October 11, 2021 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:  See attached document.

Rationale:  This committee is responsible for reviewing curriculum recommendations, textbook selection, requisitions/inventory, and instructional programs.

Rationale:  Attached is the itinerary for the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis and the schedule to visit a horse ranch in Kentucky are attached along with the Board Policy addressing the request for board approval to attend the National FFA Convention.  See attached.

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: 
Board policies require two readings at regular school board meetings.  This is the second and final reading of the new and revised policies as recommended by the board policy committee.

Over the past several months, the board policy committee worked with Jim Luebbe, Director of Policy Services, to review our board policy manual.  Jim currently serves as Director of Policy Services. He has worked as a school board policy consultant for the Association since 2000, updating and customizing the Policy Manuals for scores of districts across the entire state. Jim  has been a member of the American Association of State Policy Services for 10 years.In addition to his work on our board policy manual, Jim also assisted our principals with the review of their handbooks to align with board policies. 

I visited with Jim Luebbe on Friday and he will have the new policies cleaned-up and uploaded to our board meeting site for the meeting.
 

Rationale:  See attached job description

Rationale:  See attached

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

Rationale: 
1.  Emanuel Jorge:  SES Custodial/Maintenance
2.  Mitzi Santos:  SES Para-Educator

Rationale: 
1.  Gina Bossow:  Preschool Special Education Teacher
2.  Reina Valle Morales:  SMS Food Service
3.  Edgar Herrera:  Custodial/Maintenance/Transportation
 

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Preschool and SES 3-5 Principal's Report:  Mr. Comley
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  This month I would like to highlight Daysi Morales and Brenda Orozco. Both of these individuals have really helped SES and the preschool this year. Daysi and Brenda both have sublicenses and have filled in last minute more times than I can count. Their flexibility has allowed these two schools to continue to run as seamless as possible. The reason Schuyler Community Schools continues to be a great place is because of individuals like these two. Thank you Daysi and Brenda!

SES K-2 Principal's Report:  Mrs. Neesen
Staff Member Spotlight:  For this school year we have been doing whole group PLCs with staff practicing our co-teaching strategies. I would like to highlight Emily Garcia, Jennifer Novak, Megan Holub, and Doreen Gibbons for being volunteers in showing their peers how they implement co-teaching practices in their classrooms. It’s not always easy and can be slightly intimidating going in front of peers, but these ladies did a great job by being honest and transparent with how they were able to implement co-teaching. Thank you ladies!

DO Dual Language, Fisher’s, & Richland Principal's Report:  Ms. Bebout
Staff Member Spotlight:  I would like to spotlight Brandi Zavadil this month.  Brandi was born and grew up in Fremont, NE.  She went to UNL for her undergrad degree.  She also has a Masters degree in Counseling from Chadron State College and is working on a Masters in Administration through Wayne State College.  Brandi taught at Tekamah-Herman Community Schools, teaching Spanish.   This is her 6th year at Schuyler.  She taught Spanish for 4 years and is now working with the Newcomer Program and Counseling.  Brandi has been married to Jesse for 12 years.  They have two daughters; Reagan (11) and Harper (8) years old.  

Brandi is the counselor for DO DL, Fisher’s and Richland, along with many other jobs she completes at the high school.  Brandi is such an amazing counselor.  She is calm, has many ideas about how to help students, and has a wealth of resources.  Maintaining the mental health and wellness of staff and students during these very difficult times is so important.  She always makes time during her busy schedule to come to the rural schools when needed.  Brandi always has a positive attitude and a great sense of humor.  We have really enjoyed working with her the past two years.

