August 4, 2023 State Board of Education Meeting

001our board meeting will begin in one minute the August 4th state board meeting will come to order good morning and welcome to the August 4th 2023 State Board of Education meeting board members please engage your microphones before speaking and make sure that you turn them off when you have finished speaking please note that board members may be using their devices or laptop computers to access the agenda and information related to this meeting live streaming is available through the State Board of Education website with the recording secretary please call the roll Patsy kojons here Lisa Fricke here Patty Google here Kirk Pinner Sherry Jones Elizabeth tegmeyer Deborah Neri here here commissioner Maher here all present there are eight members present Quorum is established please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance allegiance to the

002flag 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 thank you 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 we are at Agenda item 2.1 nde staff member Katie Graham please make your way to the front of the room for a recognition of the Career and Technical student organization National officer welcome good morning thank you very excited to be here today to introduce you to one we were hoping for two incredible students who have been recognized nationally and are now national leaders representing Nebraska and their respective organizations this morning we have Milan Aranda who was

003recently selected to be the president of Educators Rising for the United States I'm so excited to um for her to share some remarks with you today we were also very excited to introduce you to Leonardo Luna Duren who was elected as the Vice President of Finance nationally for FCCLA had a little car trouble on the way here so unfortunately he won't be here this morning but I believe Milan has some information to share about his journey as well so I I can't wait to introduce melange he was actually here last year you might remember her and she was the State president I believe at the time and now she is serving educators Rising which is the organization to help recruit and prepare future teachers and Educators so I will turn it over to her but

004thank you so much for this recognition and allowing us to share this with you hello my name's Milan Aranda thank you so much for having me um I've recently just graduated from Burke High School so now I'm going to Northwest Missouri State in Maryville Missouri my plan is to major in elementary education and special education I was State president for the 2022-2023 school year and it really helped me develop leadership skills and I think I've really improved on my public speaking since being there too I've been Educators Rising since my freshman year in high school so about five years now it's helped me get hands-on experience in the classroom as the teachers I've worked with felt really good having me work with their students because I'm in Educators Rising I've also just learned a lot

005and helped me realize that teaching is my passion for hearing going to different conferences and hearing different speakers it's really made me excited to have my own classroom and be a speaker at a conference someday um as a national officer I'm going to be going to different conferences such as in October I'm going to the aaaee conference which is the American Association for employment education in Chicago and as a national officer I'll also be advocating for student voices and give me the chance for students to explore the teaching profession and with other officers in June I will be planning our national conference at DC so I'm really excited thanks for having me thank you very much for being here are there any questions or comments Patsy what's your area of interest um I really wanted

006to do third grade but this year I was like a volunteer in a kindergarten classroom and I really loved working with The Kindergartners actually it was so fun so I'm thinking I want to do Kindergarten now well we're happy to have you seeking a profession in education we need you yeah I'm really excited Milan from your your perspective as a high school student what do you think needs to be done to inspire more high schoolers to go into education um I think for me personally is I didn't really know about anything until I was an Educators Rising so just to like have students know that there are opportunities and like you can do anything you want just because also as a person of color I've never had a teacher of color except for when I

007got into my junior year of high school so that also kind of made me like can I really do this if I don't I guess so just making sure students know that they can do like anything they want and just always encouraging them there's so many um I think one of my biggest inspirations was my dad also because he was a teacher and then he was a principal and just like seeing how his students talk to him and like like we'll go out now and like his past students will like still come up to him and remember him so I was like I want to like make an impact like that that he did on his students and also my eighth grade language arts teacher and my child development teacher freshman year they were just

008amazing and they like let me stay in their classroom and like always offered advice and they were just always there for me and like encouraged me and told me I could do like anything I ever wanted to so miss Bales and Mrs Burton were probably also my biggest inspirations I did I was really fortunate I was wondering how many educator Rising organizations are throughout the state and and I'll sort of close with as you know our state board is very concerned about addressing the teacher shortage and it sounds to me like this CTO was very important in helping you so how many do we have in the state currently and what can we do to help promote the CTO to other schools that don't have them I think we have like 30 schools 30 schools

009and I think just like I think getting the word out is really important so like I love coming to speak with people so that everyone's more educated about it and maybe just I know we've grown a lot like this last year was like one of our biggest state conferences so we're expecting a lot more people this year so I don't really know actually what I don't know sometimes like space is an issue we're like funding always but I think also just one of the most important things is just getting the word out so people know about it Milan thank you very much thank you for representing Nebraska so well and representing Nebraska at the national level that's really exciting thanks so much for having me guys agenda item 2.2 this is another special presentation nde

010staff member Amy Roan is making it to the front of the room along with the superintendent of ncecbvi Tanya Armstrong good morning turn that on okay good morning so I'm Amy Roan I am the administrator and state director of The Office of special education at the Nebraska Department of Education I think you all know me um I'm going to do the introduction and give you a little background so pursuant to Nebraska revised State Statute 7911-109 the State Department of Education shall have oversight and general control of the Nebraska Center for the education of children who are blind or visually impaired also known as ncecbvi we would do a chant later but we don't have enough time this was formerly the Nebraska school for the visually handicapped the department May contract with a school district and

011Educational Service Unit or a public institution City County or state government to operate the center the department may use lease or otherwise contract the use of property and Facilities formally controlled by the Nebraska school for the visually handicapped for services of the center the nde chooses through a multiple procurement process to contract with the Educational Service Unit Number Four to operate the center and provide both Residential Services as well as the educational programming through this contract the center serves children from infancies to age 21. ncecbvis program offers the expertise and specialized skills of the center's staff to Blind visually impaired and multi-handicapped children and students and staff in the residential day and Outreach settings so it is my great pleasure to continue this conversation by introducing you to Dr Tanya Armstrong the superintendent of the

012Nebraska Center for the education of the children who are blind or visually impaired to you today who will be able to share with you the story of the center as well as what we do in Nebraska to provide the very important supports to infants toddlers students families and Educators in this very important area thank you Amy and thank you for having me here this morning this is a great opportunity to talk about ncecbvi gonna say if our slides are working Maybe ah there we go we were just at the bottom we'll go back to the top there we go so you can go to the next slide please so I do like to uh I do like to start with with this slide and a lot of what is on here I don't need to

013read to you because it's a lot of what Amy just shared with you but I want you to pay attention to the wheel if you would or affectionately we call our wheel of services and all of the different Spokes and those are the different areas that we provide programs and services for across the state of Nebraska and so you'll see that there is consultation assessment and evaluation Services we've got the Nebraska instructional Resource Center we have our center-based program our student Family Programs and we offer a lot of professional development for our teachers of the Blind and Visually Impaired across the state next slide maybe there we go so I wanted to show you uh just a Welcome to our campus virtually of course but we are located in Nebraska City on a beautiful uh

014large campus and that's the entrance to our building next slide this is an important slide because people often say so what do you offer through your program that maybe is is unique compared to our local district and of course we address me students needs in The Core Curriculum math English language arts and science and social studies but for students who are blind or visually impaired unlike those of us with normal sight who just kind of oversee and and take things in naturally through what we learn in our environment through our site we have to purposely teach these skills to our students with visual impairments so you'll see those nine areas of what we call the expanded Core Curriculum and this is something nationally that students who are blind or visually impaired are taught through not

015only schools for the blind but in their local school districts as well each of those areas next slide again just a few pictures to show you our campus it will soon be fall and the leaves will be falling we have lots of trees of course located in Nebraska City we have a beautiful sensory garden where the students and staff like to hang out we have a pond and a bridge and special swings and of course sensory education is a huge part of what we do for our students outside like most schools we have a very um a large Library a large collection of books and I was actually going to Amy if you don't mind handing these out I think it's always nice to bring a couple samples of of how our library probably looks

016a little bit different from those in other schools so of course we have we have a variety of books and educational materials but we have large prints we have a lot of books in Braille of course for our students who are totally blind and then my favorite and I think it's over on this side of the room those books are called twin Vision so if you will kind of thumb through that when that comes around I love these because they're commercially available books that you would purchase at any local bookstore but they have a braille overlay on them so that if you are a parent a grandparent a sibling a peer in the classroom and you want to read a book along with that student but you don't know Braille this is an opportunity to

017really do that to together and really include that student in the general curriculum next slide so we have a lot of Technology needs for our students and this first slide addresses technology specific to our students who are totally blind and are Braille users so on the left that is called a Perkins brailler and that the closest analogy I can give is a good old manual typewriter but you'll notice there's just six keys and then of course a space bar in the middle and that is because the brailles are Braille is a six cell code and so students actually type on that manual Perkins Braille writer to uh to write to do a lot of their writing for the classes on the right side is just an electronic version of a braille writer that one in

018particular is called a braille Note touch and it works very similar to it's kind of a combination of a typewriter and a laptop computer so students can not only produce Braille but they can read Braille on that device as well next slide and then not to leave out the students I think typically when people think of serving students with a visual impairment they tend to think totally blind and Braille users but the majority of students or or a larger majority of students Statewide um have low vision needs so they still have some degree of usable Vision it's just compromised in some way so we have a lot of Technology that's available for our low vision students as well on the left that's an iPad and I love that because that's something you and I have

019we have smartphones we teach students how to use smartphones who are low vision users as well and just like just like the rest of us and on the right side is a fairly typical desktop computer that you would find in any classroom or office building and the difference being the keyboard and so that is a keyboard specially made for contrast because black is always a nice background for students with a visual impairment because what's ever presented on on top of the black background is just easier to see by visual contrast so that particular keyboard you'll notice has not only larger keys but yellow keys that are easier to see along with the large letters on top next slide foreign this is maybe kind of a different slide to put in here but I love talking

020about why we have room identifiers or what we would call just kind of a plate a nameplate identifying what what classroom you're walking into throughout our building you will see these and the reason these are important is it because it addresses not only students but also visitors parents who have multiple needs for their reading media so you'll notice writing in the middle we have large prints so we know that we're going into the library in Room 122 and it's hard to see on the slide but right below that we have Braille on there for so now we have a large print we have Braille on the bottom because this is the library we have a tactile object so we have a very small board book that we have for students and these are maybe for

021students who are non-readers we have a number of students with multiple disabilities who also have a vision impairment as one of their as one of their disabilities and so this allows them to know without reading the text or reading the Braille that they're entering the library and finally on the top that's a mini switch that's on there and if you press the switch of course you get the auditory feedback that says Library so that you know what room you're in so lots of different mediums for our students next slide of course special education in general is specialized instruction but since we're talking about students who are blind or visually impaired this is just a couple examples of um tasks and background and and some instructional AIDs that you might see in our school on the

022left we have a work box a work task for some of our students those tiny white boxes are on Velcro on that board and the student would take one of those boxes off and put it in the large yellow box on the right and that's for teaching students with multiple disabilities how to complete a work test so they they get that sensation of you know first and next and so that would be an example of one of our our work skills on the right that is a actually a movable table that goes up and down for a student who uses a wheelchair and again that black background where the teacher is able to present whatever the that task is for that student right in front of them so that the contrast is easier for the

023low vision student next slide and just some more pictures of our classrooms it's fun to show off classrooms a lot of what you'll see when you walk in our building looks like a pretty typical classroom you know it's fun it's colorful there's lots of things going on students are engaged so we have again a lot of Technology a lot of manipulatives on the right side that's an example of a tactile schedule for a student so again a student who maybe is a not a sophisticated reader but they use more tactile Graphics or symbols and they're able to pull those off as the day goes on so they know what's happening in their schedule and then on the table you'll see right in front there there's a flag and then a book it's kind of hard

024to see on the bottom of the slide but it says now and next and so the student knows that right now we're going to say the Pledge and next we're going to be reading a book so it's again for a student who maybe may not be a reader they're able to know what their schedule is next slide we do have students one of the options is for students to be in a residential program and that kind of sets us apart from some other programs it is something that we offer to students that come in on Sunday nights if they choose or early Monday morning to school and then they stay throughout the week all of our students go home on Friday afternoons and the residential program that's another presentation in and of itself there's a

025lot to say about that but in general it's an extension of a student's school day so the instruction continues up in the dorm we really focus on Independent Living skills Recreation and leisure activities you know it's it's a lot to teach a student how do you keep yourself occupied and then also what are the tasks to keep your room clean and get yourself ready each and every day for school or for work we go out in the community we have guests come in to speak with us students have their own dorm room and restroom and that's a gathering area on the right side kind of a living room so they have some some time to socialize in the evenings as well next slide and I love to brag about our Nebraska instructional Resource Center affectionately

026known as nerc and you'll see the logo for the American printing house for the blind there on the right great great partners with us as well as Nationwide the American printing house for the blind supplies resources to all of the states in the United States at no cost and that's that's huge uh a huge cost savings to local districts to have these resources but we house literally thousands of objects books educational materials games different kinds of paper you name it it's it's downstairs in Newark we just happen to have house that program in our building and so schools will contact us they have to register their students annually so we have that that count and that list of of students and who their teachers are and then they contact us and say hey we have

027a student who will be taking um so in such a class and this is the textbook that's required of that class can you get that for us in Braille or in large prints if we have it on the Shelf which a lot of times we do then we send that right out to the The Local District if not we're very connected with all of the other states we all play nice with each other and we have a national listserv and if we don't have the book maybe someone in another state does we're able to borrow it and we do the same we reciprocate that if we have something on our shelves then another state another student another state needs then we'll we'll send it out to them so nerc is a wonderful wonderful place to

028visit if you ever come to visit our campus and I hope that you do we'll be sure to take you through the the instructional Resource Center as well and I think that concludes that's that that's the really quick version um of who we are and what we do so any questions thank you Dr Armstrong questions or comments Lisa I visited your school and had a wonderful time actually my husband came with me and we were both very impressed and a couple things I wrote down that I wanted to share with all of you when you walk in the building it's very welcoming and as you tour the building there's artwork and other things that the students have created and at one moment during the um the tour a student came out and he's the weatherman

