001All right, good evening and welcome. I would like to call to order the April 13th Board of Education meeting for the Papillion-La Vista Community Schools and ask you all to please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, As we begin, I'd like to call your attention to the Nebraska Open Meeting Laws, which are posted at the entrance to the to the room. And as we move into Section 1, um please call roll. Ms. Wood. Here. Mr. Bailey. Here. Ms. Witt. Here. Ms. Butler. Here. Mr. Madler. Here. I'd like to make a motion to excuse Mr. Lotus from tonight's meeting. Second. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Ms. Witt. Yes. Ms. Butler. Yes. Mr. Madler.
002>> Yes. Ms. Wood. Yes. Okay, we'll move on to Section 2 in the agenda, the communications, and at this time I will turn it over to Dr. Rickley for our favorite part of the meeting, recognitions. Thank you, Ms. Wood. You are correct, it is one of our favorite things to do around here. So, if you're a first-time attendee at a board meeting, or if you've been here multiple times, you'll know that one of the things that we value is recognizing, recognizing staff, recognizing families, recognizing students that have done something to bring honor upon themselves, their district, their program, or their school building. We have three separate groups that we'll be honoring tonight. So, just to kind of paint the picture for you, ladies and gentlemen, we'll do one of the the groups at a time.
003After I make the announcement about their particular accomplishment, I'll pause, I'll come up here, coaches and students, please join me. Moms, dads that are in attendance, anybody that's here, please feel free to come up and take pictures. You'll be recognized by your Board of Education. I'll come back and then bring the next group up. So, we are very excited to have three different groups with us this evening. Two of the three deal with powerlifting, a sport that is very near and dear to my heart. I was not much of an athlete in high school, but I was a powerlifter, which I'm sure I didn't even need to tell you, because by looking at my physique, I'm sure you're like, "Dr. Rickley was a powerlifter. I can see that in him." I don't know if it's
004the same as it was when I was in high school, but it consisted of three lifts. It was deadlift, it was squat, it was bench press. Is that still the basis of the deadlift? Okay. So, this is a huge sport in Nebraska. It has grown by leaps and bounds, and we have always been well represented by both Monarch and Titan students. And to have these state champions with us this evening is pretty darn amazing. The first group we'll be recognized tonight is from Papillion-La Vista High School. I think I saw uh Coach Mancuso uh in back there. So, Coach Mancuso, congratulations. We have two state champions from Monarch. We have Gabby Mancuso, we have Logan Holtmeier. Congratulations on your outstanding accomplishment. Please come down and be recognized by your Board of Education. >> [applause] [applause]
005>> Well done, Monarchs. We are very proud of you, and good luck as we finish up the last 6 weeks of school. The second group is from Papillion-La Vista South, also for the state powerlifting competition. And front and center, we have the two Titan coaches, Coach Pullman and Coach Wesson. Coaches, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to come down. Please make sure you come down and join our photo op. We have three outstanding individuals from Papillion-La Vista South, Taran Lewis, Mikey Johnson, David Beatty. Please come down and be recognized by your Board of Education. >> [applause] [applause] >> Well done, Titans. We are proud of you. And last, but by no means least, we have state DECA, and I think I saw Yes, we have both Coach Romi and Coach Michaela Stock,
006who represent uh the DECA group from Papillion-La Vista High School. We did have an individual uh an individual champion, as well as we received the 2025 Nebraska Distinguished DECA Chapter of the Year. Coaches, that is a direct reflection on you and your outstanding leadership. So, Michaela and Romi, well done. And the individual champion from Papillion-La Vista High School is our own Elsie Ryan. Elsie, come on down and be recognized by your Board of Education. >> [applause] >> Well done, Elsie. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Congratulations. >> Well done Monarchs. We are very proud of you. Again, good luck as you finish up the school year and with that Miss Wood, I will conclude our recognitions for the evening. Thank you. At this time we'll move on to item B, the student council report and this
007evening we have Lexi Souza from Papillion La Vista High School sharing with us. Welcome Lexi. Happy Monday. Nice to see you guys. I'm Lexi Souza. I'm the vice president of our student council. Obviously Maggie couldn't make it today, but she wishes she could be here. Um in March our student council members went to different elementary schools for Read Across America week and we got to read with the elementary students, talk with them for a little bit. That was great. We also held a blanket making event to make blankets for Project Linus. Our DECA chapter was just named distinguished chapter of the year and Elsie Ryan was the quick service as you know. 18 of the students who qualified at state and 10 of them are traveling to Atlanta to participate in the competition for nationals,
008which is exciting. We had another successful spring musical this season. It was Newsies and it was a fantastic. We also had a multicultural fair celebrating all the cultures of all the student population. We had food, music, dances. It was all great. We also thank central office leadership for attending and celebrating with us. Um our unified basketball team together Papillion La Vista and Papillion South had another successful game. It was our turn to host and we had a packed gym to celebrate and cheer with our teams. We um we're also recognized as unified distinguished high school, which is great. We had additional path rally this year hosted by the Leadership Academy to celebrate DECA, multicultural fair, Educators Rising, which is also nice and all the programs were incorporated. And today was also the start of our
009military spirit week when we recognize in April all the military children in our school and around our community. There was appreciation breakfast for families on the April 7th and a military signing day on the 8th. That's all I got for you today. Thank you. Those reports really are valuable. I think it for one thing makes us all very proud of what's happening in our schools, but you know, keeps us informed and and so much going on. So, thank you. We'll move on now to item C, reports. First of all, Dr. Rickley, superintendent's report. Thank you very much, Miss Wood, members of the board. For the members of the audience that are with us this evening, thank you for joining your Board of Education. For those that may be watching online, we appreciate your participation and
010your involvement with your board and your school district. First off, wanted to welcome staff, students and families back from what amounts to be the last major break of the year. Friday everybody was off. Monday students were off, staff returned for professional development. Doesn't seem possible that we're we're now down to the last 6 weeks of the school year. The school year has gone by impossibly fast, but we're going to finish strong. It's going to be a great end of the school year and just pleased hopefully everyone had an opportunity to recharge the batteries with friends and family over the long weekend. We've had several celebrations the last couple of weeks since our last board meeting. First of all, we had a celebration at Anderson Grove Elementary School. They're celebrating their 40th year anniversary. That was
011last Monday actually. They did an open house with having the students off staff were there of course, but [snorts] we had a terrific turnout of former teachers, former students, former community members, former principals. I counted at least three or four former principals from Anderson Grove. So, it was a great celebration for our building. And since Anderson Grove was renovated in the not too distant past, just seeing the smiles of the people that knew the building as it looked, you know, 10, 20, 30 years ago or more. So, a great celebration of Anderson Grove and the fighting quail kingdom. So, Also wanted to announce that we have several celebrations that have occurred and will occur in celebration of April, month of the military child. As we know around here this this is a really special place
