May 11, 2020 at 5:30 PM - Committee As A Whole

Leonard Kwapnioski, Director of Building and Sites/Technology asked how many furnace filters are maintained in the district? The answer was 1617/quarter, 6500 per year, CHS has 850 alone. Mr. Kwapnioski talked about routine maintenance projects keeping up with all the maintenance, mowing and building projects throughout the district, they will be able to  accomplish more this year because of the closure. A yearly service is re-grooming the turf field, the same group that installed the field will come out to do this work, it will take 2 to 2.5 days to complete this process. John Harger cleans out the strainers every year for the HVAC system. There will be elevator inspections and fire inspections at all sites and striping of parking lots. The Lost Creek project has been ongoing, ceilings, floors, new cabinetry in the library, they have been changing out ceiling tiles. The polishing of concrete in the great hall will be completed by the end of the week. The chillers at CMS will be replaced after May 19, 2020, this project needs to be complete in time for summer school. Painting projects are on the schedule. There is work being done in all network closets. Work has been done at Centennial to improve the appearance of the front of the building, clean up, fence removal, landscape and some additional concrete.  Mr. Kwapnioski shared that West Park was in need of a new boiler system which has been added saving on heating and cooling. They have been pouring islands after the removal of the trees at CHS. The West Park parking lot and recoating of the warehouse roof have been projects that have been done. They continue to work on inside demolition at Kramer on rainy days. The more our team does, the less that will need to be paid out later. 

Mr. Kwapnioski updated on the meetings with the architects regarding the Kramer Education Center, the initial bid came in 2.5 times our budget, after meeting with them and several phone calls, they were sent to do some re-figuring with what our basic needs are to stay within the budget. There is another meeting scheduled next week. The community is happy about how the ground around Kramer is looking, staff has gotten some grass growing and put weed killer down. 

There is always a list to tackle for the summer, this includes making some decisions on the Lost Creek project, the North Park parking lot, there is a design, however some drainage solutions will need to be looked at with the city.  The parking lot will have spaces for about 100 cars, the  neighbors have not been happy about staff parking on the street.  He said with this design, it will look similar to the Centennial front parking lot.  

More information was shared on the first design received from the architects, they created three parts, pre-school, daycare and a courtyard between.  They were consistent in making sure there was natural light in every room.  Mr. Kwapnioski said there are other options for natural light without having an outside window for each classroom. They developed a building with 34 corners which brought the price up. Dr. Loeffelholz told them to look at what we can afford without being too fancy and utilize the space in the current building.  They talked about adding a wing for daycare later. Pre-school is the most important  board goal.  What kind of direction did we give them to create this first draft.  Troy said we gave them the whole program, they made it aesthetically pleasing. We can get the pre-school built for the 5 million, but it was not good for future additions. The conversations have been about what our needs are as opposed to what we want.  They were also using rates that would be typical in Omaha, which is not the going rate in our area.

Mr. Kwapnioski had another piece of trivia for the group, how many acres does the maintenance staff mow weekly district wide? The answer is 85 acres, 95% of that is irrigated. 

He also talked about the transportation strategic plan which was to start replacing the vehicles, which has been happening accordingly. Our current situation has had a lot less use for many of our busses, vans. He mentioned that we hired Brian Standley as our mechanic, he has been a great asset, he is able to drive busses, he mows where needed, available for any help in the department. Mr. Kwapnioski shared that we will need a new over the road bus soon, the plan will be to look at something similar to what Lakeview did. CPS has 3 regular busses that go out of town. Maintenance vehicles do not travel out of town, and will not be replaced until absolutely necessary.  The new truck that was ordered has not been delivered because of the shut down. 

