001Good evening and welcome to the April 28th meeting of the board of education for the pilista community schools. Our open meetings act is posted at the entrance. It guides everything we do. And please rise for the pledge of allegiance of the nation. Roll call, please. Mr. Bailey here. Miss Butler here. Mr. Madler here. Miss W here. Mr. Lotus here. Miss Wood here. All present. Thank you. No excused absences tonight. We'll start with communications and our military adviser, Colonel Klesia. Hey, good evening. Thanks again uh for the opportunity to speak tonight. So uh for us, month of April has been extremely busy for uh the military. That's the month of the military child and uh we've had a number of events and then had actually a chance to see Dr. Rickley at a number of those.
002Uh so one of those was the bill signing or the proclamation signing I should say down in Lincoln uh recognizing April as the month of the military child. Had a chance to do that with uh the governor. And then uh a little bit later we also had the governor come back up to Offet Air Force Base and he signed legislative bill 248. And what that legislative bill does it allows us uh to have individuals who are providing family child care on a military installation. uh they just have to have our certification as opposed to what we've had to have in the past which was certification both from the uh US military but also then from the state of Nebraska. So what this does is lowers lowers barriers that we have for allowing uh parents and
003uh childcare providers to be able to provide a little bit easier for us on base. One of the challenges we have a lot of you that a lot of people do is finding child care. Um and this is one of those things that lowers that barrier a little bit for people to be able to enter. Um, one of the other items that's come or that we've been doing is we've had a chance uh especially here in Pavilion L Vista to go around to a number of our schools and to recognize uh those new schools that are now purple star schools. Uh so we've had nine events over and sorry 11 events at nine different schools where we've done purple star presentations or high fives uh with the kids coming in or doing some story time.
004Um so that's been an absolutely amazing thing and now every school that we have here in Pavilion Le Vista is a purple star school. so huge and we can't thank you enough. And I've had the chance myself to go and do a couple of those uh ceremonies. And while I get the chance to thank the principles, the administrators, the teachers, and the students, uh I do want to say especially to uh the board here, uh thank you very much. Um there's a lot of leadership that's involved to be able to get this done. And I really want to thank all of you for your efforts in making that happen. And uh I want to extend my special appreciation to Dr. Rickley. Um, I I know there's a lot of leadership that you've had in making
005this happen across all of the schools and I just can't tell you how much we appreciate the fact that you care enough about our military children uh for you to be able to go and to work with the schools to get that designation. So again, from us at the base uh for the board and again, Dr. Rickley especially, thank you very much for that. We really do appreciate that. Um, and then the last thing uh for for today is uh I know that I've been talking about the inspection that we had here at the base a couple of for for a couple of months and we just had that finished it up. I apologize for anybody trying to drive down uh Fort Crook during that time or trying to drive along 75 or everything else.
006I know we caused some traffic backups there and we apologize for that. Uh but we did end up finishing that inspection and we ended up getting the highest grade uh that you could get in air combat command. So the very first base that uh pretty much about aced it if I had to go and kind of say it that way. So uh and again largely thanks to the community bearing with us and allowing us to do a fullscale uh robust exercise. We really do appreciate that. Um that's all I have right now pending any questions from any of you. Not a question but just wanted to say thank you for your support as well. We could not do any of this with the the Purple Star schools without your help and your leadership. So, thank
007you as well. Very much appreciate it. Like I say, it's it's great to have the working relationship that we do back and forth between the base here in Pavilion Lab Vista. Uh it's great for our students and again, just really appreciate the partnership from all of you. Also wanted to echo uh the comments from Colonel Bailey. Uh to have a full colonel take time out of his day to attend these events. That's no small thing. And I don't know if our kids appreciate how busy someone of your rank is, Colonel. Uh our staff do. I do. This board certainly does. As Colonel Bailey mentioned, this doesn't happen without your leadership. I thought I saw Tina on the back, too. Uh so, thank you for your staff. And of course, none of this happens, frankly, with
008Dr. Via Real. Uh Christopher has done a terrific job. And he's gotten that metal purple star, sharp edges and all to every single elementary building. And I don't think we've had a single paper cut yet from the razor edges. Not yet. We've got one to go. One to go. I think Ashberry tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning. Yes. And I probably just jinxed it, but but Colonel, truly, uh, you've been an amazing leader, an amazing support, and we're just super grateful for what you do to support us and our military families. So, it means so much. I've just been fortunate enough to have the chance to be able to come myself and recognize a couple of the schools. So, uh, it means a lot to us at the base that you all have done that. So, again,
009thank you very much. All right. Thank you. And now, what you've all been waiting for, we have the presentation for inclusive practices. Are you introducing that? Please go ahead. Well, I don't that's all I have. Well, then I guess I will. Well, thank you very much, uh, Miss Whip, members of the board. So, as the board and as the community is probably well aware, we like to rotate through our different schools and our different arrays to do presentations on promising practices and things that we're really, really proud of. Um you may recall uh for example we had uh the title one array last year I believe presented on title one night which was an incredible event. We have speakers, we have kids, we have parents, we have uh just an outpouring of support of our
010community to to show up to these events. They have something slightly different this year to talk about and I don't want to steal any of their thunder, but we do have our five title buildings and of course we have 16 elementary buildings with the 17th on the way. Our 16 elementary buildings are split into three different arrays mainly by demographic factors. Our title array, which consists of our five title one buildings, uh does incredible work and works uh with some of our most vulnerable families. Uh so they deal with some pretty complex things. They always bring their passion and their focus to the table. I can't wait to hear their presentation tonight. So without further ado, uh if I could ask our five title principles to please approach the podium and we can't wait to
011hear what you have to say. So I'll turn the floor over to you. Fantastic. All right. Good evening. Um I have the honor of introducing everybody. So my name is Seth Hiveley. I'm the principal at Carill Elementary. We have Jamie Boyer, principal at G. Stanley Hall. Where other principles? Jen is at Jen Noble's at Golden Hills. Amy Nichols is at Le Vista West and Ry's at Parkview Heights. Um, for our presentation tonight, I'm also not going to steal any of Jen's thunder here. Um, but we brought some our special service providers from our a few of our schools to talk more in depth about some of the programs and some of the things that we have going on with inclusive practices. So, we have Kelsey Hollandach, um Natalie Diaz from G. Stanley Hall Learning Center
012teachers, Jenny Ule, teacher of the year, um from Cartail Learning Center, and Katie Moon, um speech language pathologist at Parkview Heights. And that was his cue to be done talking because he had very specific directions not to steal my piece. So, um, as our district continues to strengthen inclusive practices that foster belonging for all of our students, we just wanted to highlight some of the things we do, um, within our title buildings. So, one of those things we're going to highlight tonight is the fact that our title building, some of us, mine being one of them, introduced unified sports for the first time this year and some of the el other buildings have expanded on unified sports. So, we're going to touch on that. We're also going to talk about the enhancements that some of
013the buildings have made to their inclusive activities as well as celebrations of specific inclusion days. And all of those things are to promote acceptance and awareness as well as like uh Mr. Hively said, some of our support staff um and staff that work with our special education students have come to share co-eing models and talk about how collaborative instructional supports how that d supports diverse learners and inclusive classrooms as well. We're going to start this evening with unified sports. So about five years ago, some of the elementarymentaries throughout the districts started um some unified sports and I would say within the last twoish years, the title one buildings have started um implementing some unified sports. This is our G Stanley has completed two years, some are just starting. Um so today we are going to