012and one of the things that makes this a really special place is our military families. First of all, I want to thank our military families who give so very much in defense of this great country of ours. They're constantly moving. They rarely stay in one place more than two or three years if even. And right along the sacrifices that the men and women make are their families, the spouses and the children. So, April is a celebration of that. We've got several things coming up. We were fortunate enough last week Governor Pillen had reached out to Dr. Rippy and Bellevue and myself and asked the two of us to attend a proclamation at the state capital again recognizing military children, month of the military child, which is the month of April. So, that was a great
013opportunity for us to to work a little bit with the governor and provide some much needed recognition for the men and women of our country that have sacrificed so very much. Right along those same lines, one of the things that we're doing in addition to the individual school level events, Hickory Hills doing something on Wednesday, muffin for the military for example. We're trying something slightly different this year. We're doing a military signing day ceremony at both high schools. Monarch did theirs last week. We had five young men who are committing, who are enlisting in the armed forces. I believe three of the five were Air Force, remaining two were United States Army. We had staff there. We had family there. We had members of the military. What an amazing opportunity to recognize these these in
014this case five young men. Now more than ever we need smart, dedicated, passionate people answering our nation's call. It's a dangerous world out there and for people to set aside their personal interests for a period of time, sometimes their entire career such as Colonel Bailey to my left, um gave basically their their entire career in defense of this country. That's a pretty amazing thing. On the 20 20 29th of this month. Had to put my cheaters on. The 29th of that of this month we will replicate that event at Papillion La Vista South. I don't know what the numbers will be like. We always kind of assumed since this was the very first year we were doing this that the numbers would be small. My guess is each passing year this event will get bigger
015and bigger and certainly want to honor those students that are entering our nation's armed forces. Also want to thank Dr. Settles for the phase teacher awards. This is an event that many of us around the table are familiar with. Bob and Karen Phase are long time district boosters. Bob was a Papillion La Vista High School graduate. Karen's actually Springfield Platteview, but we love her anyway. Every single year they donate several thousand dollars, $100 gift cards for one teacher in every building. It's kind of a surprise event that the principal selects the teacher. They come over. Bob and Karen welcome them. Bob wasn't able to make it this year, but it's a wonderful recognition of teaching excellence in this school district because each and every one of those teachers that come over here for that small
016token of gratitude is making a difference in our classrooms and in our community. So, wanted to thank Dr. Settles for hosting the event. I doubt Bob and Karen are watching tonight, but if you are, we love you and we are so very grateful for your support. And finally, just wanted to remind the community we have the rare board reschedule. This doesn't happen very often, but three board members and myself will be attending a professional development conference sponsored by the Nebraska Association for school boards. So, as you will see on the board agenda and I know not everybody, particularly those watching at home, has the agenda at their fingertips, but what would ordinarily be the April 27th meeting, the fourth Monday of the month, will become April 22nd. So, again, we don't like to get in
017the habit of changing board meetings around here. We like predictability to encourage the public input, but because we were going to have three of our board members and the superintendent out, we thought it necessary. So, that's all I have for now. Thank you and with that I'll conclude my superintendent's report. Thank you, Dr. Rickley. Let's move on now to board member reports. I have real short one. We had a maybe meeting last Wednesday. Um so, smaller group, but we all went through everything that was going on. We got a really nice rundown of everything going on in the legislative front by Matt Belka. So, and I think he's actually going to going to try to get him to come back sometime in May cuz we're done. Maybe meetings are done now until September, but I
018think he's going to try to come back in May and meet with us online and kind of go through everything that is, you know, as it all played out cuz I know even since when he spoke to us, I know you just gave us an update and I I appreciate that. Everything has kind of changed, but really good. Seems like most of the metro area school districts are all kind of doing the same thing we are. They're all kind of looking at 6 weeks of school left-ish and talking about the, you know, all the celebrations that go along with that. So, but anyway, that was our last Wednesday. Thank you. Well, as I said earlier, I think the student council reports are important and at one of the recent board meetings where Papillion La Vista
019South High School shared they were going to have their blood drive. So, I did go participate in the blood drive at South that the student council put on. They did a great job. Uh chatted with me while I was giving blood to make me feel very comfortable. A great group of kids. And you know, one of the things I didn't realize, one of the gentlemen running the drive said they hate it when summer comes because so much of the blood that they get anymore comes through their high school drives. And in the summer when they're those high schools aren't putting on drives, they really notice the difference. So, kudos to the student council and I know that happens at Monarch as well, but those kids are doing great work for our community. All right, we'll
020move on now to committee reports. First off, buildings, grounds and finance. We met on Friday. We continue to explore potential options for middle school ground purchase. It was part of the last bond for us to buy land for potential fourth middle school. So, we continue to explore our options. Probably at some point in the near future there'll be an agenda item on what those options are. We also talked through transportation which will be on tonight's agenda and then the tax equalization review commission findings which is also on tonight's agenda. All right, human resources and student services. Uh, thank you. We had two events. Our first meeting was on March 27th where we met with the PLEA which is the Papillion La Vista Education Association leadership. We They presented to us their findings when they do
021their um uh, survey before we do the contract and we heard about the vote and the review process that they go through and heard about the open-ended questions and the responses to those. It was a great discussion. I want to thank you for for doing that with us. That was very informative. I hope we can continue to have those meetings. Retention was one of the big things that we talked about and that is one of our strategic planned items and it's still on there going to be for the next strategic plan. And then we met again tonight just before the board meeting to discuss some of the corrections that need to be discussed and presented when we do the administrative package and the superintendent salary package and that will be on tonight's agenda. Thank you.
022And finally curriculum and Americanism. Yes, thank you. We met last Thursday and although we had a number of agenda items we spent our entire hour. We also talked about the middle school land purchase went through some of that um Mr. Richards was there and gave us some great information there helped kind of clarify some things. I know for me personally about you know what we're looking at and where exactly they were where the locations are. And then we spent a larger even larger portion talking about the transportation update as well. Again, really appreciate everything that you and Dr. Villarreal brought and we will be hearing more about that later tonight. Okay, thank you. Before we move on I'm just going to remind everyone that public comments for agenda items you'll be invited up to the
023podium when we get to the agenda item which you're wanting to share about. Just a reminder that you'll have 3 minutes to share your information and um you'll just need to introduce yourself and the city from which you come. So, that will I'll call you up in a little bit. We move on to action items section three action by consent. I'll make the motion to approve the action by consent items as presented. Second. I have a motion by Mr. Madler and a second by Ms. Witt to approve the action by consent items as presented. Roll, please. Ms. Witt. Yes. Ms. Butler. Yes. Mr. Madler. >> Yes. Ms. Wood. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Motion carried. Okay, our next item is addressing administrative salaries for the 2006-2007 school year and we'll turn that over to Dr. Settles.
