January 10, 2022 at 6:30 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Rationale: 

STRIVE  -  COMMIT  -  SUCCEED  -  District Mission Statement

Schuyler Community Schools in partnership with parents, students, and the community is committed to educate students to become skilled, knowledgeable and responsible citizens in a global society - District Vision Statement

Notice of this meeting was given in advance according to State Law 84-1411, by giving notice of the meeting to the public.  Notice of this meeting was also given in advance to all members of the Board of Education

Rationale: 

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

Nebraska Open Meetings Act:  http://nitc.nebraska.gov/documents/statutes/NebraskaOpenMeetingsAct_current.pdf

Rationale: 
2021 Board Offices
President:  Rich Brabec                                   Vice President - Brian Vavricek
Secretary - Alejandrina Lanuza                       Treasurer - Chuck Misek
NASB Delegate - Renee Sayer                        Recording Secretary -  Sally Jakub

2022 Board Offices
President -                                                      Vice President -
Secretary -                                                     Treasurer -
NASB Delegate -                                          Recording Secretary -
 

Rationale: 
Board Policy 203.01:  The superintendent shall assume chairmanship of the meeting for the purpose of electing a board president. Ballots for officers may be cast in secret but the total vote for each candidate shall be recorded by the secretary.

Process for Office Nominations:
1.  Board member makes a nomination for the position  (no second needed)
2.  If more than one member is nominated for an office, written votes should be used and passed to the recording secretary for count.
3.  If only one nomination is made, any member of the board may make a motion for nominations to cease and cast a unanimous ballot for the nominee.  Motion must have a second, followed by a voice roll call vote.

 

Rationale: 

Process for Office Nominations:
1.  Board member makes a nomination for the position  (no second needed)
2.  If more than one member is nominated for an office, written votes should be used and passed to the recording secretary for count.
3.  Recommended Motion:  If only one nomination is made, any member of the board may make a motion for nominations to cease and cast a unanimous ballot for the nominee.  Motion must have a second, followed by a voice roll call vote.
4.  Recommended Motion:  If more than one nomination, any board member may make a motion to call for the ballot vote.  Motion must have a second, followed by a voice roll call vote.
 

Rationale: 
Process for Office Nominations:
1.  Board member makes a nomination for the position  (no second needed)
2.  If more than one member is nominated for an office, written votes should be used and passed to the recording secretary for count.
3.  Recommended Motion:  If only one nomination is made, any member of the board may make a motion for nominations to cease and cast a unanimous ballot for the nominee.  Motion must have a second, followed by a voice roll call vote.
4.  Recommended Motion:  If more than one nomination, any board member may make a motion to call for the ballot vote.  Motion must have a second, followed by a voice roll call vote.
 

Rationale: 
Process for Office Nominations:
1.  Board member makes a nomination for the position  (no second needed)
2.  If more than one member is nominated for an office, written votes should be used and passed to the recording secretary for count.
3.  Recommended Motion:  If only one nomination is made, any member of the board may make a motion for nominations to cease and cast a unanimous ballot for the nominee.  Motion must have a second, followed by a voice roll call vote.
4.  Recommended Motion:  If more than one nomination, any board member may make a motion to call for the ballot vote.  Motion must have a second, followed by a voice roll call vote.

Rationale: 
Process for Office Nominations:
1.  Board member makes a nomination for the position  (no second needed)
2.  If more than one member is nominated for an office, written votes should be used and passed to the recording secretary for count.
3.  Recommended Motion:  If only one nomination is made, any member of the board may make a motion for nominations to cease and cast a unanimous ballot for the nominee.  Motion must have a second, followed by a voice roll call vote.
4.  Recommended Motion:  If more than one nomination, any board member may make a motion to call for the ballot vote.  Motion must have a second, followed by a voice roll call vote.

Rationale: 
This can be an appointed position by the newly elected board president.  In the past you have appointed Sally Jakub for this position.
 

Rationale: 
1.  All School Board Members:  Complete and sign the conflict of interest document.

2.  Board Committees/Self-Evaluation:  Attached below is board committee interest form and self-evaluation for all board members to review.  This is not a required evaluation, just an opportunity for you to check yourself. 

Rationale: 

Committees will be appointed by the president of the board.  These committees are created for specific tasks of seeking information or investigation and will report back to the board for its consideration and action.  Committee action is considered to be advisory only.  The following committees are appointed at the annual board organizational meeting for one year.