014have um Natalie Diaz um special education teacher at G. Stanley Hall. She has kind of spearheaded the unified sports um in our building and then with some of this other groups. and so she's going to share what that has looked like in our title one race. Hi. Yes. Um so I'm Natalie. I am our current team manager for our unified sports team at G. Stanley Hall. Um so over the last couple of years we have done a lot to kind of change the the way that we've done some of our unified recreation activities. Um we've taken a lot of inspiration and leadership from some of the other schools in the district that have really started some of these like events. Um, so the last two that we did this year was a unified basketball tournament
015and a unified kickball tournament where we basically are preparing our students to play in a tournament against um, three other schools. Um, right now we're broken up into a couple different arrays in the district which is really exciting. And then um, we've made some efforts to try to extend that inclusion um, into like our school day to prep for those things. Um when we play in these tournaments, we have our identified athletes. Um and we've been following the structure of a lot of Special Olympics and and the things that they uh the resources they've offered out there to kind of determine some of those things. So we have our target um athletes and they are paired up with buddies in the school buildings. Um and then we have worked to make some of our um
016like adapted pees situations more inclusive so that the students are getting to really kind of prepare for some of these events. Um, and then we've been joining in a couple of those. So, it's been very very exciting. Um, I know at least at G. Stanley Hall, we have seen just just tremendous like inclusion and a change in our building dynamics when it comes to some of these things since we've started. Um, as far as next year, we're going to continue to collaborate with some of the other schools on things they're doing and with Special Olympics to continue to extend those opportunities and create more opportunities within the school buildings. Um, and I know next year we'll be starting like a formal unified club, which I think a few buildings have done. So, um, very exciting
017in unified sports. Um, we also do a couple other inclusive activities within the building. So, um, one of the ones that is we we sometimes call our second job within our job is our teacart. So, I'm going to let Kelsey Hollandbeck talk a little bit more about that. Um, so our tea cart started off as just a snack cart that we did we started a couple years ago. Um, and we started it pretty small scale. Um, just had a few things that teachers could purchase weekly. Um, and then we decided to go full scale with a tea cart this year. Um, and it's been very successful. Uh, we make the nutrition tees that you can get from tea shops. Um, we've included our related service providers. So, our occupational therapists and our speech pathologists help
018us with this. Um, and we have our kiddos go around and take orders from the teachers. They practice taking data, practice taking money. Um, and then the next day they come into the teachers lounge and they get to follow a visual recipe to make the tea. Um, we also get to work on a lot of different hygiene things and washing our hands. Um, uh, and then they go out and we have another group of kiddos that's working on some of those communication skills that will deliver the tees. Um, so they work on greeting the teachers, giving the tea to the teachers, taking their order if they would like a snack. Um, and then, uh, being able to interact with other people within the classroom as well. Um, and then there are other buildings throughout the
019district that do the different carts as well. Um, there's buildings that do coffee carts, other buildings that do snack carts. Um, and then next year we're also going to expand our tea cart within our unified club and have our peers help our identified students. um with that as well. All right. When we were when we were talking about what we were going to present tonight, we were we thought we were talking about some some ideas and we thought, how can you present on inclusive practices and not make everyone smile? Like if you've ever been to one of the events that is is held, you just you walk away and your heart is so full. So, um, some of the days that we recognize in our buildings, some depend on the students that we have in
020our buildings, but this is just a selection of days that are celebrated throughout the district. Um, and so these are just ways for us to recognize our unique abilities in our buildings. Um, we also several buildings celebrate inclusion week. And so we just have themed days and the inclusion week is more about what is more about acceptance and accepting people that are different than you and being kind and um just it we really try to build that awareness in our buildings up. Yeah. um that this slide was assigned to Park View Heights and I'd ask Katie Moon to come share a few words. She'll say it a whole lot better than I would. So, thank you. Um just some things we do around our school. Um we start early with AAC. We're lucky to have
021a preschool and every week in preschool we have a core word of the week that is for the entire class whether you have a device or not. Everyone gets to practice using the device so that it becomes absolutely accepted as a normal and everyday use of communication. Um, we stress the importance of co-eing in the classroom with al like peers. I'm going to jump down to the last one with that. That inclusion isn't just a place, it's a mindset. It's um, acceptance of everybody where they are. We have our hope squad and our kindness squad that includes a wide range of diverse students and backgrounds. We have a word of the month that's announced during um, announcements to promote and celebrate diversity, inclusion, and a wide range of school efforts to support all of the
022students. It goes beyond special education. Um, at our school we have so many different backgrounds. We get to have EL. Um, so we want to make sure that everybody feels included the second they walk in the door. Um, we support, like I said, from preschool through sixth grade. It's ongoing conversations every day that everybody learns in different ways. Everybody has to get help all throughout the day. No matter who you are, no matter how bright you are, no matter where you are in your education, everybody needs help. That help just looks different for everybody. So, we just have conversations at all different levels. Um, for kindergarten, it might look like everybody needs a band-aid at different times. What you need that band-aid for can come at the a time when somebody else doesn't. And um,
023we have conversations about yes, somebody might get be getting a little more attention than you are, but that's because that's the attention they need right then and your attention comes at a different time. So just those ongoing conversations every single day, every single hour about accepting everybody where they are. You want me to introduce you, Jenny? No, you don't. I'm good. Um, my name is Jenny. I'm a learning center teacher at Carage Hill and I co-e with the lovely Sher Bailey um in a third grade classroom every day. Sherry and I are both on I know Skip doesn't know who that is. Um Sherry and I co-e every day on the new CKLA curriculum that we have been piloting with toolboxes and we share kind of that toolbox um aspect as well. So when we
024think about co-eing, Sherry and I made very intentional plans about both instructional time and planning time because we need both of those to have successful co-eing. So that planning time, we use all six co-eing models. um throughout our lessons and we sit down and we look at each lesson and decide what co-eing model would look best um or work best for each um lesson as well as what fits the needs of our students um in the room either that day or as we're planning ahead. Um and so that way we can meet the needs of all of our learners the best that we can. The instructional time looks very fluid. Sherry and I believe um that we are both responsible for all students in the room whether they are identified or whether they are not
025um whatever their needs are. So what that looks like we have small groups that run sometimes um during the day we have um co-eing time. We have station teaching. We have students who are working independently while we are working with the whole group. It just looks different every single day depending on what the lesson is. But Sherry and I fi fulfill very fluid roles and it depends on the students in the lessons and it's very much a shared responsibility. Sometimes I am teaching whole group while she is teaching a small group of identified students. Sometimes she is teaching whole group I am pulling a student at a time to work on something. It just looks very fluid and very different um depending on the day. Um, and then so we have had other third grade
026teams as well as a group of instructional coaches come and observe us teaching uh throughout the school year. And that's really awesome to see because I think when you go into a true co-taught classroom, the feeling the children would say it's the vibes of the classroom um kind of speak louder than um any other aspect. So, we've had visitors come in throughout the district um who have come and watched us co-e to see um how we can expand kind of what we're doing into other buildings and other places. And then I think the community aspect is truly where inclusion begins. Like I said, it's the feeling in the room. It feels kind of like magic as you're teaching. This is me. What questions do you have? I don't have any question. Well, first of all,