024Thank you so much. So, yes just a reminder and thanks for the discussions with subcommittees and members individually over the last couple of weeks. So, just historically we've used the total package percent to recommend salaries. So, as you'll recall earlier this year you approved the teacher negotiated agreement at a 3.5% total package and we recommended to you 3.25% total package for admin. As you're aware just a lot of different pieces that go into this including salary, insurance, education movement, FICA, Medicare, life insurance, long-term disability and retirement all of those pieces of the cost. So, following presenting this at the last meeting we did discover that the calculation being used for retirement was inadvertently the previous retirement contribution. So, we got that fixed and visited with the necessary subcommittees before coming back to you today. So,
025on the admin total package you will see that it is still the 3.25% but the new base would be $75,800 for the admin. With that being put into place and knowing that the retirement contribution is now being set every fall we've just made some notations to be sure that that's not a piece that we would miss in the future since that will now have an update each year whether it's updated to stay the same or updated to have one of the other possible calculations. So, we did want to make sure we said thank you to Mr. Madler and HR subcommittee to for digging into these numbers with us and making sure that what we have for you to vote on tonight is correct. Do we have any questions for Dr. Settles or any anything more
026to discuss? I'll make a motion to approve the certified administrator classified directors and assistant superintendent average package increase of 3.25. I'll second. I have a motion by Ms. Witt and a second by Mr. Bailey to approve the administrative salary as presented. Roll, please. Ms. Butler. Yes. Mr. Madler. Yes. Ms. Wood. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Ms. Witt. Yes. Motion carried. Thank you. Yep, similarly to admin we start with taking a look at what are the percentages for the teacher negotiated agreement and we are at 3.5% for year one and 3.49% for year two. So, the subcommittee considers that as well as quite a bit of other data looking across the state of Nebraska in proposing Dr. Rickly's contract. Similar to what I just shared with you we did fix the retirement calculation in that. So, that's
027been updated now and you'll see that we remain at a 3.002% for Dr. Rickly's total package uh recommendation. So, the change that you'll see there is the salary is proposed to be at $283,557.70. I'll make a motion to approve the three-year superintendent's contract with Dr. Andrew Rickly at a salary of $283,557.70 for the 2026-2027 year. Second. I have a motion by Ms. Witt and a second by Ms. Butler to approve the superintendent's contract as um presented. Any discussion? Roll, please. Mr. Madler. Yes. >> Ms. Wood. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Ms. Witt. Yes. Ms. Butler. Yes. Motion carried. Okay, moving on to item D review policy 3000 business services. So, Mr. Richards you're up. Yes, we have reviewed policy 3000s and have found no changes are necessary. I'll make a motion to acknowledge the review of
028series 3000 business board policies. Second. I have a motion by Mr. Madler and a second by Mr. Butler to approve excuse me Mr. Bailey. I changed your name. Sorry. Sorry. Had a combo there. Oh, I was doing so good too. All right. So, a motion by Mr. Madler and a second by Mr. Bailey to approve the changes or no no changes to the series 3000 business policies. Please take the roll. Ms. Wood. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Ms. Witt. >> Yes. Ms. Butler. Yes. Mr. Madler. >> Yes. Motion carried. Okay, we're ready to move into section four and at this time I would invite Ms. Barton to the podium to share with us. I want to thank you for drafting transportation changes. Seeing a formal structure for the middle school transportation is a great first step.
029This proves what this community has known for years. Secondary transportation is operationally feasible when it is prioritized. In your draft the proposed parent pay options range from $1,185 to nearly $1,700 per student. To be very clear these numbers are not a solution. They are a financial barrier designed to exclude families. For many families that equals a mortgage payment or several months of groceries. That is not equitable access to education. To put this in perspective according to Education Week 2024 article nationally 84% of public school districts provide transportation at no cost to parents. Only a small minority roughly 5% charge a fee for transportation. We pride ourselves on supporting military families but there's nothing supportive about telling a military family that transportation is a parent responsibility or that it'll cost nearly $1,700 per kid. Gretna manages
030a parent pay option for $75 per middle school student a year with a $225 family cap. That's less than your proposed $250 deposit per student. Bellevue provides free transportation beginning at the 2-mile mark by prior- prioritizing it within their budget. These districts are direct peers. If our neighbors can do it, we can, too. This leads to another issue, transparency. Over the last month, I have asked for public records, sent clarifying questions, and requested to observe the subcommittee meetings. Every attempt at transparency was met with resistance, delays, denials, and I have a timeline of those emails and responses if you would like to see them. The lack of transparency is evidence that you may be trying to develop a transportation policy that is dead on arrival. It creates the perception that this program is being structured
031to fail. I want to address the draft 35 student minimum per route. We are watching closely to ensure the district doesn't design unrealistic routes or set outrageous parent pay rates just to reach predetermined conclusion of failure. If a neighborhood has, say, 20 students instead of 35, use common sense, please. Consolidate the routes and stops, and work with the transportation company to optimize the routes. Let's be clear. If high fees and unrealistic minimums result in low enrollment, that isn't a lack of interest. It's a lack of accessibility. We will not stand by if you attempt to use manufactured barriers to justify discontinuing this effort, only to eventually throw your hands up and say, "Well, we tried." We aren't looking for a performative attempt. We are looking for a functional solution. This plan should include our high
032schoolers, as well. Your report lists them as a challenge, but transportation is just as important for students in high school. Regarding the timeline, your draft shows applications opening May 12th with a deposit due May 31st. We need information now regarding pickup times, routes, and if deemed unavoidable by you, parent pay fees so families can plan and sign up for bussing. That information must be available before enrollment opens in less than a month. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we're going to go ahead now and move into discussion four or section four discussion and information items. And our first one is policy 5701 transportation from our business services, Mr. Richards. Uh thank you, Ms. Wood. Good evening, everybody. Um you know, we I think the last time we had a public discussion of this matter was at
033a board retreat last fall. Um as we continue to kind of have the conversation and look at ways that we can try to help here. Uh PLC operates 17 general education buses routes now. So, this is our current program. Uh seven routes serve middle school students under criteria um or over that 5 4 miles. Uh cost per route right now uh before the fuel surcharge is $77,300. Um next year we'll jump again up to $81,200. Um cost per year regular transportation >> [clears throat] >> We've seen a big increase in transportation uh over the last 3 years, whether we're trying to uh get a new contract uh with service provider or um navigate our current policies, uh making safe routes for students, um and crosswalks areas, things that aren't there under new construction. Uh mostly,
034that's what we run into right now under the current policies. So, you can kind of see over 30% over the last couple years uh in transportation. This year I expect to be even higher uh due to the fact that um we've added a few routes at Prairie Queen, as well. Um so, the it's not a cheap uh transition here to for regular transportation uh to occur uh for school districts, and it's been heavily cost burden. I wish somebody would show the legislature these numbers that the uh we see this type of increase uh with other things, as well. With the inflation we're seeing in in the community. Middle school uh possible expansion uh has of course been a topic that we've talked about. Uh current discussion includes two groups. You know, those that live south