029was it Joe Joseph yeah Joseph and so he's it's amazing he's the guy that keeps track of what's going on with the weather he goes outside he has certain things that he does and that he shares and also in a gym like area there was a parent student engagement going on and so that was kind of impressive and just the friendly caring environment of every single person in that building that we encountered was amazing so thank you for being here today thank you Lisa thank you it is a very special place to be and our staff they're just they're just outstanding these are very caring people that would just you know we we when we're giving uh tours to school districts or parents we always say this is the home away from home and it

030really is when you think about that if a student comes in on Sunday evening and they don't go home till Friday night we assume a parental role in that case you know we're helping them get ready for school and we're helping them you know learn dining skills and appropriate conversations in different situations just you know from A to Z we we address all of those needs with students and the staff are just yeah they're incredible it's an incredible place to be Thank you Lisa Dr Armstrong I was curious I'm curious to know how many are in your residential program so we Angel program um about 15 to 20 students usually on campus and then Statewide we serve about 800 kids and that varies from year to year but again we we do um uh like

031a census as part of a requirement federally for that Federal quota program through the American printing house for the Blind and all of those materials that we have available downstairs we will send out to those 800 ish kind of varies throughout the year but yeah we we really serve several hundred students every year I was curious how if your staffing needs are met for this upcoming school year and then also along with that are there any specific requirements Beyond a special education degree for your staff great questions um so for Staffing not completely we are we're working on it just like everybody else is right now as as we all know it's it's getting more and more difficult every year to fill those vacancies and so we are we still have an open position for

032another teacher and right now we still have the need to hire in our residential program those are just some more difficult typically more difficult shifts to to staff because of the evening and overnight hours we have staff that are awake all night long so somebody's always awake and they're for student safety needs but we've been fortunate we have a lot of longevity on our staff people come and people stay they love it there and so while there's always a few vacancies here and there to fill the longevity of staff I think speaks too to the culture and and the caring nature of of who we are and what we do as far as the requirements for um for a teacher who is working with students who are blind or visually impaired the special education piece

033of course but then we do have an endorsement in the area of Blind and Visually Impaired and so we work very closely with the universe city of Nebraska Lincoln and they have programs now for both teachers of the visually impaired excuse me as well as certified orientation and Mobility Specialists and so that great collaboration we will help we get students to our campus early on in their program we help provide hours for them ourselves or we will help local districts and connect them with people in neighboring school districts and esu's and so it's a it's a low incidence field and so you know just something that's that we continue to to Really educate people about yeah I just want to say thank you mind blown I mean this is just so inspiring and a great

034way to start our meeting thank you thank you uh and it it just you know we say all means all that we care about every student and it's like wow this just shows the lengths that we go to to make sure that every student has a chance for success I am so inspired and had no idea uh that we had a residence you know program and oh my gosh so um my question is is this all federally funded no this is where's the funding and how does it kind of and I don't need the the Bryce kind of answer yeah that's a compliment Bryce percentages yeah the federal government actually requires that each state have a state allocation so we have a contract with an issue four that serves to provide both state funding and

035then that obviously isn't enough and so federal funds from idea through the office of special education go and you'll actually get to hear about a couple of those a con grants today as they are on your agenda but ultimately uh what funding is provided is through State funding Federal funding and then we also have some different trust funds that are used for building and maintenance support as well as special projects as people leave funding to support that uh the pictures that you saw if you do tour in any time and probably the next three years you'll need a hard hat because the building is quite old and we are in the process of doing quite a bit of Renovations and so we've dipped into more of our trust funds than we have in the past

036and so we're always generously asking for support in different areas thank you and then my second uh is that right uh when we report on and I don't like this term but the subgroup data for our federal requirements our essay requirements is blind and visually impaired its own subgroup or is it part of a larger it is both it is part of the total aggregate of students with disabilities that we report as well as we report out on visual Blind and Visually Impaired so the vi requirement as well as multiple disabilities because the residential side I don't think we have a student who is just blind in our residential program and then ultimately that spans throughout the state in our different programs that we support through Outreach as well thank you thank you oh Patsy

037go ahead my conscience I'm not doing that today um I just wanted to give you a personal thank you a member of my family has been a recipient of your school and it changed her life from the moment she walked in and now she's living on her own and being very very successful so from the bottom of my heart thank you very much and tell your people that are working for you too I absolutely will and thank you so much I love hearing that that's our goal to promote as much Independence as as possible so thank you yeah I knew it was going to be very difficult for her but you guys made it right away you welcomed her in and yeah thank you any other questions thank you very much thank you I'm gonna

038cry yeah it's over there for an agenda item three the next item of business is the commissioner's report commissioner Maher please provide your report thank you there are currently no items that have been identified to be removed from the consent agenda if board members wish to remove additional items or if you wish to remove items from the consent agenda please fill out the form at this time any items that are removed from the consent agenda will be taken up under additional business now for the report as I round out my first month and begin my second month in office I'm excited for the first commissioner's report to the board and I would start by saying thank you and thank you for the trust that you've put in me to carry out this position and to

039do the meaningful work of the Department of Education I'll Center my report on the five areas that you've outlined as expectations for me in the coming year or in the coming eight months as as it were first of all to evaluate the status of Statewide assessment in this area I've appreciated the context that was already set up by Dr Trudy Clark and Dr Deb freisen to ensure that I've been brought up to speed on past and pressing issues pertaining to Statewide assessment I have a lot to learn in the area yet but I've also begun to unearn unearth what I think are some potential opportunities for improvement to the system nde conv convened stakeholders toward the end of July to consider adjustments to the state's proficiency cut scores you'll hear more about this and consider

040it a decision on that matter later in this meeting here today and while not directly related to assessment but on a similar note our team is hard at work on addressing several concerns in accountability and they include removing Pre-K from The Chronic absenteeism calculations an issue that is already being addressed by our staff but an issue that I have heard from already in my brief period of time just by talking to superintendents in the field also be implementing that is while implementing the decision you made in May to use the 22-23 school year as a baseline for discipline data going forward we'll also be creating new baselines for chronic absenteeism for accountability this fall those may not sound like big things but those are really big things and things that I I think will be

041appreciated by our colleagues with their boots on the ground in our schools you'll hear a lot more about accountability in the coming weeks we've also filled out our our team in the office with the hiring of Dr Derek ippinson is our next assistant administrator for coordinated school and District support and director of accountability we're going to see if he can master that title just by saying it in his first couple of weeks on the job and Casey siebolt as our assistant administrator for Statewide assessment I have great faith that will continue to deliver upon this critical work and we'll have a report and a recommendation to you by the March 1 deadline that you've laid out for me for me for us the second expectation is to develop an understanding of internal operations this continues

042to be a work in progress and I'm sure we'll be all year but I've greatly enjoyed getting settled into my new office and I've seen in an excitement and an energy in our building I can't quantify any of that I don't know if it's better or worse or the same it's a good feeling so we start from a good spot I've had several opportunities to meet with staff already and there are several more opportunities on the books and we'll continue to gather input and a way forward for our workplace and our expectations I wish some of the answers for the the environment the work environment were as easy as yes or no but quite frankly they're a little more complicated than that and I'm glad that you gave me until December to come up with

043some conclusions in that particular area another area of importance in this expectation is around our communication resources as you know I testified in front of the education committee on Monday of this week regarding multiple topics and I pledged to the committee that I'd improve on the process our agency has for creating vetting and culling resources on our 1100 web pages and 34 websites those numbers should demonstrate that the work won't be done next week but it is started finally in this area I note to you that I continue to learn about the ways nde engages with stakeholders throughout the state we have many existing advisory groups and I'm in the process of addressing some gaps when it comes to membership input and informing nde of what's going on in the field we must hear the

044voices of our schools the third expectation is to review the Strategic plan and I've appreciated many many discussions with staff across the agency to learn more about their work as it pertains to the current strategic plan in case you haven't had a chance to review and for the public listening in you can find it at www dot Nebraska educationvision.com that's Nebraska education Vision one word.com a focus on this specific area in the coming weeks and in case you're wondering if people are paying attention to what you do as a board I've had multiple groups reach out to me and tickled that we're doing a new strategic plan and they want to help I said that's a little bit of a joke in that they're they're folks that really want to be paid to help us

045with the Strategic plan I would remind I would remind everybody that I think we have two options when it comes to the Strategic plan one is to I'll say blow the dust off of our current strategic plan and breathe new life into it and that's a viable option and I think if you review our strategic plan you you would see that as a viable option and the and the current strategic plan runs through 2026 so it hasn't come to a natural conclusion yet unless we determine that it has and then the second option would be then we start over and then the question would be do we bring in somebody to help us with that or not but that's having the cart way ahead of the horse on that topic so we will review the

046Strategic plan and bring a recommendation on it the fourth expectation is on communication strategies our team works hard to communicate with the field and one opportunity we have is to streamline our processes and develop a consistency for how we communicate additionally I want to ensure that we have avenues for two-way Communications with stakeholders not just providing input but also listening to input as I mentioned at administrator days one such strategy to address this need will be the creation of a superintendent advisory committee and I don't know if it's actually the creation of this committee or actually the revitalization of a of a committee that that used to be in use invitations to be on this committee will go out next week if you have somebody from your particular District that you would like to be

047a part of that please let me know and let me know soon as really putting the finishing touches on that group that group will consist of about 30 either superintendents or ESU executive directors our office of community of communications led by David Jeff jesperson is outstanding and I mean that David the uh as as I look through some of our areas of excellence in the department I really believe that that is a particular area of excellence and I've tasked uh David in his office in thinking through our new processes for developing and calling our out-of-date resources on the website I've I've heard no objections from David Orr from his group and I promise you they weren't sitting around waiting for us to come up with something for them to do they're quite busy but have

048taken taken on this task willingly the last particular area of expectation is building relationships so finally I would report that in this first month I've put a great emphasis on relationship building and in addition to the meetings with the mini nde office administrators I've also had meetings with ESU colleagues state senators and other education Partners I'll continue to spend the next several weeks and months cultivating where relationships don't exist or hopefully strengthening relationships that already do exist a lot of a lot of time a lot of windshield time in getting out and talking with people but I think those are that's time well spent and we'll pay dividends for years down the road administrator days last week provided me an opportunity to connect and reconnect with colleagues I can't wait to get into our schools

049and visit schools this fall I had um just just yesterday board member Pinner gave me an opportunity to go to a school in in his district and if any of you have opportunities like that please let me know and I'll do my best either to go to an event if I can get my calendar to match up with the event or at least get to these particular School District in time if not immediately I welcome those those opportunities from you to visit schools in your District um we've we've also planned two opportunities in August for nde staff to get to know me and vice versa for me to get to know the folks in the building these these events seem rather simple and maybe even trite but I think it's the intentionality of trying to

050get to know people in the workforce or people in the field or people in the legislative processes that is really crucial so I look forward to those opportunities as well those are the that's an update on the expectation here's a little bit of a an update as I look forward to the next month um I had this word down and I'm gonna I'm gonna use it because it's true I'm pumped I think we're pumped as a department for the start of school I hope everybody's pumped I had an opportunity to have dinner last night with four of my nine grandkids and I can tell you three out of those four are pumped for the start of school and that's not a bad percentage when you think about it the I I want to let you

051know in September also we plan to really emphasize attendance and bring further awareness to The Chronic absentee issue through a campaign from the Department of Education the timing is obviously good to emphasize going to school and developing good attendance habits our staff will be busy with several initiatives and projects in the coming month on Monday we'll be hosting the teacher education forum we'll be hosting several professional development opportunities and will have continued internal and external conversation on legislative implementation this concludes my report thank you Dr Maher any comments for the commissioner have it a couple of things um not too long ago when we were kind of place where we were I think we were in our executive um meeting about the bylaws but um we received kind of a semi-update about the status of

052the current building and I think that's a project that's been going on for awfully long time and so I was wondering if you could maybe fill the full board in on where we are with that and uh so and what we're going to do to try to expedite or make sure that that's moving along and getting done I can tell you that Brian Halstead and Joel Sherling are probably really wondering what I'm going to say right now there they have been very much on the on the front lines of getting the building in a position to where we we can take full occupancy of the building um I I think we're very close and I would ask that either Brian or Joel come up with your permission to give us an update it's your report

053commissioner thank you good morning Brian Halstead Deputy Commissioner agency support and services uh the general contractor for the second floor has yet to finish the work on the fire suppression system although we've been told that work was going to be done this week I don't know the status of that at the moment the contractor on the first floor South Side is on schedule and actually our vocational rehabilitation office that was on North 27th Street is going to be start occupying that later this month and it's going to be open right after Labor Day for the public to utilize uh there is still some additional um equipment that needs to be done for the board meeting room that's located on the South Side so that will take out the net rest of the months to get

054the video audio equipment and everything else so that the board can start utilizing that in January of next year and you have on your agenda today to authorize the commissioner to contract to do the north side of the first floor for disability determinations and that work schedule is estimating completion next march so that by the time the 25 24 25 year begins all of nde will be in a single facility in Lincoln Nebraska instead of three separate sites as we used to be so we're still um struggling with the general contractor completing their work for the second floor thank you I just knew that we had had a brief conversation but there was no official report out and so I just wanted the full board to understand what was going on anything else for the

