February 8, 2016 at 8:00 PM - Regular February Board Meeting

1.  HVAC Study & Finance Presentation-360 Energy Engineers

2.  Energy company incentive grants for HVAC replacement in elementary:

  -NPPD offers $150 per unit (AC) (est. 16 units x $150 = $2,400)

  -Source Gas offers incentives based on BTU ratings for furnaces (est. $8,100)

  -TOTAL POSSIBLE REBATE = $10,500

3.  Bond Fund Repayment to General Fund in amount of $2500

4.  Lunch Program Update-Farm to School Training; Feasibility Study 

5.  Transfers between Depreciation, Special Building, & QCPUF-(explanatory memo attached)

6.  Updated fund balances for Depreciation Fund, Special Building Fund, & QCPUF-(attached)

In November, a check was written from the general fund to the Buffalo County Treasurer, who holds our bond fund proceeds, because it was estimated that the school district's tax draw was approximately $2400 short of being able to make the final bond fund payment due on November 25th.  This interfund loan repayment is being made from the bond fund back to the general fund. 

Purpose: Strategic Planning

Possible Date: March 7th

Possible Time: 6:00-9:00 PM

Considerations: 

1) Location-Library, Winery, other suggestions

2) Menu-Snacks, meal, other

3) Priority issues to make facilitator aware of-What keys items do you want to discuss?

4) Meeting Participants-Keith Rowher requested that we find at least three and no more than 6 additional participants for the membership at the retreat.  "This process is very tied to small group work and discussions.  I would like to work with three groups of four and not more than five people.  Would you have 3 key staff members that you would like to include to get us to 12 participants?  Would you also like to consider 3 community members to get us to 15 participants?  (12 would be the least number for us to have some good discussions.)"-Who are other key stakeholders we'd like to include?

The board is resuming its continuous policy review.  The section of policy to review in advance of the Regular March Board Meeting is the 600 series on "Instruction".  Will we begin to follow the calendar we agreed upon at the January Board Meeting (attached) as we continue to conduct ongoing policy review in the future.

It is time to consider summer projects for the summer of 2016.  The superintendent would like board input on any proposed projects or repairs they would like to see completed.  This topic will be discussed over the course of the next several months.  Areas to consider are:

1)  Building Improvements/Repairs

*a.  Water softeners-($19,450)

  *b.  Split unit HVAC Replacement in Elementary Wing-$154,000 (Preliminary Estimate)

  c.  Ridge cap on elementary-Waiting on bid by Tilloston 

  *d.  Concrete north of building (16' x 36' approximately 11 yards) ($5,000 est. by Dan)

  e.  Bleachers-($110,564)

  f.  Additional sprinklers  (elementary building to elementary playground-320' x 75') ($2000 est. by Dan)

  g.  Retaining wall & fence on west side of football field ($1500 est. by Dan)

  h.  Concrete for visiting bleachers on football field to sit on ($1500 est. by Dan)

  i.  Concrete pad on east side of concession stand for grilling ($100 est. by Dan)

  *j.  Tile replacement in elementary (2 classrooms) ($1400 per room est. by Dan)

  *k. Tile high school girls/boys locker room showers ($2000 total about $1000 per locker room) (est. by Dan)

  *l.  Metal siding on the storage shed east of crow's nest to match crow's nest ($1050 est. by Dan)

       m. Sprinklers on the interior of the building-$29,900 (contractor) & $3,000 (architect) = $32,900

  n. Pnuematic controls on the air handling equipment replaced-Waiting on Rasmussen for bid

  *o. Concrete for air conditioning compressors on west side of elementary ($2500 est. by Dan)

  p.  Replace T12 light fixtures in high school classrooms with T8 ($1200 per classroom est. by Dan)

*$186,800 total for preferred projects.

2)  Transportation

  a.  Bus replacement-$86,557

  b.  Van replacement-$25,000

Kelly Erickson, of ESU 15, gave a presentation on Nearpod during our professional development time on Friday. Nearpod is a classroom tool for teachers to engage students with interactive lessons & assessments.  During the "hands on" presentation teachers went through 6 different stations and had the opportunity to learn more about Nearpod.  

Also on Friday Mr. McLey and I led the staff through a process to develop core belief statements.  The staff worked collaboratively to brainstorm ideas and formulate the statements.  These core belief statements will be reviewed by the MTSS Leadership Team to help guide our CIP/Behavior plan.

Many of the belief statements had similar themes, here are a few examples:

We believe all students can learn when given a safe environment.

We believe that we should have high expectations in order for students to learn accountability and responsibility to be successful

We believe educators need to collaborate to maintain consistent expectations for each students unique needs.