035of Highway 370 uh inside of 4 miles and north of Highway 370 uh within 2 to 4 miles. So, just to look at a capacity of a bus with two two middle school riders per seat, uh that's 48 students in our normal bus uh that we have. So, that divided out by the cost per bus is $1,692 per year per student um with no district help, with just the parent paying in that. Um the average secondary ridership right now is around 36 students. Uh so, that's kind of where we sit at this particular time with our regular routes. Uh key considerations that we've talked about um and have discussions of is timeline for a possible launch. Um good discussions there. There's a lot more involved in this than um just rolling this out, as we've
036found, uh from technology um implications uh with our staff to staffing inside our building with uh transportation. Um right now we basically have a half-time assistant that handles most of the communication and the registration of routes uh for students. Um major thoroughfare identification considerations, pay-to-ride implementations outside of middle school. Um so, you know, you got ninth and 10th graders, as well, 11th and 12th that they don't drive. Um technology uh as I said, registration system and infrastructure requirements in the district, and then staff capacity. Next steps, we'll continue to work with First Student on required bus driver availability and route feasibility. Um review current transportation contracts for expansion provisions, possibly look at another company proposal in the meantime um to see if we can come in a little bit less expensive than what we're seeing
037with First Student right now. Um finalize cost modeling and fee structure options um based on that uh per rider fee uh that I showed you earlier at a full cost um of pay-per-ride. And then develop and deploy an interest survey for parents to gauge demand and willingness to pay. I think that's probably a big step for us next uh is reaching out to parents that are eligible and finding out their interest uh or want in the service. Um and then we would go from there. So, questions, comments out of the board? Um well, first thing I I just wanted to to ask the question um cuz I know Ms. Barton brought this up. Um Gretna, I'm not sure, like I said, that's fantastic they're able to afford to do something like that. Bellevue, they own
038their own fleet, correct? Uh the bus fleet, right? So, they're not uh contracting with someone, they have that they own those buses. Correct, yeah. Okay. So, I mean, to try to compare what we're trying to do with Bellevue, I think is is not um not comparable uh with any other district, I don't think, just because I don't think there is another district that um that owns their own uh bus fleet. Is that correct? Everybody else is uses someone First First Student, Zoom, something like that that's the major district >> there are a few still in the metro that have their own other than Bellevue, yes. >> All right. Your your large class A's, as a general rule, contract uh for example, uh Omaha Public Schools contracts with Zoom, Millard Public Schools contracts with Zoom, Westside
039Community Schools, when I was still with them, contracted with Chief Bussing. So, uh I think you Bellevue's the outlier, and it's one of the few class A's, at least in the metro area, that owns their own fleet. You might see smaller districts that have their own fleet. I think Springfield No, Springfield Platte View uses No, they contract with them. Uh they use First Student, as well. So, so I think it is more common than not to contract rather than own your own fleet, Mr. Mr. Bailey. Okay. All right. Yeah, that I mean, I just wanted to make sure um that I understood that one. Um and then uh I know we talked, you know, quite a bit about um you know, one, everything that we that you showed up here was um you know, full
040parent pay. Um and I know we discussed in our subcommittee, and I'm sure you did, as well, as is, you know, possibly what could we do as a district to offset some of that, you know, a percentage of that. Um have we looked at any kind of percentages and what we could possibly afford as a district without cutting into um other programs that we already have, without having to remove another program, or to, you know, to shrink another program. I don't know a better way to put it. Yeah, I think, you know, during our subcommittees, we looked at dividing that number for the board to be able to see how much parent pay per kid at a 60% level, 70% level, 80% level 90% level is just some examples. Um And you're saying And you're
041saying about the parent pay, the 60 70, okay. >> And then the district costs would be on top of that. So, anything you take away from that number of 1,900 and some per rider becomes a district responsibility. Um at each of those percentages, we broke out how much that would cost. I think at 60%, we were just over $24,000 per bus uh the district would be responsible for. Um so, when you're talking uh you know, four to six buses, you can do the math on that. Um you know, almost $25,000 per bus. Um I think even with the the full ride per pay proposal, um you know, those buses probably won't be at capacity. So, you you'd have some fees there, as well. So, if you had a bus of 40, um and eight students
042weren't on that bus to pay, you would have those fees uh as a district, as well, 1,900 and some per rider. And these buses we don't have just a bus that they they don't just go to the middle schools or just the elementary. They do both routes, correct? They take Currently, yes, that So that's the way it works. They they go around, pick up elementary and then drop off and then go back and pick up secondary. >> of that. Yeah, we go secondary first and then elementary after. Sorry, yeah. Okay. So that we are using buses for both elementary and secondary. Yes, per route. We don't have an We don't have enough buses or enough people to drive or enough money to have a individual bus for each you know, for like just elementary or
043just um >> Correct. Yeah, that's why we're able to only, you know, we have 17 regular routes uh that we do. Uh each of those routes have um an elementary uh just about all of them have an elementary route first and then a either a middle school or secondary drop off and pick up. Okay. All right. And you talked about the pricing if it were at capacity, but knowing that most likely they wouldn't be at capacity would mean we were contributing um uh to the fee. Um we also talked about just the complexity of running it. I know there was the request was to see what the drop-off times and pick-up times would be and where those routes would go. But can you walk through just the logistics of how we first need to get
044the information of who is interested to then build the routes that we would serve? Yeah, I think, you know, technology, thanks to the technology department for helping us out to get us an area um a list of kids that who would be eligible under those conditions that we laid out there with parameter-wise. Um and you know, just that, you know, it took over 2 weeks to put a program in to pull those names to us. So it does take a lot of time uh to get some of that information put together. Um so yeah, I mean from the standpoint once we decide, um you know, when we get the parent surveys back and those types of things, if we decide to go uh then there's a lot of uh things in the background with you
045know, trying to hire that many drivers for the company uh depending on how many registrations we have. Uh and then that all involves training. Usually about 8 weeks is what I was told by First Student uh back when we did Prairie Queen uh earlier this fall and had an excess number of uh students going to those and we were short two routes uh with those um families. So it took us 8 weeks uh to bring drivers on and train um and get them hired uh for the job. So it's pretty pretty uh comprehensive uh to do that. For both, you know, any companies we use it's tough. And we're under contract with our current uh provider for another year through the 26-27 school year or >> Through 27-28. Through 27-28. Okay. Thank you. But we
046could add it into the RFP which is going out next year or Yeah, we could. Um so we've been doing RFP, request for proposal during the 27-28 school year uh for other companies to join in. You could add parent pay into that, too, as an option. I think that's probably what Millard did um to get that price down a little bit for Millard's. I think Millard is $1200 uh per year and if they pay it up front, it's just over 900 uh per year or 675, I think, or 35 per semester as an example. Would you want to share, Dr. Veriyal, the your thoughts about gathering the survey that you're we're contemplating sending out and what that would look like? Uh sure. So the survey that we're considering and we've been having conversations about would
