001Test test test. Good evening everyone. Welcome to the Pavilion L Vista Community Schools Board of Education meeting for April 22nd, 2026. Uh as noted, the uh Nebraska Open Meetings uh act is uh posted at the entrance to the boardroom. Um we will move on to section one, call to order. Uh please rise for the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Moving on to item B of section one, call to order. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Bailey, >> here. >> Miss Wit, >> here. >> Miss Butler, >> here. >> Mr. Madler, >> here. >> Mr. Lotus, >> here. Miss Wood here. All present. >> Thank you. Moving on to section two,
002communications. Uh we'll start with item A, our recognitions for this evening. Uh Pavilion L Vista South speech and Pavilion Le Vista South Skills USA. I'll turn it over to Dr. Ricky. >> Thank you very much uh Mr. Lotus and members of the board. So, for those of you that have been to our board meetings in the past or maybe watched them on social media, you know, one of the things that we like to do at least once a month, if not a couple of times, depending on the uh nominations that we have before us, we like to recognize either staff or students who have done something to really bring distinguishment to themselves, their school district, or their program. And we've got two different groups this evening that we'll be doing that with. So, the way
003we'll structure this since we have two different groups. We'll start with uh speech, then we'll finish up with Skills USA, is I'll give just a really short uh description of what we're honoring these students for. I'll pause. You'll be recognized by your board of education and we'll invite our students to come up front and the coaches. By the way, please coaches join us. Uh up front, we'll take a quick picture. We'll come back and then we'll honor the second group. And in all cases, parents, please come down and take pictures. We we want you to be part of this special event along with our students. So the very first group, the very first individual actually that we're recognizing this evening is Miss Laura England who scored a best of the best in persuasive speaking. And
004I'm told, so this isn't on my cheap cheat sheet, but Dr. Settle shared with me this morning that uh Laura will be presenting on Nebraska Public Television this weekend just like they do uh they televise volleyball, football, all the state finals. So Laura will be develop will be delivering her speech and I believe I saw coach Howie Landon's here as well. Laura, will you please come down and be recognized by your board of education right here? Congratulations. >> Well done, Laura. you have made your school district and your high school extremely proud. Good luck on Saturday. The next group that we have uh coming up uh and we've got a number of individuals uh from Pavilion Vista South. We've got State Skills USA, which I this is a group we've recognized several times in the
005past. In a relatively short amount of time, we've really built this Skills USA program into something really, really special. I did not see Coach Campbell, but I think I saw Coach Stribbly. I see Randy in the back. Outstanding. Uh Randy, thanks for representing. We've got a number of individuals from Pavilion La Vista South. I'll name them all and then we'll go ahead and uh do the the introduction up front just like we did before. We have Joel Aken Aiko and Jun Juniper Grider, a team award. Rebecca Brooks, Brandon Greenwell, and Janie White team award. Nate Saliga and Holden Shart team award. Allison Watts and Logan Thomas MCC. Ladies and gentlemen, please come down and be recognized by your board of education. One, two, three. Coach Stribbly and all of our students. Again, we're so very
006proud of you. You have made Pilion La Vista South very proud. There are just a few miscellaneous uh we don't usually do this, but we had a couple of other miscellaneous uh honors that we wanted to share just so that we had this in the record. Uh, I don't know that we have any of the students here, but again, we want to make sure we are properly recognizing our students that have brought distinction to our great school district. PLCS, NJOTC did two gold medal drones teams. We had Rebecca Brooks, an education academy student who won gold for her lesson plan and job skills demonstration. The South Robotics Club had a gold medal team. Allison Watts, who we mentioned earlier, won gold in criminal justice for the second year in a row and has been accepted
007into the MCC Criminal Justice Academy. Well done, Allison. Logan Thomas won gold for cabinet making and as a student in Mr. Campbell's woodworking program and is also enrolled in MCC. And a few miscellaneous facts going back to my point that this program has really built itself into something really special the last few years. South has had 18 state competitors and brought home 13 medals overall. Cole Miles was elected as a Skills USA state officer for the next year and we've achieved as a unit the silver level chapter of distinction. Another round of applause for Skills USA, ladies and gentlemen. Our kids are getting it done in the classroom and in competition. Congratulations all and parents, thank you so much for supporting your students and being here this evening. Mr. Lotus, I'll turn the meeting back
008to you. Thank you, Dr. Rickley. Moving on to item B under section two, communications, our military advisory report. I will welcome up to the podium Colonel Chad Bakus. All right. U Good evening, Dr. Rickley and team. appreciate you guys having me back out this evening. It's always good to be here. Month of the military child, of course. Um, everyone's watching the news, uh, or should be and you're well aware what's going on in the Middle East. We'll just say that the 55th wing, the men and women are right in the middle of that and have been since day one. So, the ops tempo at Offet Air Force Base is very, very busy right now. We're expecting it to stay that way for some time, just so you know. Um, okay. So, a couple updates here.
