February 24, 2026 State Board of Education Meeting

001The February 24th state board meeting will now come to order. Good afternoon and welcome to the February 24th, 2026 State Board of Education meeting. Board members, please engage your microphones and turn them off when you're finished speaking. Uh those who are joining us online, please mute and unmute yourself. Please note that board members may be using their cell phones and laptop computers to access the agenda and information related to this meeting. Would the recording secretary please call the role? >> Kristen Christensen >> here. >> Maggie Douglas >> here. >> Lisa Shonhoff >> here. >> Liz Rener >> here. Kirk Penner >> present. Sher Jones >> here. >> Elizabeth Tegmmeer >> here. >> Deborah Ner Commissioner Maher >> here. >> Sorry I'm here. I was on mute. >> All present. Uh all members are present. Quorum

002is established. Please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Information regarding the Open Meetings Act is posted as you enter the room from the main entrance doors. The Open Meetings Act is also posted on the State Board of Education's website. Because we have never held a Zoom meeting of this particular board, I just need to go over some instructions. Um, to be recognized by the chair, if you are online, please use the button at the bottom of your screen to raise your hand. Um, I do have to scroll through the different faces, so it may take me just a minute to see

003yours, but I will be doing that frequently throughout um, the discussion time. and those who are in the room please uh address the chair just by saying madame president and then I will acknowledge you to speak. Thank you. We'll now move to our public comment period. This period may be available to any person who wishes to address the board on any matter that is on the agenda or within the board's authority to act. Up to 90 minutes will be allowed for the public comment period. A majority of members present in voting may take action to extend the total amount of time allowed for the public comment period. A majority of members present in voting may also take action to allow or terminate public comment at any time during a meeting. If you are not signed

004in and wish to speak, please sign in at this time. Those wishing to speak via Zoom must be signed in via the chat function. Those wishing to speak in person must be signed in at the table outside of the meeting room. Each individual speaking to the board via Zoom will be required to provide the sign-in card information in the chat function for identification of oneself. Individuals are required to include their name, organizations represented, address, city, state, and agenda item or topic that is within the board's authority to act. Each individual speaking to the board in person will be required to complete a sign-in card for identification of oneself. Individuals are required to include on the sign-in card their name, address, name of any organization represented an agenda item or topic that is within the board's

005authority to act. Individuals may be prohibited to speak in public comment if the sign-in card does not include the required information. Persons speaking to the board during public comment should state their name, city, and state at the beginning of their allotted time and may submit printed materials for the board, but may not use any other form of media. Anyone refusing to be identified will be prohibited from speaking. Each person may address the board for up to 5 minutes. A majority of members present in voting may take action to reduce or extend the amount of time allotted to all speakers. If at any time persons appearing before the board exceed the time limitations set forth in this policy or on the agenda or become abusive or threatening in language or behavior, it shall be the responsibility

006of the president to refuse permission to continue to address the board. We have one public comment on via Zoom. So we will begin with the first Zoom speaker, Bishop K. Jean Chambers death. I do need him to be given permission to speak. >> Good. Can you hear me? >> Um, not very much. >> Is that better? >> Yes. >> All right. Madame uh President, thank you for this opportunity. Bishop Chambers, Kevin Chambers, 5150 Ames Avenue, Omaha, Nebraska. Uh, just want to put a comment. I have a comment written on file, but I am uh soliciting this committee for a no vote regarding the CAP funding, the community achievement plan of the learning community for Douglas and Sarby counties. Uh this vote will determine whether programs that support our children will continue or come to an

007abrupt halt. And again, I am just asking a no vote uh for this uh initiative. Thank you. >> Thank you. Seeing no other public comment in Zoom. Um Liz, is there anyone in the meeting room? >> No, we don't have any people present in Lincoln. >> Thank you. Submitted written public comments are attached in the electronic media agenda for the board and public to review. There are superintendents and learning community representatives present to answer board member questions regarding the revised community achievement plan that this board may consider today. Please address the chair to ask your question. So the procedure will be if if a board member has a question, please raise your hand or indicate in the meeting room that you have a question and you'll address the chair and then the um the superintendent

008or guests will answer that. and superintendent and guests, please state your name and the entity you represent before you answer the question. Okay. Do any board members have questions during this question and answer time? >> Madame Chair, >> yes. >> I have a question. >> Yes. So, go please ask your question. Yes. Thank you. >> Okay. It's two, it's a two-part question. First, could you each um introduce yourselves and the district or organization you represent? And then um I wondered if someone would be interested in um maybe talking a little bit about the origins of the learning community and provide some context around um how this came to be and and why it's so valuable. >> Yep. Introductions first. >> Yes, please. >> Okay. Gerald Cune, uh, chief executive officer for the learning community of

009Douglas and Sarpie County. >> Andy Rickley, superintendent of Pen Vista Community Schools. I've been in that role for 13 years. >> John Schwarz, Millard, public school superintendent. >> Jason Buck. Um, >> the last person who spoke, we can't hear. Jason Buckingham, Rston Public Schools. >> Matt Radio, Home Public Schools. >> So, can I >> Thank you, >> Madame President. I'm not seeing them. Are Why aren't they on camera sitting somewhere where we can see them? >> Commissioner Maher, can you explain that, please? I mean, it's sort of like staff coming forward when we're discussing an issue and they sit at the table. So, why aren't we seeing them? >> I We don't have a camera on that particular part of the room. >> Are they They're sitting at the table that the staff usually sit

010at. >> Correct. >> Okay. So, back to board member Rener's question. Thank you for having them introduce themselves. >> Yeah. >> And the second part now. >> Yeah. I'll I'll just throw the question out again. Um, just to be clear that I was hoping somebody could speak to the origins of the learning community and just provide some context for all the board members that that we have the same information going forward. >> Uh, thank you, Miss Rener. Uh, Madame Chair, thank you for allowing me to speak. Andy Rickley, last name is spelled R I K L I. Superintendent of Penela Vista Community Schools, 420 South Washington Street, Pellion, Nebraska 68046. Am I on the clock for time? >> No, you're not. >> Thank you for that, Madam Chair. I will try to be succinct, which

011for a superintendent is no small task. So, I'll do my I'll do my best. Uh, so to be crystal clear, when the learning community legislation was passed approximately 2005 by the Nebraska legislature, I was not in this role. I want to be crystal clear about that. In fact, I wasn't a superintendent at the time. I was assistant superintendent at the Westside Community Schools. So, while I have some context, just like all of my peers to my left and right do as well, uh I was not a sitting superintendent, but I think I have enough context uh and history uh to provide perhaps a little illumination to the state board and would gladly answer any questions you have at the end. So, um, as we know, the genesis of the learning community, which really brings us

012here today, was, uh, a boundary dispute in Douglas and Sarpie County, commonly known as one city, one school district. And as I reminded state board members when we met in Omaha several weeks ago, it was an incredibly toxic and divisive time, not just for the metro school districts, but for the entire state of Nebraska. It was quite frankly uh something that gained some national attention and brought notoriety to our our state that I don't think any of us asked for. But it did create some really important questions that I think we're still grappling with as an educational community today. The learning community law was passed under the uh under the guidance of uh Senator Rakes who's passed away. He was a brilliant man. He was a great education committee leader in my opinion. That original