027I I do want to say that I've had the pleasure of having a buddy get in my car after she's been to her club meeting and um just the enthusiasm she has whether they've been making cookies or been in the gym playing a game. and it truly has been a a growth experience for her, but also just a very positive opportunity to spend time with kids and do fun things that kids should do. So, thank you for doing that. I did want to ask, you know, you make this look so easy and we all know it's not easy. It's really, really hard stuff. So, how do you create the culture in the building with your adults, in your community, with your parents that this kind of stuff can happen? Great question team. Now I I
028feel blessed at least at Parkview and I know Katie would would share the same if she were up here. I feel blessed at Parkview in the sense that that the culture it hasn't been difficult to build because it already existed when I got there six years ago. Um whether it's from our parents or our staff. Um and the kids themselves like um we we had kiddos who were fighting over you know being peer buddies for their unified sports uh athletes and um parents super passionate, super involved, super collaborative. We live and work in an amazing community that is very close-knit and everybody works together. And so it's been my experience that it wasn't even a culture that needed to be built. It already existed. But if anybody else wants to share, you're welcome to. I
029would just say like with the I mean even thinking of like the co-eing I mean you have strong educators that don't need to be told what to do. We know what research best practice is. Um there's there's models out there and then it's it's the people that have the drive to get it started and then you slowly can have people come like Jenny said I mean there's been tons of people through the district that have come observe because sometimes you just need to see what it looks like. Um but the you know again from teachers, classroom teachers to learning center teachers to to have an open door to let people come and see um that stuff that you can't teach people and um I mean you have there's a lot of leadership from within um
030to be able to do those things. So and I would just add I think too something that we say a lot is they're all of our kids. Um no matter what we're in this together, we're a family. They're all of our kids. They're not the learning center kids. They're not the EL kids. They're they're all of our kids. And we treat that as a And I think um when our classrooms have the kids come in, they embrace each other and they are so accepting and I think that they have the passion for that and then that you know comes down to the parents too. And I know at conferences for example when they had a booth out for unifying sports for our polar plunge for their first year and just asking for donations or volunteers
031from parents to kind of the parents just flock to it. So I think that they it just comes with the community and the culture that you create um and what the students take home as well. I want to say too that um it is those ongoing conversations. I've gotten to tell a parent this year and then had a parent tell us um I got to tell the parent whose student um has a hard time communicating but has a great friend that's in another classroom and I said this friend isn't just being kind to your kid. They actually are friends with your kid. And um I love getting to tell her that because sometimes it does it is just kindness. And I like when it goes past the kindness and it's actual relationships. And then I
032had another parent in um her IEP say her fourth grade student with Down syndrome has um playdates with classmates and she said and it's not just once again it's not just kids being kind to her. They ask her for playdates. So once again it just goes past that kindness and into friendships. Uh, I want to thank you all for putting the presentation together and coming to the board meeting and and sharing. And we tal you talked about the enjoyment of the students, but you were just talking about the families and the parents. I went to the unified basketball game. It was the high school unified basketball game a couple months ago, a few months ago, but you could see the enjoyment from the students. Yes. But also the parents and the families of those students.
033I mean, the smiles that they had on their faces. I mean, just the joy that uh these events bring them as well is great to see. Um so, couple questions. One, any other unified sporting events coming up as we close out the year? What do we got on the calendar? Um yeah, I can speak a little bit to that. I know. Um sorry, I can speak a little bit to that. Um yes. So, right now we have um two tournaments in the district that are actively happening and those are basketball. I think that one is organized by Anderson Grove and then kickball at Prairie Queens really spearheaded that. Um so we've kind of been collaborating with each other on what's next. Um I know for our building and kind of working on more of a
034club structure next year there is talk about a unified dance performance. We have a couple coaches who um are going to come in and start kind of working with a like a palm team kind of situation and then they'll put on a full performance um for parents. And then um there's also talk about us potentially doing like a unified bowling tournament of some kind. Um so I know bowling has also been talked about, but um as we continue to kind of work with Special Olympics and things like that, they also have a lot more ideas on things that we can get started. I think our goal eventually, at least for our building, is to have one event um or one thing that we're kind of working towards all the time each quarter. So nice. And
035we do have a kickball game on Yes. Um yeah, we do have our our next one is a kickball game and so we have that coming up. Our our arrays tournament is on um May 16th from 5 to 7 at the allplay field. So um anyone's welcome. It's an event that the kids and the families got so excited for last year. It's like one of those things that I think we just kind of had to jump in and do it and we learned a lot and um now we're doing it this year and I mean everyone talks about it. Um, we've also extended that like to our building. So, we'll also do like a staff versus unified team game at our actual school building on the 15th to get them like ready for practice and
036the whole school will come watch. So, like kind of extending that to other parts of our building, too. So, nice. And, uh, Mr. Bailey said he will help with the dance team once you get that going. Yeah. Help choreograph. He'll spirit. I haven't started officially. I haven't locked in my coaches, so that'll be great. And then is there anything else the the the the board don't mean to put anyone on the spot can do to help support these efforts? Anything that uh we can do to help more? It's okay. I'm um so yeah. Um I know as far as um the first like kind of getting started um the structure that we've done so far is we have a school that's already um done it. um like Prairie Queen was was a great like model
037and and the leadership over there has been like outstanding to kind of follow some of their lead a little bit. Um when they started like their array for example, they um took over like the financial responsibilities through their fundraising efforts for some of the other buildings. So like the first year uh Prairie Queen covered us and our cost to participate. Um and then from there encouraged us to go on our own and kind of find out our own fundraising for year two. So this last year that's where we kind of worked with Special Olympics. our school did the polar plunge. Um I know some other schools in the district also did the same thing. Um and then the hope would be that as as you're raising money then you're taking in another school who's also
038like not in it yet and then kind of trying to help them afford the things. So um I know that we purchase like equipment um we've been purchasing like pizza or things for the athletes um medals um t-shirts um different like pieces of that to um support the students during those big events. So, I think working we I know uh Anderson Grove also worked with like a sponsorship with Chick-fil-A and they like gave us um meals for like basketball. So, I think we've been finding different like outreaches, but especially for some of those like starter schools or schools interested in trying to continue to extend those inclusive activities. Um even looking at things like bowling or what people are kind of interested in. Um, I guess that would be like my biggest thought is just
039encouraging that that opportunity in in buildings that don't currently have it and then and want to do it or um working with the buildings that are already doing things to figure out what what do they need to continue to um expand their unified activities. Perfect. Yeah, keep flagging up ideas and get it to, you know, the the people here at the table as well. And I would also say for those schools that you know if they're if they're listening they don't have this up and running potentially reach out to the foundation as well the grants committee. You know we've both been on the grants committee and those are the the the type of grants that we would love seeing across uh come come across and and hopefully give the foundation an opportunity to fund some