055commissioner we have three items requested to be removed from the consent agenda 5.2 B 5.3 a and 5.3 e so those items will be addressed separately under additional business on the agenda item four is the president's report the National Council for Teacher quality recently was released their results on the 2023 teacher prep review their goal with this review was to guarantee that teachers have expertise in Reading instruction to that end they reviewed the coursework of 700 universities and colleges that offer elementary teacher preparation programs those were colleges and universities across the United States and in doing that review they were searching for evidence that those teacher prep programs have included comprehensive research-based reading instructional strategies when they released the results of the review they indicated that of the 700 universities and colleges with those Elementary

056Ed programs 25 percent of them had fully implemented meaning including all five components of what we refer to as the science of reading they graded each college or university on a scale from a to F and of nine teacher prep programs in Nebraska who participated one University received the grade of an a at our June board meeting we approved potential changes to rule 20. one of those being the inclusion of the science of reading as an instructional strategy for Teacher prep programs as I sat in on the Web Conference when nctq released the results of their teacher prep work it struck me how differently State Departments of Education hold educator preparation programs accountable and it also brought lots of questions to mind for me the first question was how do you guarantee or how do

057you best guarantee that teachers are experts in Reading instruction in a more General way I started wondering how do we Define accountability in education and how does that accountability differ from responsibility I also wondered how is accountability important to us in the work we do as a governing body that has regulatory responsibilities and how does accountability apply to us as a board in our work related to procedures behaviors and outcomes responsibility really is just defined as having a duty a duty for overseeing something for dealing with something for accomplishing something for doing something with a level of quality if the proposed rule changes to rule 20 are approved by the governor then teach repair programs in Nebraska will be responsible for implementing the science of reading in coursework and activities in teacher prep programs in

058the state accountability is defined as taking ownership for fulfillment of Duty or being answerable for results accountability is interesting because very often it it includes an element of evaluation right if the accountability is for production of work that has quality attached to it then certainly there's an evaluative or judgmental element and a lot of times with that evaluation it's not just judgment but it's also the opportunity for improvement to provide guidance and direction in a number of instances with accountability there are also sanctions or consequences for not fulfilling Duty if I go back to the Web Conference when I listen to some of the State Department of Education Representatives who are speaking one of our neighboring state representatives said that their State Department of Education withholds some funding from teacher prep programs until they have

059fully implemented the science of reading another state department representative said that their approach is to provide professional development for Teacher prep programs to help those programs be able to implement effectively research-based reading instruction and that they also then monitor those programs for compliance so there certainly is a wide Divergence in terms of how State Departments of Education across our country interpret accountability as state boarded members I think when we think accountability what's the first thing that comes to mind for you when I say accountability what do you think of first this is a question you could answer don't when I hear accountability the first thing I think of and maybe it's just my background but I think of Statewide assessment and accountability okay Dr Maher mentioned accountability in his report this morning and really accountability

060is important when it's related to student achievement right schools are held responsible for students achieving academically we use the ends gas summative assessment in the spring to as an evaluation measure so that we can determine if schools are meeting that accountability and we publicly provide a report that shows each School each district and our state performance in terms of students academic achievement that's for accountability but at the same time we also provide programs csitsi atsi to help schools be able to improve so that their students are achieving as much as they possibly can academically at our June meeting we approved a position description essential job functions and performance indicators for our commissioner on the agenda today we have an action item to approve the performance goals with the designated time frames for Dr marher I'm

061not sure he's really comfortable with the time frames we've given him since he pointed out it's eight months instead of a year but I think he's I think he's confident that he can do the work that he needs to do within those time frames um but that's accountability isn't it we will have a mid-year assessment progress assessment for the commissioner and that's an opportunity for him to provide us with information about how his work is proceeding but it's also an opportunity for us to provide him with some guidance and Direction and support if that's what he needs in order to be successful in reaching the goals that we've established for him the year-end performance appraisal is the evaluation right and we we hold our commissioner accountable for accomplishing the work that we believe is important

062for the State education system in Nebraska another example of accountability that comes to mind for me as a board we have planning evaluative and Regulatory responsibilities for education in Nebraska right as a board we also have responsibilities that are outlined for us in our board bylaws and our board operating policies as an executive committee we we have been wrestling with accountability related to us as a board and as individual board members you know really asking ourselves questions is do we need to have something related to accountability in our bylaws do what would that accountability look like how does accountability matter or do we already have that and we don't need to put it we're just really wrestling with a lot of different questions related to that kind of accountability so really whether we're talking about

063teacher prep programs student achievement commissioner performance or us and the work we do as a board it's important whenever we assign responsibility to at least consider accountability because they go together it's important for us to think about and incorporate accountability because it matters accountability sets an expectation of quality accountability enhances operational performance accountability it's safeguards resources accountability can build trust it's important in the work that we do that we're accountable to ourselves and that we hold others accountable as well that concludes the president's report questions discussion Patsy well I wanted to respond to your first question what what did I think of I was thinking to the ticker tape was going across and I may respond to it differently than some people in this room because immediately as a teacher I thought oh what will

064have to change in my classroom okay and will it be clearly defined and uh will I be able to accomplish it and if it's not clearly defined and I am not given professional development enough to be able to do it then um uh then that element of fear goes skyrocketing and I think it's happened to teachers many times over the years I can go back and think about when we decided that every classroom would teach writing and the goals were not clearly defined and so some teachers followed it you know did whatever they could to do it but it was very difficult because they were not clearly defined and so um I hope that we are considering that as we move forward with the reading accountability that every that professional development needs to be clear

065what happens in my classroom whether I'm teaching math or construction or a theater what is it that happens in my classroom thank you that's a great point you know accountability is at least a two-way street right I mean administrators and superintendents and state board members and staff all have some accountability for the work that they are doing to make sure that teachers have the tools that they need to be successful so that students learn great thanks any other discussion right thank you is there a motion to approve the consent agenda Lisa I moved to adopt the consent agenda with the three items that were uh deleted or asked requests to be removed I guess yeah and I'll just State those Lisa so everyone has them 5.2 point B 5.3 point a and 5.3 Point e

066and again those will be addressed separately under additional business okay thank you they have a motion is there a second yeah there's motion by Lisa second by Patsy there is no discussion on the motion to adopt the consent agenda with the recording secretary please call the roll Neary yes Google's yes Morrison yes Co Johns yes fricky yes Penner yes tegmeyer yes Jones yes eight yes the votes are eight years the affirmative has it the consent agenda is adopted we're at item numbers agenda item number six this is standing committee reports the first committee report is from the executive committee as the chair of that committee I will provide the report the executive committee reports on its special meeting on July 19th and 20th and its regular meeting yesterday August 3rd for board member review the

067June committee meeting report is attached in spark the special meeting on July 19th and 20th was for the purpose of conducting the review of board policies and bylaws the committee is continuing to review the existing policies and bylaws and intends to bring recommendations to the board no later than the October 2023 meeting at the August 3rd meeting the committee reviewed the proposal from the Nebraska Association of school boards nasb for the commissioner Appraisal Services the committee recommends the board approve a contract with nasb the committee reviewed the draft commissioner goals from the July 7th special board meeting the committee recommends the board approve the commissioner goals and obviously the commissioner is moving ahead with trying to accomplish those goals the committee continued the discussion of their proposed revisions to the bylaws and policies at yesterday's

068committee meeting this concludes the executive committee report are there any questions for the exec related to the executive committee report all right item 6.1 point a is there a motion on that item I moved to contract with the Nebraska Association of school boards for commissioner appraisal evaluation services it's been moved and seconded to contract with the Nebraska Association of school boards nasb for the commissioner appraisal evaluation Services is there any discussion Elizabeth um so president couples I was wondering did was this service engaged in previous years no it was not engaged previously so what is the executive's committee's rationale for the change there there were a number of things that we considered in making this recommendation one of them is in past years there had been some concern from some board members about having the

069commissioner's appraisal be done in-house um another thing that we considered is the time and effort that it takes for our staff to conduct the evaluation and knowing that in that department right now they are short-handed so that was another thing that we considered um the conversation really began when I was having a phone on a phone call with Marcia hearing from nasb just talking to her about some things related to Performance evaluations just kind of sharing conversing generally back and forth and she mentioned you know Patty we do appraisals for superintendents and if there's ever a need or interest for you to do a commissioner appraisal we would certainly like to provide you with a proposal that at that point then I took it to the executive committee and after hearing their proposal we were

070impressed with the amount of service and quality of service that they will provide to us as a board and we're also really pleased and comfortable with the contract amount because that includes both for the midterm progress report as well as for the end of year commissional commissioner appraisal sorry just just have a few questions so without expounding too much on any personal details can you share what some of the concerns with the in-house appraisal were from previous years um as I'm recalling some of the concerns were that you're putting people in an awkward position if they're asked to evaluate a person who is supervisory of them right that that was a a concern that was probably the main concern as I recall and and that was expressed by Stafford board by board so is that

071all right if I ask a question you've asked good questions thank you it makes me now think uh will will they coordinate our work with the attorney's office uh because that was one of the issues that I think there wasn't any one point person that was coordinating the contract legal considerations in addition to the kind of more evaluation things and so will they be the ones that interface and and and help us make sure that we're looking at the whole big picture of this they they will conduct the um performance appraisal they will not be responsible for negotiation of the contract that will be on the executive committee and ultimately the board with our assistance from our attorneys then I guess oops sorry go ahead I guess then um I'll just say I just wanted

072to respond and say I was one of the board members who thought that um we should consider outside services about two years ago I think I'm losing track of time but Deborah and I attended a workshop that nasb put on about commissioner appraisals and I was very impressed with the work that they were doing as well as their perspective on the commissioner appraisal I can tell you that as a board member who was not on the executive committee a few years ago it felt like a lot of that work was happening outside of the full board and one of the perspectives that nasb has is the appraisal is an appraisal by every board member and we are all responsible for that and I thought that was a really good perspective but beyond that we kind

073of have this I don't want to say faux Veil that I thought also happened so our head of Human Resources is the person who conducts all of the work for us for the commission or his appraisal and so it's kind of he has to keep that separate from the commissioner who is also his boss and so we were asking not only for that information to be aggregated within the department so our feedback that we're providing on the commissioner is funneling back through the Department they're putting that together and so again that process Happening by the commissioner's employee um we don't that employee doesn't answer to us and so they they don't have to respond I mean they do I'm not saying they were doing a bad job but when we think about the delegations of

074authority and and who's responsible to us they are not and so by Contracting with nasb they are responsible to the board and so we know that they are working for the board and there's no a question about their who they're working for the um the other thing we should note is the tool that we used before is going to be the same tool and so the software um is not changing and so that'll be consistent among platforms how we as a board decide to put in goals or things like that we have some discretion um and how we want to do that but but again the software is consistent and consistent I think with a lot of different different appraisals and so we're not really radically changing the system we're just to me changing the

075accountability and I I think that's important I know that as a person who was not who does not sit on the executive committee we had a time frame and there were some steps laid out for the commissioner hiring process and one of these steps was um that all of the questions were going to be sent back out to us for review before commissioner interviews and that did not happen and so my question is what are the Avenues for the non-exec committee members to to ask questions where do we go I I just wanted this all laid out very clearly before we proceed forward um you you saw what will be on the um performance appraisal you approved the position description that's not on the appraisal but you approved the essential job functions you approved the

076indicators those are the things that will show up on the on the final appraisal uh the plan is that our October 6th meeting we will be talking through the mid-year assessment and kind of working through that that might be a work session we haven't quite gotten that far in terms of how we'll approach that but that's an opportunity for you to be aware of what's coming with that midterm progress evaluation so certainly you are welcome anytime you have a specific question about that process to communicate with any one of us on the executive committee and then oh I'm sorry I wanted to add too there is there is a timeline that Joel Sherling has developed that provides dates very specific dates for the entire process throughout the year I have not had an opportunity yet

077to share that and discuss it with the executive committee that will be the first step and then that will also be shared with you as a board so that you have an opportunity to see that timeline a couple of clarifications too Jacqueline you mentioned the work Marcia Herring does it's superintendent evaluations that they do as opposed to commissioner just so everybody understands that uh distinction and I also need to mention that we will continue working with Joel Sherling from HR he has been an invaluable Resource as we develop the position description as we identified position indicators and so on and certainly he will be part of that process for any things that are related to HR he will be included in that so Jacqueline had indicated that in conversation with Marcia this is they are

078functioning and working within the entire board all eight members so are we also able to contact Marcia or are we to only go through the executive committee um you would come through the executive committee I mean if you have a specific question for Marcia because if this contract is approved I will be communicating with Marsha so they can start inputting the data they need to put into qualtrics for that midterm progress report because that will be here before you know it right and we need to give them ample time to get that input into their system then the executive committee will review that have an opportunity if there are any things in there that we think need to be changed but I think just to avoid kind of a confusion in terms of communication I

079would recommend if you have questions come to the executive committee okay I just wanted to just get lots of clarification before proceeding forward sure thank you appreciate that Jacqueline I wanted to clarify my statement what what I I was not saying that she believes she works for all eight board members I was saying the philosophy of nasb is that each board member should be equally a part of the commissioner's appraisal and so I felt comfortable knowing or with them as an organization or Contracting with them because I do believe the what they bring in terms of their Vision as well as how they organize things they're doing that with the perspective that each board member should be a participant and should have a say in this process yeah in other words they will send out

080you know when they this will be an electronic process as it has been in the past and they will be keeping track of who's responded and they will send reminders to board members who haven't responded that's a way that they're trying to make sure that everyone is engaged in the process so should any variances occur in as we go forward on this contract than we would be notified as a board so if something would change or a process or a time frame the full board would be notified of that change the the amount of the contract won't change I'm confident of that in terms of the specific details on our timeline currently we don't have what nasb is doing and that's something I'll be working with Marsh on but certainly yeah if there are any