013legislation did one thing in my opinion exceptionally well. it froze the boundaries which really was at the heart of one city, one school district whereupon um Omaha public schools and some of the surrounding districts wanted to remain independent. It achieved that to to no small end. Uh where the law was less successful in my opinion was creating a system of equitable shared resources because one of the mechanisms that came out of this original legislation was something that was known as the common levy. Um the common levy didn't work as intended. In fact, the the purpose initially of the common levy was to shuttle additional resources where student need was the highest, specifically Omaha public schools. The unintended consequence of the bill is increased tax revenues were going into suburban districts that um perhaps may not

014have needed it at the same level. I was at Westside Community Schools, for example, we were benefiting from the common levy. In other words, we were getting more in tax revenue than we would have had we not been in a learning community. That wasn't necessarily the original design of the bill, but I think that's important context because the seeds of discontent were sewn because the common levy wasn't working as intended. Fast forward until several years later, the common levy uh I believe it was 2015 was struck down because again, it really wasn't working very well. And frankly, Omaha public schools probably wasn't getting the funding that they thought they would when the grand compromise was struck. Uh, enter the community achievement plan. The community achievement plan was a way for us as a metro collective

015in Douglas and Serpy County to show the state that we could get along in spite of the tie no longer binding us that was the common levy. Uh I don't have that exact number at my fingertips. It's approximately $10 million. I think Omaha Public Schools receives about 8 million of it. Millard I think's around 150,000. I think Rson's about 120,000. We get about 50,000. So, for the metro districts, uh, it's significant dollars, but it's not game-changing dollars considering $40,000 on $150 million general fund budget. I don't have much of a dog in the fight. Not the way that my esteemed colleague to my right has, for example. But I think what's really important to remember about the the the community achievement plan was it was a compromise meant to show the unicame roll that we

016could get along even when large dollars through the common levy were no longer at play. And it also showed that we could compromise on other things. For example, and we do to this very day. For example, we continue to compromise and collaborate on student attendance plans. We continue to collaborate and compromise and negotiate on the early childhood plan, which is also uh co-authored with the Buffett Early Childhood Institute. It was a way of showing that we know how to play nice in the sandbox to be succinct. my worry about the community achievement plan if it goes away and and I really do understand some of the concerns of the board about the comment was made at the the meeting in Omaha that the individuals with whom we associate with matter and I agree with that.

017I agree with that. But I also believe the ability for for the 11 metro school districts to continue to get along and play nice and not reignite another boundary war. That's not good for the metro. That's not good for the state. That's not good for anybody in this room. I I I truly believe the community achievement plan is is the glue that binds us together now. And while I understand there are there are certainly legitimate concerns about Glenworld Health, for example, and other ancillary services they provide, for example, I get that. I acknowledge that. I validate that. My bigger concern is our ability as a state and as a metro to continue to focus our resources on the right things and for us to be able to get along well. And right now, these 11

018superintendents get along really, really well. And I think the community achievement plan is a big part of that. That was probably way longer than five minutes, so I'll go ahead and yield back. Uh Madam Chair, thank you for giving me that time. >> Thank you. Thank you. I will go to uh board member Maggie Douglas for her question. >> Yes. Uh thank you, superintendent, for being here. Uh Dr. Rickley, you kind of hit on what I wanted to ask was what concerns you guys have if this does not pass. And also speaking about the meeting that was held in Omaha, if someone could kind of summarize that meeting for us board members that weren't present, that could be beneficial also. Thank you. >> We'll have Yep. Thank you, Maggie. We'll do that during the executive

019committee report. Any other questions for the superintendent? Mine. If there were other concerns from the other superintendent, I'd like to hear them. >> Okay. Yes. >> Please, please, please. >> This is uh John Schwarz, Millard, public school superintendent. Um you know, uh answering your question directly, I I think the there's a couple concerns that come to mind. Um the first concern is there's obviously dollars associated with this plan that was a part of the compromise. I I do believe um that this compromise saved the state general fund dollars uh in how they chose to rearrange the cap plan relative to how the funding was received prior. So I think there's a a compromise that occurred uh in this uh effort to develop the cap and the learning community that Dr. Rickley made reference to, but

020the school districts all receive varying amounts currently. Uh, in the the current year, Millard receives $45,000. Dr. Rickley was close that next year uh will receive around $110,000, which doesn't sound like a lot, but those dollars are directed to meaningful programs, and I think each district here is best able to speak to what the financial impact would be to them. Um, but at this stage of the game, I think it was a a relatively unforeseen challenge that we would be in this spot so close to the end of one school year preparing for the next. Um, and and I I think that the timing is of of concern. And then the second piece that I would share and arguably the more important piece is what has come from the collaboration through uh the CAP plan.

021Um, I would just quickly highlight to be respectful of everyone's time. There are four sections of the plan. Three of which I think are highly germanine to all of our school districts. One of which is more specific to the programming that's provided at the North and South Omaha uh center. When it comes to the uh early childhood aspect of the plan, it means something different for every school district because every school district's in a different circumstance, but we're all collaborating. The partner we collaborate with beyond each other is the Buffet Early Childhood Institute and and specifically in Millard uh that partnership has meant a lot. We have two school as hub sites. Uh for those of you that are unfamiliar with what a school is hub site is as we begin serving children in those

022school sites at a very young age prior to the the point when they come to us. Uh we have home visitors that spend time with parents helping to uh build their capacity to prepare their child for school. Uh, for example, most recently we implemented uh some math changes in our district. And so our home visitors were educating parents on what they could do to help build the capacity at home in helping their their their child to learn um various uh math skills before they entered kindergarten. Next year, part of the plan was to help develop early literacy skills and to coach families um on that. We receive professional learning um and students are followed all the way through grade three. Uh annually the Buffet Early Childhood uh program uh publishes third-party independently verified data on

023the impact of that program and it's pretty profound. Uh it's a nationally recognized uh effort. Um having previously served with Dr. Rickley to my left in Pilion Le Vista uh that's a district that uses customized services uh where they early childhood staff receive professional learning. That's services that we receive as well. What's great about that first section is we have varying degrees of programming and partnership through the CAP plan, but it's all customized to our districts and we're all we all collaborate together. So, our staff are learning alongside uh this this the staff members in these other districts. We all collaborate and we've moved that forward in a really profound way. It's a nationally recognized partnership and program. Uh from an attendance standpoint, uh there is a a number of initiatives that have taken place

024over the year. Currently, uh, we're all collectively working, uh, with several schools that have higher rates of chronic absenteeism to develop plans in order to improve that chronic absenteeism. I want to say we're in the third year of that plan. And we've seen pretty significant improvement in our schools that have been involved to the extent that we are expanding that this next year. We have additional schools that will be involved uh, in that partnership next year. And I can certainly elaborate on that in greater depth if if anyone has interest. And then maybe the the last piece um of this is just the general collective impact plan that comes through MOAK. Um and one of the things that I think most of us are really proud of through that collective impact plan are some of

025the outcomes that our students are achieving because of our collaborative efforts. One of which is the number of students who are able to receive college credits while in high school. It's been through the partnership that comes through MOECH with Metropolitan Community College, University of Nebraska Omaha, and the MOE Area School Districts working together in order to increase access to our teachers, being able to get the credentials necessary to teach dual enrollment. Uh, and ultimately for students to be able to gain access to those programs through shared decision-m and collaboration to break down barriers to it. If you were to look at some of the answers data um that's been published in recent years on the number of dual enrollment credits high school students are earning at at no to minimal cost. Uh you will see