047primarily be to gauge uh like Brett said in his presentation, to gauge demand and then to gauge willingness to pay. Um so those two factors would be a big part of the conversation. We would work closely with our technology team to identify the students that would be eligible with the given criteria that we're working on developing. But like Brett said, that criteria is still not set in stone. We're still trying to identify some of those areas where students are living uh just inside that 2-mile where there may be bus stops nearby, so they may be eligible or what implications that would have uh with major thoroughfares because we would want our transportation policy to be consistent across pre-K-12. And so looking at major thoroughfares at K-6, what might that look like at 7-8? So identifying
048which students would be eligible once we have that criteria in place and then we would look at demand and willingness to pay uh basically to determine whether or not it is in the district's best interest to put the infrastructure in place to develop the program. Uh like Brett said, there are several pieces to the infrastructure that would need to be developed internally before we would be able to move forward with that. And so if we issue the survey and we have a really limited number of people that say that they are interested and willing to pay, then it doesn't make sense for the district to then develop the infrastructure. But if we have enough students to where running those routes would be feasible and like Brett shared, capacity on a bus is 48 students, so
049we would need approximately 36 to 48 students per middle school. Uh and if the survey comes back and tells us that we have somewhere close to 36 to 48 students per middle school interested and willing to pay, then we can work on developing the infrastructure. And are we focusing the survey on middle school at this time? At this time with with the amount of time and energy that goes into identifying those eligible students, we would narrow the scope to specifically middle school at this time. And it would be depending on when the survey goes out, we would be looking at next year's middle schoolers, not this year's middle schoolers. Dr. V, this is getting pretty far down the weeds and you may not have this at your fingertips, but I know one of the things
050that that caught the attention of board members during the subcommittee conversation was uh the pick-up and drop-off times. Do you happen to have those at your fingertips? I do have that available here. So one of the things that we looked at in pulling together a report of what our current reality was for bussing here in PLCS is we looked at what time our secondary students are picked up in the morning and then what time they're dropped off at home in the evenings or in the afternoons. Uh and so I have two numbers to share for that. For our secondary students, the median first pick-up time, so if we look at all 17 first pick-up times, the median was 6:55 a.m. Uh if we look at pick-up times across the board, so for every student on
051the route, not just the first student, then our median pick-up time was 7:05 a.m. Looking in the afternoon, uh our overall, so looking at every student on the route, not just the last student, our overall median drop-off time was 3:55 p.m. And then looking at only the last student per route on the secondary routes, our median drop-off time was 4:06 p.m. So looking at 6:55 to 7:05 in the morning and 3:55 to 4:06 in the afternoon. I I appreciate that. I I think that's germane to the conversation, particularly the morning pick-up because I I think some parents, and as a divorced dad that that dropped his kids off at both middle school and high school, I I know that when you got to get to work time of pick-up matters. Drop-off is maybe a little
052less critical, but pick-up pick-up matters. Um and I know in digging through the district archives and talking to former district administrators, the district did offer this, a parent pay option, in the '90s. And and it slowly died out. And again, this predates all of us. Full disclaimer, I'm not sure that a program approach from 30 years ago is germane to today, but I I do think that there are lessons to be learned. When I asked this administrator, why did the program die off? And she said it was two things. One, the pick-up and drop-off time generally didn't meet parents' or kids' expectations and parent interest slowly died out. And the second thing was cost that most parents, when they see the price tag uh with all due respect to some of our other districts like
053Gretna that are finding a way to subsidize it, there's a lot of parents that when they see the price tag, it's like, I'll figure it out. It's it's just it's too big of a burden for for me to stroke a check for $600, $1000. So that is something I think for us to be mindful of is we've tried this before. Granted, it was 30 years ago. Full disclaimer. But because of the drop-off and pick-up times coupled with the parent cost, it did not succeed long-term. So take take that and do whatever you wish with it. And so what are the timelines on next steps? Um timelines? Um well, we need to nail down costs uh and have give parents an idea of uh what the board's looking at for fees uh per rider. And then
054I think putting out something very close to what we're thinking uh per rider is very important in that survey to get accurate data um from the parents back to say, oh, heck no, I can't afford that or yes, I I'd be willing to do that. Um and then I think uh we're talking about a first week of May survey to those parents uh based on that information. Those So those are the two immediate steps we look at. So the timeline that we had talked about before of trying to get this all done and started by August is I mean, we're there's trying to get everything, get the survey out, get the data back and then start talking about the infrastructure. This isn't I don't think this is going to we're going to be able to
055make an August deadline to get this all >> August would be really tough considering all the things that I talked about during the presentation as far as the infrastructure in place to pull this off that quick. Um, from you know, registration, electronic registration to collecting fees and organizing those things to uh the technology involved to make sure that we have the um kids that we want identified um as eligible. Um that part as well. I think that's there's more discussion to be had on that as you know being in the subcommittee uh meeting. Um you know, do we take those kids that are within that within 2 miles but close to the 2 4-mile radius. So, you know, that would help probably with the bus sizes and costs. Um, but where does that stop and
056where, you know, on the map. So, those will that'll be a critical decision that we need to make before um you know, be able to move forward. Do you know how long the bus ride will be for one of those students picked up at 7:05 before they reach their destination? I don't have that information in my report. >> Okay. I'm just curious. >> yeah, that has to do with how many kids are on the bus and getting picked up. >> Yeah. Um, or dropped off. Uh you know, of course, the more students that are um on the route, the longer it's going to take Okay. >> to do that. And you know, most of them are in the neighborhoods uh where a bus is picking up a route, so it goes fairly quickly. Uh when
057you're doing two in the morning, so what Christopher's talking about a 6:55 pickup that would be a secondary student. And we'd have all our secondary students dropped off by um you know, 7:30 at the latest cuz we got to go pick up secondary students and get them to school before, you know, 8:00 as well. So, like in a neighborhood you would say Rumsey Station area you would have identified then two three spots within that area? Do you have one spot that they all come to? How do how does that >> would you know, that that's one thing you bring up and Sue Anna will remember this and somebody Marcus. We talked about that a little bit at a retreat. I don't think it was the fall one of '25 but maybe the fall of one
058of '24 where we talked about um you know, maybe we have a hub for these kids to gather to try to you know, use our current bussing to pick up those kids and then take them to school but uh you know, our pick our start and end times are so close together. Um, number one. Number two I don't know very many people that want a group of middle school kids all in one place um before the bus gets there. Um probably not a good one supervised. So, that idea kind of got, you know, discussed and thrown out at that particular time. So, no, we would try to run it similar to what we do with our current routes now where we actually pick up in neighborhoods. Um there might be on a block there might
