001Welcome and good evening everyone to the Pil Vista Community Schools Board of Education meeting for April 14, 2025. I call the meeting to order and we will start with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Could we have roll call, please? Miss Wood here. Mr. Bailey here. Miss Butler here. Mr. Mr. Madler here. Miss Wet here. Mr. Lotus here. Motion carrying. Thank you very much. Um, please note that the open meetings act law is posted at the entrance to the room. There are no excused absences. Moving on to communications. The first thing we have is our favorite thing of the night, recognitions. Dr. Rickley. Thank
002you very much, Miss Whit, members of the board. For community members that are with us this evening, thank you for being with us. Whether you are here or watching at home, we appreciate you engaging with your school district and board of education. As Miss Wit indicated, one of our most favorite things to do every board meeting is provide recognition for either students or staff that have somehow gone above and beyond and brought distinction or honor to their school district. We have five such groups tonight. So, because we have such a large number, let me just kind of walk you through uh how this will look because I bet we have moms, dad, grandson, grandpa, and grandmas that would like to join us as well. We'll announce each of the five groups that we're celebrating one
003at a time. After each one goes, we'll take a brief pause. If you want to come up and join me, we'll take a quick picture. And family members are likewise welcome to come up here and take a picture. We'll congratulate them, show them some Pilonian La Vista pride, and then we'll move on to the next group. Okay, the very first group that we are recognizing this evening and it actually encompasses two different uh two different celebrations. First, the Pilon Le Vista South High School basketball team. Uh and I did see coach Heer as well as several members of his coaching staff that joined us. I didn't know if I caught them all, but uh please assistant coaches join us. So, not only is this the first time that Papon La Vista South High School has
004won a Class A title, I believe this is the first time they've won a state playoff game. So, uh, they've made it to the playoffs any number of times, but they got that first win against cross town rivals, Monarchs. They went on to beat a really good Millard North squad and then they beat Westside in the finals. It was an incredible, incredible run. Uh we have a number of individuals that we want to honor as part of this celebration. The coach and the players were also recognized in the 2025 Nebraska Prep's basketball awards ceremony. Joel Heer as part of their run was recognized as coach of the year. Bryson Ball, who we'll get to more in just a little bit, was named the Class A Player of the Year. And Levi Webb was named the
005big game player of the year. On behalf of the entire Pavilon Vista Community Schools Board of Education, please join us in applause in recognizing your class A state champions. [Applause] You can do the Very good. One, two, three. [Applause] Super super proud of our Titans. What a wonderful celebration for the building and the entire district. Coach Heer, thank you again for bringing your players down. On a closely related note, the second celebration of the evening, uh we'll ask Bryson to stick around. uh who again coached by Joel Heir. Bryson was named the honorary captain of the Omaha World Herald all Nebraska First team that came out this weekend. He was named the Gatorade Nebraska boys basketball player of the year and then completed the hattick of course by being a state champion. I would venture
006to say Bryson perhaps that's the greatest honor of them all. Bryson, we are so proud of you. Can't wait to see what you do at Drake University. On behalf of the Pavilion Vista Community Schools Board of Education, please come down and be recognized. [Applause] Appreciate being here. [Applause] Well done, Bryson. Thanks again, Coach Heer for Hezer for bringing the crew down. Next up, we have State Hosa. We have a team from Pilion La Vista High School. And I think Kate was Kate here tonight. Uh or I've got State Hosa next on my my sheet, but we can go wherever we want to go here, ladies and gentlemen. That's the beauty of having this in front of us. Okay, so we've got Hosa. So, was Kate here Creger? Did we have the I did see Kate
007back. Outstanding. Thank you for being here, Katie. So, we have a couple of different honores under state HOSA championships. Both from Pablo La Vista High School. We have De Hoo, who plays first in his category. Vicky Woo, who was first in her category, and Vicki was also selected as a state officer. If you're not familiar with HOSA, it's a future health professionals. It's a very prestigious state level organization. Uh stands for health occupation students of America. And for our students who are enrolled in the health science education plan, uh, education program, this is a really big honor and a really big part of their preparation as they think about moving on to a four-year degree, medical school, wherever it is that their travels will take them. Dwit and Vicki, please come down and be recognized
008by your board of education. [Applause] Well done, Vicki. And again, Katie, thank you for all that you do to support our students. Next up on my sheet is State DECA, and we have two different teams. Uh, one from Monarch, one from Titan, and I think I saw both Priscilla as well as Ally. Uh, first off, Pilian Le Vista High School. Our advisers, Priscilla Peterson. I don't know if Romy's here. Romy Brown, did Romy make it? Is no Romy? Thanks, Priscilla. As incidentally, uh, Priscilla is the new replacement for our own Laros Ericson, who will be, uh, retiring at the end of the school year. So, Priscilla, thank you for bringing your charges out. We had two first place finishers from Pil Vista High School. Uh, both of these individuals placed in two categories. We have
009Sammy Draper, Mattie Moore. This is an outstanding distinguishment, not only for you, but for the school district. Sammy and Maddie, will you please come down and be recognized by your board of education? All right. [Applause] Outstanding job, Sammy. Well done, Maddie. We are very proud of you, Priscilla. Thanks for bringing the crew down. And last, but by no means least, we are recognizing the team from Pilion La Vista South High School with their adviser of Ally Gillan. And I did see Ally walk in. I believe we have several individuals as well as a team recognition here. Micah Cavverzagi, Alex Fischer, Techco, Sloan Gregory, Jack O'Neal. And then the team awards were Jackson Hassel, and Charlie Wright. More than 600 high school students and advisers from 35 chapters attended the DECA State Career Development Conference in