081things that we need to adjust that we would be communicating that with the board okay so I'm just based basing that on what I see in spark the nasb commissioner evaluation handbook and proposal so my question is is should something change because we're voting on this specific proposal should something change that will come before the full board I don't see anything changing in The Proposal okay the way the proposal is written I don't see anything changing changes cannot be made unless it comes to the full board if it's a change in the contract because we brought this contract to you to approve if there are changes and we would certainly bring it back to the board not that it's a I don't want to get off topic but how the board handles contracts for services

082procured for the board is actually an ongoing conversation that the executive team or executive team executive board is having or executive committee sorry at work I'm on the executive team so I don't want you guys think I'm creating new things I'm not the executive committee is working on um as part of our bylaw review as well as our policy review we have had conversations at length and so I I think it's a gray area right now how we do that and it's something that we're trying to figure out and so if you have thoughts on how that should happen in the future I would say definitely give us some of your suggestions not necessarily on this topic but we haven't quite got to an answer what the future looks like but it is something we're

083trying to figure out and I would just say right now I think it's gray and we're trying to get a little closer to clarity so yes so what I'm trying to clarify is we are taking a vote on this particular document and should anything change within this document I as a board member am wondering will I be notified yes and I think I answered that if anything in the proposal were to change it would come back to the board I wasn't though I just wasn't referring solely to the the contract amount but the details within it thank you anything else all right we have a motion to contract with the Nebraska Association of school boards nasb for commissioner appraisal evaluation Services would the recording secretary please call the roll Co Johns Mary fricky tegmeyer yes

084goobles yes Jones yes Morrison yes Penner yes eight yes the votes are eight years the affirmative has it and the contract with Nebraska Association of school boards nasb for commissioner appraisal evaluation Services is adopted is there a motion on item 6.1 point B I moved to approve the commissioner's goals is there a second it's been moved and seconded to approve the commissioner's goals is there any discussion the motion is to approve the commissioner's goals with the recording secretary please call the roll Neary tegmeyer yes Ricky Jones yes goobles yes Morrison Penner yes co-johns yes eight yes the votes are eight years the affirmative has it and the approval of the commissioner's goals adopted with this we're going to take a five minute recess we're now recessed please return in five minutes thank you please we

085will come out of recess in 30 seconds proposal includes both a midterm it does okay because I I looked at it quick because I didn't it does didn't see that listed there yeah because I specifically asked Marsh and she said oh yeah that because I thought it would be 1500 for each and she said no that's for all reasons that's really reasonable okay yeah all right we are back from Recess we're at Agenda item 6.2 budget and finance committee chair Patsy kojons can you provide a report from the budget and finance committee meeting thank you Thursday August 3rd 2023 meeting members present were Patsy kojons Elizabeth techtmeyer Sherry Jones and Deborah Neri I'd like to give them a special thanks and also Bryce for all the help that he was in the meeting the committee

086reviewed the action item to contract with consultant to assist with data sharing requirement for state statute 79-303 0.01 nde staff reviewed the agencies involved and the need for this contract and concerns to be addressed by a consultant with a committee the committee supported bringing this item to the full board the next item reviewed was to provide funding for nde's share of the work related to the Nebraska Statewide Workforce and education reporting system using Federal grant funds this collaboration amongst education entities was created to provide unbiased data on student and work-related outcomes the committee supported bringing this item to the full board for a vote the third action item reviewed by the committee was the authorization to contract with the national Center for grow your own to support the implementation of the Nebraska teacher apprenticeship apprenticeship

087program per nde staff this contract is to guide implementation of the new program funded by our legislature the committee recommends bringing this item to the full board the committee then reviewed the idea Part B discretionary funding projects that are designed to provide support for the ose Regional Secondary transition support projects the committee recommended bringing this item to the full board the next two items the committee reviewed were grants for for to the Nebraska Center for the education of children who are blind and visually impaired these grants are to support Blind and Visually Impaired students across the state the committee supported bringing both items to the full board the committee also reviewed contracts for six different projects to be funded with the governor's coronavirus State fiscal recovery funds as outlined in Statue the committee supported bringing

088these items to the flow board the last action item reviewed was a contract for the last phase of the office space at 84th Street for the DDS section this work will be paid for with federal funds the committee supported bringing this item to the full board also Additionally the committee reviewed the monthly board travel report and in-state authorization noting no concerns lastly nde staff reviewed work being done that will result in the action items being brought to the board in the next couple of months the upcoming items included new grants to ESU for pre-k through second grade professional development and upcoming RFP and corresponding contract for family employment awareness the result of the mckinney-vento grant applications and potential deficit budget items to be submitted submitted in October this concludes the budget and finance committee report

089Patsy Co Jones chair I I wanted to note it was asked a few months ago by the staff that if we could have um knowledge sooner about materials coming to us in the future so that we could be prepared to look at them and to discuss them and eventually vote on them and I think that the staff is doing just exactly what we request and I would like to thank them for that thank you chair Co Johns are there any questions for the committee chair about any of the items in the report other than those that are on the agenda for action okay are there any questions on the reports on item two 6.2.8 that's the monthly board travel expense reports seeing none agend item 6.2 point B is there a motion on that item

090that's an agenda item to authorize the commissioner to contract with one or more Consultants to assist in the sharing of data required as required under Section 79-303.01 [Applause] we're on 6.2 B right okay I moved to authorize the commissioner to contract with one or more Consultants to assist in the sharing of data as required under Section 79-303.01 thank you is there a second second it's been moved and seconded to authorize the commissioner to contract with one or more Consultants to assist in the sharing of data as required under Section 79-303.01 is there any discussion on the motion um I just want to give a big kudos to Kristen Yates uh for the work that she's done not just in recent years for nde but she's been involved in this data sharing project since her days

091with the university and although she did I have to correct myself she told me not to use the word sharing that it's data connecting that we're not giving away our data to anybody that we're finding points of contact where we can uh connect some data so we can do research so that we can all you know have these longitudinal reports and understand the impact of our decisions over the long term so we can better serve the students of Nebraska and uh I it's I've been hearing about this idea for more than a decade and as a matter of fact when I said that this morning one of the nde staff who've been around for a long time said this discussion actually started with governor heinemann who was very much in support of this and you

092know wanted to bring these different state entities together so that we could I mean we're collecting this is the same data we've been collecting for decades each each of these State departments is able to use it you know for its purpose and but now that we might be able to share it and have these longitudinal studies like it it just means so much more and at the same time they're you know their biggest challenge is protecting the you know the data around each individual person and that's where they spend all the you know a lot of time making sure that we are protecting each individual student at the same time getting uh this really important data and so kudos to Kristen and your team and all the staff that have been involved in moving this

093forward for a very long time and it's exciting to uh just be at this point in time so that's all Patsy if there's no other discussion we will be so right the motion is to authorize the commissioner to contract with one or more Consultants to assist in the sharing of data as required under Section 79-303.01 with the recording secretary please call the roll Morrison freaky Jones yes goobles yes co-jones yes Neri yes tegmeyer yes Penner yes seven yes one absent votes are seven years one absent the affirmative has it and the motion to authorize the commissioner to provide oops sorry I think I just jumped ahead the affirmative has it and the motion to authorize the commissioner to contract with one or more Consultants to assist in the non-sharing of data but the ability to

094connect different Departments of data as required under Section 79-303.01 is adopted is there a motion on item 6.2 Point C it's Madam president I moved to authorize the commissioner to provide funds to the Nebraska Statewide Workforce and education Reporting System otherwise known as answers is there a second second it's been moved and seconded to authorize the commissioner to provide funds to the inserts is there any discussion I just want to share with with fellow board members that that one thing that was very important to me and moving this forward was that no personal data of individual students is collected and so there is not this we are not creating a giant data system with students names and identifying marks and numbers and so so they are being protected and that was very important to the

095committee that that their confidential information be guarded any other discussion the motion is to authorize the commissioner to provide funds to the end source with the recording secretary please call the roll tegmare yes Neri yes Morrison Co Johns yes Penner yes Google's yes Jones yes fricky yes seven yes one absent the votes are seven years one absent the affirmative has it and the motion to authorize the commissioner to provide funds to the insers is adopted agenda item 6.2 Point D is there a motion related to this item yes Madam chair I move to authorize the commissioner to contract with the national Center for grow your own to support implementation of the Nebraska teacher apprenticeship program is there a second it's been moved and seconded to authorize the commissioner to contract with the ncgyo to support

096implementation of the Nebraska teacher apprenticeship program is there any discussion on the motion uh this this action item goes hand in hand with our number one goal which is to um achieve teachers and qualified teachers in every classroom and uh 18 states have already bought into this and so um we would be taking uh advantage of Perez and the whole idea of apprenticeship and I think it's a step in the right direction for us in Nebraska so we show that we really are trying to do things to get qualified teachers in every classroom in Nebraska other discussion I have a quick question for Lane um that I didn't get to ask yesterday but just yes reiterating Patsy and I are both on the the rules committee as well as the finance committee and so uh

097we we kind of have partnered up in in a fierce advocacy for for really recruiting and addressing the teacher shortage so um but thanks for coming up and I apologize for not asking this yesterday during our committee meeting but I had a question that I noticed um this the administrative fees are 150 000 which is included in this action item but then I also noticed that in our contracts from 10 to 50 000 number 23 is also to them and I was just curious why we have two different contracts going on of course so after the legislation legislative session adjourned in June we were anxious to get started and get some consultation moving with the organization so we jumped right in and uh with a small contract with them here and then knew that we

098would need to come to you for the full authorization during this time so as the result of not having a July meeting otherwise we would have brought that to you in July I knew there would be a very good explanation but just wanted it for my own records thank you that was it for Lane thank you Elaine any other discussion the motion is to authorize the commissioner to contract with ncgyo to support implementation of the Nebraska teacher apprenticeship program with the recording secretary please call the roll [Music] s yes Neri yes co-jones yes Jones yes freaky tegmar yes Penner yes Morrison seven yes one absent the votes are seven years one absent the affirmative has it and the motion to authorize the commissioner to contract with the ncgyo to support implementation of the Nebraska teacher

099apprenticeship program is adopted agenda item 6.2 Point e is there a motion on that item yes Madam chair I moved to authorize a commissioner to sub-award with ideapart B discretionary funding to provide support for the ose Regional Secondary transition support projects second okay it's moved and seconded to authorize the commissioner to sub-award with idea Part B discretionary funding to provide support for the office of special education Regional Secondary transition support projects is there any discussion on that motion with the recording secretary please call the roll Penner yes Jones yes fricky niri yes Google's yes Morrison tegmer yes coachons yes seven yes one absent the votes are seven years one absent the affirmative has it and the motion to authorize the commissioner to sub Award with idea Part B discretionary funding to provide support for the

100office of special education Regional Secondary transition support projects is adopted agenda item 6.2 Point f is there a motion on item 6.2 Point f yes I moved to authorize the commissioner to sub-award funds to Educational Service Unit Number Four to operate the Nebraska Center for the education of children who are blind visually impaired the project to support schools who are experiencing personal Personnel shortages in the area of blind and visual impairment supports is there a second to the motion it's been moved and seconded to authorize the commissioner to sub award funds to Educational Service Unit Number Four to operate the Nebraska Center for the education of children who are blind visually impaired project is there any discussion on the motion with the recording secretary please call the roll Jones yes goobles yes Co Johns yes

101Morrison tegmeyer yes Neary yes enter yes fricky yes seven yes one absent the votes are seven years one absent the affirmative has it and the motion to authorize the commissioner to sub award funds to Educational Service Unit Number Four to operate the Nebraska Center for the education of children who are blind or visually impaired project is adopted is there a motion on item 6.2 Point G yes I moved to authorize the commissioner to continue to sub award to Educational Service units number four to operate operate the Nebraska Center for the education of children who are blind visually impaired project designed to provide Outreach Services it's moved and seconded to authorize the commissioner to continue to sub award to ESU number four to operate the ncecbvi designed to provide Outreach Services is there any discussion on

102the motion will the recording secretary please call the roll Neary yes kojons Penner yes Jones yes Fricke yes goobles yes Morrison tegmeyer yes seven yes one absent the votes are seven years one absent the affirmative has it and the motion to authorize the commissioner to continue to sub award to ESU number four to operate the ncecbvi designed to provide Outreach Services is adopted [Applause] is there a motion on item 6.2.8 yes Madam chair I moved to authorize the commissioner to sub award funding for providing enhanced educational interpreter training and mentoring programs through the coronavirus State fiscal recovery funds is there a second to the motion or second it's moved and seconded to authorize the commissioner to sub-award funding for providing enhanced educational interpreter training and mentoring programs through the csfrf is there any discussion on

103the motion okay Elizabeth all of us committee members um so so the only thing that I was hoping to point out just a bit to our fellow board members is we have approximately Eleven Hundred deaf or hard of hearing students in the state that these services are provided for and unfortunately just like in every area of Education we have a shortage and so we have students who need interpreters and people that will undergo the training so that these students can receive a high quality education so if you know of people in your District who are looking for an opportunity to get into education we would love to hook them up with Amy Roan and they can get in on some of this training I think the shortage is yeah I think the shortage is um

104was noted in our meeting many times by Kelly Rohn and uh she's working very hard along with her staff to see if they can change that I mean when you're talking about two people to cover a whole state I think that that is like desperate times so if you know anybody who would like to do any of these jobs that would be good please send them to Kelly Rowan as soon as possible Sherry yes now let's just add to Elizabeth shared one item I was going to about the numbers but also that Amy Roan shared that there will be one million dollars and this is for the board just information and this is one of three requests there will be so this is for four hundred thousand dollars and is for enhanced educational interpreter training

