September 10, 2025 at 6:00 PM - Board of Education Budget/Tax Asking Hearing and Regular Meeting
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1. Call to Order and Pledge of Allegiance
Discussion:
President Burklund called the Budget and Tax Asking Hearing to order at 6:00 PM and the Pledge of Allegiance was said.
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2. Nebraska Open Meetings Law
Discussion:
The audience was reminded that Open Meeting Laws would be followed.
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3. Motion to Excuse Board Member's Absence
Discussion:
Motion by Heyen, second by Benes to excuse the absence of Derek Matulka. RCV 5-0. Motion carried.
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4. Presentation of the 2025-26 Budget and the 2025-26 Tax Asking
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Discussion:
Superintendent Hanson discussed the 2025-2026 budget. The budget and tax asking are designed to meet district needs with financial limitations and priorities set by the Board. The 2025-2026 budget would generate a tax asking of $10,127,583.00 which is an increase of $458,556.00 but a reduced levy of $0.840048 (down from $0.990180).
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5. Receive Public Input
Discussion:
At this time the public was given the opportunity to ask questions.
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6. Adjournment - Close the Budget and Task Ask Hearing
Discussion:
Motion by Lange, second by Benes to close the Budget and Tax Asking Hearing at 6:08 PM.
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7. Call To Order Regular Meeting
Discussion:
President Burklund called the Regular Meeting to order.
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8. District Mission Statement
The Raymond Central community is committed to providing a positive, challenging learning environment which prepares each individual to be a responsible citizen in an ever-changing society. |
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9. Consent Agenda
Discussion:
Motion by Heyen, second by Lange to approve the consent agenda as presented including the regular meeting minutes of August 13, 2025; workshop minutes of August 27, 2025; August financial statement; monthly bills; and substitute teachers-Sydney Golladay, Blake Shiparski, Jessica Stenger and Seth Wesemann. RCV 5-0. Motion carried.
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9.1. Minutes of August 13, 2025 Meeting and August 27, 2025 Workshop Minutes
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9.2. Financial Statement/Report
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9.3. Monthly Bills
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9.4. Policy Review
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9.5. Certificated Staff Hire(s)/Reassignment(s)/Resignation(s)
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10. Correspondence/Recognition
Discussion:
Wyatt Jelinek was named the 10/11 News Athlete of the Week.
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11. Public Forum
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12. Reports
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12.1. Administrative Reports
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Discussion:
Submitted by Troy Lurz, Jr-Sr High School Principal
School Start: We are off and running. Classes and the new schedule seem to be working well. Staff and students have adjusted well. Being able to have additional contact with each other is already having a positive impact on students and their ability to get access to their teachers. After some early trepidation I believe we are all settling into the new routines and schedule. It is my estimation that we are off to a great start. There were a lot of system and structural changes/upgrades this year that have helped make our school operations work better and more efficiently. Although still a work in progress, we have made good use of our early time together at school. It's going to be a great year. Achievement Scores and Testing: Student achievement scores are tethered to our district strategic goals, They are and will continue to be linked to the high school growth goal, as well as administrative goals. MAPS Testing Schedule: On September 9-10 as well as Sept 16-17, we will run a late start schedule to accommodate for grades 6-11 testing. Seniors will not report until 10:00 AM. Testing Dates: September 9th & 10th September 16th & 17th Testing Time: 8:10 AM - 10:10 AM Summary of the Day: Students will test during the first two hours of the day. We will follow a late start bell schedule for the rest of the day, but school hours will remain the same (8:10 AM - 3:30 PM). Attendance and participation in the full school day are expected. The exception is the senior class. Counseling/ACT/Senior Experience/Scholarships (Tasha/Celia):
Homecoming Week Highlights:
The JH Student Council has met a few times and we are excited to have many plans in place for the year! We will decorate the junior high hallway during Homecoming to match the theme. Students made sub committees to help delegate different tasks which include fall activity & sport locker signs, planning for homecoming, updating the hallway bulletin board, and creating group t-shirt designs. We are excited for everything this group is set out to do this school year! FBLA is excited to announce the upcoming Craft Fair and Car Show on Saturday, October 18 at Raymond Central High School. This event is a great opportunity for student-run businesses and community vendors to showcase their products while visitors enjoy shopping, food, and fun. Car Show registration is now open and can be completed online at this link. More details and event updates can also be found on the Facebook event page. In addition, RC FBLA is working on state projects and needs help identifying FBLA alumni. Alumni, please fill out this