March 10, 2025 at 7:00 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Discussion:  Mr. McMurtry reminded that March 17th was changed on the calendar to accommodate hosting district speech competition.  The NRCSA conference is March 20-21.  The next board meeting is April 14th.

Discussion:  Nancy Bailey provided the financial reports.  She said that most all bills this month are normal bills.  Mrs. Bailey went through the bills and asked if there were any questions.  The board went through the report and did not have any questions for Mrs. Bailey.  

Discussion:  Mrs. Friend provided the following for the administrator report:

March 2025 Board Meeting - Friend

Elementary

• P/T Conferences - March 5th

  • K - 94%

  • 1st - 72%

  • 2nd - 71%

  • 3rd - 57%

  • 4, 5, 6 - 44%

  • Hatch - 5 Families

• Hatching Chicks in K - Starting March 10th

• New Student Teacher that started Monday, March 3rd - Payton Hoatson (3rd Grade)

• CKLA Cohort in Perkins County - March 18 (1 More to go) Very Good Experience

• Will need to begin the interview process for 6th Grade

 

High School

• P/T Conferences Attendance

  • 7th - 15 of 27 attended

  • 8th - 11 of 23 attended

  • 9th - 11 of 26 attended

  • 10th - 10 of 19 attended

  • 11th - 8 of 29 attended

  • 12th - 6 of 21 attended

• (Hopefully) filled both open teaching positions. 

• NSCAS, Pre-ACT, and ACT testing dates are all set and ready to go. 

AD

• Boys and Girls Basketball seasons have ended. 

• We had one boy, Colt Gosnell, and one girl, CeAnn McIntosh make it to state wrestling this year. It was the first time in Maxwell history we had a girl make it to the State Wrestling Tournament. 

• We hosted District D2-5 basketball on February 28th with Mullen and Wilcox Hildreth. We had an attendance of more than 300 people at the game. 

• Maxwell hosts District Speech on Monday, March 17th

• State Speech will be held on March 27th. 

• Baseball and Track practice has begun. Baseball kicks off the season on Saturday, March 22 at Lincoln Christian in a triangular with St. Paul, and Track heads to the UNK Indoor Meet on March 22nd

 

HQEE - Data Collections

• We utilize EduClimber in Elementary school to track data.

• We use it in decision-making for Title 1, Special Education, and HAL.

• We also use the data to guide our progress in the TIP Plan.

• We also use the data to guide our progress in our School Improvement Goals. 

• In the high school we track our NSCAS data in both fall and spring testing, Pre-ACT and ACT data in both fall and spring testing. We also use ALEKS software and Prep Factory to track individual student growth. 

• We also track student attendance and send out 5, 10, 15, and 20 day unexcused absence letters before students in to the county attorney for truancy. 

 

LL - Goals and Tracking

• TIP Plan

• School Improvement Goals 

• Testing Improvement Goals (Student Individual Goals)

• Professional Growth Goals

Discussion:  Mr. McMurtry went through the report provided by Jason Sommer:

March 2025 Board report

 

• Starting to look into summer and what big projects if any need to be accomplished this year. 

• Multiple bus legal changes that will be changing over the summer for next school year. Will be working on these for a while to make sure we are in compliance in all aspects. 

• Will be mowing and getting ready to fertilize the football field in the next couple weeks

• Upcoming travel schedule will be packed with track, baseball and of course all the field trips for elementary.

• Will be scheduling gym maintenance for this summer after talking with coaches about summer events.

• School vans are still the hot topic. A meeting with the Feds May 4th - 7th hopefully will shed some final decisions on them. In my opinion we as a district should be prepared to remove our vans from our fleet and replace them with mini buses or suburbans. 

• As always if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me. Building and grounds committee if there is any time you would like to meet please let me know as well. 

Discussion:  Mr. McMurtry provided the following in his report:

• Superintendent Report

  • Nebraska Frameworks accreditation review in Maywood

  • Robotics grant

    • Requested a letter in support of the windmill project

  • Legislative Update

    • LB 300 failed (superintendent pay act)

      • Murman filed AM566 to a shell bill that would require superintendents to report all income in different ways than anyone else

    • LB 645 is still receiving amendments (state contribution to retirement system)

    • LB 140 - moved to select on a unanimous vote.  Requires all schools to have a cell phone policy

    • LR28CA - Ben Hanson trying to eliminate Board of Education Land and funds

    • LB 599

      • Cyber security assistance for schools

      •  

• Personnel

  • Mrs. Heessell has stepped in and taken over first grade

  • Mrs. Simants is long term subbing in the Title Position

  • LaDonna Swedberg will be doing a long term sub for Mrs. Marshall once she goes on maternity leave

  • Advertising for elementary.  It has been a very slow process for applications

• Plan to replace the vans

  • As advised earlier by our school lawyers, they want a plan in place to replace the vans.  There is a summit on transportation that happens the first week of May.  Expectation is that there will be guidance on exactly what is allowed and what isn’t allowed which will give us some black and white to go by

    • I am going to start reaching out on some quotes for vehicles and have those ready to go once we reach a verdict and have a better understanding of exactly what we need to do as a district

Discussion:  Mr. McMurtry pointed out that the contract is for just over $54,000.  This includes services such as OT, PT, audiology, and early childhood.  The actual contract is attached.  

Discussion:  Mr. McMurtry provided handouts for the board to view.  The handouts were salaries of all superintendents and principals in the RPAC.  Mr. McMurtry also gave a list of classified pay.  A 3% raise was added and the difference in price was shown to the board.  Mr McMurtry explained that he did not list it as an action item so that the board could digest and ask for any other numbers that they may want to see.