Americanism, Curriculum, Assessment and Instruction:  Responsible for reviewing curriculum recommendations, textbook selection, staff requisitions and inventory.  This is the only committee required by law (79-724)  3 members required.  (2021 - Alejandrina Lanuza, Renee Sayer, Guadalupe Marino)
 
Board Policy/Handbooks/Support Programs:  Responsible for annual review of board policies, handbooks, and safety/crisis plan. 2-3 members recommended.  Following the Americanism Committee Meeting.  (2021 - Rich Brabec, Renee Sayer, Guadalupe Marino)

Public Relations/Strategic Planning/Calendar:  Responsible for recommending the annual district calendar, strategic planning process, and promoting positive public relations and communication.  2-3 members recommended.   Following the Policy Committee Meeting.  (2021 -  Alejandrina Lanuza, Chuck Misek, Renee Sayer)

Building/Grounds/Transportation:  Responsible for recommending approval of the building and grounds and transportation programs, vehicle replacement schedule, building maintenance and upgrade schedule)  3 members recommended.  (2021 - Chuck Misek, Brian Vavricek, Rich Brabec)

Budget/Finance/Negotiations:  Responsible for budget, finance, contract negotiations with administration, certificated staff negotiations and support staff contracts. 3 members recommended.  Following the Bldg/Grnds/Transportation meeting or following the board meeting.  (2021 - Chuck Misek, Rich Brabec, Brian Vavricek)

Foundation Committee:  Responsible for working with the Schuyler Community Schools Foundation.  2 Members Required in Bylaws.  Foundation meets the first Monday of the month at 12:00 PM.  (2021 - Brian Vavricek and Alejandrina Lanuza)


*  Special temporary committees of the Board, except as specified by statute, may be appointed by the president or chosen by a vote of the Board as needed.  The function of all such committees shall be fact-finding, deliberative and advisory, but never legislative or administrative.  When the specified purpose of all sub-committees appointed to conform to statute.  The superintendent shall be an ex-officio member of all such committees.

Rationale:  Discuss, Consider and Take Action on the consent agenda

Rationale: 

Rationale:  This committee is responsible for annual review of board policies, handbooks, and crisis/safety plans.  This committee is also responsible for the support and development of support programs(nursing, food service) in the district.

Rationale:  The board of education upon reorganization of the board is also to reaffirm all policies, regulations and handbooks for the governance of the district.  It is of general practice, unless mandated by law, to review polcies, regulations, and handbooks prior to the beginning of the new school year.

Board policies are hosted electronically by the Nebraska Association of School Boards.  Policy changes are provided through two law firms (Perry, Guthery, Haase, and Gessford, P.C., L.L.O and KSB School Law, PC, L.L.O).  These two law firms are hired by the Educational Service Units to provide policy updates in compliance with State and Federal Legislation.  The NASB codifies these policy recommendations and uploads them in their system. 

Policy Manual Updates
The entire policy manual  was updated last summer.  Jim Luebbe, Policy Director from NASB, worked with the policy committee to update the manual and bring handbooks into compliance with our current manual.

Rationale:  This committee is responsible for budget, finance, and contract negotiations with administration, certificated staff, and support staff.

Rationale: 
1.  Katherine Moran:  Warrior Academy Afterschool Coordinator and Business Liaison
2.  Dr. Jodie Sams:  High School Principal
 

Rationale: 
1.  Patricia Acosta:  Housekeeping
2.  Kathy Kaasch:  Para Educator - SES
3.  Alma Guadalupe Vigil:  Para Educator - SES

Rationale: 
Rule 10 requires action to appoint replacements for open administrative positions for the remainder of the school year.  These are transfers within and do not require opening or advertising these positions. 

With this recommendation is also an amendment of contract consistent with the salary and days negotiated in the contract agreement for these positions.

Dr. Joey Lefdal:  High School Principal
Second semester salary adjustment and 20 additional contract days.
Samantha Ladwig:  High School Assistant Principal
Second semester salary adjustment and 25 additional contract days.

Samantha Ladwig was paid by NDE as an instructional coach.  This position is paid on the teacher salary schedule with an extended 10 Day contract.  The additional contract days will be assigned to Brnadi Zavadil.  I have been in discussion with Kathy Kennedy NDE and Priority School Consultant and she is supportive of this move.
 