040of those uh as well for the schools. Perhaps you could join our polar club. Well, there you go. Yeah. You get in on that. Yeah. Yeah. Next year. I was just going to say, you know, you can reach out and make sure we're aware of those things. I think that Marcus would love to do the P. Yes, absolutely. So, Skip for for dance coach and Got it. Got it. That sounds good to me. Checking all those boxes. Yeah, I think most schools also have like a a I feel like all teams are really committed to these things, especially in our title buildings where I feel like you really do a lot of the time need all hands on deck to pull something like this off. Um, but a lot of the buildings do have like
041a single point of contact that I feel like a lot of us get together and collaborate on a lot of these activities, too. So, I'm happy to pass along that information and just make sure that they're also reaching out for the things that they need. And then, um, as we continue to extend these opportunities to the district, just make sure everyone has that in mind. It's okay. And last, sorry, last thing for me. I just want to thank you all for your dedication, hard work, and supporting our students and families going above and beyond in these activities and events and and and just trying to find new ways to support these students as well. So, thank you all for what you do every day. Also wanted to point out we had at least two of
042our Title One assistant principles in attendance. I saw Casey from Park View Height and I thought I saw Devin from La Vista West and Devon's husband. Thank you for being here and lending some moral support to the presentation. So, thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Outstanding presentation. Yeah, I wanted to say thank you. I'm very proud of this district for its commitment to inclusion in all aspects of our education, and I can't wait for these kids to grow up and give us a lesson in how to be good people. Thank you. All right, next we have reports. Dr. Rickley, thank you very much. Uh, Miss Whip, members of the board, uh, happy Monday everyone and, uh, for our staff members who are with us this evening, thank you for joining us. Uh, for those
043that are watching online, thank you as always for engaging with your board of education and your school district. Your support is appreciated. Uh, it's hard to believe we're rapidly approaching the end of the school year, but we have all kinds of fun events coming up uh, the next few weeks. It's a crazy time of year, but it's all fun, exciting, energizing stuff. Uh, speaking of, we held our fourth and our final community closet uh, event of the year this last Saturday. I want to personally thank Dr. Becky Myers and Dr. Settles and the HR student services team for organizing that. I know we were down a little bit on volunteers because it's such a busy time, but we had a full slate of people. Uh, over 7,400 items were distributed to 119 families. Um, I
044got there probably 10 after 10. and it ran from 10:00 to noon. There was a line all the way back to the instructional area at L Vista Middle School. So again, I I just think it bears mentioning. Um there's so much need even in an affluent community such as this. Uh there there's so much need and we have so many people stepping up and and doing really good work, whether they're donating, whether they're volunteering their time, uh whether they're writing checks, um it's it's it's pretty remarkable what the community has become in a short amount of time. So for all who have supported it in ways direct and indirect, thank you for for doing the good work. Also wanted to give the community an update on the elementary boundaries process. I suspect you might hear
045a little bit of this from our board. Uh but uh want to thank uh Mr. Richards and Dr. Vrial for uh hosting the three community forums, one at Prairie Queen, two at Liberty Middle School. We didn't have an amazing turnout, which might be a good problem. Um sometimes when we don't have lots of people show up that tells me that uh they're feeling good about the general direction we're headed. But we had approximately 40 people attend the three separate sessions. Uh we went over two specific boundary scenarios. We took feedback on both scenarios and uh we'll be sharing that very very soon. Uh I will follow the lead of uh President Wit to my left, but I suspect as as recent as quickly as our first board meeting in May. We will be sharing that
046slide deck that was shared at the three forums as well as the summarized data that we heard both at the forums as well as there was an online tool that parents and family members could also submit feedback. So more details to come on the elementary boundary process. Just a reminder to our community, that building does not open up until fall of 2026. So, we still have a full uh 16 months to go before opening day. Uh Dr. Settles has us scheduled uh later this week to interview for the new principal, but more details to come, but I think that next board meeting will probably be talking about boundaries. Also wanted to echo some of Colonel Klesiac's sentiments about Purple Star. We had a number of Purple Star uh ceremonies last week, Bell and Hickory most
047recently. We'll finish off, I believe, the last one at Ashbury tomorrow morning at 8:20. Board members are certainly welcome to attend. They're always kind of fun little events. They're usually over pretty quickly, but a great celebration of our community, our staff, and most of all our military families who give so much to defend this great country of ours when they're serving, when they're deploying, and we want to do whatever we can to support the families and the children that have given so much. Uh, also wanted to share we had our final student advisory committee of the year. Uh as the community and board is probably aware, we have a group of 16 monarchs and six uh 16 monarchs and titans that meet over lunch once a month. We rotate between the schools different topics. The
048last topic was talking about how we can do a little bit better job uh encouraging student attendance and the kids had some really great ideas. One of my favorite things to do though is to ask the four seniors, we have four seniors, four juniors, four sophomores, on and on. But what's your advice uh that you'd give not only to your peers but to the younger students that'll be coming back? And it and it never fails to amaze me the wisdom uh that comes from these uh these students. Um one of the kids said, you know, I wish as I look back on my high school career, I would have pursued more opportunities. This district has given me so many choices with activities, with athletics, with clubs. He's like, some of it I I took advantage
049of, some of it I didn't. He's like, "Looking back, I wish I would have done more." Um, another young lady talked about the importance of, you know, we get so caught up in tests and activities and part-time jobs and doing the right thing that sometimes we forget about the small things like friendships and spending time with our family. And so, we heard similar things from all four kids. And it just uh it reminded me that this next generation of kids, this next generation of Americans, our country's in good good hands. We have thoughtful, smart, hard-working, intelligent kids. I don't worry too much about the future of this country when I talk to our kids. We've got really, really great kids. Can't wait to see what they do. Uh, also just capping off the report, we
050had uh our years of service ceremony up here last week. I don't know what we had, Dr. V. I think we had we had north of 100, 150 uh north of 200. It was a packed house uh where we celebrated among others our own Dr. Settles for 25 years of service. Congratulations, Katie. But, uh, we not only were able to single out people with important milestones, but our retirees. I don't know how many aggregate years of experience we had with our retirees, but it was a ridiculous number. It was something like 700 or something like that. But a neat opportunity to celebrate the staff, certified, classified, that have given so much to this community, this district, and our kids. So, that was kind of fun. And last, but by no means least, I didn't even
051share this with the board in my weekly uh report. We found out that our own Jeff Spilker, principal Pilia L Vista South High School, was named the region 2 principal of the year. So Jeff, don't know if you're watching, but uh congratulations to you and Kelly. We know how much you give to this school district and Pilian Vista South High School in particular. We couldn't be prouder of you. And with that, Miss Wit, I will conclude my superintendent comments. Thank you, Dr. Rickley. And now we have u reports from board members. I just have a couple quick things. Um, both of them have to deal with the foundation. I was I got to go uh couldn't go to the Souths, but I went to Monarch's scholarship breakfast. I saw a couple of you there. Uh,
052it was it was a lot of fun recognizing the the seniors there that got scholarships. That was that was it's always fun to give away other people's money. Um, so that's good. So, it was great group of students. So, that was fantastic. And then I was also able to get out and go around and pass out a few of the teacher grants the foundation uh um that we gave out. And again, a lot of fun to be able to do that and show up at at these schools and with the big check and all that good stuff. So, and take some pictures and and hear how they're going to spend that money and how excited they are to to get that money and all the things that they're going to do with it. So, it