short form: https://forms.gle/bYsG8d92wCgbLqaFA Assistant Principal/Ms. Horbach (Per Mr. Lurz): Ms. Horbach continues to work with the elementary school to further streamline our Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) process at the JH/HS. Her efforts thus far have been exhaustive and she has dedicated a lot of time and energy to the process. Collaborations have started with staff including but not limited to the administration, counselors, and teachers. The first scheduled MTSS meeting was held on September 9 for the HS staff. Ms. Horbach’s efforts in collaboration with others, will strengthen our current system and will venture to greatly enhance our ability to meet students where they are and to provide opportunities to succeed academically, socially, and emotionally. She has also spearheaded a Culture Team that currently has about 20 members on it. Their goal(s); planning monthly activities, fun games, and gestures of appreciation for staff. Already the efforts have been fruitful. We talk about celebrating everything; here is another vehicle to see it through. Nice work Abby Ms. Horbach continues to learn the nuances of RCHS and is quickly learning the Mustang Way. The Professional Learning Team will meet on September 16 to plan out our next work session together as we continue to roll out the 6 Phase Instructional Model. Our next session with certified staff will be on October 10 where we begin to Focus on New Learning. Observation Classrooms: We are making frequent visitations to the classrooms this semester in a conscious effort to become active members in the educational process as leaders. Using the walkthrough device as provided through TeachBoost (our evaluation tool), emails and face to face correspondence, we are ramping up communication and feedback to our teachers. Our role as educational leaders is to help improve the educational experience for our students while providing support and guidance for our staff. Frequent visitations to classrooms paired with quality conversations help ensure this is occurring. Great things are happening at RCHS. Instructional Coach: Monica Blank has started working with staff at the high school in a non evaluative role. Her efforts as an instructional coach have been to help staff members establish themself in the classroom, learn best practice, and provide support. Her presence and efforts to help support and grow our teachers is appreciated. Research clearly indicates that when we properly induct staff and provide structured staff development, the rate of staff turnover decreases and job satisfaction increases. Monica is helping to establish these principles early. Legacy Statements and Affirmations: Every year I borrow a page out of author Daniel Pink’s book; Drive, The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. It's a sentence activity where we think of ourselves in the third person and what we want to be known for. Our twist at RCHS is to call them Legacy Statements. The preschool joined in this year by adding Affirmations. If you walk our halls, you will see the Legacy Statements on the lockers of the students, in the classrooms of the teachers, and in workspaces. You will also see the Affirmations posted on the wall by the preschool room. If you really want to see the heart of who we are, you have to check these out. Submitted by Tony Kobza, Asst Jr-Sr High School Principal/Athletic Director Facilities We have a Cross Country Course mapped and mowed on the field South of the school. This will allow our students to practice here with a goal that we host a cross country meet at the school in the 2026 school year. Outdoor Concessions has added a Blackstone Grill to help provide a safer and more efficient grilling process for football games and track meets. Huge shout out to our facilities and maintenance crews for making our building look so great for all of our home events. The pride this group takes in making RC the best it can be is shown consistently inside and outside of the building. Athletics High School and Junior High athletics have started competitions and each group has found success. Girls Cross Country has won both of their invites so far. We have been selected to host the District Cross Country races on October 15 this year at Branched Oak. Activities CTSOs: FBLA, FFA and Skills USA are working together to recruit and grow their organizations. This is a great way for our kids to find success in co-curricular activities. CTSOs are also the driving force behind students finding a passion for their future careers. Fall conferences will be starting in September for each organization. Band: Band is preparing for competitions and performances throughout the fall. Submitted by Elementary Principals Steve Rose and Deb Kruse Our first Benchmark Protocol Meetings were a success! Teams met to go over our FastBridge Data. This screening data let us know if our Tier One instruction was effective. If our data wasn’t at 80%, the grade level planned a whole class intervention to give students an extra dose of instruction on skill deficits. We then analyzed diagnostic data which gave us a more detailed view of students’ skills and skill gaps. We put students into groups based on this data. These groups take place during WIN (What I Need) time. We are fortunate to have up to 8 adults who are available to work with groups during this time. Professional Learning Communities (PLC) are up and running! PLC is a collaborative group of educators who meet regularly to share expertise, analyze student data, and work together to improve teaching practices and student outcomes. Every week teachers meet to answer 4 questions:
The Professional Learning Team will meet on September 16 to plan our next professional learning session. We will focus on the next stage of learning, Focus on New Learning as well as planning for learning vs. planning for teaching. Below are a few examples of this shift in planning.