105and mentoring program there will be two others that they'll be asking us for one for equipment and one for services coming so just be prepared that there will be another request in the future to fulfill that one million dollars of of federal recovery funds Patsy yeah yeah I wanted to apologize to Amy Roan those of you who are teachers in this room know that when you teach a family uh of kids that sometimes you mix up the names so contact Amy Roan thank you thank you for all of that discussion is there any additional discussion the motion is to authorize the commissioner to sub award funding for providing enhanced educational interpreter training and mentoring programs through the coronavirus fiscal recovery State fiscal recovery funds with the recording secretary please call the roll tagmire yes Googles

106yes Penner yes Morrison yes yes Co Johns yes fricky yes niri yes Jones yes eight yes the votes are eight years the affirmative has it and the motion to authorize the commissioner to sub award funding for providing enhanced educational interpreter training and mentoring programs through the csfrf is adopted is there a motion on item 6.2 point I yes Madam president I move to authorize the commissioner to contract for the remodel of least office space north side of first floor at 500 South 84th Street Lincoln Nebraska is there a second it's been moved and seconded to authorize the commissioner to contract for the remodel of leased office space the north side of first floor at 500 South 84th Street Lincoln Nebraska is there any discussion on the motion question this is for the north side of

107the first building I'm wondering is this the same contractor that worked on the second floor thank you hi Brian good morning Brian Halstead Deputy Commissioner agency support and services no this actually is the contractor who's doing the south side of the first floor which is on schedule and staff will be moving in later this month thank you for answering my question any other discussion the motion is to authorize the commissioner to contract for the remodel of least leased office space the north side of first floor at 500 South 84th Street Lincoln Nebraska with the recording secretary please call the roll fricky Jones yes Penner yes Morrison yes yes Neri yes tegmeyer yes goobles yes eight yes the votes are eight years the affirmative has it and the motion to authorize the commissioner to contract for

108the remodel of leased office space the north side of first floor at 500 South 84th Street Lincoln Nebraska is adopted chair Deb Neary will provide a report from the planning and evaluation committee meeting thank you so since we last met we've had two different meetings uh our first one with members uh Lisa Fricke Sherry Jones and myself we met with and received an update from Adams Central Public School staff regarding their experience with the nscast growth through your model and I appreciate Sherry Jones making those arrangements for us to have that discussion and I understand you also visited with them prior to that Patty so um the guests answered questions of board members and Express gratitude to share their experience and I'll just say I enjoyed the opportunity you know I hear from my Omaha

109districts about their thoughts on it but it was helpful to get a different perspective and hear from yeah a smaller school district and how much it's benefiting them and they appreciate it uh the second committee meeting we had yesterday uh again with Lisa Fricke Sherry Jones and Patty goobles and myself we reviewed the approval of the early childhood education programs operated by public school districts and Educational Service units and e-staff member answered questions related to the approval processes and shared the early childhood education state report for Nebraska's Public School District ESU and Head Start programs we also discussed the approval of the College View Academy to operate for the 2023-2024 school year under rule 14 nde staff members answered questions related to school systems approval processes and monitoring Regulatory Compliance the approval of cut scores

110for the English language arts mathematics and the science validation results were also reviewed nde staff members provided an overview of the standard setting process they provided cut score and provided cut score recommendations for the nscast ELA and scas math and scas Alternate Ela and science validation nde staff members answered questions regarding educator participation in future standard setting processes the committee recommends the approval of these items these three items the committee also reviewed the consent agenda item regarding the submissions of affidavit for instructional hour exception for the 2022-2023 year filed under the waiver Provisions contained in Nebraska revised statute the committee discussed the alternate elpa the English language proficiency assessment cut scores process nde staff member answered questions related to the number of students impacted and the prior and current administration of the Alpa for students

111with disabilities who are also English learners the committee discussed the rule 11 teacher waiver request for Scott's Bluff Public Schools we discussed also the draft priority School progress plan for the Asante Elementary and high school nde staff member received feedback on the plan and answered questions regarding instructional materials implementation nde staff will return next month to seek approval for these items and lastly the committee received updates on the approval of the real 11 teacher waiver request from Auburn Public Schools as well as an amendment to the existing act contract nde staff will return next meeting for discussion and to seek approval this concludes I I will uh yeah this concludes the planning and evaluation report thank you for any questions of the committee chair Lisa I just want to Echo what um you said Deborah

112about Adam Central and thank you Sherry for that they explained the difference of how they use evaluative versus instructional and they also explained why they liked having one assessment and Scouts throughout the year rather than going back and forth with map growth and and scas so those are points that I hadn't heard a lot about and so I thought it was really good thank you for having them yeah any other questions word agenda item 6.3 point a is there a motion on that item yes Madam chair I move to approve early childhood education programs operated by public school districts and Educational Service units is there a second I second it's moved and seconded to approve early childhood education programs operating operated by public school districts and Educational Service units is there any discussion on the

113motion with the recording secretary please call the roll Morrison yeah Neary Penner yes go Johns yes goobles yes hmm tegmeyer yes Ricky yeah Jones yes eight yes the votes are eight years the affirmative has it and the motion to approve early childhood education programs operated by public school districts and Educational Service units is adopted is there a motion on item 6.3 point B yes Madam chair I moved to approve College View Academy to operate for the 2023-24 school year under rule 14. is there a second to the motion second it's moved and seconded to approve College View Academy to operate for the 2023-2024 school year under rule 14. is there any discussion I might just like to add that Dr Maher and Nebraska Department of Education staff has assured us that they are monitoring and

114will continue to monitor closely because there was some discussion about this and I believe we've been assured that they will continue in our monitoring closely and that there are procedures in place so I believe we're confident in that thank you other discussion the motion is to approve College View Academy to operate for the 2023-2024 school year under rule 14. with the recording secretary please call the roll Neary I abstained Jones yes Morrison yeah yeah fricky tegmeyer yes Penner yes goobles yes Co Johns yes seven yes one Epstein the votes are seven years one abstain the affirmative has it and the motion to approve College View Academy to operate for the 2023-2024 school year under rule 14 is adopted is there a motion on item 6.3 Point C I moved to approve the cut scores for

115English language arts and Mathematics and the science validation results is there a second to the motion it's moved and seconded to approve cut scores for English language arts and Mathematics and the science validation results is there any discussion on the motion I do so have the questions been written for math was that this summer no I'm looking can I just get her have a good number okay thank you Trudy for coming forward they have been written however they have not gone through the content and bias review so as soon as that is completed then I will invite you to review them okay I want to make sure that the teachers the Specialists the especially those who are outside of the um those that have experience with special education and English learner language Learners they have

116access to those as well to to provide input so as soon as that's concluded then we'll make sure that you have access to them you bet okay I just want to say thank you because I know since you started your job has not been easy at all and uh you really are bringing calm and success and this is an exciting step to be at and so just thank you for hanging in there and getting us through this and you know your expertise has been amazing I appreciate that thank you so Trudy one thing that hasn't come up in our prior discussions is can you explain to me why the cut scores change sometimes do they um when educators are establishing cut scores from their perspective what they are looking at is what does a threshold

117or barely on track student how will they engage with this item so when the test changes and you have different items then you still need to have that conversation and have input from the teachers as they are engaging with the new test so because of that when the standards change the test changes then perhaps how a student will engage with that test also changes and you mentioned teachers and so just to clarify these are state of Nebraska certified Educators who write the test questions and establish help establish the cut scores correct the teachers who write the items do not participate in the standard setting because we want to have uh we want to make sure that the the opinions of the writers those are valued of course but we want to have an independent review

118and to ensure that as the there are comments that are coming from the reviewers to make sure um that The Writer's intent was actually met with the under the review so I love the the checks and balances yes and so and these are current Nebraska classroom teachers who are deciding what students should know and be able to do at each grade level yes they have specific knowledge um they have students in their classroom at that content level at that grade level that's what's assessed on the ins cast yes grades three through eight teachers assesses our state standards yes that's the only thing that they assess is is there is the content state standard okay thank you so much sure Trudy just a clarification um are there educational Professionals in addition to teachers who are part

119of that process yes curriculum folks are also in involved instructional coaches are also involved but they do have specific knowledge of this student at this grade level and this content thank you for asking any other questions for Trudy well no I shouldn't open it up that widely should I related to the motion of cut scores for ELA math and the science verification process are there any questions thank you Trudy all right the motion is to approve cut scores for English language arts and Mathematics and the science validation results with the recording secretary please call the roll Penner Neary yes Morrison tegmeyer yes goobles yes Jones yes co-johns yes fricky yes eight yes the votes are eight years the affirmative has it and the motion to approve cut scores for English language arts and Mathematics and

120the science validation results is adopted all right at this time I would like to introduce and call forward Allison and best for a staff presentation on the discussion item and the discussion item is notice of intent to bring alt elpa cut scores to the state board meeting in September for board approval and also please welcome Allison as our new academic officer yes got it thank you so sorry the green light helps okay next month we will ask the board to approve the cut scores for the alt elpa assessment this is just an intent for that the alt Alpa assessment is a new assessment that was designed as a part of the alpha 21 Consortium uh the Consortium with Iowa as the lead State received a grant an assessment Grant from the U.S department of Ed

121in 2019 and the work has been going on since that time Nebraska has been a part of the assessment design committee as well as the governing board the elpa 21 Consortium is made up of seven states and every one of the seven states has extensive involvement in the decisions that are made so the alt elpa is an assessment for English Learners with the most significant cognitive disabilities we are required by title III to administer the state's English language proficiency assessment to every English learner K-12 every year prior to the Advent of the alt Alpa we had the elpa 21 which is intended for General ed students and Educators across the state and really across the Consortium did the best that they could to use accommodations perhaps exempt domains to make this assessment work for English

122Learners with the most significant cognitive disabilities I'm now really really pleased that we have an appropriate assessment for this population of students there were 70 Nebraska English Learners with the most significant cognitive disabilities who participated in the pilot year this spring of 2023 and since that time the cut scores have been in the process of being established they're going through multiple steps with psychometricians and experts in the field so I plan to bring those numbers to you next month for your approval that approval is a step that's required for the U.S Ed peer review for that assessment can I answer any questions about the assessment or the process I think this is long overdue and so thank you for the work on this I was just curious was there a type of pilot to this

123process in the spring of 2022 there was a pilot prior to the field test and the Consortium and the assessment designers were really specific about seeking English Learners with the most significant cognitive disabilities in certain grades again across the Consortium so there were a number of Nebraska students that were proposed to participate in the pilot and one student from Grand Island participated with their teachers and test administrators and I do want to mention this has really been a collaborative effort between English learner teachers and administrators as well as special education so both both views have been involved in the assessment uh-huh any other questions Allison I guess just a clarification I'm assuming that the establishment of the cut scores will be done through the Consortium yes okay thank you no questions thank you very much

124and welcome Allison where to agenda item 6.3 Point e now I would like to ask Melody Hobson for a staff presentation on the discussion of a teacher waiver request from Scottsbluff Public Schools good morning um Scottsbluff public school this is this is a discussion point because Scottsville public schools has never asked for a waiver for their for any of their Early Childhood teachers before so part of our process is last month I went to the committee for information this month that goes to the board for discussion next month you'll be asked to to vote on it and just for a little background Scott's Public Schools their waivers a little bit different than most as you know all teachers need to have appropriate certification but within State Statute and within rule 11 there is that opportunity

125to have a waiver if the um if this District cannot find a teacher and if the the proposed candidate is willing to go back to school and work towards the certification add-inscosplus and Scott's both cases a little bit different because this is actually for their Extended Care programs that we consider a full day program to be six hours or more more per day and so they allow their Early Childhood Program to to go beyond that for like before and after school care and so as most of you know a six hour day for a teacher is really really hard and eight hours a day with kids is really really hard and so they have to have additional staff um they didn't have anyone who could fill that role so they had a parent who agreed

126to to come in and do that and so she is willing to go to school she is pursuing her education and they have sent us all the information that they need we're monitoring it and so that's the short answer and that concludes my presentation but I'd be happy to answer any questions no okay thank you melody at this time we will have a staff presentation from Shirley Vargas on the review draft priority School progress plan for Asanti Elementary and high school with anticipated approval in September 2023. and I I think there was some confusion and so I apologize that you're being asked to give a report when that wasn't the plan okay thank you no no okay not a problem thank you so much we're all prepared for everything here all the time so appreciate

127it um good afternoon Shirley Vargas administrative for school and District support I'm here to just provide you a quick overview um you have heard me present to you before in relation to our priority school work as a quick reminder we have three current priority schools Asante Elementary High School in June a few months ago I was here sharing the annual progress as is written in our statute 79 7607 and additionally what that statue calls is when there is a priority school that has been designated for three consecutive years one of three actions may take place right you can significantly change a school's plan you can create a brand new plan or you can enact an alternative administrative structure for the recommendation that we made last month I have made the recommendation to our commissioner that

128we would be significantly revising the plan which is what you see on spark today you'll see drafters on every page you'll also see that some sections actually say under development meaning that there is still active involvement of all school and District leaders and community members in conjunction to be able to ultimately present to their board their final plan and then to you all a final plan next month for approval so if you have any questions related to the draft plan as it's there I would say the committee yesterday did provide us with some really great input so you'll I hope that you'll be able to see that the next month when we bring that to you I know that when we have talked about Asante in the past they've had some Mobility among staff and

129so can you just review for me I'm looking at the the administration that's listed in here um are we starting to see more continuity among staff to help continue these educational goals yes and no um it is very uh very apparent that um the superintendent actually will be transitioning uh mid-year and the current succession plan is to be able to move internal staff members up into the district leadership position and then move staff members into the high school position to take take on that work and so clearly you are aware of this and so can you just explain to me what additional steps then your team is taking to help the school district with this transition absolutely so by way of the contract you also approve last month with our contractors that were identified to