053was a a lot again a lot of fun to give away other people's money. Uh I in midappril was able to attend a training um in Lincoln on legislation and advocacy with uh a Nebraska um Association of School Board part of their team uh spent the morning giving us some background on the process of the legislature. Um we talked about some of the bills that were currently being uh reviewed and discussed and then actually went to um the Capitol that afternoon where we had the opportunity to uh meet with some of the senators. Uh Senator Arch was very kind to um to talk with me about some of the bills and and so that was a great learning opportunity for me. Um on April 22nd, the teammates um had their senior lunchon uh where they
054recognized those teammates that will be graduating. And that was a fun event at Telus. Uh to see the the the seniors and their mentors, their you know together and celebrating. Some of them had only been together maybe a year and some of them have been together for the last several years. Um, and these kids uh were very appreciative of the time that and the opportunities that they've had with their mentors and all of them have plans, great plans for the future. So, that was fun to see. And I just also really wanted to um say that I thought the years of service and retirement celebration really was a great celebration. I know it's hard in um you know an hour to express your gratitude to people that have done such a great things for our
055district but it was very well attended which it was was a great tribute. I think I counted that there were 33 teachers there that had um 25, 30 or 35 years of experience and there were 39 recognized that are retiring and I just think of the what they have given to this district and the differences that they've made in so many kids and famil family's lives and and uh so it was a a great recognition. Um, I also want to give my appreciation to Dr. Settles for 25 years and still counting. Please do not retire and to Kathy who was Kathy Branka who was um honored for her upcoming retirement. Don't believe Kathy. Okay. Um, administrative professional day was on the 23rd and I want to thank all of the people who serve this district
056in the administrative support functions. their their efforts and their work that they do are essential and we could not operate this district without you. So, thank you for being here and we look forward to seeing you still on the job. Um, and the last thing for me is the I attended all three forums. It was excellent input. Even though we had a small crowd, they weren't afraid to talk. They gave us their opinions. Um, they were pretty consistent. You know, a little of this, a little of that. And, um, it will give us some food for thought as we muddle through to try to make a good decision for this district. So, thank you again. Anybody else? All right. Committee reports, building grounds and finance. We met on Friday. The main topics discussed was the
057uh going out for the $55 million for the third installment of the bond dollars from DA Davidson. That is being discussed uh under the discussion information items. and then also talking through the feedback and the presentations for the elementary 17 boundary discussion which we will see on a future meeting. Thank you. Human resources student services. We have not met since last meeting. We have a meeting scheduled here coming up I believe next week. Thank you. And curriculum and Americanism. Uh we have not met. We're working on um scheduling a meeting. I think part of it's my fault because I'm getting ready to travel. So, we're working on trying to find a time for that. Thank you. We have no public comments for items on the agenda. Moving on to action items. Consent agenda. I'll make
058the motion to approve the action by consent agenda. I'll second. I have a motion by Mr. Madler and a second by Mr. Bailey. Roll call. Miss Butler? Yes. Mr. Madler? Yes. Miss W? Yes. Mr. Lotus? Yes, Wood. Yes, Mr. Bailey. Yes. Motion carrying. Next item for action is the 2025 student technology purchase. Is Mr. Moore going to talk or Dr. Rickley? Uh I believe that uh Mr. Moore briefed the board at our last board meeting about an upcoming purchase and answered a couple of board uh questions about that. But we would invite Mr. Moore to approach the podium. And Matt, any updates since the last time we discussed this with the board? Yes. So, we've kind we've narrowed down the the amount of devices that we want to do for the elementary refresh and then
059to to maintain the 1:1 program. Um, so you can see in that in that board summary, um, we're going to go with 3,400 as our quantity. Um, it is 312, which you'll notice is higher. That's without tariffs. Um, but we're we're planning on avoiding the tariffs. Hopefully, we can order as as soon as we get this approved. Um, I did go with the 8 gig. Uh the reason for that is we've we've under Lucas's uh leadership, we've been looking the last two years for 4 gig versus 8 gig as far as the memory goes, the RAM goes in those devices and they've been about 50 $50 difference. This year is only about 14. We felt it was worth the extra the extra money to get the devices up to the 8 gig. I do think
060we'll we'll see performance um perform better performance from the machines uh from the longevity of it uh especially at the high school level. Um so that's kind of what our recommendation is is to go with the 8 gig. Um, so the the total total overall purchase price um my recommendation is to make a motion to approve entering into a purchase agreement with CDWG as presented with the total cost of 1,62,738. Um, you'll notice that we don't I don't have cases on there. We haven't quite, we're still working out the cycle piece of it as far as getting the elementary more devices and then so we don't quite know exactly how many cases we we want to purchase yet. So I didn't put those on there yet, but we're working on that. Any questions? Yeah, sorry.
061Any questions? Yeah. Uh, thanks for putting this together and and going through the information. I believe last year, right, we did the Dells through Sterling. Yep. And these are the are the Lenovo I guess first the CDWG have we used them before that vendor? Yes, we feel good about them. Okay, perfect. Yep. That's actually who we're getting our wireless as well. Nice. And then any issues can switching from Dell last year to Lenovo now as far as maintaining or No, we actually all of our techs are still Lenovo certified because that's what we purchased during the pandemic. So 21 22 are all uh Lenovo still. So, we actually still have all of our certifications. Um, and they actually are going to bump us up with the maintainer program that'll help us fund some of the
062repair costs as well. So, all right. Perfect. Thanks. Yeah. I don't know if this is a question for you or or for Brett. Um, obviously you said the amount has gone up as expected. Is it is it within the amount that we were looking at for a budget or is this and what are we using? And I think I saw in here appreciation fund and then also I guess some for uh selling Yep. the older devices back. Is that where you're getting? Yep. The money. Okay. Yep. So also on the bid tabulation, you said you're going to order the cases at another time. So you'll come back to us with a order for that. Okay. And this will be the pricing list that you'll go from. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Anybody have a motion? Y
063I'll make the motion to approve entering into a purchase agreement with CDWG as presented with a total cost of $1,62,738. I will second. I have a motion by Mr. Madler and a second by Mr. Lotus. Any discussion? Roll call. Mr. Medler? Yes. Miss Wit? Yes. Mr. Lotus? Yes. Miss Wood? Yes. Mr. Bailey? Yes. Miss Butler? Yes. Motion carried. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, ma'am. Next item is the 202526 calendar amendment. Is that Miss Settles? Dr. Settles. Yep. Thank you. So, this is an item that you already previously looked at back in the fall when you voted to approve the 2526 calendar. However, um discussion did arise as um we looked at the inclement weather dates for this current school year that we're in 2425 and made the change of the April 21st date um
064becoming rather than a staff development day a student day. So um the discussion had occurred at several subcommittees of um the idea of let's do go back and take a look if there might be some days that would be um better received than having students have to come back after Memorial Day. Not to say there couldn't be a situation that we would need that. So those three days do remain on the calendar. um the way that the dates fall for next year do again end the school year on May 22nd but a Friday um similar to this year and um there's really very little we could do to adjust that um you kind of look at where the beginning of the year is going to be and um it's pretty popular to not start the
065year on a Monday and to not start the January um second semester on a Monday. um those make for pretty long weeks for the students. So, when you kind of look at those start and end dates, um we are where we're at for the end date with the May 22nd. Um this uh calendar for your consideration would involve adding some specific dates. You'll notice that they are just outlined in a kind of a turquoise blue color on here as possible makeup days. and um it adds some additional ones here to be considered besides those three at the end of the school year. One thing I don't want to forget to note to you is what our attendance looked like for students on Monday the 21st. Um it was great. It was pretty typical to a
