June 15, 2026 at 7:00 PM - Board of Education Regular Monthly Meeting

Discussion:  President Lutkemeier opened the meeting at 7:00 pm.  The meeting notice was adveristed in the June 4th publication of the Webster County Sun.  "The Open Meetings Act" poster was displayed in the meeting room.

Discussion:  Guest in attendance was Jennifer Karr.  Public comment was not utilized. 

Discussion: 

Mr. Bauer reported the following:

1.Legal updates and policy updates have consumed the last month. As you can see when you look at the agenda.

2.Still waiting on Budget workbooks from the state auditor’s office. Hopefully I have them by the end of this month.

3.The ESU-9 Superintendents meeting will be Wednesday.

4.NASB Leaders and Law Conference was last week in Kearney

5.Board Retreat this year in August, Roseland or Bladen?

6.Just curious what everyone else is seeing in terms of changes in valuations? The school rental saw a $23,000 increase, $10,520 will be removed upon approval of the form 425 for the garage loss. I’m hearing rather significant increases.

7.Another friendly reminder that I think we are going to be in a position where voting to take the additional 7% would be highly responsible of you as board members, even if I do not need to utilize it in my property tax request. Are we okay with me advertising as such at the July BOE meeting? Or do you want me to wait and make sure we need to access it?

8.Need to get some white rock for around the propane tank. Weeds and grass need killed 10’ perimeter to be up to code.

Discussion: 

June 2026 Elementary Principal Board Report

Enrollment:
As of now, we have more ins than outs.

Completed Events:
Concert
Honors Program/Promotion
Last Day of School

Upcoming Events:
Jump Start and Preschool Summer School will run from July 27 to August 7
Elementary Open House and Back to School Night will be on August 11th.

Informational:
Summer Cleaning and Maintenance is well underway.
Ran an ad for 2 paras. I have shuffled the current positions as much as I can.  We will prioritize based on student needs.
Handbooks will be ready for approval in July: I want to give Mr. Lovin a chance to look things over.
I feel adequately workshopped after spending most of the past month at ESU 9.

Student Teacher: Kiera Schmidt will be with Mrs. Rupprecht in Kindergarten this Fall.

Discussion:  Mr. Jones was not at the meeting, however Mr. Lovin gave a short report on what needs to be done moving into the principal position, such as Washington Sponsors for the next trip, and going to a Law Conference.  He also mentioned that him and Mr. Drake would work on getting student data into one place.

Discussion:  It is time to set hourly pay for our classified staff.  I think with the raises that we have given our teachers the last two years it would be a good time to increase our classified staff hourly rate by a dollar. 
Also Gail has agreed to stay on for a couple days a week for the next few months to make sure the year gets off and running.  With this said we have agreed to a higher rate of pay due to her need to hold off on collecting on retirement. 

Discussion:  Bus pay proposal for the 2026-27 school year reflects the usual incremental increase for route, shuttle and trips.  Wait time will remain at $15 per hour or the higher of minimum wage for the foreseeable future.  Still right where we need to be in terms of at the conference level.

Discussion:  2023-2024 Amounts
Pre School - 1/2 Day = $3. All Day = $5
K-6 - Breakfast = $2.25. Lunch = $3
7-12 - Breakfast = $2.25. Lunch = $3.25
Extra Milk = $.50
Seconds = $1.75
Adult/Staff Breakfast = $2.50
Adult Lunch = $4
2024-25 Amounts
Pre School - 1/2 Day = $3. All Day = $5
K-6 - Breakfast = $2.30. Lunch = $3
7-12 - Breakfast = $2.30. Lunch = $3.25
Extra Milk = $.50
Seconds = $1.75
Adult/Staff Breakfast = $2.75
Adult Lunch = $4.25
2025-26 Amounts
PK-6 - Breakfast = $2.40. Lunch = $3.10
7-12 - Breakfast = $2.50. Lunch = $3.35
Extra Milk = $.50
Seconds = $2
Adult/Staff Breakfast = $3
Adult Lunch = $4.50
Recommended 2026-27 Amounts
PK-6 - Breakfast = $2.40. Lunch = $3.15
7-12 - Breakfast = $2.50. Lunch = $3.40
Extra Milk = $.55
Seconds = $2.10
Adult/Staff Breakfast = $3
Adult Lunch = $4.50

Discussion:  The district commitment would be $42,453.06.  

Discussion:  District cost would be $34,200

Discussion:  Our first notice of the notice must be published in July.  I need you to tell me what you would like that to say.  This is now required 4 times per year.....