Rationale: 

Priority Plan update

This past month we were able to meet with our consultants three different days.  We met on December 9th and January 6th and 7th.  We had a long list of to-do items, but I feel the meetings went well and were very productive, especially the meetings in January.  During our time with Dr. Kennedy, we visited classrooms to support high quality instruction as well as discussed opportunities for the second semester.  With Dr. Head, we discussed ACT implementation and celebrations as well as coaching logs, collecting data, and embedding ACT standards into bellringers.  We had some great conversations!

We continue to visit and coach a number of teachers every week.  During our visits, we will visit classrooms and have worked on 30-second feedback.  This semester we will start 30-second feedback with value add.  This is an extension of the 30-second feedback where we coach teachers on how to improve a lesson that was already successful.

As a team, we also spent part of this week working on our Checkpoint #2 of our progress plan.  During this time our admin team rates how we feel we are doing on each area of our plan while our consultants rate how they feel we are doing.  We then come together to discuss and come to a consensus on how to rate us as a team.  This has been an excellent process, and we were able to come to a consensus fairly quickly.  We will have one more rating this year in May. 

Our consultants also spent time working with our content specific PLC’s this last month.  We believe the ideas and suggestions for how to prepare for the ACT will be very beneficial.  Much of this time was spent discussing ACT, ELPA and MAP administration and goal setting, as well as summer professional development opportunities, coaching for administrators, and visiting our newcomer’s program.  

Below is a link to our priority plan, as well as our SCHS newsletter.  Again, if you have any questions or concerns, don’t be afraid to contact one of the high school administrators.

 

https://core-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/asset/uploaded_file/908802/Draft_2018-2021_Schuyler_Priority_Plan__1_.pdf 

 

https://5il.co/nlww

Rationale: 

Preschool and SES 3-5 Principal's Report:  Mr. Comley
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  This month I would like to highlight Nicole Taylor Liermann and Stephanie Pearson. These 2 ladies held an amazing holiday concert at the high school. These two ladies go above and beyond daily for our fine arts programs, and it showed up during that program.  Thank you, Mrs Taylor Liermann and Mrs Pearson for all you do for SES and Schuyler Community Schools as a whole. 

SES K-2 Principal's Report:  Mrs. Neesen
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  This month I would like to highlight the hard work of Nicole Taylor, Stephanie Pearson, and Ryan Baldwin for the 21-22 Winter Concert. A lot of collaboration went into planning this day ranging from transportation, working with the High School schedule, and making sure our SES Students were ready to perform. Not only did the program go well, all grades blew everyone out of the water and went without a hitch. There was only positive feedback from the day and I would like to thoroughly thank this team and the other Specials teachers at SES for the great day!

DO Dual Language, Fisher’s, & Richland Principal's Report:  Ms. Bebout
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  I would like to highlight my head teachers Cindy Vacha (Fisher’s), Kristi Benck (Richland), and Rhonda Sellentin (DO DL).  The help they provide before school begins in August and each and everyday in between is what keeps the buildings running seamlessly!!!  They are so reliable and work well with staff and students.  They are excellent at communication!  Each day they are responsible for answering phones, opening the doors, dealing with any small issues, talking with parents, and I could go on and on.  They go above and beyond to make our schools an AMAZING place to be!

Middle School Principal's Report:  Mr. Banahan
Program/Staff Member Spotlight: The staff I would like to spotlight this month includes our Special Services teachers: Mrs. Angie Wemhoff, Mr. Rod Ruybalid, Mr. Tyrell Reichert, Mrs. Bernice Maxwell, and Miss Caitlyn Becker. This staff members all do an amazing job of helping our students who receive special services at SMS as we begin to navigate the extremely busy time of testing. Students are currently taking the STAR assessments, and finishing up the Winter MAP assessments. Before we head into the ELPA 21 assessment and finish up the spring with the NSCAS Growth assessments. These individuals do an awesome job of going with the flow of assessments, and being able to be flexible to help our students get the accommodations they need to be successful students not only during this busy testing time, but throughout the school year as well. We are blessed to have them all working with our students here at SMS!
Spotlight Upcoming Events: Next month many of our students will begin the ELPA 21 Language Assessment. This assessment is for any student whose family's home language is not English. Students will have to continue to take this test until they are able to test out in the four areas that the test focuses on. The four areas that ELPA 21 focuses on include, writing, speaking, listening, and reading in the English language. Students are then given a score in those areas on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest level for each area. How students do on this assessment will determine whether or not they are on the LEP (Limited English Proficiency) identified. Once students have tested out of their LEP program they no longer need to take the ELPA 21 assessment, as they have been identified as mastery of the English language.