009uh we've been proud to participate in the over 15 events that the uh the district has put together throughout the school system for month of the military child. So, thank you. Thank you very very much for that. In fact, I'll be heading down to Pilion South next week for military signing day, which is a big deal uh for for me. It's obviously near and dear to my heart just because we're always looking for top-notch talent to join the United States military. Um the inaugural military signing day that happened um at the Monarchs, uh Colonel Gray was there. He wants to send a huge thank you, a resounding success for that. Uh, and a special thank you to Principal Jason Ryan and Dr. Rickley yourself. So, appreciate that. Um, IEP and 504 workshop. This is more
010for awareness. We're hosting that on off at Air Force Base on May 12th. This is more to help our inbound families understand a little bit more about that process. And then uh Tina and Jen, our liaison, are going to dovetail them with your team to make sure that they get all the information and they know what to expect if they do join the Pilion School District. So, uh just essay there. Um as a permanent change of station season approaches, our liaison program managers, Tina and Jen, are dedicated to supporting our military families. Um please continue to reach out to them with any questions during these transitions. That uh PCS season we're expecting to start here probably in the next couple of weeks. We're going to have some inbounds come in mostly in June and July
011is the is the high season as you know, but we're expecting a few to trickle in here in the coming weeks. And then um Dr. Rickley, thank you very much for going down to Lincoln, Nebraska uh last week with um the Governor Pillan to sign the proclamation in support of the military child. It's always great to have that extra support for our for our members. So sir, that's all I've got for this evening. So thank you. All right, moving on to item C under section two communications, our presentation for this evening, our title one array. And I will turn that over to Dr. Ripley. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Lotus. Members of the board, uh ordinarily this would be kicked off by Dr. Siri. She's out of the office uh this evening, so she
012asked me to provide just a very brief introduction before I invite our outstanding title array leadership team to the mic. The title one array principles are here to share an overview of the English language arts implementation they're building this school year. And as the board knows from their liaison lunches, ELA and the Amplify curriculum as well as HMH at the sixth grade is a topic that comes up frequently with our teachers and our staff. English language arts has taken a priority at the national, state, and local level, and we welcome the title principles to share their perspective on these initiatives within the POA Vista Community Schools. At this point in time, I would like to invite Amy Nichols, Tracy McShane, Jamie Ber, Randy Guthm Miller, and Jen Noble to the mic. Welcome. We are so
013thrilled to have you here. Good. All right. Uh, good evening everyone and uh, >> yes, let's do that. Introduce our I'll let you introduce your coach. >> Yes. So, we do have two um, instructional coaches with us. This is Melissa Hansen from G. Stanley and Tessy Bau from Golden Hills also. Um, and as the person getting a chance to lead off this presentation, I get the opportunity to go off script a little bit. Full disclosure, we had a group text going last night about what are we going to wear to the presentation this evening. And while this isn't a public scolding of the members of this team that are rebels, I would like to publicly thank the members of the team who did wear their school spirit this evening. So, thank you. Thank you. Uh,
014but all joking aside, um, thank you to this board for adopting a quality ELA curriculum uh that supports our teachers with the planning and delivery of effective instruction. Um, our curriculum support the goal of to help all students develop uh strong foundational literacy skills through mastery of the Nebraska State English Language Arts Standards. Um these standards encompass a wide range of essential skills in the areas of reading, writing, speaking and listening. It's a daunting task for our teachers. Uh but our curriculum helps us to engage students in meaningful learning. So thank you. Um thought we would start out by just giving a kind of a big overview uh of the philosophy here. Um the five pillars of the science of reading which you see there um require a balanced approach that is based in all
015five of these pillars in our classrooms. Beginning instruction in our primary classrooms uh focuses more heavily on those phmic awareness and phonics skills um in units while the the knowledge units build uh the vocabulary. And as students progress, these five pillars are a supportive foundation uh for strong lit literacy skills for all of our students. Uh you can go to the next. Yeah, I like this orange bubble at the top because it's so true. Um learning to read is not something that is natural or super easy for all students. Um and it has to be taught systematically in a very explicit and cumulative way or approach u which is kind of illustrated in this graphic here. Our curriculum provides resources for both uh direct explicit instruction as well as opportunities for all of our students
016to actively apply those developing skills as they progress through the grade levels. Looking at it a slightly different way. It's kind of the same graphic but looking at it a little bit different. If you look at the words on those strands and I realize some of them are pretty small but language comprehension in that orange and yellow strand um in requires skills in vocabulary, background knowledge, language structure, uh verbal reasoning and knowledge of literacy while the word recognition strand, that blue strand, um requires skills of our students in decoding, funological awareness and and recognizing words by sight. Um, these all are woven together and twist together to support strong reading skills. Oh, this is still me. Uh, sorry. U, this is kind of a a good overview of those units across all grade levels. And
017again, it's all pretty small. I direct your attention to those uh greenish colored bubbles that are woven across the grade levels for those are the literacy domains. Uh the purple ones are science domains and then the blue ones are history domains. Our in the instruction is sequenced to provide a deep understanding over time for our students. Uh you'll notice how those domains connect and build across the grade levels. Um the content this content is used to support vocabulary and build that background knowledge for our students as they interact with increasingly comp complex text. Uh, one of my the favorite parts of my day when it happens is going into a classroom during a reading lesson and seeing a second grader say something like uh make that connection and say like that's the frontier explorer that
018we read about last year and now they're reading stories about the westward expansion and those build off each other and they're making those connections. All right. So, I'm gonna start with the our youngest, littlest learners. We're all lucky enough to have preschoolers in our buildings as well. And I think phenemic awareness is where that starts. It's how you think about phone names or sounds and how those are spoken in words. So, we start, we always tell our families, start talking to your kids at a very early age because that starts building their literacy skills right off the bat. If you go into a preschool classroom, it may look a little chaotic, but they're all talking to each other and having conversations, and that's where this all starts. So, you're going to hear the words systematic
019and explicit many times throughout this presentation, and that is very purposeful. Um, because everything we do builds on the the year before. And so, um, we start with a sounds first approach, blending, segmenting, manipulating sounds even before kids are reading words or books. And then we go into phonics. So that is where they start to see patterns in words in reading. So again, they're systematic and explicit. We know that kids don't come with these skills. So we are teaching them the skills from the get-go. If you go into a kindergarten classroom, they have their arms out and they're s they're doing each sound individually. And that's really important for them to help to to start to put those phonics together, those letters and spelling patterns. Students are given consistent opportunities to strengthen their decoding skills
020through practice and repeated exposure. Our ELA materials support fluency development through the use of decodable readers, partner reading, and teacher modeling. As students learn new spelling patterns, they immediately begin to apply those skills, and that helps build their accuracy, automaticity, and expressive reading over time. Um vocabulary devel development is also embedded across all grade levels. These pictures show some of our students expanding their vocabulary through engaging hands-on learning. So teachers incorporate movement um speakers and real world connections to make that learning more meaningful. Then as we've now learned how to read, now we're trying to understand what we're reading. And that first starts out as listening comprehension and then building into complex text where they're learning that knowledge, applying that vocabulary, and then talking about what they are learning. The next step is writing about
021what you learn. So you can see this kids up in the top are working on letter formation, whether that's in a print or in cursive. The next on the bottom right, then they're encoding. So writing those sounds that they hear and then the bottom one on the left is then applying all of that into a writing practice about for example writing about animals as a zoologologist. So that progression starts with just hearing the sounds then applying it to words then to phrases then to sentences and then to complex text and then we use the writing process um in its entirety. So they plan it, they draft it, they edit it and revise it and then publish it and share it. Part of this is where all of our students are um exposed to grade level
022text. And so that is inclusion for all of our students, whether it's for our EL students or our special education students. It's giving them access to that grade level text. And then it's also giving them support so they can be successful. So whether that's one-on-one with a parah educator or in a small group setting or using technology to help them access that um complex text, all that knowledge building and comprehension always culminates with some celebrations. Those are the ways that um the things that stick with our students. Um, here you see kindergarteners learning about kings and queens and what all that vocabulary around it is. And that grows um in that literature strand through fairy tales then in the next grade and some classical tales. And then you get up into fifth grade and fourth
023grade and they're reading about the medieval times and learning about knights. And you can see um this is jousting for our fifth graders. Um just another fun activity to bring it to life. So the themes that are emerging stick with our students um through these activities. Science is another area where the students get a lot of exposure to build that background knowledge um and just the learning and this is all in on top of the science curriculum that they're receiving too. So in here you can see them this is just they're learning about different human bodies. So, for example, in kindergarten, you'll see the students learning about the five senses. And then as they go to first grade, they're going to start exploring how does the body system work and then how do those organs
024work? And so, it continues to build upon again building that background knowledge. So, when they hear those things like, oh, we learned that here and then they've heard it multiple times throughout the day. Um, but just lot and they I they enjoy doing the different activities too as those end projects as well too. So the three strands, we had literature, we have science, and then we have social studies. Um again, this is on top of the social studies curriculum that they're being taught as well. They go through the Vikings era, which you see. Um they go through the Renaissance period where they are um painting or drawing upside down. Um and it just covers like it'll cover they said you said westward expansion, the frontier days. It talks about the American Revolution, the Civil War,
025so many things that are just good knowledge for life. And our kids are having really good conversations at home and parents are saying they hear more and more about what kids are learning and they're so impressed by it. So, when we didn't have that previously, so it is really exciting to hear that it's sticking and kids want to share. >> All right. And then um one of our indicators of how students are performing is our MAP data. Um and the MAP assessment shows projected growth. So as you can see here um the projected growth versus our actual observed growth um and they are exceeding the expected growth. So just a really exciting slide um and we're seeing some real meaningful results. So we just want to thank you for your continued support. Well, >> yeah.
