December 13, 2021 at 5:30 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Rationale:  December 1, 2021

Rationale:  The Norfolk Public School District's board of education meeting is called to order.  

Rationale:  If any board member is absent, there will need to be a  motion to excuse the absence.

Rationale:  This is a legal meeting of the board of education, as advertised by the means specified in board policy. A complete copy of the Open Meetings Act is posted in the board room for your review. A copy of the agenda is available at the desk of the recording secretary.
 

Rationale:  1. New HeadStart Mandates
2. Nebraska Education Conference

Rationale:  Please stand and join us in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Rationale:  Grant Elementary --"Dash" and "Dot"

Rationale: 

This is the time during the meeting when the public may request to address the Board. If you wish to comment, we ask that you identify yourself, including your address, the name of the organization you represent and the topic that you wish to address. Each individual's comments will be limited to five minutes.

 Please note that the Board cannot discuss or act upon matters that are not listed on the agenda. Therefore, Board  members will not respond to your comments or questions.  If you wish to request that an item be placed on a future Board agenda, you may contact the Superintendent or her assistant during normal business hours.

Also note that concerns related to school personnel need to be addressed to the Superintendent using the approved district protocol.

Rationale: 

Total amount of claims to be approved in the consent agenda for the month of December, 2021 by specific fund are listed below:

General Fund = $915,668.68

Nutrition Services Fund =$305,674.07

Cooperative Fund = $9,722.08

Depreciation Fund = $2,475.00

QCPUF = $167,525

Employee Benefit Fund = $187,302.42

Student Fee Fund = $3,541.46

The total amount of claims for the month of November, 2021 in the Activities Fund is listed below:
Activity Fund =$87,671.06

All of these claims were reviewed earlier today by the Finance and Facility Committee.  As we finish the calendar year, payroll is working on end of the year documents for our employees so they can begin their individual taxes after the first of the year.

Rationale:  Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment

As we face the end of first semester, the district has significant teaching and learning activities occurring before holiday break. Gathering and reviewing midyear data literally catapults the work of second semester.

• K-4 is participating in reading fluency benchmark testing.  This data gives us information to make decisions on interventions and is the data used for the reading act requirement. 
• 3-8^th grade is participating in a NSCAS Growth Pilot- which is the trial run for the updated state assessment system. More details will be coming on statewide assessment.  Despite the difficulties of managing changes, we see a silver lining. Not because we believe that students are magically scoring off the charts but because our initial review of the new system shows us meaningful and detailed information of which teachers can use to assist with instructional decisions moving forward.

There is continued work on seeking high quality instructional materials for Middle School and Junior High Social Studies as well as in Middle, Junior and Senior English Language Arts. As mentioned in prior reports, this includes intentional and systematic review of our professionals.

Rationale: 

Our nurses will wrap up their annual health screenings this month.  Students in grades Pre-K-4, 7th, and 10th grade are screened annually. We had some UNMC students through NECC assist us as well. 

Our special education leadership team continues to meet monthly to review our current practice and procedures for students identified for services. This team will share these updates with the district special education staff on January 12th at PLC.  I will participate in the ESU 8 training through zoom next week as more guidance is provided for our TIP goal. 

Rationale: 

I have been meeting with building principals going over the results of our building safety audits. I have been working to address a few common items that were brought up by this year's audit. Standardizing our visitor check in and check out process. It isn’t that we were doing a bad job at this, just some simple changes that can make it better. Another easy fix that came from our safety audit was a recommendation that all staff wear their school issued ID’s and stop anyone who doesn’t have an ID or visitors badge on. There were also some recommendations to have room numbers stick out from the wall so emergency responders could see them from the end of the hallways. On a positive note, as our auditor interviewed staff about our SRP, he commented that our staff seemed very familiar with our SRP and knew what they should do in the event of an emergency.

Lastly, I would like to announce that our Threat Assessment Team has completed all the training and registration needed to officially roll out Nebraska’s new safe reporting hotline. Starting Jan 3rd we will officially transition from SafeSchools anonymous reporting to Safe2Help anonymous reporting. The difference will be that instead of reports going to an email address and waiting for an administrator to check it, now those reports will be answered by trained suicide prevention professionals 24/7. Students and parents can use Safe2Help to report bullying, suicide concerns, depression, sexting, stealing, threats, cutting, abuse, dating and domestic violence, fights, drugs, alcohol, weapons or other types of dangerous situations that threaten their safety or the safety of others. Reports can be made at www.safe2helpne.org, by calling 531-299-7233, or through the Safe2Help app which can be downloaded from Google or Apple app stores.  Links and information on how to report will also be posted on our district website.

