December 14, 2020 at 6:30 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Rationale: 

STRIVE  -  COMMIT  -  SUCCEED  -  District Mission Statement

Schuyler Community Schools in partnership with parents, students, and the community is committed to educate students to become skilled, knowledgeable and responsible citizens in a global society - District Vision Statement

Notice of this meeting was given in advance according to State Law 84-1411, by giving notice of the meeting to the public.  Notice of this meeting was also given in advance to all members of the Board of Education

Rationale: 

This meeting has been preceded by advance notice and is hereby declared to be in open session.  A copy of the Open Meetings Act is posted in the front of the meeting room.

Nebraska Open Meetings Act:  http://nitc.nebraska.gov/documents/statutes/NebraskaOpenMeetingsAct_current.pdf

Rationale:  Discuss, Consider and Take Action on the consent agenda

Rationale: 

- The FFA chapter had LDE (Leadership Development Events) on December 7 via zoom. 3 students participated.

- One act districts at Gretna on Saturday, December 5. Received many outstanding actor awards but did not qualify for state. The community performance is Thursday, December 17th on the new stage!  Friday, December 18th, One-Act will perform for the students.

- Band and choir had their performance last night in the new auditorium.  

- Finals will be held on December 16th and 17th

- Culture club held their annual blood drive on December 9th.

- New members were interviewed on Friday. 

- Student Council decorated the new commons area with a tree (see photos below)

- Senior banners are currently being digitalized by Ms. McKenney’s classes.

- students took MAPS tests in FOCUS classes.  In the past the tests were taken in core classes, students had time to take their time and to finish.

- Basketball started - cheer and dance are participating at home games - cheerleaders are not traveling because of COVID.  

Rationale:  This committee is responsible for annual review of board policies, handbooks, and crisis/safety plans.  This committee is also responsible for the support and development of support programs(nursing, food service) in the district.

Rationale: 
The certificated staff Early Retirement Incentive Program Policy, 406.05 sunset at the end of the 2019-20 school year. 

"The ERIP program and policy, and all benefits provided herein, shall expire and be of no force and effect with regard to eligibility under this ERIP as of August 31, 2020, and as to participation in this ERIP as of August 31, 2023. "
The Schuyler Education Association has approved the 2021-22 Certificated Staff Master Agreement.  This agreement leaves limits on hiring experience allowing for the extension of the early retirement policy.  See attached policy.

Rationale:  This committee is responsible for recommending the annual district calendar, strategic planning process, technology, and promoting positive public relations and communications program.

Rationale: 
          We currently have January 18th as a professional development day for all staff.  Our scheduling of the final two days of training for new teachers and our limited substitute teacher pool, we are asking the board to consider amending the calendar to allow for both the 18th and 19th for this professional development. 
         NDE has made an exception to Rule 10 this year to allow school districts to count 5 days of professional development toward our days in attendance.  We used 4 days in October and this would be our final total staff professional development for the 2020-21 school year.

Rationale:  This committee is responsible for budget, finance, and contract negotiations with administration, certificated staff, and support staff.

Rationale:            The board negotiations committee met on October 19^th and November 2^nd to begin the negotiations process on the 2021-22 Certificated Staff Master Contract.  The Educators Healthcare Alliance released premium rates which reflected a 2.9% increase. 
          The SEA and board negotiations team met a third and final time on Monday, November 16^th and reached a tentative agreement. The 2021-22 Master agreement was approved by the SEA.  The 2021-22 Certificated Staff Master Agreement and meeting minutes are attached below.

Rationale: 
    The board of education and the teacher's negotiations team have reached a tentative settlement on the 2021-22 Master Agreement.  Included as an addendum is the 2020-21 teacher incentive program. 
          The incentive plan is not a negotiable item, but since it does impact teacher pay, it is a mutually supported document.  The only change to the program is to pay an incentive to teachers willing to teach in a zoom setting to remote learners.  The board of education and teachers’ association either agree to the provisions, or agree to discontinue the program.
Remote Learning:  Pay a stipend to teachers teaching remote learners over zoom at a rate of $150 per semester.
See attachment below.
 

Rationale:  Landmark Reality has been working with us on the sale of  District 4-R real estate.  Chris Langemeier said to call him if you had any questions associated with the advertisement, bidding process, and sale of the property. 

