July 15, 2024 at 7:00 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: 

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:  When you have been 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 around 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:  Recognize Madison Smith on her gold medal champion in the discus for the 3rd straight year and award her the all-class gold medal for her 3rd straight year!

Rationale: 

Nebraska School Districts are required to have annual hearings for each of the following areas:

Budget (September)

Tax Request (September)

Student Fees Policy (June)

Parental Involvement Policy (June)

 

Other Hearings may be scheduled as needed.

Rationale:  In March, I received a notice from the Nebraska Department of Education indicating they were returning to pre-COVID norms with regard to the allowable cash reserve that can be held in the Nutrition Services account.  Specifically, net cash resources must be limited to three months average expenditures from the nonprofit school food service account.  

Originally, I had budgeted for the anticipated expenditures of our Food Service contract and had not budgeted to spend dollars in excess of that.  However, to ensure we remain in compliance with the newly re-adopted guidelines, we must spend some of the reserve dollars on allowable expenditures.  The proposed amendment will allow us to exceed the original amount and remain in compliance with our Net Cash Resources plan submitted to NDE in April.   

Rationale:  An opportunity for public comment hearing support, opposition, criticism, suggestions or observations of taxpayers relating to the following proposed budget and to consider amendments relative thereto.

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

5. Consider Option Enrollment Requests

 

Rationale:  Substitute salaries were $150 and $180 for ten consecutive days or after 30 cumulative days last year. 

We averaged 5.8 substitutes per day (not including school coverage) and 976.5 total days covered.  These numbers include our two long-term coverage locations: Music and English.  Our substitutes are critical to ensuring we can maintain daily operations and we're blessed with an incredible group.

We would like to give a huge thank you to Mary Clark, Jillian Dowdy, Cindy Fickenscher, Rita Foster, Karman Keith, Blayre Miller, Melanie Nutt, Monica Rivera, and Dan Scherer who were here over 50 days!

I'd like to recommend we increase our daily rate at the same rate we increased teaching wages (4%).

• Set the daily rate to $155 per day.
• After 30 cumulative days in the district, the daily rate will be $190 for all remaining days subbed in that school year.
• After ten consecutive days in a specific assignment (i.e. maternity leave), the daily rate will be $190 for all remaining days in that specific assignment.
• We will continue to honor those taking on long-term substitute assignments by providing a 20% bonus to be paid for all weeks beyond two.  This is the responsibility of the substitute to submit the form in the district office and equates to an extra "day" for each week in recognition of all the extra time that is committed during a long-term subbing assignment.

Rationale:  The School District acknowledges its obligation under state and federal laws to provide comprehensive training to its staff on various subjects. With the recent enactment of LB 1329 during the 2024 legislative session, the Legislature has entrusted each Board of Education with the discretion to set appropriate durations for specific staff training mandates. In light of this, the Board of Education is taking proactive steps to align the District's planned training agenda for the upcoming 2024-2025 school year with the provisions outlined in LB 1329. This resolution serves as a formal affirmation of the Board's determination that the proposed training requirements are reasonable in both scope and duration. Additionally, it ensures that the Board is fully informed of and grants approval for other essential staff training initiatives slated for the same academic year.

The adopted calendar includes one full day for staff to work on training sessions that are provided online.  This is done in recognition of the time it takes to complete these trainings.

Rationale: 

For the second year, we have a third lid schools must statutorily observe when setting their budget: the property tax request authority.

The funding needed for the School District to meet its obligations to its students will require an increase in the base growth percentage used to determine the School District’s property tax request authority.

Nebraska law authorizes the Board, upon an affirmative vote of at least seventy percent (70%) of the Board, to increase such base growth percentage by up to six percent (6%).  

A motion to approve this increase would increase the base growth percentage used to determine Gothenburg Public School's property tax request authority for the 2024-2025 budget by an amount of 6%.

A vote for this motion does not mean that Gothenburg Public Schools will access all six percent.  Instead, it means that a number up to six percent may be used when planning the overall budget. 

The image below shows how the Gothenburg Public School's overall tax request has fluctuated over the past several years compared to the Rate of Inflation (https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/).

 

Rationale:  The following expenditures have been approved by Bond Council for use of QCPUF funds as they are addressing air quality and life safety issues within the building. 
 

Halls Electric	$138,619.93	HVAC	Electrical
Snell Services	$134,372.02	HVAC	HVAC and Plumbing
Ackerman General Contracting	$18,760.86	LIFESAFETY	Storefronts and Drywall

Board Action is utilized for QCPUF expenditures to ensure transparency regarding the use of funds.

Rationale:  District #20 has been a Nebraska Rural Community Schools Association member for many years.  NRCSA provides many services for rural schools.

Rationale:  Each year, KSB provides legally required updates to be made in policy and subsequent handbook references.  A review of those updates can be found here.

Rationale:  After reviewing existing policy, the following proposals for new policy are linked here for consideration of the Board.

6039 Repeat of Grade at Parent-Guardian Request

6041 Malcom X Holiday

6042 Projection Maps

6043 Sharing Mapping Data

As these are a first-reading, no action is required.  Any feedback should be provided to Dr. Jonas before the next board meeting.

Rationale:  The first reading of the Student Handbook took place at the June meeting. This handbook is in alignment with our new board policies.

Rationale:  This is the first reading of our activity handbook.  They have been aligned with new board policies.  No formal motion is needed at this time.  These will return in August for consideration of approval.  Please provide any feedback before that meeting.

Rationale:  This is the first reading of our staff handbook.  It has been aligned with new board policies.  No formal motion is needed at this time.  These will return in August for consideration of approval.  Please provide any feedback before that meeting.

Rationale:  Each year we ask the board of education to consider approval of our certified staff evaluation tools.  This year, we do not have any changes to these documents.

1. Teacher Evaluation Document
2. School Psychologist Evaluation Document
3. Counselor Evaluation
4. Director of Teaching & Learning Evaluation Document
5. Administrator Evaluation Document

Rationale:  Presentation on Strategy 2: We will expand educational opportunities to allow students to maximize their potential.

This is an informational item.  No action will be taken.

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, August 12th, 2024

Swede Activities:
Open House Night - consider a noon meeting.