Rationale: 

HR Update:

All certified positions are filled for 2nd semester.  Advertising will begin in January for any certified positions that are open for the 2022-2023 school year.  I plan on attending several job fairs and interview days early in the semester to begin recruiting, as well.

I held interviews for additional full time substitute teachers for the second semester and intend to make two or three hires yet this week.  

Rationale:  Student Enrollment 
Senior High Interim Administrative Positions
Board Committees
 

Rationale:  The committee met at 12:00 today.  The claims for the month of December and activity claims for November were reviewed.  The committee had presenters from Insurance Associates and CMBA.  Insurance Associates gave an overview of our current workers' compensation insurance coverage and rates for 2022.  CMBA provided updates on the upcoming projects at BA and JH.  The committee then reviewed the following items:

• Updates on current and future projects
• Update from Mr. Wilson on using E-Rate for wireless connecting points
• Negotiations for 22-23
• Update on Head Start requirements 

The next meeting will be Monday, January 10th, at 12:00 noon.

Rationale: 

The Norfolk Public Schools Foundation Board of Directors met on Monday, November 15th, 2021 at 4:30 p.m. at Central Office. Nine board members were present. Board Secretary April Pearson called the meeting to order at 4:32 p.m. The Board reviewed the meeting minutes from October and the financial reports from September. 

During the Executive Director’s Report, Callan Collins shared with the foundation board members that Traditions Breakfast was a success and the Foundation raised over $33,000 of unrestricted funding. The Board Development Committee is currently reaching out to potential new board members to fill 3 vacancies for next year. The NPSF Annual Meeting will be held on January 17th where the slate of officers and budget will be presented for 2022. 

 

Rationale:  Minutes of the December 7, 2021 Nurses Meeting are attached.

Rationale:  Minutes of the November 8, 2021 school board meeting are attached for review.

Rationale:  None at this time.

Rationale:  Samuel Aldridge--Social Studies Teacher at NHS and Assistant Varsity Football Coach

Rationale:  Attached are the claims for the month of December, 2021.  These claims were reviewed earlier today by our Finance and Facility Committee.  There are several conflict statements for this month that will need to be read before voting.

Rationale:  Our COVID-19 Return to In-Person Learning Committee met on 12-8-2021 to review our current plan and determine whether any changes were necessary.  The Committee felt that our plan is working very well. 

We monitor COVID case rates very closely, notify parents if there are two or more cases within a class, and we consider implementing a mask mandate if the positivity rate reaches 2-3% or our total student absenteeism due to illness reaches 10-12%.

To date, we have only had to implement three mask mandates.  We implemented a mask mandate for one class at Washington and two teams at the middle school right before the Thanksgiving Break.  Positivity rates were much lower after the break so the mandates were lifted at that time.

Parents are able to monitor our COVID and illness rates via our COVID Dashboard, located on our website.

The only changes that we are recommending to our COVID-19 Return to In-Person Learning plan are in relation to food services on page 14 and Appendix A. We are now allowing students to access the Fruit and Vegetable Bar and condiments.

Rationale:  I am working on funding options through eRate to help offset costs of updating our Wireless Access Points and switches for our servers. In order to do that I need permission to advertise an RFP. This is the required process for an eRate request. I should know by early spring if we receive the funding. 

Rationale:  We are asking permission to hire two temporary special education teachers for second semester.  These teachers will be working with some very difficult, volatile students that require intense, individualized assistance.  
Our current staff are working diligently to meet these students' needs, but need more assistance. This addition will allow for teaming and support for our current teaching staff.
The need for these positions will be evaluated this Spring to determine whether they need to be continued next school year.  Our hope is that, once strong programming and consistency is established with these students, we may be able to utilize para-educators, rather than teachers, for this purpose.

Rationale:  Changes were made to Policy 5205-Graduation, since the first reading.  This policy was updated to reflect the changes in the Social Studies course content. No changes have been made to the other policies since the first reading.

Rationale:  No changes have been made to this policy since its first reading.

Rationale:  There will not be a 2nd meeting of the month in December.

The next regular meeting of the Board of Education will be held on Monday, January 10, 2022. The Study Session will begin at 5:30 PM. The regular business meeting will start at 6:30 PM.  All components of these meetings will be held at the NPS Central Administration Offices and will be open to the public unless an Executive Session is needed in order to protect the interest of the district or the reputation of an individual.