066regular Monday. So, uh very very few additional than we would have normally had um gone. So, feel good about that. I feel pretty confident in um wagering that we have a we had better attendance on that day than we would have if we would have waited until May 27th to have students back. So, um, those outline days that would be, um, additional in case of excessive inclement weather days include February 16th, April 3rd, April 6th, and then for seniors, what would currently right now be listed as their last day, which is May 7th, and a no school day for them, which would be May 8th. So, those first three I mentioned are all currently scheduled for staff development. I think the February date would be something that, you know, we'd have to have some pretty
067early excessive early um days to have that be something to be utilized, but it's nice to have that um early to be as a possibility. Uh and then again, those other two also are staff development days and then the seniors um only for those others. Are there any questions? Thank you for putting this together and adding these days in the school calendar when uh the time might be more conducive to learning. A couple one question I have I guess is about since two of them are staff development days. Um we have a variety of different type of staff development opportunities throughout the year. So sometimes it's controlled by the building but some of them like what we ran into this year was kind of a district-wide one. Is it a possibility to work so that
068our staff development days where it would be an all district event could be held first semester so they don't run into these two days where we would have to reschedule. Does that make sense? Yeah, it really depends a little bit on what the need for the training is. So, this one in particular um from this past one really is gearing everybody up for uh everybody in the elementary world up for some significant training in their curriculum. So, uh in that case that would have been one that wouldn't make a lot of sense to have first semester. However, there certainly are certain training pieces that would make sense to do first semester. So I think I think what you see us doing of a combination of both um semesters having some certain um important times that
069are um organized and touched by the district, but also really giving buildings a chance to spend time, right? especially those September days of establishing their goals and priorities for the year and giving staff a chance to really do some significant planning for those to really set up the rest of the year for success. I noticed that April 3rd is no school for students and staff. Do we want to include that day and bring everyone back or do we just want to stick to the right in school? Yeah. So, we talked about that one a little bit. I think uh in my opinion of those days, other than the Memorial Day, the days after Memorial Day, um in my opinion, that should be the last one touched if something is needed. Um we decided to leave
070it on there. It came up with enough groups as we discussed um with multiple groups, multiple stakeholder groups of their ideas for adding on this. It came up with enough groups that we decided to leave it on as an option. But you know, one of our groups that I think about with that particular day that that is a vacation day scheduled for our custodial staff, our maintenance buildings and grounds staff and those are not people that get any inclement weather time off. So um my preference, strong preference would be that that would be the last one touched if we are having the same type of discussion next year that we had to have this year. Go that. Thank you. I just want to thank Dr. Settles and the board for having this conversation. Um, also
071want to thank our families and staff for making on the-fly adjustments to the current calendar. Uh, we had to scramble a little bit given the the seven cold and snow days and you sent your kids anyway and it would have been really easy to for attendance uh to have attendance issues to have skyrocketed on last Monday for example and that didn't happen as Dr. Settles explained. So, thank you for being willing partners and great supporters. Uh, with any luck at all, we won't need these days next year. Um, we have averaged two to three snow days over my 12 years that I've been here. In fact, there was at least one year where we didn't use a single one and we contemplated perhaps giving them back. We didn't do that because instructional time matters. But
072the point being, I think having some flexibility as quickly as next year, even though the board has already adopted the calendar for 202526, is extremely wise. I'm really grateful that the board uh asked us to do that and thanks Dr. Settles for doing it and for our staff for being such good sports about everything. Thank you, Dr. Rickley. Is there a motion? I'll make the motion to approve the amended 202526 school calendar as presented. Second. Second. Uh motion by Mr. Lotus, second by Miss Butler. Any further discussion? Roll call. Miss Wood. Yes. Mr. Lotus. Yes. Miss Wood, yes. Mr. Bailey, yes. Miss Butler, yes. Mr. Madler, yes. Motion carried. Thank you. Moving on to discussion information items. DA Davidson, third installment of bond dollars. Paul Brad, anything to things off? Yeah, I'll kick it off
073here a little bit. Um Paul Griger from DA Davidson's here with us tonight. Um Cody Wickham spent some time uh Friday uh with our buildings grounds finance subcommittee talking and answering questions there as well. Um you know with the majority of our projects uh basically really kicking off hard this summer. We'll have 12 of them going at once here uh this summer and finishing up some this summer and then those other ones will continue on to next. um you know, we thought it would be wise to uh pull out a little bit more um on this uh third installment and then we'd have 10 million left at the end. Uh that would be what's called bank qualified. So it's we can go out to the market with even local banks on that last one. Um
074so with that said, I'll let Paul kind of walk you through it and then answer any questions that you might have on this transaction. down of a $55 million bond issue. Um 20-year interest rates are right in the mid4. So we're modeling this out at about 430 440. Um we think that uh our assumptions are from 2023 and the messaging to the public is really uh remaining in line. So all of the um work being done uh with communications and the bond modeling is really coming together. So we really feel good about where um where projections and reality are are coming together. So that that looks really good. Uh Moody's did affirm your AA2 high investment grade rating. So congratulations to the school district. I want to acknowledge the leadership team and the board for
075that. Uh Mr. Rich did a fab fabulous job on the call presenting the key credit features to the analysts. So that process was smooth and easy. Uh as always, um just kind of my overview. I don't I guess Brett kind of hit the big pieces. We're doing 55 million. We're going to leave 10 million available for 2026 should the bank qualified market bring some advantages. and we've kind of sized out uh what we need and what we want to access from the capital markets. So, any questions on anything that I said or perhaps didn't say? No. Uh thank you Brett for putting it uh discussing it in the building grounds finance meeting on Friday and thanks for coming to to walk through this with us as well. Uh I appreciate the the last Whoa. Sorry
076about that. I appreciate the last page that breaks out the next 20 years and and the different uh um tranches that we've gone out for and then how all those payments look and you can see for that that farcom on the right the actual tax levy on how that is uh staggered pretty evenly and decreases. It allows us and Mr. It allows Mr. Richards to uh probably better budget for uh those expenses. that we know we'll have in the future and give us uh leeway if there is additional projects that we need to do or we need to go ask our community for you know potential future bond funds and you know in years in years to come. It gives us that leeway. So um I think we've been smart with how we've uh structured
077these and how we scheduled them and it's great to see it's crazy to see that we only have 10 million left to get after this 55. Uh I do have one question. how you know we've been watching the markets last few months uh kind of go all over the place. Can you talk through the appetite in the market for bonds like the ones we will be trying to sell? Uh so yes, extreme market volatility to say the least. Uh we've seen here over the last few weeks. um for a minute I I would have guessed that this if the bond market probably would have demanded closer to 5%. For these bonds here a couple weeks ago. So we saw huge pullback uh short-lived the taxable market recovered more quickly. Tax exempts tend to lag on
078the taxables. Uh we are I don't know that we've gotten all of the basis points back and I don't know that we will. Um, but I'm in and looking at the numbers that we're we're suggesting mid low mid4s 430 440. I feel like that that's that's reliable. Um, we're going to be in the market tomorrow with a similar size deal for Elorn schools. We're going to do 40 million for them this week and that'll give us an even better gauge on what's what's really happening in the market. Our firm's been busy and active with um different types of credits, non-rated and higher yield types of development work, which is different than our our school district um our school district bonds. So, um but looking at the local comps and the national comps, there haven't been