Information from Chris Langemeier, Monday, 12/14/2020
The auction on the District 4R building came to a end today with the final bid of $156,000.  I have attached a brief summary, a estimated closing statement and the purchase agreement for the board president to sign if the board approves the sale tonight. 
          Do you want me to come to the meeting tonight?  If you do let me know what time and I will be there.
          Update on personal property.
          I had a number of scheduled showings as well as two open houses for viewing the personal property.  The open houses had 36 people at the first one, and 49 at the second.  The dead line for turning in bids is Tuesday  December 14^th at 5 p.m.  I have a number of bids in already turned in.
 

Rationale:  1.  Guadalupe Andrade:  SES High Needs Para Educator

Rationale: 

Priority Plan update:  This was a busy month for meetings and work on our priority plan.  We had meetings on November 18th and 19th as well as December 3rd and 4th.  Our days were spent once again conducting teacher observations, as well as updating our ACT preparation planning.  Mrs. Bertrand has been updating our document that contains all of our strategies and programs to improve our ACT testing environment and student’s growth. We also started organizing our teaching studies for the second semester.  The teaching studies are groups of four teachers who observe one lesson from each teacher.  They will then discuss good things they observed as well as strategies they can use in their classrooms.  We were once again blessed to have Russ Masco (State of Nebraska) and Mark Brady (ESU 7) on our team.  These two gentlemen bring a great deal of information as well as an excellent outside view point to our meetings.

Section 2 of our priority plan addresses the importance of a clear and compelling direction in regards to chronic absenteeism.  Much like many other schools, attendance during a pandemic is a major challenge.  We are fortunate to have worked diligently last spring on an attendance protocol to help guide us during this time.  Although we have found areas of our protocol that will need to be tweaked over the next year, we believe that ideas such as attendance teams, attendance campaigns, and utilizing FOCUS to help intervene with students with attendance issues has been extremely helpful.
A main focus for our priority team has been our EL and newcomer’s program.  We feel we are taking some great strides this year, we are continuing to have discussions on what are the best options for continued improvement in these areas.  We have seen improvements in language usage and development in the classrooms, our newcomer’s program is up and running, and our teachers have been utilizing vocabulary acquisition strategies such as Cornell Notes, graphic organizers, and mental models.  It is exciting to see our teachers working to make our instruction better!

Below is a link to our priority plan as well as our SCHS newsletter.  Again, if you have any questions or concerns, don’t be afraid to contact one of the high school administrators.

https://core-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/908802/Draft_2018-2021_Schuyler_Priority_Plan__1_.pdf 

Rationale:  Attached below is the final 2020 Strategic Plan Report.  Also attached is a summary of the accomplishments. 

We will be opening the 2021 Community Thoughtexchange for the board and community to weigh-in and offer their input on priorities for the 2021 strategic plan initiatives.

Rationale: 
Preschool and SES 3-5 Principal's Report:  Mr. Comley
This month I would like to highlight Molly Parsons. Mrs Parsons does an excellent job as a head teacher. She goes above and beyond when something needs done. Mrs Parsons always has the child's best interest at heart. I want to thank Mrs parsons for all she does for Schuyler and the preschool!

SES K-2 Principal's Report:  Mrs. Neesen
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  What a month it’s been! This month I would like to highlight the work and extra effort of Blake Neumann. Mr. Neumann has been observed building relationships with students within his grade level and out. He also offers his time and expertise with students outside of his caseload in order to ensure the best education possible for all students at SES. Mr. Neumann has truly exemplified his character throughout this trying school year of being a team member as putting the needs of students at top priority at all times. Thank you Mr. Neumann for everything you do!

