Congratulations to the board of education, administrators, and high school staff and thank you to everyone who helped prepare, participated, or attended the SCHS Open House and Ribbon Cutting this week. We truly have a great facility our entire community can be proud of for many years to come.
Thank the staff and food service for the expanded food service program. Special thank you to the high school staff for your work to move your kitchen and setup the new kitchen and servery. The new federal program provides free meals to all student for the 2020-21 school year.
Thank the maintenance, custodial, and office staff for your work to keep our schools clean and safe for our staff and students.
Thank you to Carol Reha and her team of nurses for taking the lead in making sure our school buildings are safe. The weekly COVID-19 report is included in our SAA meeting each week on the district meeting site.
Finally, thank you to all the staff involved in this week's professional development. Special thank you to Dr. Gibbons and Mr. Droge on organizing and planning, presenters, and support help. Remember, any teacher who conducted a workshop during this past week will be paid $50 for conducting the workshop. Dr. Gibbons and Mr. Droge will submit your names for payment in December.
II. First Quarter Outstanding Employees:
Rationale:
Congratulations to the 3 nominees for the First Quarter Outstanding Employee Recognition:
Support Staff:
Para Educator:
Teacher:
III. October District Office Topics
Rationale:
COVID-19: The State of Nebraska is moving to a new Directed Health Measure (DMH). We are working with the school nurses and East Central Health District to review these changes. The main changes to the DMH involve guidelines for our nurses to follow when recommending isolation or quarantine. Please continue to do your best to continue with masks, social distance, and hand washing when possible. Cargill provided us with 100 gallons of hand sanitizer. Please let your principal know if you are in need of hand sanitizer in your room.
Emergency Medical Leave: Under FFCRA or CARES legislation you are afforded up to 10 additional leave days if you are in isolation due to COVID related exposure, symptoms, or positive test. Please make sure you communicate with your school nurse and record these days in the system as "administrative leave". Any days beyond 10, will be from your available leave. This leave is available until December 31, 2020.
Health Insurance: We will be offering on open enrollment period for changing insurance programs beginning in January 2021. This dual option allows employees to elect to participate in a high deductible ($3,600) and use the premium savings to enroll in a healthcare savings account. Please let Penny know if you are considering moving to the higher deductible by December 1st.
Friday Workshop Addition: Penny Janousek will be hosting a payroll 101 workshop to help employees understand their payroll, benefits, deductions, etc... This workshop will be held at the district office in the board room at 12:30 today.
Inventory: Thank you to all the staff who updated their inventory. This is needed for insurance as well as our 2019-20 Audit. You have until the end of the day on Friday (today) to make any adjustments for the audit.
Building, equipment, and supply care: Please continue to leave your area at the end of the day as you found it in the morning. Teaching this to our students is important. Lets make sure we do a great job of taking care of the buildings, materials and supplies entrusted to you. Reminder: items in your classroom that cannot be sanitized on a daily basis should be removed.
APL: The trainers from APL continue to compliment our teachers and support staff who participate in the initial workshop and in the re-fresher this past week. We are planning the final two days of training for new staff on January 18-19. These two days will be our final two days of professional development district-wide for the 2020-21 school year.
Strategic Plan Update: We will be finalizing our progress reports on the 2020 district strategic plan during the months of November and December. In addition, we will be posting Thoughtexchange questions and conducting input sessions to receive input from all staff on priorities for the 2021 plan. Our goal is to have our plan to the board for their consideration at the February 2021 school board meeting.
Support Staff and SEA Meetings: Due to our professional development week and this district meeting, our next district-wide support staff and SEA meetings will be between our Thanksgiving and Christmas break. We will have opportunities for administration to meet with your groups in November to discuss strategic plan priorities for 2021.