026Comments, questions? >> Yeah, thank you for putting it together, coming on a Wednesday night, uh, sharing with us. Um, I've got a fifth and sixth grader at Ter Heights going through this, so I can I can vouch that they are much more engaged in the units. uh one of uh my two he's even uh read additional books on the revolution and on the Civil War and he's kind of got him down that path of being more interested in in history. So So I've seen I've seen that firsthand. We've talked about, you know, how much it builds on itself like year after year after year and we haven't had it for third year. Is this the third year fully implemented? >> Implementation. >> First year. Oh, I'm way off. >> You piloted at least what one
027or two years prior? >> Two years. So first year of full implementation. Yeah. I was wondering >> have we uh noticed a difference in new kids coming into the district and if we have to support them differently when they come to the district knowing we have this new curriculum where they may be further behind. Uh but maybe they're not further behind and I'm not I'm not sure. But I was wondering if we've seen a difference with kids coming into the district if there's anything different we have to do to support them. >> Sure. Um I think This is year one implementation even within our own students because we have fifth graders who don't have the same background knowledge that if they would be starting with us in kindergarten and first grade. Our kindergarteners last year
028were the first full implementation. So our first grade teachers see that building block and our teachers are having to backfill to provide some more that they would have had otherwise. So I think we're getting that same experience. So, as we see kids that come into our district that haven't had those, we are already planning and knowing how to support that and teachers are finding ways to um provide some of that additional background building. As far as skills, um we have our intervention and enrichment time to address those needs. But yes, >> perfect. Thanks. Greek mythology is what my second great grandkids I know more about the gods than I ever thought possible. But anyway, great job. This is super. One of the groups that you talked about the EL group a little bit, but I
029know it's early and I know you don't have a lot of data, but this looks to me like it would really fit well with the curriculum and the things we try to do with our EL students. Can you say that you're noticing anything in particular for that subgroup yet? I think you're tendled. Then what happens is like so for example they talk about insects in first grade and then later on they see that in science right and then oh I remember this. So then you're seeing them participate in conversation a lot more than we have in the past. And giving credit to our teachers they're phenomenal. They they purposefully make those connections for kids. Um, Elvis West, we were lucky enough to pilot K12. So, we're seeing the benefits move a little quicker through our
030building um, as far as the ELA implementation. And we have definitely seen that, Lisa, with the um, where we see the kids engaged in those conversations and the teachers purposefully building less lesson time around those subjects. Um, so that can make the connection there and back in the classroom. >> Well, thank you all for coming. I really appreciate it. Um, as much as you thanked us, I think uh we need to really give a a huge thank you to Shireen and her team for finding this and and getting this into the district because clearly it has made a huge impact on everybody and we love to see that. So, that's fantastic. Um, I was kind of laughing. you're talking about the the steps and how they learn to spell and read and learn the sounds
031and um you know my wife being a third grade teacher I have learned a whole new way of reading when she brings things home and she's reading it like and I was like how in the heck did oh okay and I figured out how to sound it out so I appreciate that I've learned another language I'm not sure what it is third third grade language but it was fantastic but um as far as a mythology I I will never forget she was sitting down reading through everything before she first started teaching it And her main concern was she's like, "This looks too difficult." And I remember her coming back, you know, and I didn't know what to say. I just, you know, you just kind of um go, "Yeah, we'll see how it works." And
032then she I remember her coming back and saying, "Oh my gosh, they loved it and they really they really enjoyed it." So, she was actually amazed and it amazed me, too, is how, you know, sometimes we underestimate um our younger kids and how much they really uh picked it up and enjoyed it and everything. and it's so it's been uh it's been very good. So I appreciate all your work um you know getting this implemented and I know it's difficult to do um but we do appreciate it from our level. >> Also didn't adequately recognize Tessy, thank you for joining us. Melissa, thank you for joining us. Um in in 30 years of being a a teacher, a principal, and now a superintendent, I don't know that I've ever seen a curriculum adoption that's been
033so widely embraced. Uh, and it's exactly what what Skip said. I mean, we we hoped it would be high engagement, but I think there was some trepidation from from the central office that is this too rigorous? Are kids ready for some of this vocabulary? And I think what we've seen in almost all cases is when when we challenge our kids, they respond. That doesn't happen without without really outstanding people like all of you. So, thank you for making this a success. It's a ton of work. Curriculum rollouts are a ton of work, but we really appreciate for everything everything you've done. Thank you all so much. >> All right, moving on to item D under section two communications, our reports for this evening. I'll turn it over to Dr. Rickley for his superintendent report. >>
034Thank you very much, Mr. Lotus, members of the board, and for the audience members that are with us this evening, thank you for joining us. For those that may be watching online, thank you for engaging with your community and your board of education. Um, I don't need to tell anyone. It is a super busy time of year. So, for those of you that were able to make time for us on the very uncommon uh Wednesday night evening, thank you for making this a priority. Uh, we have a conference. Uh, several board members and myself have a conference. So, we are out next Monday, which is why we moved the meeting from Monday to Wednesday. So, thank you for giving us grace um and uh continuing to engage with us. There's a number of things going
035on around the district as we wrap up the school year, including our final advisory meetings of the year. So, the board and administration's aware of this. The community hopefully is aware of this, but we have a number of advisory groups that we meet with throughout the course of the school year. We have a teacher advisory. We met with them yesterday at our health systems academy. our classified staff which consists of clerical staff, pair educators, food service, buildings and grounds. Uh we've also met with them at uh health systems academy. We met with our students for the final time last week and then we had our last business elected officials just today. So those groups continue to be really really helpful for me, helpful for the district. It's a great opportunity to for us to hear
036from people in the field, people in the community and giving giving us feedback about what's working and what's not. So that'll be something of course we continue into next year and for those that have participated in the past, thank you for doing that. Also wanted to thank the foundation for sponsoring a really cool event with Dr. Settles leading the charge. Uh last week we hosted the annual phase awards. Now, I kind of doubt Bob and Karen are watching tonight, but if they are, thank you for uh for the generous financial support to our foundation, to our teachers. How the FAZE awards work is this. They the FAZE family donates a significant amount of money every year uh in the form of gift cards for our teachers. Dr. Settles uh facilitates the entire process. We invite
