrollment has shown a 10.95 percent increase. He said each year the Hispanic and White population numbers have grown closer, and now CHS has a more balanced population. Daily attendance is at 98 to 99 percent. Woodside said the administration started tracking attendance each day and with the changes in the schedule, students have adjusted nicely. Gaggle, the new computer monitoring program, has flagged 234 total messages in a 48-day period. Woodside said this is about 5 messages a day, and there were 11 days with 9 or more messages flagged. He said the scanning range for Gaggle is major. He said when is message is flagged, he involves the school counselor, social worker and at times law enforcement. He said the messages have slowed down a little. Woodside said if a student is on a school device, the program will be tracking what is said. Woodside said it is all about keeping kids safe and being attuned to their lives. Woodside discussed the ACT structure. He said his staff is using the data to determine how to help students. If they want to score 32 or higher they need to practice taking test; To score 22 to 32 they need to focus on testing strategies; To score 21 or below they need to focus on content, content, content. Woodside said with any test including the ACT, you need to take it more than once. Woodside said in the fall of a student’s senior year, a progress report will be mailed out on how they did on the junior assessments. The most recent results indicated that 207 met the benchmark,452 are developing and 148 on track. Woodside said this shows that 26 percent of the students met benchmark. He said the goal is to move students from developing to on track and from the on track to meets benchmark. As the staff moves forward to help students, Woodside said they need to think separate from the content. The idea needs to be embedded into the thinking of the content into the proficiency scale so they are assessed. Woodside shared some graduate follow-up information. In the spring, the Class of 2018 had 89 to 90 percent say they were going to a 2- or 4-year school. In terms of the educational experience, Woodside said CHS staff are doing a better job of serving all kids. He said things will be improving in the counselor area. He said there are new schedules, and students are working on four year plans. There has also been another counselor added to help with the increase in enrollment. When asking students who have been out 18 month how prepared they feel they are to succeed in the workforce, 70 percent said they feel they were prepared. Woodside said from 2013 to present, students rank CHS quality of education at 90 or above. Woodside thanked the board. |
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I.E.1.3. New Website
Discussion:
Dr. Loeffelholz said the new website is a little different. He said this is a mobile platform that feeds a website. Dr. Loeffelholz said it is easy to post to the website and social media from the same place. He said in the past, people would struggle with what to put on the site. With this new website, teachers will all have access and be able to post items and news that is happening in their classrooms. He said items are posted on the website through Thrillshare. Dr. Loeffelholz said this is a good way for the district to be more transparent and to better market the schools in a positive way. He said the district will encourage teachers and staff to post news about the school. The people in charge of the schools’ websites were trained last Wednesday and the administrators last Friday. Dr. Loeffelholz said the CHS calendar will now be able to be posted to the website as well. He said it was tricky making it work because it runs through a third party. Parents will now have one place to go for all of the school calendar events at the middle and high school. Dr. Loeffelholz said another positive is that this can all be done off a cell phone. He said he can call off school and have it sent to all social media, texts and even make a call in one spot. He said it is a nice way to market the district. Dr. Loeffelholz said he will notify the board when it goes live.
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I.E.1.4. REMIND
Discussion:
Dr. Loeffelholz said once REMIND goes live, all teachers’ classes will be added to their account. Changes to the class roster will be updated nightly. He said this program will still allow teachers to make phone calls to students, but the call will be archived. It won’t say what was said but will track when the call took place and how long it lasted. He said he created some working rules such as: a person must use the discoverer account and not personal email; when responding to something on social media, it must be done so all can see and not through a private message; and must be to everyone. The rules also state that staff can provide rides for students in an emergency situation, and there must be another adult in the vehicle. There must also be at least two students in the car if there is not adult present, and they must be dropped off at the same location. Staff may call police if parents cannot be contacted or another adult or student is not available to ride in the vehicle. The rules also state that students may not go to teachers or sponsors’ homes for a school related activity unless there is a signed parent permission form. The board asked Dr. Loeffelholz to get input from staff when this is sent to them. Dr. Loeffelholz said this is a working document and can still be fine-tuned. He also included a statement about other issues and circumstances, and these should be discussed with the building principals. Dr. Loeffelholz said there will be additional training on the app Remind. He said he will keep the board updated on the progress.
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I.E.2. Bullying Prevention Annual Review
Discussion:
Dr. Loeffelholz said that bullying prevention must be reviewed annually. The language concerning cyber-bullying when not on school grounds and it disrupts the learning environment will also be included in this policy.
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I.E.3. Annexation Agreement
Discussion:
Dr. Loeffelholz said members of the Lakeview Board of Education and CPS officials met three separate times to discuss the city’s recent annexation. He said they tried to be fair to the residents that live in the affected areas. The agreement says student enrollment will move over to CPS on July 1, 2021 and CPS will begin receiving taxes from the properties starting in January of 2022. Lakeview also agreed to make a $15,000 payment to CPS on or before August 31, 2019. Dr. Loeffelholz said if the issue goes to court, the property will remain with Lakeview until the court issue is settled. He said Lakeview will still pay the $15,000 and once it is settled, the agreement will go into effect immediately. Theresa Seipel said there has been a lot of work that has gone into the negotiations with Lakeview.