More trivia from Mr. Kwapnioski, how many computers does CPS have district wide? 5500 devices between staff and students, this does not include printers. Tech has been working on a network update, we have a 2 gig circuit at this time, upgrading to a 5 gig circuit, this will save money, we could upgrade to a 10 gig circuit if need be. Mr. Kwapnioski has a contracted price for that, he does not believe it is warranted at this time. He says we do have people using our wireless internet access points regularly. All digital learning repairs on student devices are done daily, we do an  exchange if needed. Tech is keeping student devices available within 24 hours. The insurance policy has served us well. He gave an update on Synergy and Wordware, there is lots of training happening at this time for Suzanne and Tami. Planning to go live July 15, 2020.  Teacher trainings are being planned at this time.  Everyone has been happy with what they have been seeing. 

Dr. Loeffelholz, Superintendent gave an update on the Civics Committee meeting. By statute the committee is required to meet twice a year to be sure the civics curriculum is being met.  The student project CPS teachers have decided on is for the students to attend a Board of Education meeting via all social distancing rules. 

Dave Hiebner, CHS Principal proposed a change in next year’s high school schedule and CHS administration is seeking board approval. Mr. Hiebner has taken a long look at the current schedule and has had many opportunities to experience the current schedule, 3 days regular periods and 2 block schedule days. This includes LEAD time on Wednesdays and homeroom on Tuesdays. Administration conducted a  Staff Survey which included many questions about the schedule.  Across the state there is a large mixture of schedules being used. There are benefits and drawbacks to the CHS schedule.  Also many questions arise, should intervention time be part of the bell schedule? Should LEAD Time be kept in its current format? The survey gave staff an opportunity to voice concerns. Mr. Hiebner says the survey showed the benefits of the current schedule are outweighed by negatives. Staff believes intervention time is necessary.  A Student Survey was also conducted with these takeaways, Tuesdays are too long, extended days are longer class periods very difficult to focus. Students have opinions regarding study halls that need to be addressed. 

Mr. Hiebner shares that moving forward these are the priorities, looking for a 7 period day everyday, Intervention/Advisement/Guided Study/Homeroom needs to happen at least 4 times a week. Students need make up time, with the current schedule a student may be 3 weeks away from assessment and doesn’t have enough class times to be consistent enough to be ready.

The Process-Shared drafts, asked staff to deliberate and discuss, comments shared with a member of CHS-PLC team. 

Building relationships with our students is a big priority, our current schedule doesn’t allow for as much of that as needed. CHS would like to keep seniors all year and have less mid-term graduates. Also, he really wants the staff and students to understand the schedule.   

Students will benefit by being able to align better with CCC and Scotus schedules, for those students that receive instruction at CHS and CCC. Mr. Hiebner said we have some students who are in the building 12 hours a day, we don’t ask staff to work for 12 hours a day. Staff will benefit as well for planning time. He also mentions finding subs for Tuesdays and  Wednesday is very difficult. CHS would be able to serve more of our alternative education students with a 7 period schedule, keeping CPS students in our buildings is a priority. Homeroom time is very important to share information, administer surveys, it's a built in time frame for some of the issues and tasks that come up. Staff that have labs, such as science and STEM are on board with the change and see the benefit. Graduation credits would not need to be changed. CHS Administration is still in the process of designing what that homeroom/advisement time would look like or what would be accomplished. Looking at a few classes that double periods work well, it would be very limited, it is a slippery slope to allow even 1.  Jobsite time may need double periods, however, Mr. Hiebner believes with some changes to instructional strategies it could work. A 7-period day also aligns much better with outside entities.

Dr. Loeffelholz talked about the approval of the affidavit at the last meeting at the suggestion of the school attorneys, now NDE is requiring their own affidavit for the same request. We will be  filing the NDE form.

Dr. Loeffelholz shared the administrative increase to consider 2.46%. 

Dave Melick, Director of Business Operations and Human Resources updated the board on the financial reports for the month of April. Cash balances are in good shape in all of the funds.  Property tax looks good but looking forward we don’t know. Other cash revenue mentioned from the report was the Homestead Exemption, the Childhood Endowment Grant, the Title III LEP Grant, which is a reimbursement of costs that we had last school year. NDE has been slow but we are getting them. 