037the teachers over here and kind of a little bit of a secret uh we make an announcement. A lot of them know what's going on because we've done it for a number of years. But it's a great recognition of teaching excellence in the school district. But it doesn't happen again without our foundation support, Dr. Settle's leadership, and Bob and Karen. Again, if you're watching, thank you for supporting our teachers and the school district. Also had the good opportunity along with Mr. Madler this morning to attend a very special scholarship breakfast at Pilon La Vista High School. Again, facilitated by the foundation. I don't know, we probably had a hundred people, give or take. that may have even been on the low end consisted of families that have donated money typically in their family name to
038provide scholarships for graduating seniors and then we match up those families that are providing the scholarship dollars with the student recipient. So, it's a really cool event to showcase outstanding students who are going on to that next step in their career as well as our donors that are so generously supporting kids as they chase down their dreams. will be doing something similar at Pil Vista South next Wednesday. So, kind of a cool event. So, board members, you're you're certainly welcome to attend. We'll get you the details if you don't have it. It is prom season, ladies and gentlemen. Two weeks ago, Pilon Vista South hosted prom. It went off smashingly. Monarch is this weekend. And then, of course, it's not springtime if we're not talking commencement. So, the board's well aware of this. I suspect
039the community probably is too, but uh we've traditionally done commencement for Monarch and Titan on Mother's Day. So that's coming up on Sunday, May 10th. Uh 1:00 is the first commencement. Five o'clock is the second commencement. It is at Baxter Arena at UNO. So did I get there? It's Baxter. I always want to say Beardmore, but it's Baxter. It's Baxter, not Beardmore. So Baxter Arena. It's a wonderful celebration of our students, our families, and our community. Um, can't believe it's that time already, but here we are. And with that, Mr. Lotus, I would conclude my superintendence report. >> Thank you so much, Dr. Rickley. Moving on to board member reports for this evening. >> Um, I did attend the Hickory Hills Military Mornings and Muffins, and that was a celebration of the students at Hickory
040Hill who um have a family member in the military. great fun celebration and a nice turnout. Um also had a teammates board meeting uh yesterday and um teammates will be undergoing some changes um at the national level. Um you may have read De Mo Adams who has been their CEO for a period of time. He has stepped aside and so they currently have an interim person in that position. um they're going to be making some changes next year um that will impact our teammates. Um there will not be the opportunity to um have activities offsite. So uh all activities will be held at the school buildings. Currently, our um teammates group where they have a day where they travel to the zoo and they have a a special lunchon at one of the community restaurants
041for our seniors and and some other awit um o learning opportunity and and those will no longer uh be able to be held due to some need I think primarily for insurance purposes um and to make sure safety is a priority for everyone involved. So, we'll be looking at ways to continue to have fun with kids, but do it on campus. Um, a lot of the meeting was spent discussing the budget uh for the upcoming school year. Um, and there will not be many changes uh in in their budgeting process as they move into the next year. Um the following year they are we are looking at a potential change with um how their coordinator is reimbursed and working more closely with the district and having that position uh potentially be a shared position uh
042where we would have um someone you know that might work for with teammates along with a position inside the district. Uh there was also the election of new officers and um uh added a couple members to the board uh for the upcoming school year. Um and I think they were at the zoo today. Actually was today was zoo day. So >> yep, good day to be at the zoo. >> Uh I uh as Dr. Wickley said, I was at the scholarship breakfast this morning. I had the honor of presenting the Mark Nazisa scholarship um to one of the the graduates um Haley. She's going she's graduating from Monarch. She's going uh to Lincoln and going to study forensic science. Uh the Markiscus scholarship was put together by uh the class of 2004. He was a
043classmate of ours that passed away uh died in Afghanistan. So every year we award uh a scholarship in his honor to someone who is interested in criminal justice career field. So it was great to meet her and the family uh and and talk about Mark and and see what her plans are for the future. Uh so it was a great turnout, great event. Um appreciate all the all the donors being there and again supporting these students as they move on uh to the next stage of their of their life. Um, I also had the final meeting with Senator Roundtree yesterday. He's been hosting those monthly meetings uh while the legislature was in session. So, I had we had the last one yesterday. I just, you know, we didn't have much to talk about since the
044session's over. But, I just thanked him for his support of public schools and uh his, you know, openness and he's been uh great to be able to reach out to and speak to and and talk about uh items that are affecting the school district and and listen to to us. He did uh talk about probably once school starts back up, he's probably going to reach out and try to take some tours of of some of our buildings. So, I said more than welcome. We love we love to have uh senators come into our buildings uh meet with our staff, meet with our students. So, be on the lookout for that conversation. And I also told him as he starts thinking of next year's session which hope I told him to take some time uh take
045the summer go on a vacation uh but as you think about next year's session to you know keep us in mind if there's any way to work together on any bills that he's going to be advocating for and and how we can uh he can work with the district and how the district can work with him on you know getting these these bills uh worded and in the best place that we can. So again, I just said thanks on behalf of the district for all the work that he's been doing down in the legislature. >> Yep. >> All right. Um I've got a few things. Obviously, I was not at uh our last meeting a couple weeks ago. Uh, so I'd like to thank Miss Wood for stepping in and the rest of the board
046for allowing me to uh attend Metro Conference soccer semifinals for my daughter uh and the and the Titans. Um so um the Metro Conference soccer tournament both uh boys and girls were held uh over the last uh week um with uh both Monarchs and Titans uh having great success uh in the in the Metro tournament uh and with the Titan boys uh winning uh the Metro Conference title. Uh so that was uh pretty exciting. um attended multiple middle school uh track meets uh finally now that the the weather cooperated uh and instead of rain outs it was you know 86 degrees uh last week and today. But what was really cool uh last Thursday was um for the first time ever the athletic directors at all three middle schools coordinated uh an all district meet
047uh for the first time that they all three schools competed against each other both boys and girls uh typically like this evening um Pilion Middle hosted uh on the boys side hosted L Vista Middle and Le Vista hosted Pilion Middle on the girls side. So that's typically they would just do a duel. So they thought, hey, why not do an all district uh event. So it went off really, really well, and they've got some great ideas for continuing that uh tradition uh going forward next year. Uh following that, that same evening, well going on throughout the day uh was the uh Titan Classic uh the big track meet hosted by Pilion Le Vista South. Um it's always super well attended from schools from all over the state. Uh and also a couple of teams from
048out of state. Uh, and one of the the kind of the marquee things uh that made this one unique was um they had the opportunity to host eight of the fastest mileers uh kind of in the area between the state of Nebraska and uh they brought in a couple from Harrisburg, South Dakota uh including an eighth grader uh who ran away with the race. Um it was uh incredible >> sub five I believe. >> Uh they all ran under well there were at least three or four under five and the rest were under 505. Uh the boys race they the entire fast heat uh was under five. >> Wow. >> It was it was incredible. What what was uh great was they allowed um the rest of the the student athletes uh and fans to
