November 8, 2021 at 6:30 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Teresa Thomas reported that the negotiations committee met with the MEA on October 27th and set the future meeting dates and times. Next meeting is November 10th @ 7:15 am.

• 21-22 Roofing Projects:  Currently working on SH West Wing.  (conference room B, Ag/weights, Health)  anda the strip off roof in between the commons area and the Gymnasium.  Total cost $69,650.  Completion is expected by 11-15-21.

• SH classroom remodel:  Work is to begin on Mr. Joe Vetrovsky room On November 22nd.  Anticipated finish of January 3rd. We then will work on Mr. Ben Vetrovsky room on March 15th.  Anticipated finish of May 20th.

• Parking lots:  We have met with Paulsen’s, Inc and are waiting on a bid specs and estimates.

• New School Vans:  We will begin to look for two School vans to upgrade and improve our fleet.  We do have NDE approval to pay for this with ESSERS-3 $$

• Track:  Waiting on Fisher Track, Inc., and Midwest Track solutions to come and review our facility and the project.

• Maintenance equipment/Mowers:  Evaluation to take place on all equipment.  We are scheduled for a new mower this fiscal year.

• SH/JH Front end HVAC system:  Upgrades have finally begun.  Rasmussen's, Inc is here installing and finishing the abandoned project from Parallel from last year.  

• JH HVAC Air handler/chiller project:  Everything is still a go for May 2022, with all equipment ordered.  

• Food Services RFP Project to Begin:  I will need 2 Board members to serve on the RFP selection committee.  RFP Due for approval to the state by Jan 10, 2022. When approved we request the proposals and interview those that apply. 

• Audio Enhancement/Phone system:  We are in discussions for upgrades 

Mr. Norgaard reported on the  School improvement process and passed out a draft of the new school improvement action plan.  A new plan is being developed to better align to what we do at MPS on a daily basis.  

District Overarching Goal: McCook Public Schools will focus teacher and staff development on the processes and procedures necessary to implement a high functioning professional learning community (PLC), which collaborates regularly on developing and improving curriculum, assessments, teaching/instruction, and intervention.

Mr. Norgaard gave the embargoed achievement data from the 2020-2021 school year.  He wanted to give the board a chance to review scores compared to the state avg prior to those scores being released to the public.

• October  Lunch #’s = 16,914  

• Comprehensive concrete project:  We inspected all concrete surfaces in the district and are working on a comprehensive plan to begin replacement and repair, beginning in the spring of 2022.

• Labor conference:  Attended the 2021 School labor conference and have completed along with Perry Law firm the 2021-2022 comparability study.

• New Route Bus:  approved a bid from: Cornhusker International, Lincoln, NE  for a 2023 International IC Bus, CE Series - 59 passenger School bus @ the price of $89,900.  

• Federal/state Reports filed in October:

• Final budget documents have been filed with the state of Nebraska

  • 20-21 Annual financial Review

  • 20-21 Audit results

  • 20-21 Sped Final Financial Reporting

  • 21-22 Title 1 Application

  • 21-22 Title II Application

  • 21-22 Title IV Application

Mr. Gross reported that the school district received the final results of the 2020-2021 Audit.  

Findings include:  

• 1.  Activities fund had 1 account with a negative balance.  

• 2.  Payroll had a few missing deduction forms.  

• 3.  Activity funds have some outstanding checks that are over a year old  

• 4.  Unemployment fund went negative during the fiscal year.

Deficiency Include:  

• Size of the district's Accounting and administrative staff.

Tom Brevick moved to authorize the Superintendent of McCook Public Schools to contact and establish a partnership with W Design of McCook, and provide the Superintendent, and/or board officers, with the authority to negotiate and sign any necessary contracts or forms which act as a formal agreement between the selected firm and McCook Public Schools with a second from Loretta Hauxwell.

Discussion included Brad Hays stated he was concerned about the difference in pre-bond cost between the firms.  Loretta Hauxwell stated that she wants to ensure that we get the best possible facility for our students while being financially conservative and that she feels W Design can achieve that for us.  Tom Bredvick enjoyed the process and stated that all 3 firms were outstanding and that we could do business with any of them.

Tucker Gillispie commented on the cooperation with Mid Plains Community college and the joint School play.  the 25th annual Putnam spelling Bee.  performances will be on November 12 and 13th @ 7:00 pm. and on November 14th @2:00 pm.  

Mr. Hays commented on the recent State runner-up by the Mccook bison tennis team. He congratulated coach Matt Weimers and the team.

Mr. Langan commented on the success of so many graduates and made note of the UNK Loper football team that includes former bison Hunter Hays, DJ Gross and Zach Schlager.

Mr. Berry commented on Alicap's safety report.  He knows 1st hand that the safety report used to be pages long and the district has done a tremendous job of making our schools a safe place.

Mrs. Thomas  commented on the excitement and success of the Unified bowling team and thanked Mrs. Lynne Kinne for all her hard work and dedication to the program.  

Mrs. Hauxwell commented how excited she was to read in the weekly reports about the reading activities taking place and really appreciated the creativity being taught and promoted to our students.

Mr. Gross commended the community of McCook for the outstanding outpouring of support during the Big Give McCook.  So many of these dollars flow through organizations that directly benefit our students.

Mr. Norgaard thanked MPS teacher Jill Lauer for her hard work and dedication in working to develop a strong afterschool program.  She has been tasked with helping administration to design and implement a new program and she has done an awesome job to state, while also working as our ELL coordinator.  

Mr. Bredvick commented that he appreciates the McCook Community Foundation fund for organizing the Mccook Big Give and encouraging us at the school system to dream big.  He also appreciated the administration taking the time to develop a concrete plan to address these concerns before they become major safety concerns.