130support Asante Community Schools at large they are working towards what are the leadership structures that need to be in place such as continuing to have a tight administrative meeting structure so what does it mean if we're meeting weekly what does it mean to have protected time on doing all of the things we need to do and meet deadlines um when they're necessary to meet them as well as then ensuring that there's a continuation of community engagement so continuing relationship building with their newly elected Tribal Council amongst their newly elected school board so a lot of those things are still um things that will continue regardless of who the actual leader will be I was really excited to hear or actually read about the cold cultural infusion that goal can you just share a little bit

131about what their plan is and what you think of it I will share with you what their plan is um their plan is as you all might have read There is a director of culture and language and um this individual has been certified by their tribe to teach Dakota language and culture and as a result is developing a plan to and has already right is working towards um having other staff members who are tribally enrolled members to become certified to teach Dakota language and culture so that it isn't necessarily having someone who's not from the community trying to learn all of these things or rather it's actually building um from the community within to be able to teach these things to their own students so that's one component I will say the other one we

132spend a lot of time talking about high quality instructional materials it's really important to consider you know when something may be relevant or appropriate given the students that are being served so an example here would be what does it mean to teach another perspective specifically that is related to that Community given you know that there are all from the same Dakota background so I think that's just really important that's work that will continue for years to come not just this year right because that takes a long time for um for staff to be fully um invested and you know engaged in that work over time one of the things she said yesterday and I appreciated it when when the students one way to do that is when they're learning about leaders not only to mention

133Lincoln but to also they're great leaders from their culture absolutely and as an example and then I thought well we got our democracy idea from the Native Americans so I was really excited to hear the potential of learning alongside their culture what is in the textbooks or what they're learning so thank you for that absolutely thank you Dr Vargas thank you 6.4 rules and regulations committee chair Elizabeth tatmeyer will provide a report from the rules and regulations committee the rules and regulations committee reports on two different meetings of this committee the committee met on July 18 2023 to hear a staff presentation on rule 59 regulations for school health and safety regarding potential revisions our regular committee meeting was held yesterday August 3rd 2023 members present were chair Elizabeth tegmeyer Vice chair Jacqueline Morrison Patsy

134kojons and Kirk Pinner president Google's requested that committee members review proposed changes to board operating policy Bop 1.11 rule development and provide input to the executive committee for potential revisions we did not have any nde's staff provided a summary of the rules report and proposed a new structure with more information staff also provided recommendations for prioritizing rule revisions based on board priorities as well as changes to state statute Indie staff provided a summary of the presentation on rule 59 regulations for school health and safety revisions and answered questions the committee reviewed the proposed public input draft and requested some technical edits and recommended nde staff proceed with the public input draft and consider providing a guidance document for schools on additional medications concludes the rules and regulations committee report are there any questions from the

135committee chair for the committee chair right next on the agenda item 6.4 B is to have a discussion on the proposed revisions to rule 59 for school health and safety with nde staff member zainab Rita Tatum good morning I believe it's still morning right I am happy to answer any questions or if you want me to present about rule 59 so I'm I'm here to answer any question you may have for me could you just give kind of a high level summary of the changes just the changes how many of you are familiar with rule 59 well the community so uh rule 59 it's is known about the regulation for school safety for school health and safety and uh basically just um the first uh revision or uh the first draft it was in 2006.

136um so we had a couple of new bills that require us to add those addition that's including um in the The Asthma condition that including self-management by student condition requests and authorization and the seizure safe schools if you remember in 2021 it was enacted this bill so those are the pretty much the the revision uh we also added some clarification in regarding some terminologies uh for instance prescribing Healthcare practitioners it used to be just um it mentions that just including only Physicians and as you know the um the practices now is different so the physician assistant or nurse practitioner can prescribe the um for the influx or or for the medication that's used only for the schools in case if there is a seizure accident there another thing that we try to clarify we redefine

137a school in session what that means because we've received many um questions from the administrators that uh how how we Define the schools is in session so we redefine it as any period of time during which students are under the direction of school staff during the regular school day as defined by uh by the school another recommendation or changes we um we have removed the list of minimum competencies because it's already all these competencies are added or they are included in the by the Department of Health and Human Services so we're we're trying not increase the risk of that rule 59 will not match the the HHS side um let me see another thing that we change the rest there are just technical errors that or some like add-in reference term shell we replace it

138by will or or must and those are pretty much the the revision that we would like to to request to uh for the rule 59. thank you for that information um I think you said the find the time as within the school's care during a regular school day so what about summer school that's not considered a regular school day is there another place where that's addressed unfortunately based on that so while this school are in session so that means um it's a bell to Bell so um so after like to say if there are even uh unfortunately that if there are the sport activities or any activity happen after the school day uh Unfortunately they don't have to meet this requirement or follow yes okay so zainability working with an after-school program and a kid

139has an asthma attack or a seizure there's no protocol this is according to the statutes that's how they Define it Define it it's uh it's yeah it's basically like when the school is in session so the competency so we need to have a person who's been trained and know how to administer the medication so it's uh it's it's required by the schools to have this person available during the schools when it's in session uh thanks Anna can you and I don't need a long answer but uh give us an overview of what kind of feedback we've received from the schools uh thank you yes absolutely so uh we um engage us our stakeholders as we presented that the revision so we have school nurses we have administrators and um and also it's called Health coordinators

140they their input when they looked at the the revision that basically all they they wanted to have a guideline it's it's written and and clear but is your question is based on the definition I want to make sure my question is did we get pushback on this um or everybody that you worked with from every single School is very happy with this rule change or you know are there people that out in the field that have concerns that don't really agree with this or um yeah that's what I wanted I can't I cannot say every school we reached every school but we included with the school nurses because they work directly with this so the Nebraska School Association all of them they they were part of the revision as well and they they provided the

141input on the recording so my question isn't did they provide input my question is do they support this that you're bringing to us today I mean the bull just asked specifically about the School Board Association and then the separate question is about the nurses so that's what I'm asking that's why we have the input so we'll have the public input after this revision so if they have any feedback they can provide through this through this channel um and and zainab from what I understood on the committee is we didn't have a lot of flexibility in this that most of and that the reason that we were able to get through this rule so quickly is most of the language in this is dictated by state statutes so we're just bringing our rule um in alignment

142with law so we didn't have a lot of freedom okay any other questions for zainab thank you very much absolutely thank you you will notice that we've made a little bit of a change in the agenda in that in the past we had put discussion items on the agenda but there was no discussion right perhaps you recall that so the change is now when there is a discussion item where the item it's anticipated will move to the next board meeting for Action that we're asking staff just to provide background and information really to help us understand what that discussion item is more in depth than what can be provided just through a committee report so that's why today you saw some differences in having staff come up to talk through some discussion items great change

143okay that it is about it's getting close to noon I have no idea how long it's going to take us to get through the items that were removed from the consent agenda that's why I was anticipating maybe we would take lunch break now but I'm being advised to try and get through those before we take our our lunch recess so with that items that were requested to be removed from the consent agenda were 5.2 point B 5.3 point a 5.3 Point e those are items that were on the consent agenda and were pulled we're now under agenda item seven which is additional business so we're prepared to discuss those items so the first one 5.2 point B is there a motion related to that item Madam president I do have the Motions um as I

144was the person who pulled consent all three consent items I can just tell you in terms of timing if I may I do believe we will be able to get through 5.2 B and potentially 5.3 Point e we could get through those two before 12 o'clock I do believe 5.3 point a may take us Beyond 12 o'clock if that helps you at all with your timing let's go ahead and if we need to after uh after public comment will obviously continue the remainder of our agenda so if we need to do that we will come back to that one okay at this time I moved to authorize the commissioner to approve the 2023 through 2024 Nebraska Council on teacher education membership roster is there a second to the motion second okay it has been moved

145and seconded that we authorize the commissioner to appoint recommended individuals to fill vacancies on the special education advisory Council oops sorry that's a to approve the 2023-2024 Nebraska Council on teacher education membership roster discussion yes I had a couple of questions as I was reading through the proposed agenda item rationale so the rationale says current terms expire on July 31st 2023 and new terms begin on August 1st 2023 which was three days ago and so first I'm wondering are we appointing so are all of the people listed in this document does everybody's term expire at the same time it does say the length of terms vary according to section 4.0 of the organizational policies and so are the terms of the people so it's everybody that was listed is that who we are pointing that's

146my first question uh are there other members outside of this list or is this the total list um and then of the people that we are appointing are the terms of those people varied um or is everybody there going to have the same term is that a one-year term two-year term it's just a little it it just seems like I don't have all of the information I don't know what I'm voting on Brad please come forward Brad there were multiple questions so if you need repeat of the questions please feel free to certainly I'll try to address as much as I can um at least for memory um Brad Dirksen administrator for the office of accreditation certification and approval uh the ncte agenda item that you have does have the attached list of members the

147members that are new have an asterisk next to their names so that you can identify the new members by that indication on the list they're uh dates do vary depending upon their the the expiration based upon the uh the organizational policies that are outlined so depending upon what organization or group that they represent there is a varied schedule in regards to the length of the term that they serve they are not approving the entire list only the new members that have an asterisk next to their name does that cover the questions yes and then the other question that I had um particularly under Nebraska Council so we're when we get to Nebraska Council of school administrators who decides on that particular list how is that comprised we contact the Nebraska Council School administrators and then

148that organization nominates individuals to represent that organization in accordance with the organizational policies so I sorry when I asked questions I know it sometimes Probably sounds like a deposition and I don't mean it to be um so they their policy is they nominate people to you and then you make a recommendation to the board or are they nominating people to bring to the board how does can you tell me a little more about that process yes the the process is outlined in section four of the organizational policies which is approved by the board because it's the board that is is the approval of that of that document basically the NCSA nominates along with other organizations and we collect in my office those names and then we forward those on to the board okay so if

149you're wondering why I'm asking and where I'm going I'll just write out say it I noticed Ops is not represented in this list and neither is LPS and so those are two of the largest school districts in our state and I didn't see them listed and so I'm just trying to one of the things I was trying to understand is how we get this list and it's just some understanding of why if we had this list representing everybody in the State I see West Side there and I see Millard and so I also see Bellevue so I'm not suggesting that Omaha as a city is not represented but when I think about our large Urban school districts who may have different types of hiring challenges or recruiting challenges they they're not on this list and

150so is that a consideration that your department would go back to the nominating agency and say you know we noticed this has occurred or notice this is missing or is it for this board to vote down I'm not saying everybody agrees with me but what we say no we're not accepting this List come back with someone else that we think may be more representative and again not speaking for the whole board but is that what I am voting on do I respond or yeah well I'd like him to respond before that's what I said okay just clarification that's all can I ask Jacqueline one more question sure well I'm just trying to clarify so so Jacqueline are you is what you're wanting because you pointed out the Ops and LPS are not on this um

151in this current cycle as school administrators are you wanting a representative from either or both to have a permanent seat on this Council I'm not asking for um a permanent seat I'm asking when we are looking at who is represented here um what's the Department's role in who they forward what type of vetting if if there's a recommendation that comes to nde which I'm understanding you guys collect the nomination are you doing any type of analysis or vetting of the candidates before they're brought to the board or are you just pushing them I don't mean I mean are you just bringing who the nominee is to us and then we have to make that decision of whether or not we think that this is representative of or if we are okay with who the people

152are we passed the uh the nominations directly to the board so we we don't vet or review those lists no okay may I and president I also had some questions regarding this listing and Brad um he did Supply me with some answers so I really appreciate that Brad that was helpful and that leads me to think to want to know if we could have had this listing maybe a month in advance because I know some of my questions would have needed it would have taken more time to get information such as the process that nsea goes through to identify their nominations into if they are do they get references just that whole process as well so I don't know for next year if this is something that could be brought to us in advance so

153we have opportunity to dive a little bit more into this I don't know Brad if you can answer that question because these were just given to you so I don't Brad I I guess I'd like a clarification we approve and I know I as in the time I've been on the board the representative from ncte came and walked us through their organizational document I'm sorry I don't have the name on my the tip of my tongue but we approve that right and that pretty much spells out the entire process so I think there's already a mechanism where we have approved a process that they have designed correct that is correct okay so um right I do have another question um because yesterday I was talking with Amy Roan and in the special education Advisory Board

154um which obviously is is composed a little differently but they have people from all the various districts and so just because I was not on the board when we approved the ncte policies can you explain is there a distribution throughout the entire state is there is a notation within the organizational policies that encourages organizations to have a and take into consideration diversity in regards to Geographic diversity across the state yes okay okay thank you yep and I guess Brad just from my experience I served on ncte when I was affiliated with Dana College I was the representative for our higher ed and I have noticed that the size of that group has grown substantially I mean it's been a number of years ago but it's a very large group now right and it had struck

155me that when groups get to a certain size they lose their sense of efficiency and it's really difficult for everybody in that group to feel like they're giving input so I guess I certainly wouldn't be in favor of increasing the number of people I would guess that organizations when they are nominating they are looking at who is currently representing and what part of the state are they from because they know that they they don't have the ability to appoint what we might call representation across the state so I think that's really up to the um nominating organizations for them to be thinking about those things so that there is that kind of rotation and I I don't know Brad if we answered the um how long are the terms and are they staggered that might

156be helpful too but they're staggered no it they're it's in the organizational policies um a lot of them are four years however not all of them are uh four years in terms yeah I thought there was a little bit of difference in terms of length of terms I just as the one of the new people listening to this and it trying to trying to synthesize all the information that comes in first of all I think of Ops and LPS and should they have more representation shouldn't they no I don't know the rough I don't know the exact number but talking about 30 percent of the kids that we educate in the state that's a pretty significant amount are we over represented in some areas or has the committee gotten too large that's an interesting um