049come down and kind of create uh a fan tunnel on both the front stretch and the backstretch uh to provide those those eight girls with a unique experience that probably would have never uh happened. So, uh, a huge, uh, shout out to Coach Hazelhurst, uh, for for or for organizing that and and providing, uh, fantastic competition, but just camaraderie and just a great event. So, I believe, uh, I had to leave at the very very end, but, I think both, uh, the boys and girls Titans took the titles, and I know the girls side was extremely close uh, going into the last couple events. Uh but a really cool thing and then uh if weather cooperates tomorrow is the the m the monarch uh hosted event at Foundation Field. And then let's see what else
050do I have? um attended uh athletic uh collegiate signing day uh last uh Wednesday at at Pilion La Vista South uh honoring uh all those uh student athletes that are are signing on uh with uh division one, division 2, division three uh community colleges uh to pursue their their athletic careers at the next level. Uh what was fantastic to see as we've seen throughout the district uh with women's uh wrestling is the the the number of students now that are are continuing on uh with those collegiate programs. So that was really exciting to see because we've obviously seen a huge growth of that sport uh here within our district. Uh and then uh last Saturday night I attended Monarch Backer Night um which is the the big athletic fundraiser for the the Monarchs. Uh it
051was amazing attendance. They they said it was the largest attended backer night since COVID. Uh so I know and the silent auctions and everything went off really really well. Uh just want to say thank you to uh our own and my classmate from 99 Brandy Peterson for uh being the MC for the evening uh and running such a a fantastic event uh and helping the Monarchs raise quite a bit of money. Lastly was uh we had our uh district wellness committee meeting a couple of weeks ago. Uh we meet a few times a year uh as required uh by um the state and and federal programs that we participate in and we focus pretty much the entire meeting on uh it's our trianular uh reporting year. So we go through and have to fill out
052a fairly lengthy survey kind of self assessment to turn in and then obviously our um folks in the food programs and u Dr. Siri's team uh then are interviewed and we host visits here coming up uh throughout the year. So great wellness committee meeting. And with that, any other board reports for this evening. All right, seeing none, moving on to our final item. E, committee reports, building grounds and finance. Uh, we have not met since the last meeting. >> Thank you, Mr. Madler. Human resources and student services. >> We haven't met either. Thank you, Miss Wood. And curriculum and Americanism. >> And we have not met either. >> Thank you, Mr. Bailey. All right, that moves us on to section three, our action items. Uh item A, action by consent. >> I'll make a motion
053to approve our action by consent items as published. >> Second. >> Have a motion by Mr. Bailey and a second by Mr. Madler. Roll call, please. >> Miss Wit, >> yes. >> Miss Butler? >> Yes. >> Mr. Madler? >> Yes. >> Mr. Lotus? >> Yes. >> Miss Wood? >> Yes. >> Mr. Bailey? >> Yes. >> Motion carried. >> Thank you. Moving on to item B, the property purchase and sale agreement for the Whitmiss property. Mr. Richards. >> Thank you, Mr. Lewis. Good evening, everybody. Um, have an exciting opportunity for the district tonight. Uh we are we've had some conversations with the owner over at uh this particular property at uh 210 220 West Sherman Street which is directly behind us. Our right shoulders over here on the corner uh right next to the yellow house
054we purchased uh a few years back. Um came up and and and called the foundation first. Foundation let us know that he was interested in selling and um we were able to come to an agreement. Um the property did appraise at $250,000. Um and he was willing to take that as the appraisal price. Being a public entity, we'd like to stick to that appraisal price. Um the lo it is located behind district central office um next to the Peterson property we purchased in February 2022. Um this will allow for some expansion of the technology center in the future um with the server area storage type thing where they can mobilize with the loading dock uh right in that particular building. Uh professional development space and tech office space is what we've discussed so far. Now
055when you're talking about maybe doing that project four, five, six years from now uh more than likely at the next district bond um those are some ideas we have at this particular time. As you know, we're kind of land locked in here uh and don't have a lot of room to expand. So, whenever a property comes open, uh we want to take a look at that property around this area. Uh and this one is would allow us to continue out to the corner. Uh money would come from the special building fund to purchase the property. Um both units in the town home are currently rented out under different terms, uh leases, so we have copies of those. uh we would continue to honor those um and be landlords here for a little while until uh
056those tenants want to move out or or uh we want to do some things, you know, four or five years down the line uh with that particular area. Just to give you some information about the property, it's on an 8712 foot site. Um one story, it's a town home, so you have two units at 812 feet a piece. uh total square feet and both of them are 1624. We does have a garage which I'll show you here in a minute. So there's the kind of the Google maps 210 West Sherman right on that corner. Um district office is off to the right in that picture. You can kind of see how that aligns to where the district office is. Um and the yellow house property. There's an outdoor picture of that. Um so the tenants
057do use the garage at this time. So we wouldn't be able to use that until the the lease is up for them, but they they're that's part of the lease that they are able to use that garage and then yeah, I'd be happy to answer any comments or questions and um recommend a motion to purchase this property from the board. >> We generally do not bring an item straight to action. um is if for those uh community members that may be watching almost without exception the board puts something on the agenda once for discussion and then if the board feels comfortable then uh for action. This is that rare example where we go straight to action because for a variety of reasons if the school district were to indicate interest in a property uh publicly
058for example it wouldn't take much of a stretch for somebody to come in and and buy it from underneath us. So I just want the community to understand why we've done this in an expedited way. Um, also Mr. as Mr. Richards pointed out, storage is a big part of this. Uh, the district does rent out, I believe, two storage spaces currently. Don't know if long-term that would allow us to get out of renting storage, but that would certainly be a consideration as we contemplate both this property and the yellow Peterson house. The board is certainly aware of this. The community uh may be aware of this, but the the district purchased the yellow two-story Peterson property several years ago, which is uh immediately between our tech training center and the proposed property that uh we're
059asking the board to consider purchasing. So, thank you, Mr. Richards, for the outstanding summary. And I know while it's the first time on the agenda in the buildings rounds finance committee meetings, we've talked about it for months uh on the potential purchase. Um we talked about, you know, sometime we'll probably expand out the tech building with the the other properties including this one uh if we move forward with it. But in the meantime, I saw one of the leases just like monthtomonth and I think the other one's still in a year. Knowing that, you know, we're probably years out from using it, would we continue, even if these leases expire, would we continue to try to find someone else to lease it? So, if it's just not sitting empty, >> I would think so. With
060this one, I know with the yellow house, we use it for quite a few things with the community closet. Um, and but this particular property I I mean from my standpoint, we haven't done a lot of discussion amongst cabinet about that, but I could see us trying to be landlords and keeping that property um rented out for quite a while. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Student teachers. >> Yeah, there you go. Uh, I will uh make the motion to approve the Whit Whitmiss property resolution in the purchase agreement for 2010 2020 West Sherman Street, Pilion, Nebraska 68046 for $250,000 plus closing costs as presented. >> Second. >> Have a motion by Mr. Medler and a second by Miss Butler. Any further comments, questions? Uh, roll call, please. >> Miss Butler? >> Yes. >> Mr. Madler? >>