026that the Omaha metro area has grown exponentially in the last 5 years. Uh and it's it's actually quite profound. Just this past year, we discussed publicly with our board. We had over 30,000 college credits earned by our high school students across our three high schools this past year. Uh most of which that came at no cost. Um, and those are the types of outcomes that I think have come through our collective work. Um, it is a continuous improvement process. So, you never get to that destination you're striving for. You're always on some journey to get there. Uh, but I think there's a lot of good work that's been done and uh, speaking for our district, I think we really value the collaboration and I think we're better from it uh, in our time uh, with

027the CAT plan and in the learning community. This is Jason Buckingham, superintendent Rston Public Schools. Thank you, John and Andy both. That that that was a very thorough uh explanation. Just a couple things of note. The school as a hub is critical to us as well. Our school as a hub sits in our most impoverished schools or in our one of our most impoverished schools. And it it's critical for us that we can begin to access our parents and our children where they're at. And what I mean by that is we have sometimes parents that really aren't all that comfortable with how to parent their child. So these inhome visits that we have are critical. We have people that will come out. They'll actually do a little bit of work with the kid, but they'll

028also do a little bit of work with the parent, too, and teaching them things like how do I teach reading? How do I how do I begin daily reading instruction? How do I go through and and you know access in books and things that I can go ahead and share with my child so that they can get a little bit better start than what they would if these plans weren't in place. So for us just to touch on on one of the high higher points with the school as a hub program is pretty critical to us and we hope that's something that we can continue to retain. Um, madame pres uh thank you on behalf of the superintendents for giving us an an opportunity to meet today to talk about this plan and thank you

029to NDE staff as well for um your time today. Um all the things that are that was talked about to my left first Matt Ray Alma public school superintendent um is so true. I mean, the fact that we're all here together talking about the same things would not have happened in 2015, 2017. Um, as well, um, at that time when this was formed, superintendents were talking about, uh, beating each other up in a parking lot. Um, it is in the paper that one superintendent was threatening to beat up another one in the parking lot. Um, so a lot of progress has been made and this plan has created progress in the Omaha public schools. Uh we are seeing improvement in academics, we're seeing improvement in attendance, we're seeing highquality early childhood programs. We talked about

030the Buffett uh early childhood um institute. This is a national program um that is consulting across the nation and we have access to it as a as a partner and uh we're seeing high quality data-driven learning environments for early childhood classrooms. And not having this um means kids will not have access to programs in the Omaha public schools. Um with a school district that is and probably similar to all our other school districts with 80% 75 80% of our staff being um our budgets going to staff. $8 million means staff and then that means services to kids. And so that's a lot of staff. That's a lot of kids that won't get services. Um and um yes, we have for the OM public schools. I won't speak for the others. We we do have areas

031that we need to improve. We always will. That's part of improvement. That's part of the journey that we're all undertaking. Um but we are moving in the right direction and this plan helps it. Um, we are seeing improvement and this plan helps. >> Okay. Thank you to all the superintendents. Sorry. Um, that may have been more than you had thought you would be giving us, but thank you. I see Maggie has another question. >> I do. Thank you so much for that information and you segueed me into this question. Um, I know you said that there you are seeing many successes with this program. Um, with our board being really big on that literacy goal and working towards reading mastery by third grade, I'm wondering what you can speak to about successes in grades and

032academic performance of kids that are involved in that that are connected to this funding specifically. I think we can all answer that question in a different way and part of my answer will be general and part will be more specific to the to our district. I think what you'll find in the Buffett Early Childhood Institute literature that um has independently verified that our early childhood programming across those schools that are a part of the the the the CAP plan that are impacted by the CAP plan. um our students that enter third grade are entering third grade achieving at a higher level than if they weren't part of that programming. Um and again I I think that is all independently verified by Buffett Early Childhood Institute. They produce a annual report that is thorough. So if

033anyone uh was interested in those details, we could certainly provide that for you. I believe it's also published on their website uh if you were interested in seeing that. specifically in Millard. Um through our partnership with the learning community, there's a number of initiatives we have. We have literacy coaches um that are funded through uh our work with the learning community. We assign that on a two-year rotation to different schools and we use we use database metrics to do that. We also look at things like staff turnover and we try and place those resources in buildings that can benefit most from that additional literacy uh coaching and instruction. And and most recently this year, we've implemented a targeted literacy initiative in four of our elementary schools through this partnership. And we're seeing tremendous data. In

034fact, we we just recently shared with the learning community council an update on the progress we made midyear. We've shared with our board a progress update. We've shared it with Dr. Maher the prior year uh as we were preparing to implement the plan. And I believe it was a plan that NDE staff thought was a potential model that could be replicated elsewhere. We're seeing a lot of success with that. Um and again would be happy to entertain any state board member who had an interest in attending our district to visit any of those schools, talk to our staff and see our data. Uh we're very confident that we're seeing tremendous progress uh in our buildings where we're doing work. Um and we'd be happy to showcase that at request. >> What I actually beat Andy

035to the microphone. Um, so what we're what we're really excited about is is what we're doing in early childhood and aligning it through the through the system and having a common literacy goal through the organization and the alignment from early childhood through grade 12. And um and while the data again is not where we're at, but we're making progress and our our goal is by 2030 that all students will read on grade level. Um and so we are making progress from 2122 at 27% proficiency to 43% proficiency. While that sounds um you know not that we're not completely we're not stopping at that of course but we're making progress and the early childhood programming allows us to start there and carry it throughout the system. So, one more example from a suburban district. Completely concur

036with what my colleague said. Uh, we are using Pon Levis Community Schools is using some targeted funds from the learning community for an elementary a kindergarten jump start program. We're really proud of it. Uh, Dr. Schwarz was a big part of helping us implement it. And basically what these dollars are used for is when we identify families that are at risk for not quite being ready for kindergarten because that absolutely leads to literacy readiness. Kids have different levels of literacy readiness depending on the demographic factors that are impacting their lives before they ever get to us. For example, we know that families coming from poverty on average probably le coming from a less literacy rich environment. kids coming from a single parent household on average probably getting less exposure to early literacy that a more

037affluent family would have. So we have a scorecard that we use and then we identify families that we think could benefit from intense pre-iteracy care and give them some early kindergarten experiences. We're not going to close the gap in a few weeks. It doesn't work that way. Closing the gap takes a huge amount of time. Everybody in this room knows this because you're part of the important work that's being done across the state. But even two to three weeks of intense support for kids prior to that very first day of kindergarten, they're more comfortable walking into the classroom. They're more ready for pre-learning skills. They understand the behavioral uh as well as the social expectations of what it means to be at school versus being uh at home, for example. All of these things matter

038and are laying the foundation for literacy, which will start to really hit in those those K2 years in particular. So, I think the point is you're hearing different things and different approaches, but all of them ultimately impact our literacy and what the department's trying to focus on with the CLSD. >> Thank you. >> If I can add just a little bit more onto it, Jason Buckingham with Rston. Uh, one of the things that that Dr. Rickley uh kind of hinted on, but just to make sure that we're more clear with it, one of the benefits we have particularly out of the school as a hub is the relationships and the ability to build non-invasive relationships and collaboration with our families. Quite honestly, some of the families that we have whose children aren't quite yet kindergarten

039ready, their parents didn't have a very good experience in school either. So, as they look at that, sometimes people go into this as as their new parents and they say, "Well, you know, I didn't I wasn't very good at school. my kid's probably not going to be very good at school either. This school is a hub and these relationships and these home visits really help with us to try and start to repair some of those relationships between the parents and the schools and have them be more ready as a parent to partner with us and collaborate once their child gets into school. >> Hey, thank you. Uh board member Penner, your hand is raised. >> It is just a brief question. Why uh One World Health? Why did you partner with them from the start?