Discussion:  Effective October 1, 2025, the federal government updated the dollar thresholds for micro-purchases (from $10,000 to $15,000) and for purchases made pursuant to the simplified acquisition procedures (from $250,000 to $350,000). This policy has been updated to reflect these new dollar thresholds. They also updated some regulatory citations.

Discussion:  The federal government changed the micro-purchase (from $10,000 to $15,000) and simplified acquisition (from $10,000 to $15,000 and from $250,000 to $350,000) dollar amounts. In addition, NDE conducted desk audits and concluded that travel costs must now be included in this policy. The policy has been updated to reflect these changes.

Discussion:  This is a new requirement from the NACHA as of June 19, 2026. 

Discussion:  Changes basically require schools to treat all "professional employee organizations" equally. They must have equal access to things like physical mailboxes, email, and bulletin boards. Schools cannot designate certain days or breaks by reference to a specific organization. For example, you can’t designate a time during inservice days as "XYZ Education Association Presentation."

The existing policy accomplished some of these requirements already, but they made a few small tweaks to comply with some of the more vague concepts in LB 429. For example, a "professional employee organization" is one which offers "liability coverage" or "collective bargaining" assistance. In theory, a local insurance agent (think Farm Bureau) could say they are a "professional employee organization" and thereby want access to your commons area during inservice days, email, mailboxes, etc.

Discussion:  Every public employer subject to the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Act is required to establish a safety committee that must adopt and maintain an effective written injury prevention program. This requirement has not changed. Previously, schools were required to establish the safety committee through the collective bargaining process.

LB 397 changes this requirement and now allows, but does not require, that the safety committee be established through the collective bargaining process. Policy 4019 has been updated to reflect this change.

Discussion:  Replacing the reference to Professional practices commission with the commissioner of education.

Discussion:  We have had a student AI policy for several years, but staff are using ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and AI tools built into other software every day, and the risks are different from student use. This new policy is designed to work in concert with Policy 4012 on staff computer and internet use.

This policy has an AI tool approval process so that staff must obtain the permission of an upline administrator before putting student information into an AI tool. The same requirements for using student data with other classroom and educational apps (under COPPA, FERPA, etc.) apply equally to AI tools, yet most staff members are not vetting them the same way.

This policy also prohibits staff from using AI to make decisions like student grading that should be based on professional judgment. Finally, this policy includes detailed prohibitions on misuse of AI tools and guidelines on when it is permissible to use an AI recording or transcription tool.

This policy is not required, but you should strongly consider it in light of the existing legal requirements for vetting education software and apps.

Discussion:  LB 937 provides more concrete processes for the excusal of absences for physical or mental illness. We updated the policy to reflect the process, which calls for verification from a certified medical professional. Additionally, LB 937 requires educational stability for students whose parents, guardians, or educational decisionmakers are subject to an active child abuse or neglect investigation from the Department of Health and Human Services and/or law enforcement. It prohibits their disenrollment or transfer for fourteen days, or unless otherwise permitted by the Department.

Discussion:  LB 937 revised the part-time enrollment statute, yet again. This law has been changed more than Karen’s shoes. Thankfully, this year’s changes are fairly straightforward. The law has always allowed part-time enrollment of resident students, including for activity participation. Last year, the law created new enrollment rights for students attending private and exempt schools in other districts. Those rules have not changed.

This year, the Unicameral divided sports and activities into 3 buckets, with each bucket having a different number of minimum credit hours required to participate as a part-time enrollee. These are:
(1) Activities regulated by an athletic/activities association (like NSAA): 5 credit hours;
(2) Activities regulated by some other governing body (like FFA): the number of credit hours the school offers based on what the governing body requires; and
(3) Activities not regulated by any governing body or athletic/activities association (like prom and chess club): the board may require up to 5 credit hours but can require fewer, even 0.  (I'm recommending 5 hours here as well) 

Discussion:  LB 653 revised the option enrollment laws. Starting July 17, 2026, the law now requires school districts to "automatically accept" option enrollment applications of "siblings of options students enrolled in the option school district without regard to capacity limitations." In other words, from a practical standpoint, the only point in time at which a school district can deny an option application for all children who are considered siblings of one another is at the time that the first sibling applies for option enrollment.

Discussion:  LB 653 revised the Student Discipline Act yet again this year. On the positive side, lawmakers added an exception to the suspension prohibition for pre-K through second-grade students. Schools may now suspend students in this age range for violent behavior "capable" of causing physical harm.

On the challenging side, LB 653 also heightened notice standards for both short- and long-term discipline, requiring additional disclosures about how a school responds to behaviors.