061Yes. >> Mr. Lotus? >> Yes. >> Miss Wood? >> Yes. >> Mr. Bailey? >> Yes. >> Miss Wit? >> Yes. >> Motion carried. Moving on to item C under section three action items. the resolution for Sarpie County Tax Equalization and Review Commission appeal. Mr. Richards, >> thank you. Um, yes, we'll we talked about this extensively of our last meeting uh for the Sarpie County Tax Equalization and Review Commission appeal and resolution that they presented to us. Um, basically that resolution, just to recap, gives us an option, um, you know, we're losing over $800,000 in property taxes, uh, to this appeal through the Turk, uh, commission, and we could either, option one, have that taken out in one le sum at our one of our next tax installments, or we can accept the resolution and allow
062them to give the company credit back for tax um, payments over the next few years. uh which will allow us to plan a little bit better with our tax levy in the future. Uh knowing that that loss is going to come and I'd be happy to answer any questions if you guys have any that have come up since. >> Yeah. Uh one I see we have the recommendation is for discussion, but the recommendation is for the motion tonight. Is that correct? >> Oh, yes. Sorry about that. And that uh I'm not going to make a motion right now, but the motion will need to be to accept the attached resolution or what should that be? Do you have >> Okay, just uh that subject. >> Okay. Well, then I'll do that. I'll make the motion
063to approve the Sbury County Tax Equalization and Review Commission agreement with JDHQ Hotels. >> Second. All right. I have a motion by Mr. Madler and a second by Mr. Bailey. Any further discussion? >> Yeah, I was just wondering, we talked two weeks ago, have we heard any others that could be coming down the pipe? >> Uh, not at this time. That'll be something I'll reach out to the county and talk about. Okay. >> Here in the near future. >> All right. Thanks. No. Great question, Mr. Madler. Seeing no further discussion, roll call, please. >> Mr. Madler, >> yes. >> Mr. Lotus, >> yes. >> Miss Wood, >> yes. >> Mr. Bailey, >> yes. >> Miss Wit, >> yes. >> Miss Butler, >> yes. >> Motion carried. >> Right, that concludes section three action items. Moving
064on to section four, discussion and information items for this evening. Item A, our legislative update with Catalyst Public Affairs. Welcome, Mr. Gay. >> Welcome, Tim. handing out one of the awards and and uh Dr. Rickley made a good point with all the crazy things going on in this world. Uh you should be in a high school and see all the great things that they're doing. So, I thought that was a good point and after seeing the skills USAA tonight and hearing the teachers talking about how they're teaching and their passion for teaching reading, it's like this is good positive things. So, you all have a good positive experience, I know, going on here. But, um, but anyway, and then I'll I'll do I'll talk about the English and the reading here coming up in a
065in a bit. But, uh, earlier when I started out, I said and I we could only get here one time because it's a short session. and it is busy. But I said several things we got to look out for is limits on your spending and unfunded and underfunded mandates if we those are the big big things we look out for. I think we had a pretty good session that you didn't get a lot of that. You got a little bit of that but not a lot. So some things didn't happen which is always I think a good thing when they don't happen. Um there's some good things that did too. I wouldn't say that. But on the education, as you know, every single year they seem to be adding and adding more things. And I
066don't know how y'all keep up, but anyway, uh but I'll get going. Uh what we did, uh a lot of bills were introduced. 547 bills, you know, 66 in the education committee alone. Those bills, most of the education committee bills deal with K12 education, not higher ed. They, you know, there's some there's some higher ed bills that come there, but that's a lot of bills to cover. And then remember last year all those bills were still alive. So anybody could have picked a bill out of last year's bill and added it on to a bill this year in an amendment. So we looked at a lot of those things. Um uh you know right now we're saying and you all know with the arch sign starting to pop up there's 24 legislative districts up for
067election. So for a lot of people is their last term. Uh important ones on that would be Chairman Murman. I think he had been education chair for maybe four years. I don't know, but time goes by quick. And Senator Hunt, who's been a member of that committee all the time. They are term limited out, so they will be gone. Um and then a lot of districts have senators running for re-election or just open seats. Senator Conrad did not get an opponent. Uh so I, you know, they could switch committees any time, but she's been on that education committee. I think she might stay there. Um, but she didn't get an opponent, so she'll be coming back next year for sure. Um, and Senator Hughes has an opponent. She most likely will be chair uh coming
068up in the next um session, but you never know. So, there's just a pretty picture of them all. But, uh, all these different senators can change committees. So, uh, you may be talking to Senator Glenn Meer at some event and he may not even be on the committee next year. Um, it's it's just you don't know. Um, Most of the time if you're a returning senator, you get on the committee if you want to be on it, but there's been years where they play little games with it. Um, Senator Sanders, I assume, would stay on there, too. So, but but anyway, that's the committee makeup and and like I say, when the chairman leaves, it's a big deal. Uh, one of the things we followed and in a short session what they do and they're
069doing this in a long session too, but towards the end everyone has to pass a bill, you know, and like I say, we got to pass the education bill. Well, this was it one of them. The committee gets two priority bills, but this was one of them. And as you can see, there are several things in that. Uh so you had LB 937 and you can see the bill numbers behind there 1146 1224. They just combine them all together and try passing them. Now sometimes that's easy. This one is a fairly generic bill. Um didn't have a this truly was what it is. It's a cleanup bill. It didn't have any dramatic changes or anything like that. But usually how they do that the committee just says how about this? How about that? So, they
070throw them in. I won't go through all these bills, but um like I say, there um there's some that uh and I will talk to Dr. Rickley and Brett and others afterwards how you all follow these because I'm sure NAS at school boards, you'll cover here's what happened and they get into the granular of all these bills because when you look at there are a lot of things that will be changing that administrations have to follow. So, but um anyway, those we followed that bill. Um I don't think there's anything unless you see something on there that you'd want to talk about, but like I say, that's that's the one that's uh we did follow. This is the one though that we really back up. Sorry. >> That's what we wanted. That's the bill we
071talked about all session. Uh so LB1050 uh this one was the third graders cannot go into fourth grade unless they could pass a test and it changed a hund times between now and then. Um but but listening to this tonight was very interesting when you were saying man I wasn't sure these third graders would get this. That's interesting because the way they made it sound like no one could read in this state. But so that was really kind of eyeopening here to be honest with you. So maybe we should get a hold of that and talk to some of the legislative candidates that um that need to be upgraded. The the bill bill on this one like I say we had a great turnout and just didn't pass is uh Dr. Rickley, uh, Brett and