Middle School Assistant Principal's Report:  Mr. Banahan
Spotlight Program: The program I would like to highlight is our Language Arts PLC. This summer we modified our schedule to allow for some multi grade subject areas to meet twice a week to look at data, plan, and make decisions to help improve the subject area. Our Language Arts department has done an awesome job of looking at data and how we are currently teaching and taking that data to improve our teaching styles for the betterment of our students. This team of teachers have done some amazing work in the first two month of school which includes developing a method to use when answering questions not only in ELA classes but other classes as well. This way students are able to take what they have learned in ELA and apply it to those other subjects for a better writing style. They have also revamped how they will focus on grammar, and vocabulary in the classroom as well. It is awesome to see the teamwork and growth these teachers are having while working together.
Spotlight Upcoming Events: In the district, we have developed a District wide MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Support) team that is using data to drive our decision at the district level. We have also developed building level teams as well. At the middle school, we have started working on developing intervention and enrichment times for all of our students, and we are getting some great Professional Development for our staff coming up here in October that we are so excited about! Our staff will get the opportunity to learn about the MTSS process and its large picture approach, but will also get some professional development on how to better help our students in these interventions and enrichment times when they are able to work with our students.
Spotlight Staff Member: The staff member I would like to highlight this month is 7th/8th grade math teacher Mr. Troy Schlueter. This is Mr. Schlueter’s first year here at Schuyler Community Schools after teaching for a number of years in both the West Point and Millard Public School Systems. In his first few months here, you can already see the positive impact Mr. Schlueter has made on some of our students in his classes, as they feel extremely welcomed and feel as if they have a very positive relationship with Mr. Schlueter. Not only can you tell this by the students in his classroom, but also those teachers on his team that he works very closely with. He has a genuine personality that both staff and students are attracted to, and he does a great job of developing those positive relationships that are both earned but held at a high standard. Mr. Schlueter is very involved in our school community, as he is a coach on the High School’s football staff, as well as coaching track and field at the middle school this spring. We are very grateful to have Mr. Schlueter here at the middle school, and glad he is having such a positive impact on our students and staff.

Middle School Principal's Report:  Mr. Zavadil
Program Spotlight:  The past few weeks have been difficult with the car accident that has effected the entire community.  I want to thank our building and district crisis team for their well thought out response  as well as Mrs. Kment and Mrs. Riha for visiting with students that needed to speak with a counselor during a difficult time.  As the school year progresses along at a very rapid pace I would like to highlight the work of our entire staff.  This year has been as busy as any I can remember and our staff is working extremely hard and doing a great job keeping up with the pace.  Almost every member of the staff are putting in extra time for our students and it is paying off!  I especially want to highlight the work of our Capturing Kids’ Hearts process champions team.  They are putting in quite a bit of work in order to keep our staff spirits high and promote the culture of strong relationships between staff and between staff and students.  They recently ran our staff meeting and the school built a social contract together and it was overall a very positive experience.
Staff Member Spotlight:  I would like to highlight the work of Mr. Wiseman.  Chad Wiseman is one of our Middle School PE teachers.  He also serves as a junior high assistant football coach, varsity assistant basketball coach, and as a junior high assistant track coach.  Mr. Wiseman does a great job of building relationships with students while also holding them accountable to the activities in class.  Students respect Mr. Wiseman because he truly does care about them.  Our staff respects Mr. Wiseman because they see the work that he puts in for our students as well as how he treats his co-workers in the building.  He is an invaluable asset to our building.
Upcoming Events:   Parent Teacher conferences and our professional development week are coming up in a week and we are very excited to spend the time getting our new staff training as well as our veteran staff the information they need in order to perform their jobs at a higher level.  Dr. Gibbons and the tech department have put together a great itinerary for the training days and I am sure it will be very valuable. 

High School Assistant Principal's Report:  Mr. Steinhoff
Spotlight Staff- For my spotlight staff this month I would like to spotlight Mr. Beebe.  Mr. Beebe teaches business, is an assistant cross country coach, and coaches soccer in the spring. Mr Beebe’s positive relationships with kids is evident when you walk into his room.  He pushes kids to work hard, yet he is personable and respectful with students.  In a recent classroom visit, I observed Mr. Beebe effectively reteaching a section of content he assessed students weren’t ready to move on from.  He taught a lesson about budgeting and how to use Microsoft Excel to make it easier.  In the middle of the lesson, he implemented a check for understanding and determined the students needed a more thorough explanation of the new material. He brought a group of students together, teamed them up, and retaught the lesson on the spot. It was clear upon the conclusion of the class period that students had a better understanding of the content and that the learning target had been met.

High School Principal's Report:  Dr. Sams
Spotlight Program:  This month I would like to highlight the success of homecoming week.  Many teachers, staff, and students worked tirelessly to ensure that homecoming week was a huge success! Class sponsors worked with representatives from each grade level to design class banners that were displayed for all to see.  Student Council members developed possible themes for spirit week, with students being able to vote on each spirit day throughout the week. The Focus Team sponsored a dance off in each Focus, with a competition held among the winners of each Focus on Thursday, with a final dance off held on Friday.  The cheerleaders put on a homecoming assembly for all students and staff to attend on Friday afternoon. The activities department, football team, band, and cheerleaders hosted a home football game with a coronation at the end of the game. The week ended with the homecoming dance, which was well attended with almost 300 tickets sold to attend the dance.  Teamwork and collaboration among staff, teachers, and students ensured that Homecoming 2021 was a complete success and was thoroughly enjoyed by all.  Many thanks and appreciation to everyone that put in an extreme amount of time and effort to provide this week for our students! 