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I.F. Consent Agenda
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I.F.1. Approval of Minutes
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I.F.2. Financial Reports M2, M3, M4a
Discussion:
The district has received $4.5 million in property taxes, $829,000 for the bond issue and $248,000 in special building fund. Candy Becher left feeling ill at 7:05 p.m. Executive Director of Building Operations and Human Relations Dave Melick said the district received $12.1 million in state aid, which was up from last year. Appetgy, the new website company, was paid $24,100. Father Flanagan Boys’Home was paid $30,199.65 for housing six special education students and eight regular education kids. Gehring Construction and Ready Mix received a final payment of $21,969 for the paving of the maintenance parking lot by West Park. Melick said there is money in the budget to pay the $20,000-$25,000 for the ice project. Dr. Loeffelholz said the city will maintain the ice. He said the district may also need to do a little dirt work to make sure it drains well.
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I.F.3. Financial Report M4b
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I.F.4. Certified Personnel
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I.F.5. Classified Personnel
Discussion:
Theresa Seipel questioned if the high school food service was short people. Melick said the problems with food service at CHS was with the cashier stations. He said they were understaffed in that area. Melick said there will always be problems between management and labor in terms of the number needed. Woodside said many of the staff were also put in new positions and being short people didn’t help the situation. He said it is much more stable now. Seipel said she had some people complaining about their kids not having enough time to eat. Woodside said the students have a longer lunch period with the new schedule than with the old one. Schapmann said it takes the freshmen a while to figure out the system so things are a little bumpy in the beginning. Seipel also asked if Lunchtime Solutions was aware of the job market in Columbus and that most of the employees are retired people who may not be able to work as fast.
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I.F.6. Professional Travel
Discussion:
Dr. Loeffelholz said a lot of staff are attending things to make improvements and look at ways to better help students.
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I.G. Acceptance of Gifts/Donations
Discussion:
The Foundation and umbrella organizations contributed $113,415 this month. Dr. Loeffelholz said the band is purchasing an additional trailer. The Foundation paid $68,015 toward Phase II of the Anchor Project. Dr. Loeffelholz said there are three people who qualify the Foundation job. He said he has spoken to one person and the Foundation Board is talking to two others. He said hopefully they will have someone in the job in the next few weeks.
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I.H. Business Operations and Human Relations
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I.H.1. Policies
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I.H.2. Administrative Functions
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I.H.2.1. Approval of Sale of Property to City of Columbus for 3rd Avenue Improvement Project.
Discussion:
When Columbus Public Schools built Centennial they also built the road leading to the schools. The city in improving 3rd Avenue would like to purchase a 35 X 66 foot of the drive that connects to 3rd Avenue from CPS. Melick said the city is offering to pay CPS $8,070 for the section of the road. The money would go into a special building fund. Melick said a company out of Lincoln is handling the transactions. Executive Director of Building Operations and Technology Leonard Kwapnioski said the whole area was developed without CPS’ approval because everyone thought the city owned the street. He said he is working with the city to try and get some of the money back for curb cuts. There are 18 lots with 18 curb cuts, and CPS did not authorize the improvements. Kwapnioski said there will be some things that need to be cleaned up and that will take some time. Melick told the board if they had specific questions to contact him. This will be voted on next Monday.
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I.H.3. Updates
Discussion:
Melick said the audit is over, and he expects a clean report.
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I.I. Buildings & Sites/Technology
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I.I.1. Administrative Functions
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I.I.1.1. Consideration of Renaming the Old CMS Building
Discussion:
Administration suggested renaming the old CMS, The Kramer Education Center. He said this will make it easier when transferring documents. The board liked The Kramer Education Center. Kwapnioski said this will be a good way to preserve some of the history in Columbus. He said he also wants to keep some of the items from the old building and use it within the district. Board Member Tim Pospisil said he would like to see something onsite explaining the name and saying what role it plays in the district.
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I.I.2. Updates
Discussion:
The next auction will take place at the old middle school on Oct. 18 at 4:30 p.m. Rick Grubaugh will handle the auction. Kwapnioski said he is trying to find all the legal descriptions and property the district owns. He said the legal name for CPS is Platte County School District 71-0001-000. However, he found five other names for CPS. He said once he gets it all put together, he will have a legal description, and it will all be named the same thing.
