February 10, 2025 at 6:30 PM - Regular Board of Education Meeting

Discussion:  Notice of the meeting was given in advance by publication to the public and to all members of the Board of Education. Availability of the agenda was communicated in advance. The Open Meetings Act was available for review. 

Discussion:  Madi Rankin provided an update on the Cardinal Kids Club (CKC) program, including the after-school and summer programs.  The upcoming summer program will allow 45 students to attend.  The CKC high school staff were recognized, three of which attended a Youth Leadership Council, as well as a workshop designed for young staff.

Discussion: 

Knott- Big shout out Coach Majerus, Mr Perone, custodial staff and the army of volunteers it took to put on the Dale Bonge invite, club tournament and Jr high tournament. Three consecutive days of well organized wrestling. Well done. Congratulations to Madison Gompert on the Voice of Democracy award and trip to DC.

Roberts-  Kris Pestel has been a great mentor.  She chooses kids' lives over most other things.  I wish her the best in her retirement.

Frey- Thanks to everyone who put on the Conference Wrestling Meet at the fairgrounds, it was a huge undertaking.  It was a lot of work, but a big success.  Thank you to Stuhr Farms and Johnson Ranch for their donations to the beef program.

Stuhr- I want to give a shout out to Boys Basketball, who won conference.  Great job!

Fogleman- I want to congratulate the success so far of all of our Winter Activities and thank everyone who makes them successful.  To the coaches,staff, volunteers, bus drivers and families who show up to make them happen.  It was definitely apparent in those that made speech and wrestling happen in the same weekend.  Having wrestling at the arena could not have been an easy task.

Rolf- Shout out to all the staff members, you are all doing a great job.  Keep up the hard work.

McDonald- I want to express my gratitude to the office team (Theresa, Lauren, Tori, Jordan, Angie, and Ashley) for their continuous efforts in managing daily operational challenges. Their dedication ensures effective communication and adherence to compliance checks.

Larsen- I would like to shout out all of our Guidance Counselors on the heels of School Counseling week, but specifically give a shout out to our High School Counselor, Mrs. Leanne Blanchard. She does a great job of being available to students to help them with their needs at any given time as they arise. Mrs. Blanchard works hard to help set up ACT testing for state testing purposes as well as a host for others each month. She also plays an integral role in helping to get all high school students scheduled into their classes each year. She is a team player and always has the best interests of all students in mind. Thank you, Mrs. Blanchard, Mrs. Nelson, and Mrs. Flinn!

Curry-  Tammy Gonzales has been a huge asset to our middle school assisting our students who have limited english language skills.  Additionally, she handles the ELPA 21 assessments testing all of our ELL students K-12.  She is a pro who is a great communicator! 

Kayton- I would like to give a shoutout to Tami Wiese.  Tami is in her first year here at Boone Central.  She has become our Math Interventionist at the elementary.  She meets with an average of 40 students throughout her day during our Math WIN time.  She is energetic, hard working and has been a great addition to our elementary building.

Perone- Lots of events going on, with a total number of people involved well over 100.  Conference wrestling, speech meet, Dale Bonge invite, youth tournament, MS tournament, etc.  It takes everyone, and we have a lot of people over the past weeks who have stepped up and are willing to help.  We would not be able to do everything that we do without having everyone on board.

Discussion: 

Our SIP team decided to conduct the Nebraska Department of Education Perceptual Surveys in year 2 and 4 of the SIP cycle.  We have had all staff and students grades 3-12 complete the surveys so far.  Parents will have the opportunity to complete the parent surveys when they come to PT conferences on Wednesday.

The SIP team and administration will take time to look over these survey results and look for ways to improve before our year 4 surveys.  

We also came up with kid-friendly words that describe the Cardinal Way.  We are in discussions with how we want to roll this out with students and what our plan is with it.

Discussion:  Facilities Committee - met with Ken, Lowell and Dr. McDonald and discussed a list of items including the cooling tower (tabled), mower, classroom LED lights, restroom partitions, and side-by-side.  Some future projects down the road include the cooling tower, doors, and roof.  The committee visited Summerland, Central City, Battlecreek and Lakeview to look at ag shops.  Likely, approximately 5,000-6,000 square feet of additional space will need to be added.  A lease purchase would be utilized, as well as potential donations and grant money.  The next steps will be to determine where to start and how to design it, as well as how quickly we want to move on this project.