040Great question. Um, Gerald Cune, learning community. Uh, when the learning community was in its infancy 15 years ago, uh, we wanted to expand into those areas of need that had high concentrations of poverty. Um, and in Douglas and Sarpie County, well, Douglas County, that is East Omaha. um specifically north uh from about east of 72nd Street, 72nd Street and east and uh South Omaha from about I'd say about 60th uh in to the river. Um, and so we wanted to have a um a partner in South Omaha that would already that who already had the notoriety, who already had familiarity with the community, who already had the trust of the community in the area that we were going to um put a center. Um and because the learning community has a restriction on uh 10%

041of our learning community levy for programming can go to staff and because of that 10% restriction um if I were to put all of the staff that we have I have about 42 staff at the south center. uh if I was to put all of those staff on the learning community payroll, uh it would blow that 10% uh restriction out of the water. And so the learning community back in the day, they they found one world who is a a great community partner um community resource at the time and we partnered with them just for educational um basis and and that partnership has has shown great uh bear great fruit um in terms of results and trust in the community. And we have parents who uh English is not their their first language. And that

042can be a scary time for those parents to go into a classroom to talk with a teacher about their students progress uh and can't understand what the teacher uh is saying. And so the learning community offers those those resources. But we also have um one world at the helm that um they hold the contract for that community. And so that's the reason why they uh we have one world as a partner. >> Were they originally a educational group or were they did they start out as a medical group? >> They they started off as a as a medical group. Um but as we know education um if you don't if you can't read and write it plays out in other areas. If I could one of the things that I remember Gerald saying from the

043original meeting uh when the four of us had met together in Omaha. Um and to to reiterate something he just shared the statute uh has a prohibition regarding how much of the learning community's dollars can be spent on staff. And because of that, the the learning community sites have historically had a contract partner that delivers the services that the learning community creates. So, it's the learning communities program just being implemented by a different partner that's contracted to implement it. So, different partners over time have been that partner. I want to say Project Harmony at one time was the partner for the North Omaha Center. Uh, One World Health is currently the partner for you, but it's implementing learning community programming. And I believe there's actually a legislative bill right now in the legislature, LB924. If

044my memory serves correctly, it did pass general file um that would remove that prohibition um and potentially make it possible in the future for the learning community to consider staffing its own programs, but right now statutoily, that's not feasible for the learning community. >> Okay. I have a a quick question I want to go back to. I believe it's Superintendent Ray was talking. Um, and I understand that the learning community was established in about 06 and my research said that the first meeting took place in January of 2009. different iterations and ups and downs. But my question is, you know, you talked about student achievement and how um things aren't necessarily where you'd like them to be, but they're moving. And so, um, when I pulled OPS's district-wide data in at the beginning of this

045most recent plan, the one that we're coming off from, in 2022 to 2023, OPS's English proficiency was 37 and math was 32. And as our with our most current um rankings now for 2024 uh your ELA is 40% and your math math is 30. So my question is what is the expected timeline for measurable academic impact? I I wish I could tell you that it was a specific date. It just unfortunately kids don't work that way. Um and so our goal is that all students will read on grade level by 230. What our organization is doing now is shifting our resources, looking at what things we can stop doing. Um looking at those things that uh don't directly impact the classroom. Um looking at getting input from teachers about things um that they can stop

046doing, look at things that the organization can stop doing so that they can teach. Um, and so our focus is literacy and um, and we know that if we improve literacy, it'll it's the throughine to every other subject. Um, so our focus continues to be literacy. And now I can't speak to and I don't want to speak to what those before me did in 2009 or 2006. I can speak to what I'm in charge of as the superintendent now. Um, and I can tell you that we're making progress and that um we'll own our data that we have now and that um we will um continue to um do what we can for the kids that we serve. And it's it's I wish I could say it's next year. I wish I could say it's

0472027. Um, but it just doesn't work that way. >> Thank you. I mean, I I understand that that kids aren't necessarily all on the same timeline. However, the entire state funds TIOSA and so I was just curious about um the long-term investment that all Nebraskans are making. Uh, Lisa, you have your hand up. >> Yes. Thank you everyone for being here today. Um, this is something that I've been delving into in depth um for the last several months now and I agree with Dr. Rickley that we have to put the focus on the right things and um that is I think something that everyone here agrees with. As I've looked through, I've heard um a lot of talk about one world and that is still a concern of mine. I wrote a letter to the

048executive committee talking more about my concerns. Um, I do hear the financial concern with paying employees and so I one of my concerns is and and will be as far as how HIPPA and FURPA works with when you have a medical organization going into the schools, how those laws change and HIPPA is no longer there for our school or the the records are no longer protected by HIPPA and um our FURPA laws have so many um exemptions for them that those documents and those records really aren't as secure. So, I had mentioned that. Um, I also have a concern that the one world is the one who is having the employees do out do the home visits and when things have are done in home visits even though this uh revised plan says that there

049they will not be allowed to do to push students toward any kind of um hormone therapy or any um anything that's not education related. I my guess is there that her that furpa could still be used for privacy with in regards to what happens behind closed doors in the home. And so that's just kind of muddying the waters there. And if we're talking about literacy being I being a priority, I do hear what we're saying about getting kids ready. Um, there's a lot of research that shows that it that quality preschool is excellent for getting kids ready to read in kindergarten. However, when the major impact happens is kindergarten through third grade. And so what I haven't heard from anyone other than Millard and that wasn't mentioned today um was what they're doing for literacy

050which is training teachers. So I know Millard is using SIPs which I'm excited to learn more about. It's very much phonics based and it is um it's aligned with the science of reading and it has to do with getting teachers trained to be more effective in teaching these demographics. As an ESL teacher for 25 years, the most important thing that I needed as a teacher was a smaller class size when dealing with difficult, hard to teach demographics. So, why aren't we talking about getting more um well-qualified paras in our classrooms and getting teachers maybe a couple college credits in meeting the needs of our ESL teachers? So, there's a lot of things in my mind that should have been discussed or in this plan that aren't there. While there are things in this plan that

051I'm just not seeing long-term impact on student achievement and that needs to remain our focus. >> Lisa, do you have a specific question for any of the superintendent? >> I guess um really this is just kind of my summarizing what I've heard so far today. Um, and unless I'm missing something. Am I missing something? >> Well, uh, if I could, I want I want to just address the this board and and say, um, thank you for your due diligence and and wanting to make sure that this is right and make sure that resources are allocated to properly uh to students in the state and and the um the different school districts. Uh I just want to put on the record um that the learning community the resources and the partnership with one world um and

052the is separate than the the TIOSA funds and the state aid that the school districts receive. The learning community um dollars that come in are from a local levy from Douglas and Sarpie County. the state aid money that it will get infused into the TIOSA um formula is totally separate than the learning community. It doesn't even those dollars don't even come into the learning community. Um those dollars go directly to the school districts. So, the partnership with One World um is those dollars don't um come from any dollars that are approved by the CAP plan, but they are put into the CAT plan to show what programs are ran through uh what programs are ran through the learning community to close gaps in achievement for children and families in poverty. Uh, Miss Shonoff, uh, Andy

053Rickley, uh, everything that you said, I I don't know if you expected a response from us, but everything that you said, uh, I agree with. You touched on at least two or three things that all of us here at the table know are critical toward, uh, student achievement broadly, but literacy and reading skills in particular. You mentioned small class sizes. Um part of what we have earmarked our dollars in PLA Vista is having small primary class sizes particularly in our high poverty title one all of our buildings but particularly at our high poverty title one buildings. You talked about professional development. One of the things I suspect all of us at the table are doing are aligning our curriculum with our professional development. And you use the term at least once science and reading practices.