072Shireen, uh, they were just phenomenal lobbying on this bill. Um, and we were lobbying a lot when it first got heard. I think you had someone come down and testify on behalf, but so you get that, you know, but you only get three minutes. They kind of rush through. There were 22 people opposed to this bill of all, you know, NASB, NCSA, everybody. uh a lot of educators who are teaching reading 22 or 23 and many comments opposed to it. There are four people for it and you can see it says at the request of the governor there four people for it. So I this is disappointing to see quite honestly that this thing had so much weight and the reason I bring up the the input by the by the administrators all administrators around
073the state started calling their senators and finally people started saying wait a minute so this can affect us out in wherever to say yep. So anyway this did not did not really go anywhere. U the there were other things in this bill, but this particular part didn't really um go anywhere. I don't know if they're going to look into it again or not, but clear to the final day um you know, they they started adding more parent input. Uh the parents had to have a say whether they could go. So it changed like five times and uh at the end of the day, it didn't go to get to closure on that particular thing. So, uh, these did pass in that bill. Um, professional employees organization access. Um, former schoolboard member Zurker has been pushing
074that for a long time. That did pass. I think that's, uh, you just have to open that up that they can speak as well. So, you're So, um, the K K2 suspensions was passed as you see 3315 to one. Um that was basically for 2024. Uh Brett Richards and Dr. Rickley and everyone was saying this is not a good bill and they passed it anyway. And then people started again from outstate more started complaining that what are we going to do with the disruptive kids. So that changed over the objections of Senator McKenna. um just so it wasn't um you know you had to be careful who you're suspending and how you're suspending. You can do it now but you have to have interventions and some other things going on. I won't get into all
075that. Um Senator War had a cleanup bill. Senator Santino the educational savings plan bill is now can be used for um apprenticeships and K12 private schools. That's a federal law. So that was kind of a cleanup too. Uh whether you you think that's right or wrong, that is the federal law now. So that was the other big um um now I know Marcus you just said about Senator Roundry, great guy. He's been very helpful to the school district, always open. Um but he did have a bill that we opposed strongly and other people did too on the IEPs that to get every parent had to sign off on the IEPs. right now and the process the way I understand it is you get the IEP, you can go in and talk about it, but you
076can't write your own IEP or it'd be a nightmare for all the different things going on. So anyway, that he tried amending that bill 937 on onto the onto a bigger bill that then caught the eye of everybody and he basically couldn't get it passed because same thing. This was a this was truly a lobbying win on that because we like I say we sent letters, we called three times I think we did that plus calls. I know uh um Speaker Arch called the senators were texting them. We're doing all sorts of different things. This really could have been a huge unfunded mandate and that I think caught a lot of it too. Uh learning community that they can use some of their funds to build or buy a building. Um color additives is that
077RFK stuff I assume. I don't know how you follow that but school lunches. and then uh substitute teacher certification that they don't have to take the human relations training requirement. So, um but some of these, like I say, these are not earthshattering things. They're just things that want to get done. This is one on the lids, Senator Von Giller, about three weeks before the end of the session, um all the school lobbyists and all the government lobbyists kind of got together. Senator Von Gillan wanted to talk to everybody and say these lids are coming, tell us how we can tighten it up. I'll give him credit that he asked, but so he talked to the League of Municipalities, the schools, and the counties and just their representatives, not all the lobbyists, but anyway, there's a
078huge lobbying campaign against this um on on the the U lids. So, what they ended up doing is putting a twothirds majority vote to exceed a property tax request. This is done on late on select file where you don't really have a time to, you know, it's almost worse trying to put something on final reading, but you can't. So, on select file, so this is like we're going to do this no matter what. So, this is what they ended up with. Uh the joint public hearing is going to be moved to prior to budgets instead of getting yelled at after your budget. This would be prior to that. Somebody somebody has to be there and attend. And I think Brett, we're checking into this. This is 2027, right? 20 We got a year. >> Yeah.
079So it's it's not that big a change, but this is the postcard thing, you know, and it's they wanted to do something So that's what it is. The carry forward provision though. Um that's that's pretty much I I was confused on that one. That one you cannot carry forward and you want to talk about that a little bit. >> Yeah, that and we've done it I think call it the right way with that. We have not passed resolutions to use an to grab the property tax authority and then keep it. um we've just grabbed it when we've needed it and then used it where other districts are passing it every year and they're keeping that authority up. Well, they just got rid of that like we thought they would >> at some point. >> Is
080it like use it or lose it type of deal? It force you to almost want to spend it though, wouldn't it? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Whatever. But anyway, that's uh that's what they got going. So, that was kind of at least something where they're sticking their fingers. And this applies really to schools, counties, and cities. um not some of the smaller subdivisions, but the schools um uh this 1219 was the lid bill we're talking about. Uh basically, you could have just had a lid bill, the 2% and that's it. No exemptions, no nothing. Um so it didn't pass, so that's good. None of this did. The other one that we defeated that I thought was good, this is tough because you do so many bond elections. Senator Holcraftoft is school bond election requirements that didn't
081get out of committee, but that was the weird one where you have to had 50.1% uh approval or something. I I don't know those qualified to cast in a prior in a prior uh race that it's just screwing with school bonds. So, none of that stuff really passed and that was very very good. Uh again, because but some of these things, like I say, if they introduce them, they're coming back. The people that oppose that all the time is is the uh the builders. They're like and Von Giller and Senator Von Giller is a former builder, but anyway, they really come in and oppose that because then everybody's bids would be at the same time and you'll all be competing against all your competitors that are building schools. So, it doesn't make sense. So, staggering
082them out is a better thing to do. But anyway, this uh Brandt and Hansen are both gone, but I'm sure somebody will take up this mantle. One thing we didn't put on here though, reminded me though uh Senator Anderson had a constitutional amendment on valuations would be frozen. So all our valuations would have been frozen and it it didn't he prioritized that bill. It really didn't get out of it wasn't heard. Speaker Arch didn't schedule it. U Speaker Arch to his credit it's tough being a speaker because you want to try to schedule all these priority bills but some of them just don't have legs and they don't have you don't have the votes here. So, he caught some grief by some people and um but I thought he did a great job not scheduling
083things. Sometimes that's the best thing he can do. Anyway, so with that um I was reading today, like I say, what's going to what we do the summer there's interimm studies. We're going to continue to meet candidates and and and watch those things. Um go to, you know, a lot of fundraisers and stuff. if you got to do that to stay in the so you can connect with these people. Uh the other thing though too if you've been looking at the Examiner or Flatwater Free Press some of these articles you know Governor Panin has said again he's going to cut spending and on the state level that means he's going to put these lids. I mean I'm telling you at some point they're going to try to get those done. Um because Senator Von Giller