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K-6 Youth Sports Director's  Report:  Mrs. Neesen
This month's spotlight is going to our High School Football Players who volunteer their time helping out with Youth Sports Football. Players have been volunteering their time in helping with games by either referring, doing chains, or even stepping up and helping coach. Some of the players have even taken it a step further and have gone to Youth Sports practice to help out... without being asked!!! This is a great display of our high school students mentoring our younger students.

Warrior Academy - After-School Program Director:  Ms. Bebout
Spotlight Program: Warrior Academy is partnering with Schuyler Chamber again this year to provide a Trunk-or-Treat for the community.  The afterschool program uses this opportunity during this time of year to spotlight the afterschool program and the benefits it provides for the community through our ‘Lights On’ activity.  Lights On Afterschool is the only nationwide event celebrating afterschool programs and their important role in the lives of children, families and communities.  The Trunk-or-Treat will be held on October 28th from 5:30 - 7:00 p.m.  It will be held downtown Schuyler on B St and 11th St.  Please feel free to share this opportunity with community members.

Middle School Activities Director's Report:  Mr. Banahan
Staff spotlight: My staff spotlight for this month is Mrs. Kiara Healy. Mrs. Healy goes above and beyond when helping for our home sporting events. She always has rosters prepared for events, prepares our eligibility lists, and recently began to help in our new adventure of keeping the Middle School concession stand stocked as we took over the concession stand from Student Council. Mrs. Healy is vital in ensuring that we have what we need in the concession stand as well as keeping track of how much of each item we sell at our home events. She does a great job, and it would not be possible without all of her hard work.
Spotlight Program: My program spotlight for this month is our Middle School football team. This team is one of great resilience. These boys handled the adversity they faced, and always came back the next day looking to grow and improve during practices to go out and compete in the next game. The 8th grade team ended up with a 2-4 record with loss to Crete (in the final seconds), Lakeview, West Point (in the final seconds), and Seward. These boys fought hard and were never out of a game, it was the adversity they faced that allowed them to keep battling, and come back to try and pull out a victory. The fight and determination they showed on the field was a true reflection of their coaches, who never gave up on them, and always had them ready for the next play, with a never give up attitude. It was great to see these boys mature into young men over the course of two seasons. They have a lot of potential and we look forward to seeing them contribute at the high school level next year.
Spotlight Upcoming Events: Upcoming Events for Middle School Athletics include the Middle School State Cross Country meet held in Papillion-Lavista High School. Both our boys and girls teams qualified to compete and will run on Saturday October 9th. Middle School Volleyball will be wrapping up its season Thursday October 7th vs Seward and Monday October 11th vs Lakeview.

High School Activities Director's Report: Mr. Steinhoff
Spotlight Staff- I would like to spotlight Drey Keairnes and the high school volleyball program.   Drey’s energy, passion, and care for his athletes is evident. He’s investing in this program and the positive culture he has created is tangible. He utilizes social media exceptionally well to engage parents and community members. Drey is constantly looking at ways to make himself, his players, and his team better.  His resiliency and growth mindset is reflected in his team’s attitude on and off the court as they intentionally celebrate successes, maximize on what each athlete brings to the table, and continuously work towards improvement.  This group is truly fun to watch.  They play at home this Saturday in the conference tournament.

Student Services Director's Report:  Dr. Lefdal
Program Spotlight:  I would like to spotlight our alternative education program.  We have kicked off our year and Mr. Kravig has been doing an exceptional job of building relationships with students and getting students motivated to get back on track.  Erik has been working on programming ideas and rules and regulations with our students.  It is great to see some excitement from our students and Erik has done an excellent job of helping our students find success!!
Notable Topics:  I can’t say enough about the work by Mr. Keairnes has done with our volleyball program.  Watching the shift that our team has had over the season is nothing short of amazing.  Our athletes are showing a level of mental toughness that has not been there before.  They are showing an internal drive that allows them to come back from defeat, and our kids are having fun when they play.  Congrats!
Looking ahead:  I used this looking ahead last year, but it is a relevant topic this time of year.  This is an exciting time of year in regards to Thanksgiving and Christmas.  It is also a time where we will usually see an increase in behaviors.  Although most people find having a day off, or multiple days off, exciting.  Some students and staff members do not.  This can be a trying time on many students and staff and emotional struggles can show during this time.  I look forward to working with our counselors to set programming and brainstorm ways to help all of our people at SCHS.