054Everybody here is doing that and you're absolutely correct that is that is the focus that we ought to be focusing on. Um, one of the other things that many of us are doing as as the state requires, we're going through the seven-year uh curriculum adoption process. We just Pavil Vista just finished an exhaustive review and are currently rolling out a new curriculum related to English language arts with a particular focus on early grade literacy because as you well know as a former YEL teacher that sets the foundation for everything else. So, so my apologies if some of us or me in particular didn't address you know what's happening K8, K12. Certainly, there's lots of things going on, but we also know our time here is limited and we're we're trying to be respectful of your

055time, but thank you for the question. I think you you hit on some really key points. >> Thank you for answering that. Are you sorry, I'm not in the room. Are you all answering the question, >> superintendent? Or or are you done? I'm I'm not trying to be rude. I just can't tell. >> They're looking at each other as if they're done. So, I think you can >> Okay. Okay. Perfect. All right. So, I see Deb, you have a question. So, I want to just clarify a continuation of the discussion that Lisa started because I think what I've seen happen a number of times is a blurring of the lines of what is actually part of our scope of work from a regulation standpoint and what is actually part of the plan. and what is

056just really good um supports for helping students achieve. And so, and forgive me if I misunderstood, but what I heard Lisa talk about were some great educational strategies as if implying that they're not part of the plan. And so I guess I'd like to bring her comments back to the plan specifically and say I mean I I know I guess just from my perspective I understand that everything you're doing is innovative and evidence-based and outcome driven and uh that what you're doing within your school walls is a complement to what's happening with the learning community uh action plan and vice versa. So, what is really I mean I guess if someone was using her her comments as a reason to vote against the plan, what would you say to that? Sorry, we were trying to

057decide um uh specifically what the question was. So, I'm going to do my best to ramble through this. Um I would say we're all focused on science or reading right now. We're all focused on literacy. Um the collective impact plan, that's an area of focus we've had for several years. Uh part of our work in the collective impact plan with MOAK is a partnership with UNO. UNO is at the heart of some of the CLSD work right now in partnership with the Nebraska Department of Education. I know we've received extensive professional learning for our staff through that partnership and I believe the same is true in different ways, different strategies uh with staff. Um, in fact, in some ways, some of your metro area schools are a step or two ahead because we got a

058jump start on this work in advance um because of some of the work we've done through uh collective impact uh and MOAK and we've got a lot of work to do, you know, and um going back to uh board member uh Shonoff's question, um you know, I I think the way that teachers were trained with balanced literacy years ago is how many of them came trained to teach um literacy and we're in the process of retraining and we're all in a different place in that journey but it that is front and center in our district. I know it's front and center in Pattilian Le Vista. I believe it's front and center in every single one of these districts right now because of the work we've done through collective impact and certainly because of the leadership

059of the state department of education and some of the work that's taking place there. I don't know that there's been a time in my career where we've been more laser-like focused on that topic. Um and certainly that continues to be the case today through our collective work uh in this plan and related through the collective impact plan. And certainly if someone has more to add, please feel free to do so. >> I would defer to my comment to >> Matt please. >> Saved you from getting up. Um, we didn't touch on all the things we're doing with science of the reading. We didn't touch on what we're doing with training our pairs to support the science of reading. Um, and our partnerships with the learning community with UNO. Um, so I mean there there is

060we're retraining ourselves. Um, how we all were taught how to um teach reading has changed and uh we're retraining 3,500 teachers how to teach reading. So it it's exactly what my colleagues to the left have talked about. We we are doing things differently in the the space of reading. >> Oh, go ahead. >> I'm sorry. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um it seems to me that to to cut to the heart of the matter, at least by where I'm sitting, that this this this comes down to trust. And um and I think that has broader implications for for public education and education in general that we rely on as school leaders, parents, taxpayers, community members, policy makers to trust us. Uh you think about what an awesome responsibility, what a privilege, but what an awesome responsibility

061that is for for a parent to drop a kid off at the beginning of the day, their most valuable thing in the entire world, a piece of their heart walking around. They you trust us with that. Uh that's a trust that that's sacred. That's a trust that we take very seriously. And frankly, sometimes we mess up. We're human beings. To be human is to error. And sometimes we get it wrong. Right. And it gets splashed all over the front page of the newspapers. And for that, I'm sorry, but more often than not, we do right. Um we don't indoctrinate kids. Um if we did, we'd be indoctrinating them on how to be more respectful and how to get their homework done on time and how to leave their cell phone at the front door rather

062than other things. But the truth of the matter is, we love this country. We believe we believe in parental rights and we believe that strong public schools are at the very foundation of the future of this republic and without public schools I worry about I worry about the future of this country uh to be honest and to narrow it down to this issue we either have to trust these educational professionals as odious as that may seem to some to an organization that clearly we don't trust very much to make sound educational decisions for our kids. We do this every day in other arenas and if we can put guard rails in place through anou through expectations through you shall do this, you shall not do that. I'm not against that and I suspect my colleagues

063to my left and right would be if that adds some layer of uh some layer of assurance that we'll do what we're supposed to do. We cannot we cannot promise anyone in this room that human beings won't make bad decisions. They do it every day. I do it every day, right? We've all had lapses in judgment. We've all done it. Um we can put guard rails in place. We can provide assurances. We can tell you we're going to do really, really hard to follow the intent of what this elected body wants us to do. And in my heart of hearts, I think we can carry that out. I can't make you a promise. Can't make you a promise. But I think we can provide a certain level of assurance that when people close that door

064and those technicians sit down with the kids, the families, the caregivers, whomever it is, that they are focusing on the problem at hand and not taking them down a road with uh gender identity, for example. That clearly makes some people in this room very uncomfortable and I get why they why it does make you uncomfortable. I think it makes many of us uncomfortable. This is one of the issues that our country is grappling with and it has no easy answers. I think if we focus on the issue at hand though, professionals walking into a home providing a core essential service. I think we have to trust them to do that. That's my opinion. >> Okay. I I'd like to do a followup on my question, dishonor. >> Yes. >> Okay. I'm just trying to uh

065understand some of the strategies that Lisa has suggestion suggested are good strategies and am I hearing that those are already incorporated in this plan uh at various level various ways that those are already goals and practices uh that are in place as part of the CAP plan. Am I I That's what I think I heard, but I just want to verify that. I I I think what I was trying to articulate is the collective impact plan, which is the MOAC plan we all come up with together, has frequently included a focus on early literacy and the development of literacy skills in general. We've also had a secondary focus, a content area literacy focus as well that was had a basis for the science of reading. Um there has consistently been a plan and focus for

066that. I would say more broadly uh board member ner um part of MOA includes uh University of Nebraska Omaha. University of Nebraska Omaha um has provided supports to all of our districts uh in different ways and plans that that serve our unique needs. For example, we do a lot of our work with UNO on professional development days where we bring in some of their expert staff and they provide comprehensive training. We then have done a trainer trainer model. I know that the CLSD grant has a component of that grant that includes a partnership with some of that UNO staff where that work has continued to occur as well. And so I think what you have is you have a web of work that's being done that's complimentary. So I think what you're trying to accomplish