Kwapnioski said since there is currently no Foundation Director, he has been working on getting the sign for the anchor finished. It will say "The Anchor", Established in 2017. It wall have LED back lighting. He said the cost of the sign will be a little over $5,000. Once the mud dries, the concrete will be started around the anchor. He said the maintenance crew is working on something to protect the area where there are no bricks. The construction of the STEM concrete pad was poured and Kwapnioski said he is waiting on the electrical to be finished. The fiber project continues to progress for CPS and 80 percent of it is is pulled. Kwapnioski said Emerson and Centennial will take the most time because there is so much ground. He said he will share information on the Anchor Activities Complex at the meeting on Monday. The total cost for everything is $8.2 million. |
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I.J. Curriculum and Instruction
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I.J.1. Administrative Functions
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I.J.2. Updates
Discussion:
Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction Amy Romshek said CPS has started using measurable goals to track growth and improvement. She said there are 11 measurable goals and next month she will share data based on goals. These goals are linked to the district and boards strategic plan. The Academic Goals has five measures and include 100 percent of students attending preschool based on parent request; 100 percent of students are on track to graduate; 100 percent of graduates earn an ACT composite benchmark score or receives dual credits or industry/business certification; 100 percent of teachers use the Super 7 indicators at the application level; and 100 percent of teachers show evidence of technology integration using the SAMR model (substitution, augmentation, modification or redefinition activities). Romshek said these will be tracked through surveys from teachers.
The Social emotional goal includes: 100 percent of students in crisis will receive services within an effective time frame; 100 percent of students will meet the attendance standard of 9 or less. The facilities goals are: 100 percent connectivity during instructional time; 100 percent building completion of fire, tornado, lockdown and bus evacuation drills at appropriate time periods; 100 percent safety confidence reported by parents, students and staff. Romshek said next month one person from the business department will be at the meeting to discuss a course changes. |
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I.K. Student Services
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I.K.1. Administrative Functions
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I.K.2. Updates
Discussion:
Executive Director of Student Services and Special Education Jason Harris said he attended the Community for Kids Conference. He said the first day focused on why early childhood is important, and defined early childhood as from prenatal to age 8. The second day the attendees broke into groups to discuss how to develop an early childhood program. Some of Harris’ key take-a-ways were that there needs to be a business plan developed because there are multiple partners; there must be talk about why this is needed; there also must be a marketing plan on how to sell it to the community and potential partners; those involved need to identify enrollment and decide what is wanted before a person tries to sell it. For example, will it be all center based or should it be a mix of both center and home based and should it also include toddlers. Other factors are identifying the facility, determining who is the fiscal manager, who will purchase equipment and furniture, and getting materials, recruiting, hiring and training for staff and parents. A person who has set up something similar in Red Cloud has offered to help CPS get things started. Harris said there were a lot of good ideas about how to raise funding to make it work.
In the Sixpence Program review from Aug 1 to July 31, 2018, there were 15 females and 14 males in the program; and 69 percent of children had racially or ethnically diverse backgrounds; Special education audit had no findings. Harris said CPS has received the following grant funding: Sixpence $142,918, IDEA $1,040,776, Accountability $14,104, early childhood $65,536 and Title I $566,157. |
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I.L. Superintendent's Report
Discussion:
On Oct. 17, the rest of the board will go to Fremont for the NASB Area Conference. The board will leave at 3:45 p.m. from the Administration Building and the conference will begin at 4:30 p.m. Nov. 14-16 will be the state conference. The board members who wanted to attend are registered. Dr. Loeffelholz said if the board has questions to contact Cherie Van Dyke.
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I.L.1. Superintendent Summits - Emerson, North Park
Discussion:
Dr. Loeffelholz said he held a summit at Emerson on Sept. 25. The staff talked about a lot of things such as culture, staffing, behavior of both students and staff and secretary subs. Emerson has a lot of first graders with 26 per class. He said the staff is thankful they have a full-time counselor and received the food and vegetable grant again. The staff also said they were liking the reading curriculum.
Dr. Loeffelholz said he went to North Park last Wednesday and talked to several staff members. They like the math program. The North Park staff had concerns about special education caseloads and were thankful for more building PLC time. Both buildings expressed concerns about the increase of students with behavior issues. Dr. Loeffelholz said this is something that he and Mr. Harris are looking into to determine where staff fits best. |
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I.M. Board Sharing
Discussion:
Doug Willoughby said the conference in Norfolk was good. He invited everyone to the Peace Lutheran Church salad luncheon on Thursday. Tim Pospisil apologized for being late to the meeting and said he will miss the meeting on Nov. 12. He said he will send a reminder as it gets closer to the date. Mike Goos agreed that the early childhood conference was good. He said it is not a matter if a child center is needed but when CPS will do this. He said he thinks there will be huge buy in from the community. Goos said it is another big stepping stone for Columbus. Theresa Seipel said she feels the community is ready for an early learning center. She said there is a whole different level of people who will support a preschool. She said there isn’t enough daycare and preschools in Columbus. Seipel said the hospital has shown what a great center can be, and people will support one for CPS that would be open to the community. Harris said the Nebraska Community Foundation may be willing to help with funding because CPS has a good track record with them because they fund SixPence. He said if it is developed and marketed people will get on board.
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I.N. Adjourn
Discussion:
The board adjourned at 8:22 p.m.
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