059be two pickups, you know. So, it Multiple stops. Yes, multiple stops throughout the route. Are there questions? I was just going to say I think this is really good information. We've been discussing it. Um I think that message is it's just going to take time to figure out. And it to find a plan I think that benefits families and taxpayers for the district. Yeah, I definitely need to think both of those when it comes to costs. I'm I'm not against the district subsidizing some of this but um you know, obviously really would like to know number, you know, what you know, what can we afford a number-wise as opposed to just a you know, a percentage. If if I say okay, 20% what is that number actually going to be so then we can say
060yes, we can handle that. No, we can't or something like that. Uh the other thing I don't none of us have mentioned, you know, I think I we've here we've mentioned in the subcommittees. You know, we're we're talking about this and doing this at a time where, you know, right now um you know, we're we're at war whether you call it a war or not with Iran and we've got gas prices that are going all over the place. So, you know, we're basing this off of what we know now. Um if we aren't able to do this until you know, say next January or something like that when we're able to start it what are those prices going to be and how much is that surcharge going to be so that, you know, um obviously
061that's got to be taken into consideration as much as we can. I don't think any of us can predict the future but that's that's got to be a thought as well. And that surcharge is anything over $2.50, right? The district is on the hook >> $2.50 is the base is the base price. Yeah. So, if we're at 310, we're going to pay 60 cents Yeah. >> on top of that. Yep. Yep. Okay. Okay, I think, you know, as Ms. Butler said, this is going to be a process that we want to continue to be thoughtful about and make sure that we do a good job. I would encourage board members to send questions as they continue to come up to the subcommittee to you know, to Mr. Richards so we can get questions answered and
062continue to move forward. And I appreciate you continuing to keep us informed as we move down the road here. Okay, we're going to move on to item B now, resolution of for Sarpy County Tax Equalization and Review Commission Appeal. Again, this is Mr. Richards. Thank you. Well, yeah, we had a little surprise and you know, we haven't seen much of this type of thing in Sarpy County versus maybe what Douglas County might see with their larger businesses um out there that could have a um Turk decision that can affect their property taxes of the past. So, basically what we had happen on is on February 24th, 2026 Sarpy County and JDHD Hotels, which is Embassy Suites and Courtyard Properties uh entered into agreement um for property taxes levied in '22, '23, '24, '25 uh for
063property valuations. Uh this was the result of the Tax Equalization and Review Commission, the Turk so to speak um finding that uh the assessed value by the county between um uh the assessed value uh by the county and the original and new appraisals were too high. Uh so, the county lost that hearing uh basically and resulting in a 1.55 million basically claim for property taxes overpaid uh during those years. Um rather than pursue litigation, uh the county and JDHQ Hotels entered into agreement. Uh it's here under the attached resolution that you have as 2026-060 um for the claims against uh the county and political subdivisions. So, basically, I mean, the county's a tax collector of whatever we levy. Right? So, that's the political subdivisions that whatever they levy and we're one of them. We're the
064major one, of course, schools are uh when it comes to property taxes. Um so, the and I have those amounts in the in the sheet there but it's basically comes to you know, 824,889.99 um for which the district is responsible for over those four years of taxes that came to us uh from that um company uh that need to go back to that company. So, basically this resolution is if we want to opt in to a credit back to that company versus them taking a lump sum of that amount from us. Um which makes a lot of sense to probably do it cuz we've already budgeted for this year. We don't know what our revenue's going to be this year. All of a sudden we got to lose $825,000 which is almost a cent you
065know, of property taxes. That's a lot. Um and try to get those uh paid back in terms of a credit. So, what that that would look like is yeah, it's kind of complicated here but basically that company will get a credit for the next 2 years on property tax payments of the amounts um from us it would be that amount of $824,899.99. For the other subdivisions, it's listed in the resolution. Um which comes out to over 1.5 million. So, they'll get a property tax credit for 2 years uh which would probably mean four uh installments to pay. It could go to three uh depending if the credit lasts that long for them. Um so, basically the next couple years you got to know that you're going to be short um four hundred and some thousand
066dollars in whatever you assess. Um it'll be credited back to that litigation or resolution uh versus us collecting. If that makes sense. Talking to KSB, this is the first time, you know, I've been through it and seen it at this level um to where it's you know, a major factor in what we're collecting revenue-wise. Um so, I I I think the advice we're getting from our lawyers right now, the the county did everything right. We want to make sure that happened because, you know, there somebody has to be accountable for the mix-up and you know, how much was collected. Um but they seem to have done everything right and that uh this resolution is in the best interest of our school district. I think that last point's important. Th- This this isn't involving malfeasance at
067the county level. This And it correct me if I'm wrong but as I'm trying to explain this to taxpayers, you know, people have questions cuz $800,000 even on a $150 million plus budget is a big number. It's not fundamentally different than a house that's been assessed at a particular rate by the county assessor. Call it 400,000. Somebody protested their valuation said, "No, I don't think it's worth 400,000. I've got comps that sold in my neighborhood that says it's only worth $375,000." There's a gap there. Fundamentally, the same principle applies here. Am I Am I correct, Mr. Richards? Yes, usually they can get those settled, you know, within the year on a resolution, but if you don't, you bring up a good point. The homeowner can go to this Turk uh and have a resolution. And
068this one's gone on for 4 years is the problem, so it's a larger amount. Uh cuz each year that valuation is um you know, escalated, so uh it's it's a bigger amount than we normally see. And the difficult part is is we didn't get an extra [snorts] 800 and what was the dollar 850,000, 825,000 than what we would have other otherwise because when we put in our property ask, we take into account just the total valuation that then gets distributed. So, if the valuations would have been correct at the time in '22, '23, '24, '25, we would have still gotten the same dollars. We would have gotten these 825. It just would have been spread out between all the other tax >> probably would have been just slightly higher. >> Yeah, and potentially additional state
069dollars could have come in because we would have had a lower assessed value. So, that's why the it's a it's it's more painful to to have these happen after the fact cuz now we're unable to um it doesn't go through then the Tiosa formula, which then calculates the state aid. Um which makes that painful. Have we gotten a sense if there are other large ones of these kind of in conversation at the county? Not not yet. I think I got to figure out a way to keep my eye on that you know, Turk agenda and see which companies are out there here in Sarpy County that are going through that process. So, that's something I'll work on here Got you. >> few weeks. And then question on this the two options. So, one is basically
070give them their money back now or to credit over the 2 years. They'll credit the company over the 2 years. >> Yeah, credit the company over the 2 years, so then the county just takes it out of what they will pay us um in our when they pay us the taxes that they collect. If we do the lump and put it in the budget would we then be able to add it to our tax ask? Whereas if we only do the credit for the next 2 years, it is not included in the ask. >> Well, you could include it in the ask Okay. knowing that it's not going to be there. Okay. That would be my advice. Yeah. Okay. Perfect. Since it's over 2 years, it would be roughly 400 and some thousand. >> Yeah.
