January 13, 2025 at 7:00 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Discussion:  Mr. McMurtry noted that school is out on January 20th and that the next board meeting will be February 9th

Discussion:  Jessi Hedlund with the JAG program Zoomed into the meeting.  She gave a 10 minute powerpoint presentation on the JAG program to explain more information about JAG to the board.  Once completed, Mrs. Huffman asked Jenni if more schools focus the program on middle school or do they focus on the high school.  Mrs. Hedlund said that it is about an even split and just depends on what kind of impact you are looking for as a district.  No other questions were asked

Discussion:  Nancy Bailey presented the financial report to the board.  Items noted were a science curriculum purchase for Mr. Holt.  Mrs. Bailey noted an error in listing November as the expenditures month when it should have been December.  Mr. McMurtry stated that the error in interest on the depreciation fund was corrected and the owed balance was given to the district.  Mrs. Nancy noted an impending bond payment of $529,000 that will come out of the account this month.  

Discussion:  Mrs. Lucas provided the following report:

Elementary:

• First PLC of the New Year we will have Sped Law Updates presented by Kristi Chessmore

• On Jan. 16, Maxwell will be hosting the CKLA cohort for 2nd and 3rd area teachers

• Observations and Walk-thru observations are underway to finish up the second semester

• Working on updating our Sped’s TIP plan

• Working on updating our HAL’s document

 

High School:

 

• I am working on an AQuESTT presentation for high school teachers. I want to highlight the areas that we can work to improve, though we achieved a score of "Great" it was by less than a point. 

• Teachers are off and running with their individual professional development plans. We have:

  • 4 teachers doing small professional learning communities. 

  • 4 teachers in a book club on leadership. 

  • 2 teachers working on online curriculum development. 

  • And 5 teachers visiting other schools to observe teachers in the same content area. 

AD:

 

• RPAC Quizbowl is on Wednesday, our High School Team is heading to Southwest

• We will host the first two nights of RPAC Basketball on the 24th & 25th of January

• RPAC will begin sending their Art Show to travel with the RPAC basketball tournament so the maximum number of people will be able to view our student’s work. So we will also have the RPAC art pieces here at the same time. 

• Wrestling hosted a triangular last Thursday, and will host another on Thursday, January 23rd. That will be our Wrestling Senior Night. 

• Girls Wrestling will travel to districts in Bayard on February 7th & 8th

• The Maxwell Youth Sports Basketball Tournament will be held on February 1st & 2nd. 

• The date for the Athletic Banquet will be Monday, May 5th

• Honors Night was set for Tuesday, May 6th

 

HQEE - Teacher Evaluation:  

• Evaluations and Summatives have been completed for non-tenured teachers for the 1st Semester.  Some tenured teachers have also been evaluated, with summatives given in 2nd Semester. 

• Teachers have been offered their contracts.  Stipends for those contracts signed by Jan. 15th and/or resignations by Jan. 15th.  (Per 2023-24 Negotiated Contract).

Discussion:  Mr. McMurtry read a report from Jason Sommer; maintenance director.  Items of note were a list of the current fleet and mileage for each vehicle.  Expected cold temperatures going forward.  The HVAC has been working great and hoping for that to continue.  Winter activity season is busy setting up travel schedules and setting up and taking down gymnasiums for events.  The first snow removal of the year went fine considering the ice that was underneath.  Mr. McMurtry added that Jason and his crew spent 6 hours clearing snow and that the district is very appreciative of their efforts.

Discussion: 

• ESSER III

  • We are typically never done with these things but we are done!  Reimbursement for all items has been received

• Commissioner’s Council on January 23rd in Lincoln

• NSAA District IV administrative council this Wednesday

• 13 of 24 contracts signed and returned.  They have until Wednesday to get this done.  

  • 2 resignations which has been a huge success for the districts in terms of being able to have ample time to recruit potential candidates

  • Posted social studies job today and had 3 people respond to it (quality)

• Data Breakdowns

  • Will be sitting down with Mrs. Hessel to break down all of our NSCAS data from the fall and winter testing sessions.  We will push this data out to teachers to hopefully give them a better idea of ways to grow our students and improve their achievements on a test

• Will be hearing from Todd Wolverton of NDE soon in regards to scheduling our accreditation review in spring of 26

• Long session kicking off this year.  Bill introduction through January 22nd.  As we progress through the introductions we will get a better understanding of the direction of this session.  We can count on property taxes to be at the forefront of discussion

• Title IX - new changes which had been delayed for a long time were introduced and immediately taken to court.  A decision was rendered that we have to now revert back to the 2020 form of Title IX which will require us to do some additional training.

• Data breach with Powerschool

  • 2 reports got hacked - a student report and a teacher report.  If SS#’s are input into powerschool, the hackers got these numbers.  We do not input SS#’s into Powerschool.  We will probably still send out some correspondence to constituents.  We are waiting to hear a final verdict from Powerschool

• Class money

  • Letter from Student Council requesting that unused funds be allowed to go toward a senior trip

Discussion:  Mr. McMurtry presented a copy of the 25-26 draft calendar to the board.  He noted a few items for them to be aware of.  February 6th was built in as an off day in the hopes that we are able to host a girls district wrestling tournament on that day.  Flex days for teachers are August 9th and May 21st.  Teachers choose one of those days to work.  There are 7 late start in the first semester and 6 in the 2nd semester.  Halloween Day would be an off day for staff and students.  There is a total of 175 students days and as per the negotiated agreement, 184 teacher days once they pick a flex day.  

Discussion:  The board presented Mr. McMurtry with the evaluation.  Mrs. Huffman asked if they could switch to the NASB superintendent evaluation for a more in depth evaluation.  Mr. McMurtry stated that he would look into pricing and get that established as soon as possible.  Mr. Meyer said the board will evaluate cost of the tool and make a determination if that is the tool that should be utilized going forward.  Mr. McMurtry thanked the board for their feedback as it allows him to grow and improve as a professional.