Fisher’s & Richland Principal's Report:  Ms. Bebout
Spotlight Program:  This year Richland and Fisher’s Christmas Music Concert will be recorded and shared out to the community!   Our Kindergarten and 1st grade will be singing a delightful piece about a reindeer being misplaced under the Christmas tree instead of a puppy.  They will also be singing a song called "Feliz Año Nuevo."   The rest of the school will be featured in a Virtual Multicultural Musical.      
          Students will be speaking and singing in Spanish about having an exciting Christmas party and inviting all of our friends.  The Kindergarten and 1st Grade will be contributing one song about the happiness that Jingles offers during the Christmas season.  The culmination of the program ends with a jazzy tune called "We Wish You A Swingin’ Holiday."  
         Our band program will be featuring "In The Bleak Midwinter" as a festive tune, but also will be playing a few waltz’s, a classical dance, and a military march.  Students will be recorded on Monday the 14th (Fishers) and Tuesday the 15th (Richland) and the programs will be available on the Facebook page through Mrs. Eldridge Music Class YouTube page by Wednesday the 16th.  We look forward to YOUR views as we ring in the Christmas season!

Midddle School Asst. Principal's Reprt:  Mr. Banahan
Spotlight Program: The program I would like to highlight is our SAT/RtI program we have been working on here at the Middle School. We started to implement this program the first week of November and have begun to provide some extra interventions to some of our students who have been struggling in the classroom. Through these extra interventions over the last month we have gotten some identified  students to increase their skills and abilities drastically from where they were at the beginning of this school year. We are going to continue to work with our students and our schools resources to continue to provide students with interventions that will allow our students to improve in their areas of deficiencies and continue to grow as individuals.
Staff Member Spotlight: The staff member I would like to highlight is Mr. Michael Baptiste.  Mr. Baptiste, has done an excellent job this school year picking up where the students left off last year with Ancient Rome, and moving them through the information and where they need to be to ensure they are getting to where they need to be for next year. Mr. Baptiste does a great job of building relationships with his students, and providing a fun and safe environment for students every day. When students are in his room they feel safe enough to volunteer to read out-loud, as well as provide answers to questions knowing that even if they are incorrect or say a word wrong nothing negative will be said. He also does a great job of providing students with a fun learning environment that incorporates different ways of learning and academic games that help students learn and review information that has been presented in the classroom to them.
Spotlight Upcoming Events: Events upcoming at the Middle School include a Christmas Vocal and Band concerts that will be recorded and streamed out for families to watch in the next week. This will allow our parents to view their child's performance, with them and the child at home with them.

Middle School Principal's Report:  Mr. Zavadil
Program Spotlight:  The 1st Semester is wrapping up and I am happy to say that COVID numbers appear to have stabilized and started to go down at SMS!  We have just wrapped up our winter MAP tests which will allow us to have data upon which to make decisions going forward with our staff.  1st semester evaluations are complete and our new staff is performing well and growing fast.  The professional development that we have given them has really been beneficial.
Staff Member Spotlight:  This month I would like to highlight the work of Mrs. Recinos and Mrs. Wemhoff.  Mrs. Recinos teaches our Newcomer students and Mrs. Wemhoff teaches our 2nd level ELL students.  These two teachers have a large and formidable job of not only teaching our students the content, but teaching them a language, and acclimating students to the United States at the same time.  I have been in both of their classrooms recently and how they can accomplish both is impressive.  There is a lot of planning involved in creating multiple lesson plans for multiple grade levels at the same time.  They both routinely work late and put in extra time to make sure that their lessons are prepared and well thought of.
Upcoming Events:  Our middle school band and choir will be recording their Holiday concerts on Thursday and they will be shared via the district STRIV page on Friday by early afternoon.  Mr. Baldwin, Ms. Semerad, and Mr. Niedbalski have put in a lot of time and effort to create this plan that allows our students to showcase their hard work and follow the restrictions for large gatherings.

High School Assistant Principal's Report:  Mr. Kasik
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  I would like to spotlight our front office staff, Coralie Shonka, Alejandra Dimas and Florencia Ramon.  This group works really well together and they are able to handle anything that is thrown at them.  A bright smile and helpful attitude greet all that enter our school. 
Staff Member Spotlight:  For person spotlight I want to recognize Jose Ramirez .  Jose recently started working at the HS as a custodian and he is so cheerful, polite and always working extremely hard.  Anything we ask of him he is right on it and does a great job.
Upcoming Events:  We are working to finish out first semester in strong fashion.  It will end on Dec 18^th with finals a couple of days before this.  Our students and staff have worked really hard during this difficult time and Christmas break will be a much needed time to recharge our batteries.