071So, you'd put it as like a just an expected uh credit to the property taxes that we expect so that we're countering it in the budget. Correct. Okay. >> you know, we'll be transparent about that in the tax hearings. Yeah. That we'll lose this much amount. We'll lose this much this year and because of a Turk decision. Yeah. Um yeah. Okay. Thanks. So, is this something, Mr. Richards, that you want decided tonight or you're going to come back to us in the future and decide? Yeah, the county would need an answer here pretty soon. So, the plan would be to have a recommendation for you based on taking that option two at the next meeting for action. Any additional questions or comments at this time? Okay, if not, then we will move on to item
072C, the early literacy grant distribution and Dr. Siri. Yes, good evening. Uh so, tonight this presentation is the first of several that will happen over the next few years. Um but I wanted to update you on the literacy project that the district um started at the beginning of this school year and will be working on kind of throughout the next 5 years and perhaps even longer. So, really the purpose here, as you know and as you've heard at your liaison lunches, uh the district, our English language arts curriculum was up for evaluation and adoption. And we looked at a lot of our data and over time we realized our curriculum was not serving our students the way we had hoped that it would. Um so, we really started to begin to talk about do we
073need a whole evaluation of literacy? Um and so, we really wanted to um identify what the cause was and then figure out a long-term solution to ensure it wouldn't happen again and also to strengthen the curriculum to ensure that our kids got what they needed. Um we really recognized that literacy skills are the foundation of learning and that we it's crucial that all students be successful. So, our decision influencers for this literacy project was the fact that we were bringing in ELA and we wanted to make it stronger and strengthen that. Um at the same time, the Nebraska Reading Improvement Act passed, which is a state law that was inducted um in order to ensure that the early primary grades have strong reading literacy skills. And then of course, our strategic plan um and district
074goals were centered around ELA. You can also see there that as we began to make more data-informed instructions and had more data available to us, it answered more questions and helped us to really identify and narrow down uh what was happening with our literacy um curriculum. Um we also expanded professional development for all staff and we identified some ELA goals for um our curriculum specifically for this school year. Uh you can see there I captured some of the data that we used also to build this literacy project. Um some of it's from 2024 because that information we get um at the end of the year. Um some of it was from 2025. Uh but really we were looking at the number of students that needed I-RIPS or additional supports in the early grades as well
075as the number of students that were um proficient or requiring an intervention in reading. One of the things that kind of started to bubble up in the district and you've heard Dr. Rickly talk about it, too, was we also really started to pay attention to attendance and realized it's hard to learn if you're not at school all the time consistently and it's even more difficult if you're in an intervention and you miss several days of that intervention. So, we recognized that attendance was going to have to be a focus of this literacy project. Recognizing that um the district, the general fund, we would need additional funding, we began to talk about what are the other revenue resources that we had available to us. As far as connect competitive grants and then also a reallocation of
076funds that Dr. Rickly worked on with the learning community. However, whatever changes we made, we realized needed to be sustainable. We didn't want it to just be the length of a grant, recognizing we would need the grants funding to help us do the work, but then how do we sustain the results long-term? And so, we really began to talk about how do we build this into our current systems. And you can see there that a lot of it was going to come through our multi-tiered system of support, which is our intervention system for our students that are struggling and our um obviously our our general curriculum that serves, we hope, 85 to 90% of our kids. Uh along with that, we really wanted to build staff's capacity. Um with the Reading Improvement Act, um there
077was really strong research that was used to show that the literacy of reading and the science of reading be part of that professional development plan for staff in all districts across Nebraska. In some ways we were ahead of the curve um because we had started this literacy project and other ways we were a little bit behind in the sense of we had a longer timeline than the law would allow. So, we had to speed some things up. So, basically, there are four phases for this and we are currently on the fourth phase. The first one was we wanted to seek a grant that could help us um add an early literacy coordinator, someone that would really own this literacy project not only um for the primary grades, but for preschool clear up through 12th grade.