Finance Committee - raises for staff will be a flat 3% across the board for administrative and classified staff.

Discussion:  Dr. Mcdonald - NRCSA Conference is coming up in Kearney in March.  The school website has been discussed among the Admin team and the technology coordinator.  There are two companies, Finalsite and Apptegy.  Finalsite is who we currently use, they are working on providing a communication tool through the app.  There will be improvements.  Apptegy provides a communication app, but is twice as expensive.  More discussion will take place at the next leadership team meeting.  Legislation update: LB140 (banning of cell phones) advanced, more discussions to come if it passes.  LB645 to reduce the state contribution to retirement by 2%, there are other provisions that state a study must show what that does in the future.  LB714 to redistribute the motor vehicle tax so schools will only receive 37%, the budget will have to make up the rest of the funds.  The overall current year to date budget was discussed, we are currently under budget.

Discussion:  Larsen- Revolution: Center for Survivors - Out of Columbus (made up of HS Students), brought them back after a few year hiatus (2019).  Overall, positive feedback on their presentation surrounding positive relationships and warning signs of dating violence/negative relationships.   Lockdown - In cooperation with St. Michaels and local law enforcement, brought in outside agencies to conduct a sniff (been 2 years).  P/T Conferences will take place this week.  HS SPED position, plan to interview 3 candidates this Thursday, happy with the interest, qualified candidates with experiences.  In March, LB 399 Second Meeting will take place, to include committee members, social studies teachers, and myself.

Curry- The County Spelling Bee was a great event.  Two job postings for the MS Science and MS Math teaching positions have brought quite a bit of interest.  A decision will be made in the coming days.

Kayton- Preschool and Kindergarten Registration opens up on Thursday.  Parents are able to get registration forms from the office or on the school website.  I shared Preschool parent survey results with all board members.  We were very happy with the results! I anticipate our preschool program will fill up quickly for next year.  We are looking at holding our second Preschool Advisory Meeting on May 16th at 11:00.  We would like to invite board members to the preschool graduation ceremony at 10:00 and then join us for our meeting.  January 27th we celebrated the 100th Day of School.  K-4th grade students held their 100th day parade and marched through the middle and high school.  Elementary P/T Conferences will run from 9:30-7:00 on Wednesday.  Parents conference times are scheduled and were communicated through Seesaw.  I expect there to be a good turnout.  Bill and I attended the UNK Job fair on January 23rd.  We quickly found out that there are a lot of upcoming elementary and early childhood teachers out there and not a ton of middle school and high school teachers.  We encouraged them to come out and complete practicum hours or student teach here at Boone Central

Perone - 5 girls qualified for state wrestling.  Preston Trollope went to state bowling, got 11th.  Speech is going strong.  Conference wrestling’s goal was to have 6 mats in one space, which may be a requirement for hosting conference wrestling in the future.  We will be proposing to have district basketball go back to northeast community college.  A great winter season, the culture is moving in the right direction.

Discussion:  A member of the public audience asked for clarity of the ag shop build timeline.  Ed Knott explained that we do not have any further information on it as this time.

Discussion:  Ed Knott read the resignation letters from Kris Pestel, Jessica Volker and Michael Volker publicly.  

Discussion:  Finance Committee recommends a 3% increase for classified staff.  Vacation accrual adjustment for 12-month classified staff.

Discussion:  Finance Committee recommends a 3% increase for administrative staff. 

Discussion:  Covered through REAP Funding

Discussion:  The science curriculum cycle has been adjusted to align with the state.  The last update occurred 7 years ago.  Moving forward, we will adopt our standards when the state adopts theirs.

Discussion:  Students will not report to school on this day.  Staff will report to help with district speech.

Discussion:  None to approve at this time

Discussion:  Discussion of moving the Building Fund to Great Plains State Bank

Discussion:  March 10, 2025 at 7:00 pm.

Discussion:  Adjourned 8:04 pm