March 10, 2025 at 6:00 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Rationale: 

Mission Statement:

Gothenburg Public Schools is the cornerstone of a proud, passionate, and progressive community where students and staff thrive in a positive and innovative environment.  We ensure the growth of all individuals by inspiring them to own and maximize their potential.

A copy of the open meetings law is posted on the wall of the Board Room and is available to the public.

Rationale: 

The Board reserves the right to rearrange the order of items as needed.

Rationale:  Mrs. Josie Floyd and the Swede Bank Tellers are here to showcase how elementary students are actively engaging with Strategy 2 - Collaborative Partnerships by managing their very own Swede Bank and gaining real life experience as bank tellers!

Rationale: 

Board Policy 2009 - Opportunity for Public Expression.  
(A copy of the policy is linked here.)

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

INSTRUCTIONS FOR MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC WHO WISH TO SPEAK: This is the portion of the meeting when members of the public may speak to the board about matters of public concern.  

• Getting Started: Before the meeting begins, anyone wishing to address the board must sign in with their name, address, and any organizations they are representing. When recognized, please stand and state your name. 

• Time Limit:  The board will generally allow a total of 30 minutes for the presentation of all public comments.  Individuals may speak only one time, and must limit comments to 5 minutes.  If there are more than 6 individuals who wish to address the board, the 30 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. 

• Personnel or Student Topic:  If you are planning to speak about a personnel or a student matter involving an individual, please understand that the district has a complaint policy and/or procedures to resolve such complaints and concerns.  The Board requests that you follow the policy and procedures before addressing these matters with the Board.  Board members will generally not respond to any questions you ask or comments about individual staff members or students.  

• General Rules: This is a public meeting for the conduct of business.  Comments from the audience while others are speaking will not be tolerated.  Lewd, obscene, profane, slanderous, threatening and hostile conduct or statements and fighting words (words whose mere utterance entails a call to violence) will not be tolerated. 

• No Action by the Board:  The board will not act on any matter unless it is on the published agenda. 

Rationale: 

1. Approval of Previous Minutes

2. Approval of the Treasurer's Report

3. Approval of the Warrants / Bills

  a.  Petty Cash

  b.  Student Activity

  c.  Hot Lunch

  d.  Bank Statement

  e.  Summary of Accounts and Receipts

  f.  Monthly Expenditure Report

  g. Check Journal

4. Excuse Absent Board Members

 

Rationale: 

• Michelle Stevens

Rationale: 

• Mrs. Sierra Higgins comes to us from Bennington, Nebraska where she has taught Chemistry and Physical Science for the past 9 years. A native to the panhandle, she's no stranger to small-town Nebraska and bravely drove here in a blizzard to tour our school and community!  She has a Bachelor's degree in science and a Master's degree in Learning and Technology.  Her husband and four children look forward to calling Gothenburg HOME!

Rationale:  The Personnel Committee has met to discuss compensation for non-instructional staff.  This category includes office personnel, paraprofessionals, custodians, bus drivers, and directors.  The committee recommends an overall increase in total compensation of 4.31%. Total compensation includes applicable health insurance through the Educators Health Alliance, which saw rates increase by approximately 5.49% from 2024-2025 rates. 

Overall, our district will spend approximately $10,088,337 on the wages and benefits of all staff next year.  This is an increase of $368,346 or 3.79% from the 2024-2025 school year.  

 

Rationale:  The proposed calendar for 2025-2026 is attached.  There are two slight changes from the first draft that was presented last month.  
1) September 19th was scheduled to be HALF of a work day for teachers due to Harvest Festival. This will now be a full work day to accommodate some additional professional learning.
2) To give us one more extra day, the proposed last day of school is now Thursday, May 21st instead of Wednesday, May 20th. This gives FOUR extra days in the schedule instead of three as previously stated. This past month has made me really thankful for those extra days. :)

Rationale:  NASB’s natural gas programs on the two major natural gas pipelines were created to fulfill two needs that many local districts have in dealing with utility costs - competitive prices and budget certainty.  NASB has over 110 school districts and ESUs across Nebraska participating in our CJUMP and NJUMP purchasing consortiums to leverage their purchasing power and achieve lower utility bills. Many of our members have been in CJUMP since it was created in 2011.

Rather than pricing the entire year’s gas needs at one time in the spring as is typical for most utility price-lock programs, the consortium locks in fixed prices as market opportunities become available by purchasing gas in layers over time and in varying percentages of total projected volumes. Historically, this approach has achieved a better price for natural gas with a higher level of budget certainty than districts could achieve on their own.

Our district is on the SourceGas (now owned by Black Hills Energy) distribution system in northern, central and western Nebraska. The Choice Joint Utilities Management Program, as it’s formally known, supplies natural gas to nearly 50 NASB member districts. The program operates as an independent Interlocal Pool and is governed by its own Board of Trustees drawn from consortium members, typically superintendents or business managers. The trustees hold their annual meeting at the State Education Conference in Omaha each November.

Member districts signed three-year agreements last year so we would plan to sign a new agreement in 2 years to put us on the same cycle as the other member districts. If our board signs this Agreement now, CJUMP will assist during the April period to complete the Source Gas information that gets returned to them prior to engaging in CJUMP services.

Rationale: 

Committee Reports (Chair in bold)

1.  Personnel Committee (Mr. Fornoff, Mrs. Terrell, Mrs. Jobman)
2. Transportation and Facilities (Mr. Wyatt, Mr. Dalrymple, Mrs. Brass)
3. Finance (Mrs. Jobman, Mr. Wyatt, Mrs. Brass)
4. Committee on American Civics (Mrs. Terrell, Mr. Fornoff, Mr. Dalrymple)
5. Policy Review (Mrs. Terrell, Mr. Fornoff, Mrs. Brass)

 

Rationale: 

Rationale:  Monday, April 14th

Swede Activities:
JV Golf @ Minden