• Ravenna Youth Vision Project - The high school will be working in conjunction with the Economic Development Chair - Dana Dennison to bring in Karl Shaddock who is with the Nebraska Community Foundation to speak to our student activity groups on February 12th.
• Unified Sports - Bowling.  NSAA is sanctioning bowling that would allow Special Education Students with Regular Education students to form bowling teams.  The sponsor/coach would need to be a certified Special Education teacher.
• TeamMates - I have made contact with the TeamMates organization that was started by Dr. Tom and Nancy Osborne to investigate starting a mentoring program for students here at RPS.  I have worked at two different schools that have had TeamMates programs and they were very successful.
• Driver's Ed - We are looking into the possibility of offering Driver's Education to our students here.  There would be a cost involved for students of $315.00 but no cost to the district.  We will need 8 students commitment to have the classes here at school.  

1.  Certified Budget Authority for 2016-17 (Attached)-The certified budget authority for the 2016-17 year increased by $270,086 or 5.47%.  This amount represents the total amount of allowable expenditures and transfers for the general fund budget.  It provides the maximum amount the general fund budget can grow by.  The projected increases in teacher salaries for 2016-17, as per the 2016-17 Negotiated Agreement, will account for an approximate increased $86,877 in budgeted expenditures.

2.  Projected State Aid for 2016-17 (Attached)-State Aid for the 2015-16 school year was $80,127.  The projected amount of State Aid for the 2016-17 school year is $0.  Unless legislation changes TEEOSA, the school district will be a "non equalized" school district for the 2016-17 school year.  Based on current taxable land valuations, this decrease in State Aid would require raising the tax levy rate by approximately 1.3 cents in the general fund to make up for lost revenue from the decreased State Aid.  

The primary reason we are not equalized is because of our "minimum levy adjustment".  The minimum levy adjustment is calculated and applied to any system that has a General Fund levy that is less than $0.95. The adjustment is calculated by subtracting the system levy from $0.95, and multiplying the result by the adjusted valuation divided by 100.

Last year, our general fund levy was $0.949722 or $0.000278 below $0.95.  As a result, our minimum levy adjustment for 2015-16 was $1,589.  This year, our general fund levy was $0.841874 or $0.108126 below $0.95.  As a result, our minimum levy adjustment for 2016-17 will be $681,915.

Essentially, what this $681,915 represents is the school district's capacity to tax for additional revenue, but chose not to use.  In essence, the formula says, "You had the opportunity to take in additional tax money for revenue, but you chose not to.  Obviously, you don't need the money, so why should the state offer you more money in the form of State Aid.  You use what you have access to, and if you still need more after that, we'll give you some more in the form of state aid."

However, keep in mind that in order to reach the minimum $0.95 levy rate, you would have had to increase the general fund levy rate by $0.108126.  Raising the levy rate by over 10 cents to capture $80,000 in State Aid would impose an unnecessary and unjustifiable, additional tax burden on patrons of the district.  So, you can't really feel bad about not being equalized next year.

3.  Guiding principals to use to evaluate proposed legislation affecting education, which are available at http://members.nasbonline.org/GovernmentRelations/SitePages/Legislative%20Bills.aspx:

  1.  If they aren't talking about generating additional tax revenue, it likely won't have any real impact on the property tax issue.

  2.  Controlling school spending is not the answer.  School districts already have limitations on budget growth and most grow very modestly.  The "priority bill" being forwarded by the governor and the chair of the education (Sullivan) and revenue committee (Gloor) addresses spending limits.  Those are the same spending limits schools already have in place.

  3.  Ask yourself, who controls the market value of land?  The answer is the "the free market".  Proposals to limit the taxable value of land are a nice idea, but in many instances that may simply cause an increase in the levy rate and make no difference in the actual amount of taxes collected.  Ravenna is a good example of that.  Currently, our levy rate is 20 cents below the maximum $1.05 levy rate.  If the amount of taxable valuation slows because of the proposed 3% cap on growth in valuation, that'll only cause districts with the capacity to increase their levy rate to capture the same tax revenue to do so.

  4.  Putting more money into reimbursement for special education services offered by schools districts is a nice idea.  That would equitably help all school districts.

4.  Insurance Review:

I conducted an insurance review with Ann Obermiller in advance of the regular March renewal.  Items of note include:

  1.  Modest and reasonable increases in property values.

  2.  We have several vehicles (unused buses and the "surplus" pickup) that we will likely remove from the policy before the renewal of the policy in 2017.

  3.  Worker's Compensation Modifier went down from 1.35 to 1.06.  This decrease means we, as a staff, have been safer over the last three years.  A lower modifier also saves the district money.

5.  Surplus Items Sold: The pickup ($638), metal band saw ($684), and riding tractor ($125) were sold during the month of January as surplus items.  The fryer was the only other item bid on and the bid was not accepted because it was far below a reasonable market value for the item.  The other surplus items will be retained for future resale, sold for scrap material, and/or disposed of as time allows.