Financial Report 4a is much shorter, Mr. Melick said he put a slow down on spending at the end of March.  Comments on the Father Flanagan's payment, students are still receiving services, cost was more than usual.  Other payments noted were CPSI fees for Edupoint. Control Management, for boiler replacement and Gilmore and Bell. 

Dr. Loeffelholz shared the Certified Personnel, noted Jacob Belvery coming back to CHS, Amanda Moseman has been hired, Mrs. Hiebner is moving to CMS, which created an opening at Lost Creek. The Motz’s are moving back to Lincoln. Stacy Roberts is taking Andrea Frey’s Media Specialist position. 

Dr. Loeffelholz shared the Travel Report, although no one is actually traveling, some virtual conferences need to be paid.

Dr. Loeffelholz shared the Foundation Report, $86,518.47 total contributions for April, most of this amount were funds funneling through Community and Family Partnership.

Mr. Melick said that the Classified Salary Schedule reflects the new amounts with the 3.5% increase.  The other change on the schedule is a column for kitchen managers, these are full time positions with more responsibilities for accounting for meals served and balancing money intake each day.  

Mr. Kay will start doing some work with us, 

Total meals distributed to date 104,514, this is something good we are doing.  

Mr. Melick shared the document set up to account for costs that CPS has incurred to date for FEMA. This inventory is to try to recoup money spent on expenses such as the wireless access points, food service prep for lunches, signs on playgrounds, consumable supplies, masks, gloves, disinfectant wipes, curriculum work for remote learning, interpretation/translation services. This information was sent in to FEMA as instructed, we have heard nothing so far, he said we have to submit to have a chance. 

 Dr. Amy Romshek, Director of Curriculum shared the changes in the K-4 Health Curriculum, in the past this instruction has been done during the science block. The new standards have additional instruction that is too much to accomplish during science so it will now be included in the PE block.  Dr. Romshek said in reviewing materials they found the current text is outdated. The curriculum needed to be a digital resource.  They found HealthSmart met the criteria with an overview for each grade level, learning goals included are safety, nutrition, tobacco and alcohol prevention, and growth and development. Dr. Romshek said this has nice resources, offers prepared powerpoint presentations, posters and classroom activities.  This curriculum is all digital, the teacher will need a screen and a projector. The purchase provides materials for every grade level. The cost is $4769.70/year. Location of instruction will be decided by the principal and teacher at each building. Each building will have options for space to use, they may use the media center, music rooms may be available, or students' classroom. PE teachers are a little anxious but see the value. 

Jason Harris, Director of Student Services/SPED shared the new Global Therapy contract, CPS is currently finishing its first year using this online therapy for non public students.  The cost has increased because he is projected to have 60 students, last year there were 48. The same computers will be used, the other expense is the hire of a 12 hour person to help with evaluations.  This cost covers 2 people based on the amount of students we are serving. 

Mr. Harris said he has been selected to work on a compensatory committee for SPED during the COVID-19. He will bring more information to the board about how it may impact CPS. The committee will be discussing a timeline for after fully opening schools SPED parents could request compensatory education. Some districts may need to make up some educational opportunities. Mr. Harris does not think CPS will have much to make up because we are offering a lot of services. This would need to be done in the evenings, weekends and/or breaks.

Mr. Harris updated the group on how the Summer Sizzling Enrichment Program will look this year. They will be providing early literacy bags for K-2, the program typically serves 60 students, they will have bags for anyone, K-2 that wants to pick up a bag during lunch pick up.  

He also shared that the C4K program used remaining grant money for providers, Sara Colford prepared thank you notes and  purchased $10.00 Broken Mug giftcards. Mr. Harris also wanted the board to know the Crisis Response Team was available after the death of Rick Benson. They did visit with some of the student golf athletes and parents.  The team will also be available following the funeral via ZOOM. 

Things I’ve learned on Zoom
No one wants to be first to join
It looks like I am looking at the Brady Bunch
People like to fix their hair
People are fidgety to look right.