078And this individual would help with the Jumpstart program, which helps our kids jump into kindergarten um from our title building, summer school, uh the professional development that was going to be delivered to um our teachers and then also just to manage all of the data to ensure that what we were doing was making a difference and giving us improvement in our student achievement. Phase two then were um additional positions that were also grant-funded. Um one is the attendance interventionist and that currently Tracy McCormick serves in that role and we're going to have her come present to you at some uh I believe this summer at the work she's been doing as she's looking at what are the um interventions for students that are truant um to help get them to school and to remove hurdles
079for our family. And then the second one was really um additional literacy intervention support assistants. These were teachers that would be trained up on the science of reading that would kind of float. And when we had subs in the building, they would go in and teach ELA ELA so that we ensured that consistency um because just like when our students are out when our teachers are out, we also saw a dip. Um and when they were not needed to cover classrooms for teachers that were out, they would be used for intervention of students that weren't proficient. Phase three then really are the resources that we were going to use to manage and monitor the literacy project. It included progress monitoring software. That's software that we use as students are on intervention um to make sure
080that they're making progress so that time doesn't slip by and you're not seeing an impact of the actions that you're taking. Uh professional development opportunities for staff that centered around the science of reading and not only centered around the science of reading, but also was impactful at all levels. So, what does the science of reading mean at the high school level? Cuz that was important as well. Um as well as the elementary and middle school. We're working on um strengthening our MTSS interventions. We've added several as we begin to identify needs that our current interventions didn't address. And then the last thing was we really wanted to focus on that engagement piece that you guys recently um identified as a in the strategic plan, but family literacy nights at all levels. So, engaging our family
081with good reading opportunities and then also giving strategies for parents to work with their students at home to continue to strengthen and build their own reading skills with their students. So, the funding source that we used for the literacy project is the general budget funds we obviously used to um buy our curriculum resources. Um so, that's the curriculum materials that we used um from kindergarten clear up through 12th grade. Uh we also purchased actually it was started it was sprung forward with the um ESSER dollars, but we started to build a data dashboard and we expanded it out and we're moving towards a early warning system um for students that are struggling with reading. And then you can see that we had professional development with staff and um that was a focus as well as
082our intervention. We then applied um Dr. Rickly worked with a couple of other superintendents for a reallocation. Is that fair to call that? Um okay, with the learning community grant and this is 2.0. 1.0 focuses with um the Buffett Foundation in preschool, but 2.0 um each district could apply for and so we applied for our literacy project. Um that grant funded um the literacy coordinator who is currently Kelly Bell, um that intervention um facilitator that we added as well as those high trained floater sub {slash} teachers that are permanently hired in the district. We also used the learning community to purchase um new curriculum materials for our preschool that would align with the CKLA curriculum in the elementary. And then the last thing is we've used it for a lot of resources for the science
083of reading as we've began to develop the professional development that all of our staff um will eventually go through some form of over the next 3 years. The last one then was a comprehensive it was a competitive grant that NDE offered that had to focus um around the literacy law, so it fit perfect with our literacy project and we applied for that and we were awarded that. And that grant is currently covering um the family literacy nights. We're buying books for that. Um we have activities that have been designed. It's also to help compensate staff um that are working those literacy nights at all three levels. The high school's going to run a book club. Um so, we have different things that are going for our family literacy nights. Um we also used the um
084comprehensive literacy state development grant. It's called the CLSD. That's what I'm used to saying. Um we contracted with the company called ICG and they came in and they are they have visited um all of our buildings and collected information on what they see as far as literacy experiences with our students. And we just recently completed that. They just finished the high schools the first week of April and then they will come back a year from now and do the same process and we will see if we're making growth um with our systems approach to literacy. They also had staff that are directly involved in teaching literacy fill out a survey as far as do they feel they have support? Do they feel like professional development is valuable to them in the area of literacy and
085so on. So, we look forward. We don't have that information yet. We actually get it next week um but that will give us a baseline and they will also make recommendations um for us to focus on if we don't currently have it in our literacy project. Uh we also are going to then contract with Judy Elliott. Um she is an expert a national expert in the MTSS system development. Last the last 2 years at ESU um she worked with our middle school teams and our two high schools to build their MTSS system and um the people that were part of that um process really really liked it and um we did great things and she gave us great feedback. She was going to do the elementary and then the grant that the ESU was using
086uh did not get renewed, so they weren't able to do it with the elementary. So, we're going to contract with her directly um using the CSLD grant and she's going to work with the elementary um and then she will also continue with the middle school and the high school to systematize across levels that MTSS work for interventions and data tracking of students that are not proficient in the area of reading. And along with that just general supplies and staff compensation um for professional development training off of hours and supplies as far as like books for teachers and resources um for our interventionist um as we're trying to improve in the area of literacy. So, next steps. Kelly Bell who is that literacy coordinator that has we've been lucky enough um to get her position through
087the learning community. She's going to come we are closing in on the end of year one which is hard to believe. Um and this year we really focused on kindergarten as the grade level as well as preschool. Um she's going to come and talk to you about what things we've changed and what we're noticing. And like I said Tracy McCormick is also going to come and talk to you about um the interventions and the work that she's done around attendance. Um we will continue to reapply each year for renewal of the CSLD grant. We applied for year two and um it was approved. Um in October year three will open up and we are hoping the federal government continues to fund that grant. And then um we will also here in May reapply for the
088learning community grant. Um at the next year at the end of next year we'll look at the the data and we'll share that with you. We'll bring that to you um so you can kind of see hopefully the progress we're making or areas that we aren't growing the way we'd like. And then um from there on out we'll um have others planned as we move forward. We're going to have our literacy um our instructional coaches do a little presentation for you um mid-year next year and then in the spring um we're going to start to talk about summer school and how it ties um directly to the literacy project. So, that was kind of a lot of information all at one shot, but I just wanted to talk about the funding source and kind of
089the overall project. But do you have questions or clarifications I can give you? So, the the assessment or evaluation data you're going to get back. Does that come to you? What do you know Are they going to be looking for instructional themes or areas of strength, deficiencies? It's it's all it's not based on the individual teacher. It's based on what they're seeing uh strategies or instructional strategies in the classroom. Do you know what that's going to look like? Yeah, so they're going to bring us a lot of um analytical data that really focuses on the systems around literacy. So, they visited classrooms and some of the things they watched for were students' opportunity to read as well as their um opportunity to engage in um on level text and high quality text. Um and then
090also those surveys like where do teachers feel like they're getting the most support? Are there areas that they feel like they need additional PD in all centered around the area of literacy. Um and it's not just reading teachers. At the high school they went into social studies, they went into science, they went into those other areas that um literacy is a strong strand in the development of that curriculum. Um so, yeah, they will bring that. They'll bring it to the CIA team first and we'll look at it and then um I'm hoping I can convince them to present it to the admin team uh at one of our admin meetings. If not, we will present it. We'll relay that information um and eventually it will go clear down to teachers so they can see what
091we found out. That's exciting. And what one thought that I as you talked about the substitutes, the floater subs. Yeah. Do we do anything to prepare our long-term subs um specifically in these areas of of the ELA instruction? Like for maternity leaves if they're there for 8 to 12 weeks, are they receiving anything special? >> That's where we have seen our instructional coaches be just essential. Um whether they're doing some co-teaching right away or just checking in and making sure that they're prepared as they take on those long-term. So, um it's not really very unusual to happen to see an instructional coach in checking out how they're doing when you're out in a school. So. Any other questions for Dr. Siri? Thank you. Great stuff. Thank you. Uh we have no comments at this time
092for items not on the agenda. So, if we move on to our next future board calendar, as Dr. Rickly said earlier, our next board meeting will be on Wednesday, April 22nd. That is next Wednesday. So, that is a change in our current practice. So, just want to make sure all of you show up next time, okay? Come on the right night. Without seeing any other additional business, we will go ahead and adjourn this meeting at 7:18. Thank you all very much.