084just in one of those articles says, "Well, it's like we're filling up a bucket of cat and it just keeps flowing out the bottom. Like there's a hole at the bottom." Um so some of those attitudes there are, you know, like, well, we haven't got any credit. We put $1.7 trillion dollar or billion dollars into the school funding, you know, and we're not really seeing any property tax reductions and they're not getting a lot of attention for doing that. So they say, "Well, we have a marketing issue or something." But there's others saying, "Well, we keep putting it in and we all keep, you know, set it spending it." But part of that is they keep changing it every year. Let it kind of work is what I would say. But whatever they're going to
085do what they're going to do, but when I read that today, it's like, okay, here we go. And that's assuming he wins election, re-election. Uh but anyway, so that's kind of still going to be the theme amongst a lot of people. Not everybody, of course. And he also wants to change the cloer rules. That'd be a big that would be a big mistake in a unicame roll, I think, but whatever. So it's 33. If it goes down to 30, that would be a big big change. So they want to do that as well. Uh it hasn't been done in a long time, but you never know. So uh those are the kind of things we're watching. will keep and that and that's all you can do is sit and wait anyway like like Marcus says
086it's like a lot of them are just going home. I got to try to get elected and do whatever they're going to do. So um but anyway all in all I thought it was pretty good session and again I thought u we did see the value don't you think of when we were saying something to them finally. Uh, so that was good because sometimes is all you could do is give them information and and the uh oh the reading comprehension bill also on 1050. Not to get into that, but that was that Mississippi miracle. Well, when they're discussing all this, we're all the state of Nebraska is doing 14 of the 18 things anyway. I know we really don't need a miracle kind of thing going on, but it sounds good and you want to
087do all these things. So, I thought that was a lot of it, too, that they didn't really, you know, there's a lot of money in those political things like school choice and there's tons of money. So, people want to introduce those bills and get those done. And that's kind of the one of those things. So, they're they're tough to defeat sometimes. But, I thought, like I said, we did a great job and um the letters and the, you know, timely. So, but anyway, that's all I've got. Tim, I I wanted to thank you and I bet there's probably questions from the board, too, but I I just wanted to thank you. Uh we went in knowing this would be a tough session. The state had uh almost a $500 million hole. It swelled uh almost
088$700 million. Even after they went into cost cutting mode, they found another $72 million there. They have to go back and and fill at some point, either special session or more than likely next January. So, we knew it would be tough. We knew 1050 was going to be a challenge. as late as a couple of days before the session ended. I I thought it was going to pass. 1219 caps. I really thought it had a shot. Uh I just want to give all the credit in the world to you. You've represented this district so well. Brett has represented the district extremely well. The board's heard me call out Dr. Siri. She was absolutely a player in 1050 and getting information in front of the senators. So, uh I I think you're being a little bit
089modest about saying it was an okay session. I think it was more than okay. Um, and our next step is to look at how these changes will impact board policy. That's typically one of the things we do with our our summer retreat is now that this bill is passed, what if anything within our catalog of school policy needs to be updated? So, we'll be working on that in the next couple of months. But again, just want to thank you for your leadership and representing us so well. >> Yeah. Well, we'll we'll take it. All right. Thanks. Uh, one thing, Taylor Gold is a huge help for me. He's a doctorate student. I mean, oh, and Dr. settles came down and got to meet him. A great guy for a cohort. They had a great cohort,
090great meetings. But anyway, Taylor Gold is a huge help on this stuff for me. He's getting his doctorate in public policy, but just smart as smart as a whip. We're happy to have him, but he does a lot of the the great followups on that you probably all don't see, but these guys see it week by week. We do an update and other things that get kind of in the weeds. So, >> yeah. Yeah, and I appreciate the the update and and keeping the administration up to speed on what's happening. As I think I've said so many times, it's you can read what's in a bill, but it's, you know, we're not down there every day, and those bills can change quickly. And uh so being having someone there that is uh that can be
091like ears to the ground and understanding how those bills are going to quickly change so that we can try to get ahead of it as quickly as we can uh helps. Um, and also say I think I said this at the end of the last year session too. You know, we are we are defensive on a lot of bills. Um, which makes sense by looking at the bills that are out there. You know, I'd like to use this time over the next, you know, 6 months or whatever if there is anything we would like to push our senators to advocate for us. Uh, you know, our administration and and our staff, they're the ones that understand these issues the most. you know, how can we help them write better bills? Um, you know, can we
092come up with ideas that we want a senator to uh champion for us down at the legislature next session? So, if there's areas where we feel like, hey, this is, you know, this uh bill or this law right now is a pain, here are tweaks that could make it better. Let's think through those and let's start chatting with senators to try to get those cleanups done because if it's a pain for us, it's probably a pain for others. was going to take the initiative on for a school district to uh probably start that conversation because those legislators don't know. They're not in it every day. Uh so if we have those ideas, uh let's let's uh have those conversations with the right people before the next session starts. So maybe we can get some stuff
093done that we're pushing on our side. >> Yeah, absolutely. And then uh on those Nebraska Association of School Boards, the Nebraska Council of School Administrators are phenomenal. Um, it's good to be a member of those. I'll tell you, they do they do a phenomenal job trying to manage all this and they got to come in and testify on some difficult situations. And I know a lot of times we're getting in there to testify as a group or whatever. But yeah, that and hopefully you've enjoyed that experience. Yeah. So, thank you. All right. Yep. You bet. Thank you for the opportunity. Moving on to item B under section 4, discussion and information items, the review of our 4,000 series of our board policy. Dr. Settles. >> Yep. It is April. So, we are in the process
094of reviewing the 4,000s which are personnel. So, uh, if you have any changes that you would like to see in there, please get in touch with myself or, um, Andrew and Becky. We've been working on those and we'll bring back recommendations to you at the next board meeting. >> Thank you, Dr. Settles. Uh, we have no public comment for items not on tonight's agenda. So, we'll move on to section six, our future board calendar. Lots of activities going to happen here in the next few weeks. Uh, April 24th, 2026, a liaison breakfast at PLC at 7:30 a.m. with Miss Butler. Uh, as was indicated in Dr. Rickley superintendent comments, April 25th, so this Saturday evening, uh, PLHs, the Monarch Prom. Uh, April 26th through the 29th, the NASB Federal Advocacy Conference in Washington DC, which
095will be attended by Mr. Madler, Miss Wit, Miss Wood, and Dr. Rickley. April 29th, 2026, the Education Academy graduation at 1:45 p.m. here at the central office. Uh, April 30th, 2026, the PLCS years of service and retirement celebration at a new location this this year. uh >> going down to the Beardmore Event Center down in Belleview. May 6th, 2026, the Health Academy and Zoo Academyy's senior ceremonies. May 8th, 2026, Project Search and YATP graduations. May 10th, 2026 will be commencement PLHs the Monarchs at 1 p.m. followed by the Titans at 5:00 p.m. again held at Baxter Arena. And then May 11th, 2026, the next board of education meeting at 6 p.m. here at the central office. Seeing no further business before the board, I will adjourn adjourn the Pavilion Lista Community Schools Board of Education
096meeting for April 22nd, 2026 at 7:19 p.m. Thank you all.