August 8, 2017 at 6:00 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Meeting was called to order at 6:00 P.M.

Pres. Olsen led assembly in the pledge of allegiance.

FFA Parlimentary Procedure presented. 

Cathy Hanna expressed a big thank you for the solid foundation set forth for the Teammates Mentoring Program. Main focus: Quality matches between mentee/mentor matches. Hanna expressed the need for more mentors.  All kids can benefit from quality caring relationships with an adult. It's about building relationships. The program is data driven. Chase County is beginning it's 4th year. Goal is for mentors/mentees to meet at least 3 years because statistics show it takes that long for a relationship to build/flourish. At the end of the school year, students take a survey, majority of the mentee's have expressed positive results stating they know their mentor cares about them and trusts them. Cathy Hanna  & Trent Herbert attended the "Strength Based Conference." Focus centered on what was right about people, not what was wrong. No cost for the Strength Based Testing, which will be offered to mentors in September. Mentee's will take a test in the Spring. The focus is on strengths & utilizing those in every day life. Sheila Stromberger discussed scholarships that are granted by the Teammate Program. "Teammates Plus" takes students and mentor past graduation to college. They can stay matched with their mentor, or they can be matched with someone else where they are attending college.  Sheila would like to start looking for chapter wide scholarships for Chase County students who participated in the program, who fit the criteria & who would be eligible to receive scholarship money. Scholarships are non-competitive based (13 unlimited). Some scholarships are recurring, some are one shot scholarships. 

Troy Hauxwell was absent so Mr. Lefdal presented AD report. The NSAA held the annual coaching clinic in Lincoln on July 25, 26 and 27. 11 coaches attended. Dick Vermeil was the keynote speaker. Fall sports kicked off Monday, August 7th, which is a week earlier. There are about 34 out for football, 16 out for softball, 14 out for volleyball and 23 for cross country. These numbers could change a little if anyone else decides to join a sport or not participate. Impact Testing has been underway. JV football game is scheduled for Labor Day September 4th at 6:00 P.M. due to football practice and contact rules. With less & less 11 man JH teams in this area, Hauxwell is exploring possibilities of playing an 8 man game with Southern Valley or Sutherland, doing so would provide a 5th game for the JHteam without having so far to travel.

Principal Odens & Scheel stated they have been busy with interviews for para positions & new hires. The positions have been filled. Staff schedules are being worked on. In-services days are upcoming in McCook. Both principals expressed that there is a lot of work being done behind the scenes to get prepared for the upcoming school year.

Supt. Lefdal highlighted attending Administration Days Conference in Kearney. He stated it was a good conference with great networking & good workshops. He noted that he has been working on: preparing for start of school, setting up safe schools training, working with Lunchtime Solutions, ESSA applications, SSAE competitive grant opportunity, updating online information, budget work, online notices & records management. Upcoming items: August 28th Special Meeting and Budget workshop time asking if morning or afternoon would be better. August 30th Area Membership meeting, he advised board members to let him know if any are interested in attending.

Supt. Lefdal shared that our district was being recognized as one of the 2016-2017 Safety Honor Roll districts/ESUs in the Alicap pool. Lefdal praised the hard work and efforts of our maintenance staff and Safety Committee.

McPherson/Jacobson will be the company hired to do the Superintendent search, company is out of North Platte. Firm has had success in Nebraska & Board felt that taking a different approach to the Superintendent search would be beneficial and necessary.

Ron Paul presented for Rasmussen on maintenance of current system from Trane. Ron summarized that there would be 2 main areas of focus: 1. Repair of fitting failure which would cost approximately $7,946.00 and 2. Integrating the system which would cost approximately $35,829.00. Supt. Lefdal noted insurance could take care of cost of fitting failure repair. Questions arose about the safety agreement/preventative agreement. Board member Wallin asked about how many man hours it would take to repair and Board Member Meeske asked if systems would be compatible because that has been an issue in past years. Paul stated that he felt it would take approximately 86 hours to repair & he felt the systems would be compatible.

Committee believes setting goals with Lefdal would be top option. December will be formal evaluation.

Meeting was adjourned at 8:30 P.M.