High School Principal's Report:  Mr. Grammer
Program Spotlight:  Our high school has for the past ten years been a part of a mentor program for our students, staff, and community.  The program is TeamMates, a mentor program developed and implemented by Tom Osborn.  We were, as a school, searching for ways to assist our high school students who struggle in their classes and fall behind in their graduation progress. We were fortunate to have a teacher on staff, who has a passion to work with these students.  She genuinely cares about our students and our community. She organized the program and has been an integral part of the program at its inception. The program is set up to match a student with a community member and that adult to be an advocate for that student throughout their school career.  It has been a good program for the high school. Congratulations to the mentors in the program, that make it a successful program at SCHS.
Staff Member Spotlight:  The program spotlight and staff member are the same person.  That’s why it is an honor to recognize Alejandra Dimas as Co-Coordinator for the TeamMates mentor program at Schuyler Central High School. She organizes and runs the program under the TeamMates board, which is a voluntary duty for school personnel and community members.  The board consists of the Principals from the elementary, middle school, and high school, five community members and two teachers. Mrs. Dimas’s passion, hard work, caring attitude, and dedication to our students well-being is unmatched. She strives to make sure that our students have a strong advocate for them and that they have a positive experience.  We have this year 30 students with 5 senior students successfully completing the program.  With her co-cordinator assistance and with strong support from her board she has worked hard to make TeamMates a successful program at SCHS.  Congratulations to Mrs. Dimas for making this a positive experience for her mentees and mentors throughout their school career.
Event Highlight:  We are continuing our work with the state priority team, UNL EL team, DE cohort groups, with the SIG grant, and STEM through DE.  It is cumbersome at times to schedule and plan for all the groups.  But, it is worthwhile as we see growth and development of our students.

Rationale: 

K-6 Youth Sports Director Report Name: Cara Neesen
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  Youth Wrestling has been scheduled and will begin December 15th for both boys and girls. With not having an open house for both club and youth sports, the Elementary has been handling all applications for interested athletes. Starting the week of December 14th, the window for Girls Basketball sign ups will begin with forms needing to be in by January 8th. The process to sign up will be similar to what was done for Boys Basketball and Girls/Boys Wrestling. Thank you to Al Sucha for collaborating with Youth Sports Wrestling this year to ensure a safe and successful season!

Warrior Academy - After-School Program Director's Report:  Ms. Bebout
Spotlight Program:  Warrior Academy is proud to announce that we received a $50,000 grant from Beyond School Bells!!!  This is an amazing partnership that has been built over the last 6 years.  These funds will help provide students with individualized supplies due to covid, extra supplies, extra staffing, and some amazing programing and PD that Beyond School Bells is offering.  Beyond School Bells, run by Jeff Cole, does an amazing job campaigning for afterschool programs throughout Nebraska.  It is an honor and a privilege to work beside them in the afterschool arena. 

SMS Activities Director's Report:  Mr. Banahan
Spotlight Program: My program spotlight for this month is MS Wrestling. We have competed in 7 meets so far this year with two left on the schedule. We have 24 eighth graders out for Wrestling this season with five of them being girls. We also have 8 seventh graders out for wrestling with four of them girls as well. So far this season we have won 55% of our matches (198/356) and we have two wrestlers currently undefeated (Sinai Sanchez (8-0) and Lauren Wemhoff (8-0)) and Chris Shannon (13-1) leading our team in the right direction. On December 5th we hosted the Schuyler Invitational which was the first wrestling event held in the West Gym. We had a good showing that day winning 41% (43/106) of our matches against some solid competition and claiming the Runner-Up Trophy for our Invitational. Our kids have done a great job competing in a season that has seen lots of changes with events being cancelled or limited in attendance and losing out on some quality matches.
Staff Member Spotlight: For the program staff spotlight this month I would like to highlight Mr. Brante Hayes. Mr. Hayes is our middle school girls basketball head coach and coaches the 8th Grade A team. Watching Coach Hayes this season has been very encouraging, as he does a couple of things. First off he is very consistent with everything from practice to planning and organizing his teams. The girls come to practice and know exactly what is expected of them every day at practice. He also does a great job of collecting data in games and practices to help improve the girls as they progress through the season. This year our teams have a combined record of 6-13, however our 8th grade teams are currently (A team) 3-3, a (B team) 2-3 going into the last week of competition. Coach Hayes has done a great job of helping our girls to improve each week and pushing them to be better everyday on the court and in the classroom.
Spotlight Upcoming Events: We wrap up or Winter seasons of Wrestling and Girls Basketball on 12/15 with Wrestling at Norfolk and Girls Basketball hosting Clarks-Leigh in the Middle School Gym. We will start Boys Basketball when we return from Christmas break.