Submitted by Amanda Coufal, Director of Special Education MDT/IEP Season is Underway:
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12.2. Student Board Member Report
Discussion:
Emma Dukeshearer will serve as the Student Board Representative
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12.3. Superintendent's Report
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Discussion:
Mr. Hanson gave updates on the start of the school year, school improvement plan, mentoring program and district membership.
Cathy Metcalf submitted her resignation as part time Asst Cook. Melanie Jordan has been reassigned to Ceresco as a Paraeducator. We did have a medical emergency in the first few days of school. Our staff responded very well. The Medical Response Team met and reviewed the event and, as a result, we have updated some of the language we will use during potential future events. Bid opening for our second driveway is on September 23 at 3:00 PM. |
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12.3.1. Classified Staff Hire(s)/Reassignment(s)/Resignation(s)
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12.3.2. NASB Monthly Update
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12.3.3. NRCSA Monthly Report
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12.3.4. Update on Superintendent Goals
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12.3.5. Safety Report
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12.3.6. Facilities Report
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12.3.7. Important Upcoming Dates
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Discussion:
September 19 - Staff and Family BBQ before the football game 5:00-6:30 PM
September 24 - Area Membership Meeting in Fremont 5:00-8:30 PM September 25 - Parent Teacher Conferences 12:30-7:30 PM November 19-21 - State Education Conference in Omaha |
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12.4. Board Committee Reports
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12.4.1. Curriculum & American Civics Committee (Burklund-chair, Lange, Matulka)
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12.4.2. Facilities & Transportation Committee (Matulka-chair, Burklund, Lange)
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12.4.3. Finance Committee (Burklund-chair, Heyen, Lange)
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12.4.4. Negotiations Committee (Benes-chair, Heyen, Matulka)
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12.4.5. Policy Committee (Benes-chair, Heyen, Brase)
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13. Old Business
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14. New Business
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14.1. Discuss,Consider, and take Necessary action for the approval of the MOE with the Lancaster County Sherrif's Department regarding the SRO position.
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Discussion:
Motion by Brase, second by Heyen to approve the Interlocal Agreement with the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office providing an LSO School Resource Officer for the term August 1, 2025 through July 31, 2028 in the amount of $23,962.00 for the first year of the contract and an increase of 3.5% each contract year thereafter. RCV 5-0. Motion carried.
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14.2. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to Approve the 2025-26 budget.
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Discussion:
Motion by Benes, second by Lange to approve the 2025-2026 budget as follows: General Fund: $14,176,100.00; Depreciation Fund: $1,996,685.00; Employee Benefit Fund: $386,759.00; Activities Fund: $942,946.00; School Nutrition Fund: $613,200.00; Bond Fund: $1,249,902.00; Special Building Fund: $4,106,859.00; QCPUF Fund: $2,121.00; and Student Fee Fund: $38,636.00 for a Total Budget of Disbursements: $23,513,208.00. RCV 5-0. Motion carried.
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14.3. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to Set System-Wide 2025-26 Property Tax Request for General Fund, Building Fund, and High School Bond Fund.
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Discussion:
Motion by Heyen, second by Benes to approve the tax resolution to set system-wide 2025-2026 property tax request at $10,127,583.00 with fund requests of: General Fund: $9,117,481.00; Bond Fund: $505,051.00; and Special Building Fund: $505,051.00. RCV 5-0. Motion carried.
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14.4. Discuss, Consider, and Take Necessary Action to Approve a Temporary Early Retirement Incentive Program
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Discussion:
Motion by Benes, second by Heyen to adopt the Temporary Early Retirement Incentive Program Resolution to encourage certificated employees who are considering an early-leaving decision to accelerate their retirement plans, effective at the end of the 2025-2026 school year. RCV 5-0. Motion carried.
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14.5. Discuss, Consider and Take Necessary Action to approve the update to policy 3132 Internal Controls.
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Discussion:
Motion by Brase, second by Benes to approve updated Policy 3132-Internal Controls which includes a newly required travel section. RCV 5-0. Motion carried.
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15. Next Regular Board Meeting
Discussion:
The next regular Board of Education Meeting will be held Wednesday, October 15, 2025.
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16. Adjournment
Discussion:
Motion by Benes, second by Lange to adjourn the meeting at 6:32 PM. RCV 5-0. Motion carried.
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