Director of Special Education: Mrs. Vrba
Spotlight Staff Member: As the school year started, we found ourselves without an Early Childhood Special Education Teacher. (Yes...I was totally in panic mode!) We interviewed and offered a job to our one and only candidate that had already started teaching at Head Start in Grand Junction, Colorado. About five weeks later, she called me back to ask if the teaching job was still open. Gina Bossow's hometown is Genoa along with her family being spread out from Norfolk to Omaha to Lincoln, so she is very familiar with Schuyler! Gina is bringing her 17 years of experience to our Early Childhood Program. She has already jumped in with both feet and swimming !
Spotlight Program: The Life Skills Room at Schuyler Elementary School. Elyse Belina has totally transformed her classroom into one of the most "child-friendly" and hands-on classroom ever. All of us have seen her kids blossom in this new activity-based environment. Students are learning side-by-side, practicing concepts with their friends along with talking and laughing with each other. We have already heard some "new voices" that have never been heard while in circle time. Students are learning to be helpful friends along with mastering everyday life skills. Elyse has worked many, many hours in training with her paras and how this new format will work. Of course, we always need to thank our resource coach from ESU #7, Amy Mazankowski. "Inclusion is not simply about physical proximity. It is about intentionally planning for the success of all students!"

Curriculum, Assessment, Instruction Director's Report:  Dr. Gibbons
Spotlight Program/People:   I am going to talk about our state assessments today.  Unfortunately, the results of the state assessments from last spring are still embargoed so I am not allowed to share that information with you, yet.  I do, however, wish to share with you how it is changing in 3rd - 8th grade. In the past, the state assessment was given to students during a specific testing period in the spring.  Now, the state is transitioning to a through year adaptive assessment.  What that means is that students will eventually test in the fall, winter, and spring with each test basically picking up where the last one leaves off.  The goal of this is to provide actionable results that teachers can use to improve instruction and learning multiple times a year, not just annually.  Last year, the spring assessment was considered a pilot year.  This year, we will pilot the winter assessment while the spring assessment will be operational.  By the 2022-23 school year, the fall, winter and spring assessments will be operational.  The assumption is that once the assessments are operational, we will be able to get information quickly - within days instead of months.
Spotlight Upcoming Events: The October PD schedule is nearing completion.  We are using a program called "Sched" to publish the schedule and it allows our staff to choose the sessions that they want to see.  This is an outstanding opportunity for job-embedded professional learning and we appreciate your willingness to allow us to schedule it.  I have attached the schedule as of Wednesday, Oct. 6 for your review.

Rationale: 

Spotlight Program/Staff Member:  Ronnie Mundil and his staff have done an outstanding job with school facilities for the start-up of the school year and the fall sports season.  In addition, the transportation services across the district, with limited personnel, has not missed a beat in providing consistent, safe service on a daily basis.
Spotlight Program/Staff Member:  Penny Janousek, Sally Jakub and Shelley Friesz have done an outstanding job of managing the year-end finance and organization services across the district.  With the start of the new school year, each of them is required to provide documentation for new salaries, benefits, program renewals, applications, etc...for all programs across the district.
Topics of Interest
1.  2022-23 Negotiations Meetings Schedule:  Last year our certificated staff negotiation meetings were scheduled for Mondays at 7:00 PM.  The corresponding date for the first meeting is Monday, October 18th at 7:00 PM. (Rich, Chuck, Brian)
2.  ELA Standards:  The Nebraska Department of Education has released new standards for English, Language Arts.  Dr. Gibbons has been working with teachers on these standards but needs to set a meeting with the Board Curriculum Committee (Nina, Dr. Sayer, Guadalupe) to review these standards.
3.  Facility Rental Agreements:  With the updated board policies and new facilities, the board's building and grounds committee will need to meet to discuss any changes or additions to the rental/facility use agreement.

Rationale: 
1.  Foundation Meeting:  Meeting information posted on the Foundation Website.
2.  NASB State Convention:  The 2021 NASB State Convention in Omaha is scheduled for:
    PreConference:  Wednesday, November 17
    State Conference:  Thursday/Friday, November 18-19

*See website for conference schedule  http://members.nasbonline.org/index.php/state-education-conference

*Contact Sally Jakub for your registration/lodging/transportation.