079a whole lot of local ones lately, but there's been plenty of activity in the national market, and that's what we're looking at. So, we're looking at these comparable issues across the country. similar size, similar credit rating, um, voted general obligation, similar Moody's or or comparable ratings from a from a standard and poor. So, we we think we're pretty dialed in when we go into the market mid, you know, midmay, May 14th is the scheduled sale date. Uh, we did push that back a couple weeks uh to accommodate the board potential board approval of the resolution um that Monday and then we should we'll be ready to go. We'll have all of our stuff out to the market uh preliminary and subject. So, should something change, we'll have the ability and the flexibility to pull back,
080but we'll do what we can to pre-market a little bit and have a good feeling and hopefully strong confidence going into the market that week. So, long a long long answer to your question, Marcus. There is good demand for these bonds. We're confident that we'll clear the market at good levels and um we have no concerns going forward. All right. Appreciate it. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you so much. Are there any other discussion? Otherwise, uh we'll be back next time. Okay, we'll see you. We'll see you at the next meeting. Thanks very much. Thank you. Good night. Appreciate it. Our next agenda item is a legislative update with Tim Gay. However, he was unable to make it tonight. Um so, we can hold this over till another meeting. Do you have anything you want to
081say tonight about legislation? Yeah, I got a few updates for you if you don't mind a few minutes here. Um, basically we had the economic forecast from the economic forecast committee uh last Friday. Um, that informs the legislature of their shortfalls and it did go up. Um, they're over $300 now, $300 million in shortfall for the next two years. uh which is concerning and we kind of talked about this over the past few years with all the um budget cut or the cuts that they were doing statewide as well as uh adding revenue to schools and things of that nature that this probably isn't real sustainable. But um hopefully they can figure out a way to make it sustainable here in the future um so we don't get that education futures fund touched. Um but
082that's that's a big piece of news tonight. I think they the state does have 750 million in cash reserve. Um, and I think you'll probably see the majority of that this first year used uh to cover their shortfalls, whatever those end up being. Uh, and then they'll next year really get after it um with ways to try to save money at the state level. But uh um I think you'll see some things like this retirement bill. Um we'll save him 50 million uh right off the bat. I think that's going to go through. Um, I haven't talked a lot about that retirement bill with this group and it has changed a little bit. Uh, it could be good news for our district actually for at least a year or two. Um, what it does right
083now we're 99.1% funded with our state pension uh, fund and our current um, donation rates within that is employers were at uh, 9.88% and our employees pay 9.78% of their wages. Right. Um so what this bill is going to do is when it's basically uh at different tiers um they're going to drop the rates for the employer and the employee. Um and if this were to happen and pass next year's rate would go down for the employee to 8%. Uh which would go as I said 9.78 to 8%. And for the employee rate or employer rate it would be 8.08%. So, that could be a pretty big savings for us. I'm going to put the calculator to that and have you some more information if in case that does pass. Uh, but it does look
084like it's advancing through and it's going to pass this year. Um, so I'll get the numbers on what kind of savings we will see. I think you you're talking about the average teacher uh for next year saving about $1,200 a year, over $100 a month. Um, which is really good news for them. Um we're just gonna we're working with uh Christopher a little bit to figure out how we you know talk to the employees about this and that um it's great news this year but it could be a roller coaster a little bit depending on how the pension fund does but at least we'll get some year reprieve if it does below uh drop and I've said this I think a couple months ago. Um the good thing about this bill is if it goes
085below 92% level we're at 99.1 right now. goes below 92, it all kicks back to where it was today. Um, so I think you would see that pension fund be pretty solid with the with this tier formula. Um, I I know Dr. Rickley and I have talked and we don't like the change when you got a good pension system. Um, but I think the way it's tiered, it probably will stay pretty solid uh by giving that um funding back to us at 92% level. I can remember gosh back in 2011 12 it was at 84 or so and everybody thought that was pretty good and I know um Dr. Delaney um was a big proponent of having the state kick in at that particular time and they did uh which we appreciated. So uh state
086hasn't been a longtime investor into this pension but they they are uh kicking in quite a bit now and I think it's really helped the program be sustainable. Um, the other ones to keep an eye on, I talked a little bit uh last time with LB653. Uh, it's in general file um, now includes, it hasn't gone to the floor yet, but it's out of committee. It includes the sped option and that's the one the ed coalition is really fighting against here. Uh due to the fact that as we talked about staffing and capacity and space uh in school districts that maybe have a good reputation with special education that parents would want to have their kids opt into. Um and that makes it difficult for districts to serve their own kids because we're already at
087capacity in most of our special ed pro education programs as it is. uh were short staffing as it is with special education. So, it really put a burden on some of the school districts I think um that parents would want to transfer their kids into. Uh and as well as they lumped in um LB430, which is the student discipline piece, the K2. This would be a great thing uh actually an amendment. Um but the other ones kind of override the the the good um with the bad. So basically LB430 would give K you'd be able to suspend K2 students for a short time and be able to address with parents, get a plan for them to return, uh which is what we used to do with K2 kids. Um if there there's there's a violent
088situation involved. It kind of gives that clause in there which everybody needs a little reprieve if we have a violent situation even with K2 kids. So we would appreciate that bill uh part of it if it would have stayed separated out. LB497 is part-time enrollment. Um, this one probably wouldn't affect us a whole lot, although you never know. Um, basically it allows a student at another school district to come play sports in yours if their school district doesn't offer it. Okay, so that's that's one to look for in there. LB507 uh is kind of lumped in with the sped um option. uh it allows for transportation and a way to reimburse uh through that for the state to pay. So really when you look at this bill too, it's going to add money to the
089state costs. No doubt about it. Um because you're adding in transportation costs that weren't there before. Um so they pay 80% back to the school district. So, you know, with that shortfall um we hope that's probably a thing that maybe kicks it over um and out. But we'll see. And then last but not least, LB625 is lumped into there. That's a it it would make um the state change their finance database from uh actuarial to a cash basis system which we're all you know all our systems are actuarial based at this point and that would be a tough transition for a lot of school districts to be able to do um and I'm sure for the state as well. So, those are the 653. Um, there's not not a whole lot to like, but uh
090uh we'll see what we can do as an ED coalition to kind of fight that off and and maybe get some needed changes if there are any available to us if that does go through. But I I just don't see it uh happening that anybody's going to allow any amendments to that to make it work better. LB645, I talked about retirement. And then the other one to keep an eye on is that LB306. It's in committee still, but it's an ED priority bill and that's the next Christmas tree bill. So, we just don't know what's going to be lumped. We have suspicions. We've we've got some bills that I think were rumored to be a part of that one. Uh, but until we see it come out, we don't know for sure. So, that's the
091legislative report. Anybody else have anything to add or questions on the special opt special education option? Is that based on um if you have a percentage of option enrollments? So much of them have to be or when you reach a certain level then you have to allow special ed or what tell me a little bit. Yeah, I I would say the easiest way to explain it although it's a little bit more complicated would be if you allow 15% option enrollment into your district regular ed students, you're going to have to allow that same amount for special education students. That's the easiest way to look at it. It's not that easy, but it's close. And is there a floor on that of 16? Did I see 16% was the floor that you'd have to take for