For short-term suspensions specifically, the requirements are more difficult to comply with at a practical level. Schools must now provide oral and written notice to the student and their parent, guardian, or educational decisionmaker before the suspension begins ("Goss v. Lopez") and give the student an opportunity to present evidence prior to the suspension. Prior to this change, a simple conversation with the student was sufficient. Now, in theory, the student will have to sit in your office or remain in the building so you can provide this new "oral and written" notice to the student and parent, before sending the student home and starting the suspension. Keep in mind this new pre-suspension notice does not replace the requirement to send a letter home after the decision is made. 

The law already requires principals to schedule a meeting with the student and parent(s) prior to the student returning to school from a short-term suspension. Now, the law says if a principal has not arranged that meeting, the parent can request one.

If these changes feel overwhelming and like you’ll have to tweak your discipline processes and forms, welcome to the club. KSB will host a student discipline workshop to unpack these changes on June 18, which will include updated discipline forms.

Discussion:  LB 457 (2025), now in statute section 79-227, requires schools to implement a policy to address general incidents of anaphylaxis involving students at school. The policy must be implemented as of July 1, 2026.

As discussed in the form change below, NDE and DHHS updated the standard anaphylaxis response protocol contained in NDE Rule 59. Policy 5048 already required the school district to comply with the protocol. LB 457 required slight tweaks to the policy, including (1) that a general response protocol does take the place of existing self-management plans, 504 plans, or IEPs already in place for specific students; and (2) that a copy of the policy and the protocols be included in every school handbook.

We also receive a lot of questions about who can sign the protocol form and who can train staff on any individual plans or the protocols. The protocol form requires the signature of a "Prescribing Health Care Practitioner," defined as "a certified registered nurse anesthetist, a certified nurse midwife, a dentist, an optometrist, a nurse practitioner, a pharmacist, a physician assistant, a physician, or a podiatrist credentialed under the Uniform Credentialing Act."

The training requirements are less strict. Someone like a school nurse, principal or other individual who can train staff on the medication of students, may provide the staff training.

Discussion:  Annual update - no changes required.

Discussion:  This is a recurring headache for some schools with students transferring back from exempt (home) schools or non-accredited schools: no verified curriculum, no transcript, and an increasingly familiar revolving-door pattern (family flips into exempt status after a truancy report or a teacher dispute, asks to re-enroll later, often timed around activity eligibility). We have revised 6009 for more clarity, including two new sections that apply only to non-accredited school students and returns from non-accredited schools.

The revision more explicitly decouples grade placement from credit. The principal can place a student at a high school grade for enrollment, activities eligibility, and age-cohort purposes—which addresses the NSAA constraint—while only awarding actual credit toward graduation on a course-by-course basis. This may be after the student demonstrates proficiency on a district-administered or district-approved assessment and/or based on a review of the curriculum, student work, and transcripts provided. That remains administrator discretion, just like it was in the pervious version of this policy.

The revision also adds an assessment battery selected by the principal, written placement notice to parents, a provisional placement option so the student can start school while assessments are completed, a ten-day parent appeal to the superintendent, a default re-entry timing of "start of a semester" with superintendent discretion to allow exceptions, and a cross-reference to the applicable state activities association rules for extracurricular eligibility.

Discussion:  AI has changed a lot since we first drafted 6038, and the policy needed to catch up. The revised version keeps the rule that has been working—students cannot use AI on an assignment unless the teacher has specifically approved it. The major additions are an explicit list of prohibited uses (AI deepfakes and other AI-generated harassment, nonconsensual intimate images of real people, putting classmates' personal information into AI tools, and using AI to get around accommodations or content filters); a carve-out for AI approved as assistive technology through the IEP or Section 504 process; and authority to reach off-campus AI conduct that disrupts school.

Discussion:  LB 390 (2025) requires each school board of a public school district to adopt a policy relating to access by a parent, guardian, or educational decisionmaker to certain school library information. The new policy provides parents, guardians, and educational decisionmakers the right to access a catalog of all books in the school district’s library and the right to opt into certain notifications when their student checks out a library book.

The law does not specify a specific method by which school districts must distribute the request for notification form, or how parents can submit such requests. We recommend that you think about whether you want to require submission of a written form or will allow an alternative method of requesting notification. We have included a simple placeholder in the student handbook, as well, in the event you choose to handle the "opt in" process via handbooks.

The deadline for adopting this policy is "for implementation at the beginning of the 2026-27 school year."

Discussion:  Scott Timm has indicated that he is going to start looking to sell his property South of the school between the greenhouse and the highway.  I had asked him years ago when he bought the property to let the district have the first crack at it if he decides to sell.  He is reaching out at this time.

This will be discussed again at the next board meeting, after the house/property has been looked at more.

Discussion:  The next regular Board of Education Meeting will be July 13th in Roseland, NE at 7:00 PM.