Middle School Principal's Report:  Mr. Zavadil
Program Spotlight: This upcoming month will be a busy month at Schuyler Middle School.  It is time to work hard and push with our staff.  We have upcoming professional development on January 17th and 18th with a portion committed to Strategic plan.  We are committed as a staff to continuing to work upon the action items created through the Strategic plan in order to make our School as great as possible.  The administration at the Middle school has also worked hard to create new opportunities to utilize our Friday afternoons for professional development wrapped around our district goals.
Staff Member Spotlight:  Schuyler Middle School is back in session and unfortunately we are saddened by the loss of one of our paraprofessionals, Mrs. Barb Stark.  Mrs. Stark was a Special Education Para that has worked with our students at Schuyler Middle School for the past 21 years she was hired in September of 1999.  Ms. Stark was a dedicated staff member and always treated her colleagues and the students with respect.  She will be missed.
Upcoming Events:  Professional Development days on January 17th and 18th will provide great opportunities for improvement.  Administration from multiple buildings will be attending the Wayne State Student Teacher Fair and the UNK educational opportunities fair, which we hope will allow us to introduce graduating students to Schuyler Community Schools and increase our ability to recruit quality teachers.

High School Assistant Principal's Report:  Mr. Steinhoff
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  My staff spotlight on the month is Mr. Trotter.  Mr. Trotter teaches art class and is a true asset to our school.  Mr. Trotter does a fantastic job of teaching at all different levels and experiences.  His room is filled with amazing student work.  Currently, Mr. Trotter is working with his students to enter the Scholastics Art and Writing Competition. The Scholastics Art and Writing Competition is a statewide event held each year in states across the United States.  High School students are divided into two groups, freshman and sophomores, and juniors and seniors.  Students submit original artwork to be judged on skill and originality by judges from the art industry. Students can be awarded Gold Key, Silver Key, and Honorable Mention.  Gold Key artwork is then judged against other Gold Key artworks across the nation.  In the past, we have had many award winners, including a National Gold Key.  This year there are six different students submitting nineteen different artworks and one student is submitting a senior portfolio composed of six artworks to be judged as a collection.  Accepted artworks will be displayed in Omaha for the month of March.  Mr. Trotter’s class will also be entering art shows at Wayne College, Columbus, Kearney, and Lincoln.  We are all excited about seeing how we do.

Rationale: 

K-6 Youth Sports Director's Report:  Mrs. Neesen
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  Youth Sports Girls basketball is up and starting with 64 athletes signed up from Kindergarten to Sixth Grade. There are 21 athletes in the Kindergarten through Second Grade group, and 43 in the Third through Sixth Grade group. There are 19 athletes in the Fourth Grade alone! We’re excited for the season to get started with Coach Hayes!

Warrior Academy - ASP Director's Report:  Ms. Bebout
Spotlight Partnership: I would like to highlight our partnership with Pinnacle Bank.  They donated $300 to our afterschool program!  We greatly appreciate their constant support for the students in our district.  They have supported us over the years monetarily, by allowing students to come into the bank for a tour and to see the vault, and as speakers to our students.  This financial support will help with programming we offer to students.
Pinnacle Bank’s Mission Statement says, "At Pinnacle Bank, our mission is to serve our community, to provide value to our clients, to respect employees and provide shareholders sustained growth and earnings with their investment."  I believe you see this example in our community!!!  Thank you very much!!

Middle School Activities Director's Report:  Mr. Banahan
Staff Member Spotlight: This month’s staff spotlight is Mr. Adam Robinson who teaches 4th grade at SES. Mr. Robinson, does a lot for the Middle School athletics, as he is the head coach of both the Girls Cross Country and this year will be the head coach for Girls Track. On top of that, Mr. Robinson also coaches basketball at the Middle School for the Warriors, and took the time last year to get his CDL to drive the bus for all three sports teams. It is great having someone like Mr. Robinson on our staff, and be that dedicated to helping improve not only athletics here in Schuyler, but be a positive role model for our student athletes and help them become better versions of themselves. Thank you for all that you do for Schuyler Community Schools Mr. Robinson!
Program Spotlight: Currently we are just starting our boys basketball season, and we have over 40 boys out for basketball this season. We are excited to see some growth from our 8th grade team from last season, as well as seeing what our 7th grade group of boys can do on the court! Our first game is on January 18th in Central City. 