157Dynamic too to consider I had a professor when I was doing my graduate work years ago say if you want to stall an initiative turn it over to a committee and if you want to bring that initiative to its knees make that committee sufficiently large we maybe are at the position where we've made that committee sufficiently large and I would suggest that we take this year to to bring this issue back to rules and regs or whatever the appropriate committee is and review it again it doesn't help the immediate issue of this year but I think we should look at the process going forward your commissioner um I just want to make clear because I want to make sure my concerns or thoughts aren't conflated I didn't suggest we increase the committee I never made

158that suggestion I also never suggested that Omaha and Lincoln have a permanent seat or that they you know get some type of preference over anyone else I said as a representative of Omaha I know we have certain challenges we have a large school district and the specific Nebraska Council of school administrators which is the portion I was looking at did not have one of those school districts represented and so it was no so my questions to Brad were what whether or not his Department looks at these types of things and if his department is not looking at these types of things then I feel like we as a board should look at these when we are considering whether or not to appoint someone I think sherry made a good point in something I didn't think

159of which was what are the processes that are down below and if that by down below I mean when they're coming to um the nomination if that is listed in a document that I have reviewed or approved at some point then perhaps we do need to or I personally need to review that document and see if that's something I want the full board we approve a lot of things and as I have been on the board there are things I look back on my first year that I was voting on that I didn't know what I was voting on specifically there's so much to learn and so to imply that well you voted on it so you must have been okay with it true but just because I was okay with it then it doesn't

160mean that with more knowledge I don't want to apply more scrutiny today and so um with that said not having any more information about these individuals other than their name their address and the school district that they represent I might vote no because I feel like Opps is not represented but then it could also look like I'm voting no to the person and it's not necessarily that we're voting or not we I'm voting no to the person but rather the concept of representation and so I do think we need more time in the future with this document I think we need I probably would need more information and if the president wants to look at the size or the composure and things like that she can do that too but that's not where I was

161going today and so I don't want that to be attributed to me I think we're answering some questions I didn't ask but that's what debate and discussion is for um so I'm I don't have any additional questions but I I thank you for answering the ones I did have and Jaclyn just clarification I was not reacting to what you said I was reacting to a comment from Elizabeth about rep Statewide representation okay them and uh just because uh we're starting kind of a new era and uh so this has nothing to do with what you're bringing today you just happen to be the Unlucky person you know that right like but I in general though uh as we go into a new era I think this is an important discussion and one that I have

162always hoped and talked about in the past that when we are approving individuals for anything that you know I'm hoping that somebody has vetted that there is you know looking at things from diversity of geography diversity of different lenses diversity of you know Urban versus rural I mean I'm hoping that all that's been vetted ahead of time so that we don't have to embarrass anybody you know what I mean at this point and say no because you know what you brought up is in the administrators we have somebody already for Millard and we're adding an administrator from Millard and so yeah does that make sense in the bigger you know what I mean and this has nothing to do with you today I mean this is a process that has been in place I'm sure

163longer than you've been hired and so but this is more to Dr Maher and you've already addressed it so I know that you'll be working on this you know uh as for the future so thank you for the disc session and Jackie thanks for bringing it up anything else for Brad thank you Brad and I also think in in any subsequent discussions we have because what I think I'm hearing is there might be a need for a policy the policy that we don't currently have question uh and I remember this from last year this is the group when you say approval of Nebraska teacher education programs this is the group that tells the teachers colleges what to teach but the teachers colleges teach specifically to what they're teaching the standard um ncte advisory committee okay

164so they don't make decisions but they provide advice to what to teach they address a number of things but certainly they are looking primarily at teacher preparation programs so Kirk I believe that this is one of the advisory groups that when the rules committee is meeting and and Brad says I will bring this to our advisory groups the rule changes that we want to make as board members this is one of the groups that gives input on the changes that we as state board members want to make so the changes that we're discussing with some of those rules that are coming up this is the group well it's really bi-directional I would say okay well that one item took a little bit longer I think than we anticipated we will now take our recess for

165lunch do we want to vote on it Madam chair I'm sorry we do have a motion in a second thank you will the recording secretary please call the roll tagmire yes Googles yes Neary yes Morrison no Jones no fricky Penner yes Co Johns yes six yes the votes are six years two no's the motion to authorize the commissioner to approve the 2023-2024 Nebraska Council on teacher education membership roster is approved and with that we will take our recess for lunch please be back here approximately five minutes before one about initiating a true conversation in the executive committee under our purview I was trying to think what all we do but I think it the point she brought up were really important and I don't want to wait it's almost like get something going as soon

166as possible because those people are going to have to be informed and I do think it should be in policy how they choose so that yeah so maybe ask to have that as an agenda item because you could explain it okay yeah thank you Lisa yeah you're welcome my brain's fried I can't hear a thing no I can hear you when you turn and face me that three quarters of what's being said here do you think I have a hard time hearing you when you turn away from when you turn that way that really concerns me because it's not getting any better but it concerns me because it's not getting any better it's almost like you you need to call your general practitioner because it's the most Specialists have to have a recommendation from your

167general practitioner I'm not hearing you at all most specialty doctors like an audiologist have to have a recommendation from your general practitioner so I could get a hold of your general practitioner right away I will next week because that started when eight weeks ago well you know this but it it seems to have gotten worse since you had that not RSV know what's going on this was like full and it could be a simple fix huh it could be a simple fix you know just draining the yuck out of there I'm gonna go get a nasal spray and see if that does anything you know they have over the counter ask your pharmacist when you go get that they have question uh things that can make your ear feel better and kind of get stuff

168but you don't want to go digging with a Q-tip or anything else but it goes in there and it softens it so it can be expelled because I can't hear me honestly no oh I'm sorry let's go eat I heard that or tell anybody oh yeah that sheets sheets understand I think so she's got room family is a big family in that area isn't she cool what what is it you should have gotten one no that's mine foreign we will come out of our lunch recess in one minute thank you Ryan we will now move to our public comment period this period may be available to any person who wishes to address the State Board on any subject within its Authority including items appearing on the agenda except for contested cases up to two hours

169will be allowed for public comment period a majority of members present and voting may also take action to allow or terminate public comment at any time during a meeting please note that public comment should be on topics related to the work of the state board's constitutional and statutory Authority those wishing to speak must be signed in at the table outside of the meeting room persons speaking to the board during public comment should State their name at the beginning of their allotted time anyone refusing to be identified will be prohibited from speaking a person may address the board for up to five minutes a majority of members present in voting may take action to reduce or extend the amount of individual time allotted to all speakers if at any time persons appearing before the board exceed

170the 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 of the president to determine what is out of order the president May refuse permission to continue to address the board we have two public comment cards submitted Reverend Dr William Jackson and Linda vermutan I am going it's five minutes and we don't have a timer so at the one minute Mark I'm just going to say one minute and I'm not going to interrupt you okay no problem is this thing on yes testing is Mars here just kidding I'm Reverend Dr William Jackson I'm an ordained minister also I have a Doctrine in Clinical Psychology doctor in education also mastering counseling therapy been in military 10 years eight months been around

171the country Halfway Around the World in other words I've seen things what I'm dealing with here is education I've been a post-secondary psychology professor in Las Vegas for up to 10 years involved in a lot of things there one of the things I tell when I realized something's wrong in education on a country when a young lady asked me to use smaller words in my class I looked at the law said Lord if this is a joke he said no so I said politely um ma'am you need to step up to our level after that things just went downhill for me because I was not aware of how bad education this country were understand I'm not no accusation against Nebraska or anything this is my home for 19 years just that it occurred to me

172that there is a problem in this country and that we need to do our best to keep it going forward one of the good examples when you look at some of our so-called test scores measuring their particular success it's not success when you only get around 70s and some of the Sciences get maybe 80s and I mean getting around 60s maybe in the math in less than 50 and 40 another competent thing how are they going to get a decent job let alone go to college they won't I will tell you from a post-secondary psychology Viewpoint they won't pass the first exam there won't be the hand in the paper they won't even know how to do it no they won't make it and let alone work in McDonald's or something like that for a

173job they want to do that because I understand like I had the experience working in um you know uh convenience store stuff like that can't even count change what are they going to do for their future unless we as adults here do something to increase the ability what to do how to do that think about this curriculum is basement learning objectives based upon success as you said earlier about you know uh proper test scores eliminating what's going on we need to get inside their heads such as Bloom's calendar studies uh for learning uh one is the cognitive aspect look at how it is to learn look at what puts together rational thoughts and circumstances look at the effective aspect all the kids paying attention where are their feelings how do they emote those feelings and

174think about soccer motor can they or can they not do the work when they're writing things down we need to look at some of them circumstances the other aspect we need to look at as well is what they're going to do especially when some of the kids aren't able to do it now how do we get to where they need to be if we don't have a lot of time people some are already intense 11th grade what are they going to do in the next couple years even if they quote unquote graduate how they want to support themselves they won't guess who's going to be supporting them all of us sitting here not just without taxes what other aspects think about this a generation is 20 to 25 years 50 years of kids don't know

175anything ignorance is one thing but ignorance is also not Bliss it is a horrible thing to realize people don't know what happened say five thousand years ago when the Greece came up on the idea of what so-called liberal education was their mind is that even the poor beside the rich need to know how to deal in their social culture they taught the math they taught them geography they taught them writing everything that was possibly learned what was originally liberal education now that's been turned on its head because of diversity equity and inclusion what does that mean they learn nothing all they know is indoctrination all they know what's going on with the general path what education could be not what it is and what's the result we see it plain the particular scores we want

176them to show for achievement is not there the point is not so much worried about why it's not there get it up get it done get it taken care of educate our children get those curriculum studies out there not just deal with the accountability responsibility get the coursework into them they need to go the biggest problem this country has had so-called covet when they kept the kids home the worst thing they do is keep kids home in the same family because they're getting sicker they need to be back in the school to do better and kids learn better in school than their home even though homeschooling is great but for the sake of public schools we need to do this I implore you get these kids educated get a better curriculum going thank you Linda

177good afternoon my name is Dr Linda vermerton I have a question for you who shut our voices off so we can't speak who has shut our minds off so we can't think when we come to look at the way we are doing education in this great state at the privilege of being at the testimony on Monday and a lot of things concern me about that because we're talking about the rights of the parents to speak it might get three minutes once a month at the school board to speak about their child not the state's child and the concerns they have some issues we discussed on Monday were the books in the schools and the parents frustration with not having a say in those are you aware of the long-term impact of pornography on a child

178you understand that first of all it physically changes the structure of the brain of that child once changed it's difficult to unchange it because once you have a path you automatically go down a path so we have to think about the ramifications of what we are saying it changes our view of ourself it changes our view of sexuality it changes our view of others what is the long-term impact we're starting to see that in our country fortunately not yet in our great state but it will be a matter of time because when you follow an addiction it needs more and more until it is acting out and we have to consider what are we propagating in our schools with having access to material that is not appropriate for a child it's defined in our statute

179as pornography this is not a this is an objectifiable fact of law obscenity is an objective fact of law in this state it's not an opinion it's a fact if I take any one of these books in fact if any one of you take any of those books in the library and we hand them just to another board member we will be arrested on the spot for distribution of pornography so it begs the question why are they in the library why are parents so upset about that the next thing you have to consider if you're putting something on a child that they're not psychologically and emotionally equipped to deal with what is the impact I'll tell you the little ones act out The Adolescents become aggressive you wonder why we have a mental health crisis

180in your school this is not helping the problem ladies and gentlemen this is aggravating the problem because they don't have the tools or the experience to deal with knowledge that they were not meant to have when they were little bitty that's why we have rules in place to protect children from a lot of other things so it begs the question what are we doing as a board to protect our children because if we're not protecting we complacent and we are part of the problem the teachers that I've had an opportunity to speak to in my area some have quit why they quit because it's not safe as they say in the classroom they got kids acting out they can't teach the other children they feel threatened I know one of my best friend's daughter was

181threatened by a knife point in the classroom in Omaha so that's not like far away this is very close to us this is what's happening when we have these things we have to say what is the solution are we even looking at this are we even considering what the impacts are of allowing these things one of the questions we were repeatedly asked in testimony one minute was wise has not been addressed by law because there's a loophole a loophole means a wiggle room Librarians are exempt from that so in a library they can hand out whatever they want to our children and you cannot prosecute them by law but if I did that I'm prosecutable by law so what will we do to protect our children and hear the voice of the parents that I'm

182hearing in every school board meeting that I go to why don't we have a say we limit books because there's a plethora of books that cannot fit in a library on any school campus so all books are always Limited so stop and think and say what can I do to ensure the environment is physiologically and psychologically safe for children and learning can be optimized thank you for your time thank you Linda that concludes our public comment period we will now return to additional business the next item that was removed from the consent agenda 5.3 point a Jacqueline do you have a motion and you I move to authorize the commissioner to review the contracts with partners for the school mental health project to address mental health needs of students and staff across Nebraska is there

183a second to the motion second it has been moved and seconded to authorize the commissioner to renew the contracts with partners for school mental health project to address mental health needs of students and staff across Nebraska discussion thank you madam president um I pulled this matter off of the consent agenda because I thought that it was a matter worth discussing as a board also I have some questions that I would hope that we could get addressed particularly as this has been a topic of conversation recently um on the proposed agenda item rationale right around the middle it says that the proposed project aligns with the first priority area of Esser Focus mental health supports interventions to support student and staff social emotional well-being and mental health and so I was wondering if a staff member

184or maybe you commissioner would be prepared or or could answer a question about what we are hoping for this to address as it relates to that particular priority area and focus as zainabrita comes forward I I think I can address it in a big picture way it's my understanding that this is a response to providing Mental Health Services to school districts throughout the state through our esu's so the the specifics I think I should turn over to zainab and not guess that all right greetings yeah the to your question uh Jacqueline when uh we received the SR funds the first thing that we did we did the need assessment so we asked the stakeholders and many we did conducted many folks to group so the first priority was addressing mental health during during covet so