High School Activities Director's Report:  Mr. Kasik
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  I would like to spotlight our Boys Basketball program.  It is led by Mr. Beebe who has a number of years of experience coaching and leading programs.  This year’s team is led by a host of experienced upperclassmen.  They are poised to have a great season and are excited to kick it off in our new facility.

Staff Member Spotlight:  Mr Beebe has been in this district for over 35 years and has coached a number of sports.  He has been a head coach and an assistant coach and his experience is very visible.  He has an exciting group to work with this year in BB, they should be fun to watch.
Upcoming Events:  Our Play Production crew is coming off of a Conference Runner-up finish and is excited to compete at Gretna for Districts on Saturday, 12/5.  We will also kick off our HS Winter season with Home basketball against Madison and our Wrestling team traveling to Crete on Thursday, 12/3.

Student Services Director's Report:  Dr. Lefdal
Program Spotlight:  I would like to spotlight our one act performers and coaches.  The coaches and students put on an amazing program at conference and districts.  I am excited to have my children be part of the program as well as see other students find a place to shine.  The play this year was a very emotional play and our students did an excellent job! 
Notable Topics;  Our priority school meetings have been very good this year.  We have had some great conversations as well as excellent planning.  We were able to work with our consultants on a midyear score for our school.  We saw some increases from last year, I am excited to see the improvements for the rest of the year.
Looking ahead:  I am excited to start planning out our 2021-22 school class schedule.  I believe with our new addition, we will be able to work with our class schedule to make it even better for our students and offer a nice variety of programming.

Special Education Director's Report:  Mrs. Vrba
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  This month I would like to take the opportunity to highlight Jennifer Novak. She is our 2^nd grade special education teacher that has generated one of the best learning environments for our students at Schuyler Elementary School. Emily Garcia and Jennifer make an effective and compelling team. Jennifer works hard to find constructive ways that is beneficial to our students who may be struggling with various concepts. It is a common occurrence for me to walk into their classroom and absolutely not be able to find Jen. Most of the time, she is kneeling besides a student's desk reinforcing what is being taught or walking a student through a problem that he/she just announced to the whole class..."I don't get this!". Her dedication to our kids and work ethic is going to carry her far as she is just starting her career at Schuyler Community Schools.
 

Curriculum, Assessment and Instruction Director's Report:  Dr. Gibbons
Spotlight Program:   I wanted to highlight some of the usage that we’re getting out of one of our programs:

myON: Renaissance myON® Reader is a student-centered, personalized literacy environment that gives students access to more than 6,000 enhanced digital books. Titles are dynamically matched to each individual student’s interests, grade and Lexile® reading level. Combined with a suite of close reading tools and embedded supports, myON Reader fosters student engagement and achievement. We have implemented myON K-8 districtwide.  These are the total number of books that students have completed on myOn since the start of the school year.

District: 6959
Schuyler Elementary: 5221
Schuyler Middle: 915
Fisher’s Elementary: 454
Richland Elementary: 369

Spotlight Upcoming Events: The Curriculum department is working on developing data displays that will help us evaluate the effectiveness of our programs and help us better employ data driven decision making regarding student interventions.

Rationale:  Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  Food Service Director, Jamie Rameriz and the food service program is again the spotlight program for December.  She has done an outstanding job of ramping up the changes in the food service programs this year.  In addition to the breakfast and lunch programs, they also provide the afternoon K-8 fruits and vegetable program.  This month, the high school has opened a third option in their lunch line.  Finally, the food service has provided the refreshments for the Open Houses for the new facilities in October and this week for the Performing Arts Auditorium.

THANK YOU:  Thank you to Virginia Semerad and Mynor Hernandez for your dedication and service on the board of education.  The 2020 strategic plan outlines your work and accomplishments as board members. 

Rationale: 
1.  December Schuyler Foundation Report.
2.  2020 Superintendent Evaluation.