067with CLSD that is in part grant awards that have come to our individual districts, grant awards that have gone to ESU3 for example, and work that's taken place through the collective impact plan. We are definitely laser-like focused on literacy, early literacy specifically. And in each district, that looks a little bit different depending upon your context. We're all a different place in that journey, but it is a core focus for every single one of us as it is for the Nebraska Department of Education. >> So, another followup. >> Okay. >> Is that all right? >> Yes. Uh so I guess what I want to make sure is that uh board member Shonhoff if there is something in your comments that was a suggestion for how we can make an improvement to the camp and that's holding

068you back from supporting it. Uh I just want to make sure that we've discussed all of the things that were of concern to you. Uh so that uh and I would open this broader to any board member that thinks they have a strategy or plan that's better than what we have right now. if we can have those discussed openly with the superintendent since they will be the best uh I mean they're in the best position to respond to and let us know if these things are already happening. So do any board members have questions? Please keep in mind this is a question and answer period with the superintendence. We will have discussion on the motions later in this meeting. Does anyone have any other questions for the superintendent? >> Deb, you do? >> Sure. Uh,

069I mean, I want to let anybody else go before me if they want to. I don't want to monopolize. Anybody else want to go before me? >> I have not seen any other hands up. So one of the things I I mean I've absolutely appreciated all the discussion about the many different outcomes that are measured about the progress that's being made about the collaboration and how from that comes innovation and even better strategies for supporting our most vulnerable. Um I want to ask um you know are are you because so many people that like support charters uh they think they're the only ones being innovated innovative and so I know that there's a lot of innovation that's coming from the work that's being done collaboratively and I'm just curious are you sharing some of this

070with your peers other superintendent at conferences or whatever you know uh so across the state so that others can learn from what you have accomplished working together collaboratively. >> So Deb are you asking about their collaboration on the cap or something else >> on on the cap and is that information being shared with other superintendent outside this collaboration so that others across the state can benefit from what's being learned? Thank you for clarifying >> again. Jason Buckingham, Alson Public Schools. Uh I I can answer that's a yes. And I I'll give you a a specific example. Uh one of our emphasis that we had that is also a part of our our plan through MOAK is to improve um chronic absenteeism. That's been something that has hit us extremely hard during the pandemic and it's

071something that to be quite honest we're continuing to work our way out of. But as we've gone on this journey and we've learned more and more about the things that work and the things that don't with chronic absenteeism, we haven't kept that information a secret. We have other districts and not only in the learning community, but outside the learning community that have asked, "What what are you doing? You're starting to show some really good growth. It's really hard to come back and improve the and show the amount of improvement that we have." I just ran a calculation the other day for our uh parent newsletter. we've got 500 less kids that are chronically absent than we did 3 years ago with a district of 3,500 students. That's that's quite a bit of of g gain

072that we've made and we're very proud of that. So, we've been a part of several different discussions. We've um we've sat in as a district uh with our county attorneys uh across the state to try and develop a draft plan that NDE has adopted uh that they'll share out with chronic absenteeism. So, to answer your question, yeah, we we don't keep any of this stuff a secret. This is it. When we have shown success and we've shown a pathway to where we can help improve our own kids in our district, we're going to share that out with other other districts as well. >> And from a Millard standpoint, we've shared our instructional coaching, literacy coaching model at various professional conferences across the state um with the school as hub model. I know specifically Rston does

073some absolutely amazing things with their program and I can speak for our team that we've learned a lot from them over the years that we as we've expanded our programming uh because they were a little bit ahead of us and we were able to pull some ideas from them and that work of BECI that we're doing in the Omaha metro area is informing the work that they're doing nationally on early childhood and I think they would be able to speak to that proudly. I think Miss Ner, it's a really important question and I I think we're maybe assuming that everybody knows this, but uh as a group we meet um as a collective at least once a month and it ends up usually being far more frequent than that, but uh through MOA, the Metro

074Omaha Education Consortium, which includes Gerald, which includes the individuals to my right, includes all the uh and that's across state lines for that matter. We include Council Bluffs and we also include Higher Ed, Iowa Western Community College, Metro, University of Nebraska, Omaha. The point being, we have regular ongoing conversations not only across the state about what's working and what's not, but certainly we're having regular conversations even within our metro school districts. To Mr. Ray's point, conversations that weren't happening 10 to 15 years ago. They just weren't because of a variety of things. Um, but we get along, we collaborate. More often than not, we're together on the same issues and we're focusing on the right things in my opinion. Okay, Debbie, I still see your hand up. You have another question. >> Uh, this is

075a clarification that I'm asking you. Uh, Elizabeth, um, just like any, uh, action item that we're voting on. We sometimes bring the staff forward to help clarify when something comes up in discussion. I'm assuming that our superintendent are going to be able to be here and available for questions as things come up in our discussion so that they can help clarify. Am I correct in that? >> Um I don't know that our super this is the time for Q&A with the superintendent. The board discussion would not include them. Well, I guess my point is that if we have people that are going to vote against the plan because they have other plans, I mean, I want to make sure and I since we haven't heard from everyone, I just want to make sure that we

076have a chance to have a discussion with the superintendent about each of these ideas that's brought forth because uh they are the ones that have the most expertise just like in any discussion that we would have we always have a sta we're always able to call a staff person who is the most knowledgeable to come forward and clarify. So, I'd like to request that we allow um the superintendent to stay as during our discussion so that we have a way to get to the facts because this is a very important vote. And I know we all want uh to not be making votes on assumptions, but want to be making our votes on facts. Um, you know, I unfortunately not at this point would probably slip a note over to the commissioner or Dr. Ford

077to see what the actual protocol because we have never um we on action items. We you are correct. We we bring up staff. We do not bring up guests. So, Commissioner or Dr. For can you speak to the protocol of this? Yes. Uh first of all, I would say that it's a public meeting and the superintendents are w certainly welcome to stay. So that the fact that um they may be in the room is up to them. The second thing in terms of discussion, it's really a board prerogative in terms of would you like a member of the staff here or some other some other if you'll allow me to use the term expert witness. Maybe one of the superintendents would be available. So that that would be a board prerogative. >> Okay. >> I'd

078just like to add, Elizabeth, that there is precedent for it because actually I think two of the superintendants that are here today were part of a discussion that we had regarding uh assessments a few years ago and that is >> but I don't think that you get to establish precedents because you were in control of that situation also. Kirk, you have a question? >> Yeah, this is a meeting of the board. I I have no trouble with what we're doing right now, but you open up a can of worms if we're going to start bringing people in during open board meetings for discussion on action items. Um that's a can of worms you do not want to open. >> Okay. So, I do want to keep us on track of where we are for our

079agenda item is to ask this is a superintendent learning community questions from the board members. Does anybody have any more questions for the superintendent or um Dr. Cune Cune I practiced it. Dr. Cune, does anyone have any questions for any of them? Okay, I don't see any more. I feel like we need to move on to actual board member um move on in our agenda, which is agenda item 3.2. This is the executive committee report and that's what Maggie was asking for. The executive committee reports on its activities since the last board meeting on February 6, 2026. Committee chair Elizabeth Taggmire, Vice Chair Liz Rener, Sher Jones, and Deborah Ner met in Omaha on February 10th with members of the learning community board and superintendent from Millard, Omaha, Rston, and Pilion La Vista. State board