185what we did and through this contract basically alone we cannot do all that work so we did a contract or partner with esu's and we worked with 15 different esus across the street it's across the State Street and to work on addressing the mental health in our schools so basically nde we provided a training evidence base to esu's so I'll give you an example of the the training that they receive about the foundation of school mental health Team a need assessment mental health screening mental health promotional for all which is tier one early intervention and treatment which is tier two and three and funding and sustainability how they're going to sustain that fund after the SR fund is it's pretty much ending and then the impact how we're going to impact that so we also

186evaluate this this process we have the process evaluation and the impact evaluation then the esu's basically put together a plan and present it to nde including a plan like how many school districts they will work with and they conduct also need assessment with the schools So based on each plan the school district they plan okay here are the area that we would like to address so the Asus provided training and technical assistance so that's basically the the uh the plan that we address in the mental health in regarding the SR funds so there have been a lot of conversations that have occurred about social emotional well-being and learning and so when we're using that term in this context specifically as it relates to mental health can you tell me how we see how we are

187using these supports or how we're using the funds to support social emotional well-being how are we inter if you can how are we interpreting that as a department of what we're providing to students and what um we're hoping that classrooms get um I like what Dr Maher I think you mentioned at the nte day that it's how we take care of our kids basically that's what we refer to sel but in general like we help uh the the Educators to how to de-escalate crisis when it's you know what are the strategies to de-escalate crisis to learn about the signs and symptoms of mental health what are the signs and symptoms and the third component that how they can locate the right resources at the right time to provide it to the students and their parents

188as well so those those are the components that we would like from the Educators to have that skills and knowledge in order to address the mental health thank you those are my questions any other questions for zainab all right thank you thank you it has been moved and seconded to authorize the commissioner to renew contracts with partners for the school mental health project to address mental health needs of students and staff across Nebraska will the recording secretary please call the roll Jones yes goobles yes tegmeyer yes Morrison yes Neary yes Penner yes freaky yes Co Johns yes eight yes the votes are eight years the vote is in the affirmative to authorize the commissioner to sing that renew the contracts with partners for the school mental health project to address mental health needs of students

189and staff across Nebraska next item is 5.3 Point e Jaclyn I moved to authorize the commissioner to renew a contract with mspace and lovegren to continue a public engagement campaign for step up to Quality is there a second to the motion second okay it's been moved and seconded to authorize the commissioner to renew a contract with m space Los grinto to continue public engagement campaign for stecca step up to Quality discussion so I want to provide context and then ask a question so we have been debating or having conversations in the executive committee about one limit so what's the amount of money or a contract contract amount that has to come before the board and So currently that's fifty thousand dollars and there has been I don't want to say requests but conversations of whether

190or not that amount should be increased the second conversation that we are having is what's the process when we've already approved a contract and it's a renewal how much involvement do we as a board want to be in the renewal and then the third I would say kind of question is what comes forward on the consent agenda and what should be its own separate action item I don't think we have a consensus quite yet in the executive committee about what our recommendation to the board will be however when I saw this particular item and I want to make it clear to mspace and love grin uh to Elizabeth Murphy I don't have a problem with them as a entity we're Contracting with but I saw here if you guys had looked and I scrolled down

191a bit that it says this is the third contract awarded as a result of a request for proposals and so it looks to me that this item went out for an RFP in somewhere around 2020 and so we have this would be our third time potentially renewing I suppose this contract and so it's not absolutely clear to me on when something's a new contract versus a renewal we have a policy as well about the the department only signing really one-year contracts but there are times when we are potentially committed for longer periods let's say with our assessment tool we wouldn't just commit to one year and so as we debate this larger issue of contract amounts contract renewals consent agenda action item I wanted to kind of understand this particular contracts process it being a

192renewal and what's different than If This Were a one-year contract versus if it were a two-year contract or when would it stop what's the limit to how many times it would come to the board for a renewal and how many times can it come to us on the consent agenda as a renewal before it has to come back as a full I suppose it's still an action item but as it's separate action item as something that is on the board so Ryan if you could I don't know I threw a lot of information out there but I'm just hoping for the collective board to hear some of this because it'll be informative as the executive committee weighs in on that policy change we're looking at commissioner if you want to answer this without Ryan you

193can go ahead too I was really excited that you asked Ryan to step forward and I'd request that Brian Halstead be on debt in case we get too deep now if you have your board member manual uh turn behind by law I know you're all looking on your computer so you can access it there in the bylaws on bylaw 3 meetings this is where the consent agenda policy is and I think some of this gets to Mrs Morrison's questions and so start with it there as I heard your questions so currently we're on page eight under the consent agenda procedures any contract that's 50 000 or over has to be approved by the board and so then in parentheses behind that first time contracts of 50 000 or more are placed on the agenda as

194a regular action item and renewals of such contracts may only be a consent agenda item for five consecutive times thereafter so year one we'd put that through usually budget and finance committee practice with assessment contracts is that those go through planning and evaluation but then five times after it can go on the consent agenda there have been some instances um where so let me let me pause there and say on the one year policy that's an internal policy that's not a board directed policy that we typically sign one-year contracts and Bryce or Brian could speak to more of the reasons around that sometimes we will come to the board though or have come to the board and asked for board approval for two years for a certain contract that's less common but it has happened

195a few times in the last few years does that answer all of your questions we had I'm trying to because there are times when and I'm trying to make sure I have it right because I don't want to confuse people but there are times when we may have a federal Grant and we may be federally obligated to contract with a particular business for a couple years or we made a representation to a federal entity that this is the contractor and so we don't really have discretion in going back out finding someone else and things like that is and so in that case our discretion of whether or not to bid something out or to find someone else is limited can you am I right or can you elaborate on that a little bit because I

196I think that's also a slightly different circumstance or could be different than our one-year contracts I'm recalling like if uh and I'm going to look to Brian Bryce and I'm thinking even about maybe Amy Roan who's responded to this recently but I think there are some times when we write into a plan um what that service would be who the provider would be but others would be able to speak to more details on that foreign Hallstead um Jacqueline what you're you're speaking to the example would be where uh Department staff have applied for a Federal Grant and the Federal grant has certain requirements in it for anyone to receive it the most common one I think every Feb how are you going to evaluate the effectiveness of this and sometimes that's whereby to get partnership

197into the grant because it's not just the department applying for it it's other entities that are interested in it that the grant May specify we will use blank University planning and policy whatever to do the evaluation of this or whatever in that situation we if we get awarded the grant were mandatorily required to contract with that entity to do the evaluation of the grant work um and there may be a few other federal grants that one's probably more driven by the Grant application and the requirements of that some of these I don't know for the item that you pulled here the ccdf funds those are as I recall these are funds actually the DHHS gives to us to do work in an area for which this is a piece of it using those funds I

198don't think I don't know whether of the I the this company was listed in that or not I think it's probably more the department then went out to try to figure out how are we going to I think this one get better input better communication and all of those items for which that vendor was selected to help them so it's not the same this one I don't think that you pulled is the same as the example of where a Federal grant It Was Written in there that we will partner with these entities and then when we get the grant we are required because of the policy if we're going to contract with those entities that do the work we have to do a contract so so Brian um two two questions um one let's suppose

199in and we're talking about the Federal okay I'm gonna back up and talk to the board and then I'm going to ask you a question one of the things we're being asked to do or had been asked to do at least when I was in budget committee and now it's come to the executive committee is to increase the limit of the fifty thousand dollars um because of the amount of contracts that are coming before the board the amount of paperwork that that entails Etc um but there are other items that are still coming to the board that in my opinion may just be um issues so like for instance with these Federal contracts if we have to be you know if we're obligated to sign up with this University partner who's doing a study over

200four years but that particular contract has to come back to the board every four years I'm wondering are there other opportunities to reduce the amount reduce the paperwork or the amount of contracts that come before the board other than just solely looking at the dollar amount um and so with that particular question or or instance Brian if you had a federal if we had a federal partnership or if we wrote something into a grant it's my understanding the department would still only sign a one-year contract or could you bring could the department have a policy to sign a longer contract so that it only has to come to the board once or if it did come to the board would it be coming to us let's say it's over fifty thousand dollars as an action

201item each time or on the consent agenda but either way you're still having to write up all the paperwork I asked you a lot first question could the department have a policy change their policy about the length of contracts if there's something that you can't change about it the second question is if something like that was coming to the board and it's over 50 000 how would it come to us today so in response to the first question and and Dr four was right internally we have told staff you can only contract for one year unless you get a waiver from the commissioner or a Deputy Commissioner to that time period duration um the rationale for the one-year limitation is somewhat tied to funding since as we only have two years worth of authority to

202spend any money in a given period of time so you start doing 10-year contracts what are you going to do if you don't have all the money for all 10 years because you legally bind yourself when you sign long term you're committed to that but we certainly could re-examine how we wrote the written the internal administrative memorandum 110 is what it is where it states and there it's only one year and you've seen numerous I think here recently numerous ones which it's a two-year contract because we know that's how long it's going to take this is the work it's going to take and there's no sense just breaking it into two because that's how long it takes to do the work so I think that one is an internal discussion that I'm sure under goal

203number two you've set for the commissioner on internal processes and everything we'll be looking at and it it is one of the things that we've been engaging on just on the internal trying to modernize procurement requirements so that it's more understandable to staff and yet still gets us the best vendors to do the work that needs to be done so that would be in response to that as the bylaw is now written if the contract or the grant is more than 50 000 and it's the first time the board is seeing it it's an action item if it's going to be coming back again in a second or a third renewal for additional work then it would be a consent agenda item the way it's currently worded here limiting that though to you can only

204do that four times as a consent agenda item before then it passed go back to being an action item if it's still being renewed for the sixth year and there there are a few entities we contract with over a longer duration of time the um the current information system we use to manage all grants with school districts and Educational Service units is a vendor we've been using since the first part of this Century several years ago we did a request for information see is there anybody else out there who does this work and lo and behold there was one other company who did it besides us so we continue to renew that because it's an information system that would if he shifted to a new vendor there's a whole number of issues that go on

205with it some on the board might remember we updated the teacher certification online system to a new vendor and anytime you change vendors and new systems there's bugs that come through that not just because it exists that way so that's why you probably I think next month you're going to see renew a contract with Collier for the school nutrition program because that's how they manage all of their data collect all their information and process all their payments you don't do an RFP every five years because those are major Data Systems you're purchasing so when last one last question I believe it is there anything that prevents us from as a board saying we're approving this contract and authorizing one renewal or two renewals and then you wouldn't have to bring it to us for those

206two renewals that we've authorized and then after that three years is up then you'd have to bring it to us just because that's an internal policy with the Department that doesn't have to be our is there anything that forces that year that annual requirement on the board can we give prior authorization with something we know is likely to be renewed in the spirit of reducing the paperwork or helping the department to be more efficient and things we know are likely going to be renewed you certainly could authorize a greater period of time for the use of the vendor and the funds even if it's going to be a series of contracts because each year brings different work the contractors doing so it yeah it's possible that the agenda item I'm just going to make it

207up authorizes the commissioner to contract with X Y and Z for this project and the commissioner has authority to renew this contract up to five additional times for a set period yes you could do that in the initial instead of how it may have been done in the past of nope it's got to be on the agenda by the end of the month otherwise we don't have a contract with them it can be done I think that's that's the board knowing what it's doing what it's doing it and I know you all do and some of the items you've seen you've given multi-year Authority on expending funds for certain activities so that can be done in that regard we might want to look at the language in the bylaw here about agenda items because you

208don't want to write something specific here that negates what you do in a broader authorization Melody do you feel that you want to come forward to explain specific to the agenda item thank you I think I forgot to introduce myself earlier but I'm Melody Hobbs and I'm the administrator for the office of early childhood and it sounded like your question was about more the process um so yeah this is good and Brian had had mentioned this was from ccdf funds and the CCA the child care development funds come from Health and Human Services and in fact on the consent agenda there's another item to allow us to contract with them for another year to give for them to give us funds so they are ccdf funds and specifically to your question those funds while we

209provide a large kind of overview budget they it is not written in there that we for the ccdf dollars that we will fund with mspace love Grant we do they um they know that we're following State procurement rules and as long as we're meeting our goals and we do have some goals that we have for for this contract as well as the other work that we do for step up to Quality um that um then that's not that's it that's not part of what their agreement is with us did that answer your question right thank you all right no other discussion or questions it has been moved and seconded for the commissioner to renew a contract with m space Plus love grento to continue a public engagement campaign for step up to Quality the recording

210secretary please call the roll fricky tegmeyer yes Co Johns Co Johns yes Google's yes Morrison yes Neri yes Jones yes Penner yes eight yes votes are eight years the vote is in the F permanent to authorize the commissioner to renew the contract with mspace love grento to continue a public engagement campaign for step up to Quality we have completed agenda item seven we will move to agenda item 8.2 submitted written public comments are attached in the electronic meeting agenda for the board and the public to review agenda item 9.19.2 these are items for information for the board so they are purely written reports to the board and information items agenda item 10 is good of the order this section of the agenda is intended for board members to offer informal observations of the work of

211the State Board members may make brief announcements about attendance at future events for the purpose of informing other board members no business or motions or suggested actions of the board may be offered at this point in the agenda nor should board members engage in substantive discussion about other agenda items or introduce new agenda items is there anything for the good of the order seeing none thank you to those who attended in person and who tuned in to the broadcast the next meetings of the State Board of Education are scheduled for September 7 and 8 2023 in Aurora Nebraska the August 4 2023 state board meeting is adjourned