092those as well or was that maybe that's been removed since the initial that No, that is correct. Um that was a that was a rate that was predetermined from the year before across the state as a percentage of option students from the regular ed that optioned into other districts. So they'll use a formula like that statewide too on but that that has more to do with reimbursements and things like that. But, uh, really you got to watch what you know, like a lot of districts are saying, "Well, why would I I I don't have room for special edits." I mean, there's no way we can take them. So, we're going to have to cut back our regular option enrollment. Uh, because we just don't have any room to do it. So, that's a that's an
093issue, you know, because there's a lot of districts out there that depend on that option enrollment, and yet their special ed departments are full, you know, so something to watch out for. um LBE625, what's the reasoning to switch to the C cash basis versus actual, you know, you know, that I haven't followed that bill a whole lot because I didn't think it had a lot of traction. Um so, we'll try to find out uh what the rationale for that is. I I don't know if it just helps them do their um appropriations better at the state level uh seeing that type of uh um system on their end. But it it just messes up a lot of it for the what the school districts have been doing for years and that we're trained in. But
094I can try to find out a little more on that. I mean, we I think they said starting May 6 they're going to um start on the budget on the floor and then basically take that through the end of the session with the work that they have to do on the budget, especially you talking about a potential Christmas tree bill not even out of committee yet. It's if if it's not out of committee, it's going to be, you know, they need to get that on the floor to even have a chance. But really, anything that has a chance, it's really next week and a half to get there because once you get to the budget, that's that's not going to be an easy um an easy thing to get through. Uh Senator, so I think
095yeah, just stay we just need to stay on top of this next like week and a half or those other bills and stay on top of the budget and how that affects. I know the one thing that did make it through the appropriations committee and their proposed budget, which was also in Governor Pan's proposed budget, was removing the uh paying for the ACT for the juniors. You know, the state law that all juniors take the ACT, but they're removing the dollars that pay for it. So, they they haven't said if who's going to be on the hook for it. Um, but you can imagine it's uh the district being on the hook is something they have in mind. So those items then we just have to keep in mind as they get to that budget
096talk. Yeah, good point. I think when you look at tomorrow's day 70 of 90, you got basically 20 days left. The last two are usually for cleanups and if there's a governor governor override they want to try to do. So those are kind of saved back for those. So really you're looking at about 18 days of work uh left and they got a lot to do. Um, so hopefully we can um play good defense on a few of these bills that aren't good for education. Hey, thank you. Look like you were going to say something. Good. Next item is the um administrative salaries for 202526 school year. Dr. Settles. Yep. Thank you so much. Um, first off, I want to thank the HR student services subcommittee who spends time on this um doing research and
097talking it out and just really keeps their eyes and ears open throughout the year um and gave a large bulk of time um on the teacher negotiation process in the fall and winter. Um, as a reminder, as we start to discuss admin salaries, we do always look back and um, make sure that we have a reminder of the, um, teacher negotiated agreement. That really is what helps to drive the rest of the decisions. So, back in January, um, this board had approved the teacher negotiated agreement for 2526. Um, that did result in a total package increase of 4.69%. 69%. Um the HR subcommittee considered that as well as several other pieces of data as um proposing the following. Um you might remember that last year subcommittee for HR student services did quite a lot of
098comparison work and um this year strictly is basing the recommendation on base movement base and movement. Uh so you'll see that uh certified administrator average package increase recommend recommended is 4.035%. And this would be an increase to the base of $1,690. That would move the base from 72,600 to $74,290. It also would allow for both vertical and horizontal movement on the admin um scale for assistant superintendent. The recommendation for the package increase is 3.80. And um one thing I'd forgotten to mention, this does also take into account the overall EHA um increase which overall was 5.49. does not affect everyone in this group because um people do take different insurance and some don't take the insurance at all. Any discussion for Dr. Settles? No. Thank you. Great job. Turn the page. Next item is also
099Dr. Settles the superintendent's contract for the 202526 school year. Yep. Again, thank you subcommittee for the um diligence that you give to this and and keep your ears to the ground on what's happening around us throughout the year. Um so our committee did as usual um research the 15 largest districts in Nebraska and um traditionally the recommendation here is that for the superintendent uh the increase for total package would be lower than teachers and um administration. So the proposed uh superintendent contract that you see is a total package increase of 3.605%. 605%. Dr. Rickley's salary for the 2526 school year is proposed to be 273,947.31. That um includes increases that when you include the increases FICA, Medicare insurance rates um this would be a total package cost of 341,528.86 86 not to include u budgeted
100amounts for travel allowance reimbursement and uh his association and membership dues. Uh the total amount budgeted for the contract is $352,68.85. Uh the contract was updated in December of 2024 and does cover from 2027 to 2028. Uh, we do keep a copy of the superintendent's three-year contract available for patron review on the district website in accordance with Nebraska Superintendent Contract Transparency Act. Uh, thanks for uh, putting this together, Dr. Settles, and the HR subcommittee for uh, reviewing it. I was on it last year, so I know the the amount of work that goes into this one and the and the one we just we just previously um went through as well. You talked about looking at the 15 largest districts in the state. Do you know where this contract would put us at? So, we
101don't know where this would put us at because not everywhere is settled for next year. I can tell you for this current year where he's been at um he um out of the 15 the um PLCS contract would have been eighth in salary and ninth in total package out of those uh largest 15 school districts. Uh so we're the fourth largest district in Nebraska and those are falling eighth for salary, ninth for total package. Uh yeah, that's I was uh I I was going through it and I couldn't remember where we ended up last year, but I know they're all going through uh the same conversation right now. There have been so much the such a high level of superintendent turnover in the areas around us as you've seen some of those other districts that
102have had to hire a new superintendent. uh can you walk through or just uh speculate on potentially how how much they've had to increase their contracts for a new superintendent compared to one that's been there. Yeah, I think one of the things that we have seen is even bringing in a fairly new superintendent who doesn't have the years of experience that their predecessor has and may be retiring with. um they're needing to keep competitive and still um keeping right in that same ballpark. I think um applications have certainly decreased. These are big jobs uh responsible to a lot of people, a lot of patrons, a lot of employees and most importantly um overseeing everything that goes on for students. Uh so I think those are definitely conversations that subcommittee um continuously has is though Dr.
103Rickley does make a point each year of making sure that he says I you pay me well I don't have an opinion on this and doesn't ask for anything. Um subcommittee every single year discusses we have to make sure that we're keeping competitive so that in the event that Dr. directly is no longer our superintendent and moves on. We need to make sure that we're a district that remains a place that people want to come and um and do this big job. Any other comments? Thank you, Dr. Settles. And our last uh no public comment for items not on the agenda tonight. We have a very busy board calendar. Um, these are my favorite things to do though as as our former Val Fischer used to say, this is our payment for being on the
104board is to be able to attend these events. So, the one thing that's not an event for everybody, I guess, is the liaison lunch at Prairie Queen on May 2nd with Miss Butler. Um, but then we have honors night on April 30th at Pilion La Vista South at 7:30. Honors night at Pilion Le Vista High School at 7 p.m. on May 6th. Senior's last day of school is May 9th. The search graduation is at 8:30 at Embassy Suites. Also on the 9th, the YATP graduation at noon at Embassy Suites. May 11th is commencement 1:00 for Pell La Vista South High School and at 3 p.m. for Pell La Vista High School at the Baxter Arena. And our next board meeting is May 12th at this location at 6 PM. No further business. We close the
105meeting at 7:20. Thank you.