080members expressed their questions and concerns with the proposed community achievement plan. The questions and concerns brought to the meeting in Omaha had been previously expressed at the February 6th meeting of the board. No new concerns were raised. Before the meeting closed, learning community CEO Gerald Cune began to work with the learning community attorney to delineate the duties of One World Health in relation to the CAP. The superintendent who were present elected a contact person who would communicate with NDE through the commissioner on proposed changes to the school district portion of the cap. At the executive committee on February 12th, NDE staff presented the preliminary changes to the learning communities portion of the cap which included the limitations to one world health services. At the executive committee meeting on February 19th, the community was, excuse me,

081the committee was alerted to a proposed addendum to the school district portion of the cap. However, it arrived 1 minute before the committee convened, so it had not been added to Spark or reviewed by any NDE staff or board members. The proposed addendum was emailed to all board members Friday, February 20th to review for the next meeting of the board on February 24th. This concludes the executive committee report. Are there any questions on the executive committee report? >> Um, madame president, this is Liz. >> Um, I don't have a question about the report, but I just I don't think you can see um what we can see. And I just wanted to let everyone know that's on Zoom that the superintendent and uh Mr. Cune have left the table, but they're still present. And I

082just wanted to thank them for the answers and and insights that they shared. Thank you. All right. Anybody have any questions on the report of what the executive committee has done since February 6th meeting? Okay, seeing no questions, agenda item 3.3. As a reminder, a motion was made at the February meeting to adopt the community achievement plan of the learning community of Douglas and Sarpie counties. Is there any discussion on the motion? So, this motion is currently on the table to adopt the plan that was in Spark in February. Is there any discussion on this motion? >> Madame President, >> yes, >> I have I have a motion. >> Um, I would move to substitute for the original community achievement plan with the revised community achievement plan. >> Is there a second? >> Second. Okay.

083It is moved and seconded to amend by substituting for the original community achievement plan with the revised community achievement plan. The motion to substitute proposes that the revised plan come before the board in place of the original plan. So the discussion right now on this motion is do you want to substitute one plan for the other? That is our discussion. We are actually not discussing the details within the plan. But if you want to substitute the revised plan for the original. There any discussion on this amended motion? Deb. Yes. >> I just want to say thank you to the folks that are involved in uh the learning community leadership. I know that uh we on a very short time frame uh requested changes based on what was presented uh by the executive committee meeting by

084an in-person meet uh meeting at the learning community a few weeks ago and Elizabeth and uh Liz and myself and Sherry brought forward uh the concerns and things that we'd like changed. And I know that the superintendent have spent a great deal of time uh listening to processing and implementing uh the ideas when appropriate that could be implemented. And so this revised plan, it I it's it's been uh a time-consuming process. It's been respectful of uh the needs of our state board members and I really appreciate the work that's been done on it. Thank you. >> Any other discussion on substituting the revised plan for the original plan? Okay. The question do do you have a question, Deb? >> Oh, sorry. No, I'll lower. >> Okay. All right. Um, so the question is on the

085motion to substitute for the original community achievement plan with the revised community achievement plan. If you are in favor of substituting, please vote yes. If you do not want to substitute, please vote no. Would the recording secretary please call the role? >> Rener, yes. Douglas, >> yes. >> Christensen, yes. Jones, >> yes. >> Tegmire, >> yes. >> Henner, >> yes. >> Ner, >> yes. Shonhoff. >> Yes. >> Eight. Yes. >> The eyes have it. And the motion to substitute is adopted. The question is now on whether or not to adopt the revised community achievement plans. So now we have board discussion on the revised community achievement plan. And so I will need you to if you want to offer up comments and board member discussion at this time, please continue. when you use the little

086raise hand thing then it moves you to the front of my queue and that helps me. Um, does anyone want to comment and those who are in the room also any thoughts for discussion? Yes, Sherry. >> Yes. I just Oh, can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay. Well, I want to acknowledge and and say that I greatly appreciate the amendments and clarifying actions that have been incorporated into that CAP plan. Um, namely for those of the community that haven't seen the the funding use clarification, the contractual clarification to one world partnership and the addendum to the community learning plan submitted by the superintendent um of Douglas and Sarby County. The first two are significant to the use of funding as it relates to one world health. However, they do not address the influence of

087the one world health partnership. And I have previously shared my specific concerns regarding its practices and scope of influence and so I won't do that now. But in regard to the superintendence addendum, I believe the key provisions will indeed strengthen reporting and accountability and transparency. and I greatly appreciate the work that went into it by you superintendent. So, thank you for that. >> Hey, Lisa. >> I would like to also reiterate uh my appreciation for taking the time to do the tour to um listen to my public statements for the past three months. And um I have also appreciated hearing from the superintendent and I think that there were there have been a great deal of um good points brought up. I just want to remind everyone that when we're voting, we're voting on the

088entire plan. We can't just pick and choose the pieces that we think are really great. We are voting on the whole plan. Maggie, >> I pre-wrote mine, so I might take a minute. Sorry. >> Okay. >> Um, okay. I believe that first, thank you to everyone that took so much time and put so much work into this. Um, I believe it is necessary for us to pass the funding required for implementation of their achievement plan. The plan is a coordinated research-based strategy to close opportunity and achievement gaps for children and families across Omaha metro area. The CAP focuses on four transformational priorities that align directly with decades of educational research that are foundational to long-term academic success. Um Nebraska's statewide vision for literacy reinforces this work. our Nebraska literacy plan calls for evidence-based literacy instruction,

089early identification of reading challenges and coordinated support systems from birth through grade 12 to ensure that every child becomes a proficient reader. This is a statewide imperative that boosts long-term opportunity and economic mobility. We know that literacy proficiency by third grade is one of the strongest predictors of future academic success. Nebraska's literacy goals include increasing third grade reading proficiency to at least 75% by 2030 and ensuring teachers are trained in science-based reading instructions. To achieve those goals, students must have equitable access before they enter formal schooling and families must be engaged as partners. exactly what the CAP is designed to support and more so our strategic plan that we agreed on emphasizes stakeholder collaboration, data informed practices and community partnerships to improve student outcomes statewide. And the learning communities plan operationalizes these strategic goals at

090the local level by leveraging partnerships among the 11 districts, community organizations, and the NDE to tackle persistent disparities in early learning and literacy. So I think that passing this funding is a very targeted investment and really important that we pass it. Thank you, >> Madame President. >> Yes, Liz. Um, I am going to also thank you all for all of the hard work. I know it's been kind of fast and and furious and I've been consistently impressed with um the good faith effort that has been made by all the districts and learning community and the council. Um, so I I'm very grateful for that. I would like to remind uh my fellow board members that the state board of education has a lane and it is not the same as a school district or a

091school board at the district level. Um they're different lanes and by statute we are specifically given indicators of what to uh approve or disapprove the plan based on. So, I would just caution us to be very mindful of what is our state statutory obligation versus our own uh preferences if we were running a district or making decisions on vendors. Um, they're very different things. Thank you, >> Krista. Are you I saw a little wave. Are you >> Yep. you read my mind. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Um yeah, I just uh want to reiterate some of the things that my colleagues have already said. Thank you all for being here again today. Um really appreciate you sharing the work that you have done collectively and collaboratively, the feedback, the feedback that you've listened to from

092my colleagues on the board. Um you've listened to our concerns, you've cited progress for things that your districts are seeing. um and the impact that not receiving this funding would have on the programs that you're implementing and planning for in the upcoming school year. So, really appreciate you being here. um also share the the sentiment that Maggie shared earlier that um this funding and this plan is a really targeted way to um support our districts in ways that they are needing and flexibly so um and see the the impact that it would have if we did not provide this funding or allow this funding to be released. So um agree that this is is a really important thing that we are discussing today and um urge a yes vote I suppose. >> Sure. I too

