February 13, 2023 at 7:00 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Rationale: 

This meeting has been preceded by advance notice and is hereby declared to be in open session.  A current copy of the Nebraska Open Meetings Act is posted on the West wall of the meeting room.

Notice of this meeting was given in advance by publication in the Cozad Local and posted on the Cozad Community Schools website and at the District Office, Cozad Post Office and Wilson Public Library.  Notice of this meeting was also given in advance to all members of the Board of Education. The order of agenda items may be changed when deemed necessary.

The board may choose to enter closed (executive) session to discuss any matter for which closed (executive) session is lawful and appropriate.

Rationale: 

The Board of Education invites you to offer comments during the public comments portion of the agenda. This is the portion of the meeting when members of the public may speak to the board about matters of public concern.

When you have been recognized, please stand and state your name and address and come forward to the front of the board table.

The board will generally allow a total of 20 minutes for the presentation of all public comments. Individuals may speak only one time, and must limit comments to around 5 minutes.  If there are more than 4 individuals who wish to address the board, the 20 minutes will be divided equally between the number of speakers.  These time limits may be changed by a majority vote of the board members in attendance to extend the time for a specific item or speaker.

For additional instructions on public participation, brochures are provided for you to view.  A copy of  Policy 2009 Public Participation at Board Meetings is available upon request.

 

 

Rationale: 

MAKER FAIR:

• The annual CHS Maker Fair was held on Monday, January 30th and Tuesday, January 31st.  The event was a tremendous success in large part due to the work of the CHS staff and the presenters/teachers who volunteered their time to come and share their skills and knowledge with our students.

• The CHS Maker Fair Organizing Team did a fantastic job of planning and organizing this event for many months.  Mrs. Kloepping, Mrs. Rossell, Mrs. Beans, Mr. Haarberg, Mr. Blackmore and Mr. Tvrdy spent many hours over the past year to assure this event was well planned.

• The students and staff were surveyed in the days following the fair and the feedback will be used to improve and assure this annual event continues to be a great success.  

 

ELL (English Language Learner) PROGRAM:

• Our enrollment of English Language Learners has increased throughout the 2022-2023 school year.  Mrs. Marcie Kostrunek serves as the ELL Coordinator for the district and works collaboratively with staff from across the district to meet the educational needs of our ELL students.  Mr. Luis Cordova, Mr. Daniel Revelo and Miss Melanie Castillo are also individuals that work to serve our ELL students both in and out of the classroom.  

 

FOCUS ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE & ACCOUNTABILITY

• We continue to focus on daily student academic accountability by tracking student grades each week.  

• Currently, we utilize two programs to hold students accountable to higher academic expectations.

1. The Wednesday After School Program (W.A.S.P.) is held each Wednesday after school.

2. The Fridays with Fisher Program is held during 8th period Academic Success each Friday afternoon.  

• Each Friday, we identify students who have failing grades and missing assignments.  

• Students who have at least one failing grade are informed of the expectation to attend W.A.S.P. the following Wednesday and Academic Success teachers are informed of those students who have missing assignments.

  • Students have the four school days (Friday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) to raise their grades to a D- or above or they are expected to attend W.A.S.P.

  • Students with missing assignments report to and work with Mr. Fisher and guidance staff during 8th period on Fridays. 

• Parents are informed each Friday via text message if their student has one or more failing grades.  

• Ultimately, the expectation is to reduce the need for credit recovery programs, lower dropout rate, a growth in the percentage of students performing at a higher level, and an increase in graduation rate.

 

PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES & COMMUNICATION:

• Spring semester PT Conferences will be held this coming Thursday, February 16th.

• Teacher-Parent communication continues to be a weekly focus at the high school.  This will continue to be a focus.  

  • The teacher-parent communication should be focused on informing parents of academic and behavioral concerns and also to inform parents of positive academic performance and/or other student successes.

 

PREPARING FOR THE 2023-2024 SCHOOL YEAR:

It is time to begin the process of updating * CHS Course Catalog Descriptions, * Student Pre-Registration (GRADES 9-11) and * Building the Class Schedule for the 2023-2024 school year.  The process includes the following steps:

 

• STEP #1:  Update of the CHS Course Descriptions Catalog. (by 2/15) 

• STEP #2:  Student pre-registration for grades 9-11 (by 2/15)

STEP #3:  Begin building the class schedule for the 2023-2024 school year. (initial draft by 3/17) 

Rationale:  Committee's time to report on recent committee meetings.

Rationale: 

• Minutes from Monday, January 16, 2023 at 7pm

Rationale:  Congratulations to Jayce Dueland on the birth of his daughter.

Congratulations to Bailey Dahlgren on the birth of her daughter. 

Congratulations to Rebecca Galyas on the birth of her daughter. 

Rationale:  Sydney Widick, Western Governors University, Designing Curriculum and Instruction II, 3 hours
Sydney Widick, Western Governors University, Learning as a Science, 3 hours
Sydney Widick, Western Governors University, The Collaborative Leader, 3 hours
Sydney Widick, Western Governors University, Educational Research, 3 hours

Rationale:  Joshua Richie, Local Substitue Certificate

Rationale:  Cheyenne Fitzgerald, Elementary Teacher
Hannah Gilg, Elementary Teacher
Ethan Schilz, Middle School Business Teacher
 

Rationale:  HS Math-Joshua Asche
EL PE- Preston Carbaugh
EL Kind.- Abbie Neujahr
EL 2nd - Ashley Pedersen
EL 3rd- Hannah Walker
HS Business-Seth Vlasak
MS Business-Samantha Crick
HS ELA- Heather Schultz
MS ELA- Trysta Asche

Rationale:  The School Food Summer Program would follow the Afterzone days as it has in years past. 

Rationale: 

• March 13, 2023- Board of Education Regular Meeting, 7pm

Rationale: 

* Closed Session:  If, during the course of the meeting, discussion of any item on the agenda should be held in a closed meeting, the board will conduct a closed meeting in accordance with the Nebraska Open Meetings Law.

**Sequence of Agenda:  The sequence of agenda topics is subject to change at the discretion of the board.  Please arrive at the beginning of the meeting.

***Action Item:  The board reserves the right to take action on any item on the board agenda.