High School Activities Director's Report:  Mr. Steinhoff
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  My spotlight program this month is the girls wrestling team.  This is the first year girls wrestling is a NSAA sanctioned sport, and we are off to a great start.  The girls wrestling team won the Fremont and Crete tournaments.   They placed second in the Platteview tournament and third at High Plains. They also won all three of their duals,  defeating Crete, Norfolk, and South Sioux City.  These accomplishments are especially impressive because we are competing in the toughest tournaments we can find around the state.  If you haven’t had the chance to see the girls compete, we host the girls version of our wrestling tournament on Friday the 14th.  It is a lot of fun to see the girls compete!

Student Services Director's Report:  Dr. Lefdal
Program Spotlight. I would like to highlight Mr. Harper in our Ag and FFA department.  Casey’s ability to reach students where they are, and create programming and course work that is tied to the real world is nothing short of amazing.  He even had a day where students learned to process a deer.  He has created an amazing space for these students and continues to make our programs stronger. 
Notable Topics:  I am excited to see how our programming on Friday afternoons works for our students.  We have created an intervention team that works with essential standards, homework help, attendance recovery, as well as speakers on college, jobs, etc.  We have had two weeks prior to Christmas break, and it was well received.
Looking ahead:  I am excited for a number of things that are happening in our district.  Our priority plan has some great ideas and strategies that will make our school better including utilizing data to drive our instruction as well as using walkthrough data to improve our instruction.  It is truly a great day to be a Warrior!

Curriculum, Assessment, Instruction Director:  Dr. Gibbons
Program/Staff Member Spotlight: The NSCAS Growth winter pilot program is underway.  The NSCAS Growth is for 3rd through 8th grade students in Reading and Math.  The NDE is moving state testing to a through-year adaptive system, which means that students will test three times a year.  The winter pilot is a test of the testing program.  We had about 97% of our students take the assessment before winter break.  Because it is a pilot, we will not have comprehensive data to share.
Spotlight Upcoming Events: We will have two days of Professional Learning on January 17th and 18th.  The main focus of these two days will be updating strategic plan information.  We will also have new staff in days 4 and 5 of the APL Strategies workshop, our curriculum teams will meet to update plans for the second semester and our ELA teachers will begin the process of prioritizing and writing curriculum around the new standards.  Our 6th - 12th grade ELA teachers will also work to score a practice ACT writing assessment so our 11th graders can work to prepare for the ACT Writing in the spring assessment.
Important Spring Semester Dates
January 10th - 21st STAR Winter Benchmark
February 7th - March 18th ELPA21 Language Proficiency Assessment Window
March 21 - April 29 NSCAS Summative Assessment Window
April 5 - ACT

Rationale: 
Program/Staff Member Spotlight:  Ronnie Mundil and his custodial/maintenance staff do an outstanding job of keeping our facilities and grounds clean, safe, and in great repair.  Steve Buresh and Arturo Adame are assigned to the grounds but assist with any special projects across the district.  This past month, Steve and Arturo worked at the district office to move all of the nursing home furniture, supplies, etc.  from the east wing so that construction can begin in February.  Ronnie Mundil is working with Chris Langemeier on the most appropriate way to sell the furniture/supplies, etc... left at the home.  Thank you to all of the custodial and maintenance staff for your work, especially Steve and Arturo for your willingness to pitch in where needed.

1.  Strategic Planning Workshops:  Staff Strategic Planning Workshops are scheduled for January 17-18 from 8:00-4:00.
2.  Bid Opening for Dual Language Classrooms:  The bid openings are scheduled for Tuesday, January 18th.
3.  Special Board Meeting:  Special Board meeting scheduled for Monday, January 24th to award construction contract for Dual Language Classroom Project.  We will also host a board work session to allow for input on the strategic plan following the contract award.
4.  Workers Compensation Experience Rating:  Each year we receive an update on our workers compensation experience rating based on our safety programs and workplace injuries.  Our rating improved from 1.05 on 12/1/2020 to 1.02 on 12/1/2021.  We received a premium refund on November 29th for $19,029.  See attached information.
5.  January 10, 2022 NCSA Legislative Bill Summary:  Attached below is the legislative bill summary for the first week of the 2022 Legislative Session.  See Attached.
 

Rationale: 
1.  Foundation Meeting:  See Foundation Web Site
2.  NASB Attachment:  See attached