093have some prepared remarks so bear with me. Uh but I do want to just uh say start off by saying I do support the plan and the work of these very experienced leaders uh who make up the learning community uh and the ones that were here today. And I love that one of the superintendent talked about trust, which is what I do have in the leadership uh that we have uh in the metro area and across the state of Nebraska. We um have some very high relatively high NATE scores and it proves that we do have exceptional leadership. So, um I truly believe that these superintendants that we heard from today are unquestionably the best positioned to assess the effectiveness of this work. And anyone that has listened to their testimony, really listened, will understand

094that the measurable outcomes associated with this collaborate collaboration and they will understand the urgency of it. The CAP plan, it's not built on the theory or ideology. It's built on data. Participating districts all use metrics to identify where students are falling behind and to deploy targeted interventions that improve kindergarten readiness, third grade reading proficiency, attendance, and family stability. I've served on this board for nearly eight years and only in the past year have I observed a concerning phenomena whereby decisions by this board are being made that end up dismantling supports practically overnight. And this chaos is being created without the presentation of a clear alternative and one that is based on an evidence-based strategy that will meet the needs or take the place of the dismantled programs and what they were designed to address. If

095anyone is voting no today because they want improvements to this plan, I would expect to hear what evidence-based strategies that they propose that will replace these coordinated efforts before we vote. Our responsibility is not simply to critique and dismantle existing systems, but instead to ensure that any proposed changes we suggest are grounded in evidence, transparency, and a commitment to improve outcomes for students. So, when we're voting on three words that are on a partners' website, I'm not clear on how that's going to improve outcomes for students. At this time, I haven't seen, and in all the months this has been discussed since October, I haven't seen a replacement strategy that would better serve the children and families who rely on these supports. The bottom line is that our schools do not need more chaos and

096they do not need state board members that keep creating chaos without the appropriate due diligence and forethought that should be provided. I support the CAT plan and I hope that our board members that are considering dismantling yet another school successful school support will actually provide their ideas for moving forward. I'm asking them to share those ideas and ideas that one, as Liz already addressed, that stay in our lane and focus on the specific parts of the plans that are in the scope of our work. As Dr. Maher has said previously, we they don't even need to put their partners in the plan. That's not the scope of our work. That's not the scope of what we're supposed to be approving. And the second part is to provide if somebody has a problem with one section

097of the plan, I'm hoping that they are going to provide evidence and proof that their one small concern outweighs all the tremendous impact from the entire plan. Because finding just one score that is concerning and not considering all the other impacts that are positive is not how elected bodies are supposed to approach decisions. I look forward to hearing my peers, especially the ones that have previously expressed their that they don't plan to support the plan. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, I just I'm going to jump in real quick and just share a couple of my thoughts um because I I spent a lot of time reading through documents, reading through the statute. The statute um gives us specific details of what we need to look for in the plan. And letter G says it

098has a high likelihood in the opinion of the state board based on the evidence presented. So that's what's in the plan of improving achievement equity and reducing the impact of barriers to achievement. I do not believe that oversight is micromanagement. The experts implement the policy and we as a governing body ensure that the system delivers results. That is what we are asked to do in the statute. That's my thought. >> Madame President, I it's here. Um, I also believe the statute requires us if we vote no on approval to provide recommendations. So, if you have recommendations on how these 11 districts can do a better job of um addressing uh item G, I think it's incumbent upon us to provide that information to them. Can you can you tell me where you found that in

099the statute because I do not see that in the statute. >> Uh shall we turn the plan or plan renewal with any suggestions or comments on or before? Well, it says February 15th. That's from the original uh legislation, but I can get you. It's in there. I can't pull it up right now. Scanning it, but it >> we are required to offer recommendations. >> Okay. >> And I and I will to be clear, you know, we probably have to deliver that either today or upon soon after uh not approving if that's the way the vote goes. So I just want to be clear on that. Um, so, so you are saying that the part where it says the student achievement coordinator or other department staff designated by the commissioner shall return the plan or plan

100renewal with any suggestions or comments on or before the immediately following February 15th to allow the plan to be revised prior to submission on or before March 5th for final approval by the state board at the state board's April meeting. If the state board rejects the plan or plan renewal, the reasons for rejection shall be included with the notice of rejection and an opportunity shall be provided to revise the plan or plan renewal and for participating collaborators to appear before the board prior to a reconsideration. So looking at that exact language, it does not seem to me that the state board has they can give their reasons for rejection. That's what the statute states. >> Tell me how they provide um or resubmit a plan if they don't have specifics. >> Well, >> how are

101they to address your concerns? >> I've been told that I've been told that the superintendents are the experts. So, if I have a reason for being concerned, then I would expect our experts would come up with a plan to address that. Deb, you want to speak, >> Deb? You're muted. I sorry if I'm confused, but I haven't heard a specific item that would be a reason for not improving the plan. Like I've heard I mean I appreciate that board member Shonhof has talked about the three words that are on the one world website somewhere that I couldn't even find. That's her reason. But and so people can respond to that, but I haven't heard and I apologize. Uh, board member Jones, I know that that those three words were of concern to you. Also, was

102there something else that you wanted improved in the plan or are you planning to support it? Uh, and I guess the question would be we haven't heard from board member Penner today either. Like if if we are going to vote it down then like the statute says we need to give specific reasons so that our superintendent have a direction to go. And I I'm not hearing the specific reasons and I apologize if I've missed something important. You want to speak? You have to unmute yourself. I know you haven't done it all meeting. So there you go. No, I'm just going to make a comment and I think it's important that if there's anybody on this board with a conflict of interest with OMA One World Health such as getting referrals from One World Health or

103working for full-time for a partner of One World Health, I would please ask that you state that they do have a conflict of interest for the record. That's all I'd like to say. Thank you. Well, >> oh, Maggie, >> sorry. I have to look up One World Health Partners if that was what like I service a lot of people from Omaha, so I'm just curious if that's in my field that you're thinking Thank you for Thank you for um clarifying that. >> I'm just clarifying that if anybody gets referrals or works for a company that partners with Omaha One World Health, I think there's a conflict there. >> Well, no different than I would con that I would have to recognize or state that I have a conflict in a bidding situation. That's all I'm

104asking. >> Okay. To my knowledge, I do not. >> Okay. Thank you, Maggie. Okay, we I'm gonna I know I see your hand up, Deb, but I want to open it up if there's anyone else really quick who would like Well, not really quick. Everybody has time. Um, anybody else want to speak that we haven't heard from? Any other board members? Those in the room. Okay. All right. I want to make sure that we have an opportunity for everyone to speak on this. I know we had conversation at our February board meeting, but now is the time to speak if you have anything on this plan. Okay. No further discussion. Okay. So, the motion is the motion was re amended. So the v the motion is currently um the re the revised version of the

105cap of the learning communities of Douglas and Sarby County. >> With the recording secretary please call the role. >> Henner, >> no. >> Christensen, >> yes. >> Jones, >> no. Teagmire. >> No. >> Rener. >> Yes. >> Ner. >> Yes. >> Douglas. >> Yes. >> Shonhoff. >> No. >> Four. Yes. Four. No. >> The opposition has it and the motion is lost. Thank you to those who attended in person, who attended via Zoom Zoom, and who tuned in to the broadcast. The next meetings of the State Board of Education are scheduled for March 5th and 6th, 2026 in Lincoln, Nebraska. The February 24th, 2026 state board meeting is adjourned.