010Lincoln, which was last month, March 20th through the 21st. To compete in more than 40 chapter, team, and individual events and attend leadership workshops and more. To have this number of individuals recognized is simply amazing. On behalf of the Pavilion Vista Community Schools Board of Education, for our South students, please come down and be recognized by your board of education. All right. One, two, three. [Applause] I think Let me ask Christopher. Thank you. Thank you, Coach Gillan. And again, Sloan and Micah, congratulations on your honors to Pav Vista South. And with that, Miss Whitw will conclude our recognitions for the evening. Wow. Congratulations to everyone. What a grow group of athletes and scholars in our admits today. Absolutely. Okay. Next on our agenda, we have student council. Tonight, we have McKenzie Leup and Abigail Bender
011from Pilion Le Vista High School, uh, South High School. Welcome, ladies. Hi. I'm Ky. I'm Abigail. Thank you for having us tonight. We're really excited. So, we're super excited to be here tonight and then share everything that we've missed telling you guys about for a couple months. Um, we would like to thank you guys all again for your commitment to our school district and all your hard work that you put in all throughout the year. So, um, as we wrap up the fourth quarter of the 2024 2025 school year, um, it continues to be very, very busy time for everybody. Um, we're preparing to finish very strong this year. We're coming off a very successful prom weekend weekend. So, some of us are a little bit tired after partying, but it was very fun prom,
012very fun postp prom, and we wanted to take a moment to highlight some of our groups that we had throughout the school. Uh, so first we want to highlight our athletics. Like, as we said, we now have a state championship basketball team, which is super exciting. Uh, I don't know if you guys got to attend some of the games, but they were so much fun. So exciting. Uh we just want to reach out and say thank you to all of the fans. Uh our Titan Power Chant was a fan favorite and we love that. Uh so we're super happy for them. First state title in school history and first state win. So super super exciting. Uh and then we have spring sports. They're kicking into high gear. Some of them are entering their metro tournaments
013and stuff like that. Um our boys soccer team is six and four and is ranked fifth in the state. I've seen fifth, I've seen third. I don't know. I I choose to believe third. I like that better. Uh the girls also have a strong young team. They are four and four and continue to grow and develop with each game. Uh track is off to a hot start. Our boys and girls have gotten a lot of wins. The girls have won the College of St. Mary Don and prep invites and the boys have won the College of St. Mary and prep invites. So, yeah, they're looking super strong. We're super super proud of them. Uh, and then baseball is starting off 12 and three this season and they are currently ranked number two in the state.
014Moving on to fine arts, our theater program is preparing to um kick off their big production, Alice by Heart, which is like a Alice in Wonderland retelling. I don't know. I've never seen it, but I it's going to be really good. Um, this is going to be our very big spring play. It's going to be May 1st, 2nd, and 3D all at 7 PM. So, we would like to we'd love to see you all there. I know I'm gonna try and make it. I will be there. Um, we are they're promising a very unique and powerful performance as always and we cannot wait to see it. Another thing, our band, uh, Winter Percussion Group just traveled to Dayton, Ohio, um, this past weekend, and they competed against other elite bands from across the nation. Um
015they had a very successful scene as well. So I think they were excited to go travel, show off their skills. Yeah, we're super proud of our band as always. Uh and then we have a ton of clubs at Papio South as you guys know. So we're going to highlight a few. Starting off with our very own student council. Uh we just hosted a me and my guy dance. It's like it was kind of like a a daddyaughter dance but a little more inclusive uh for Pilion Area elementary schoolers. Uh it was a huge success. We raised a lot of money for Makea-Wish through that. Um, and then we are getting ready for our annual blood drive coming April 25th. So, I I'll use my platform. If you guys are available April 25th at any time,
016uh, please sign up for donations. We would greatly appreciate that. Um, we really hope to see a large group uh to help save some lives. So, we have just uh gone through with our council and officer elections. Abigail is our new president next year. Super exciting. So, you will be seeing more of her. Um, yep. And then we're preparing for seniors to graduate. So, I will not be with us next year because I'm graduating, but it was a fun year. I guess we still have a little bit left. Uh, and then DECA. We saw a bunch of students highlighted from our school's DECA. We're super proud of our DECA. We take a lot of pride in our DECA. Um they dominated at Metro with 16 Titans placing in the top eight and 10 of them
017are finished in the top three, which beyond like I don't I don't really know what goes into DECA, but that seems great. Um and then a huge congratulations to all our competitors for their hard work and success. We are proud of their dedication and achievement, and we are wishing them luck at nationals in Orlando coming up. Um and then National Honor Society members have been hard at work volunteering in various activities. Uh senior day of service was a success. Uh seniors had the opportunity to volunteer around the metro area. I know I was picking up trash at Fontell Park. It was super fun uh to just hang out with my classmates and do good for the community. Uh so our hours were due today as seniors, but juniors have a little more time. Uh but
018yeah, we're excited for our NHS senior breakfast. uh just all the things to kick off the end of the year. Yeah. So, thank you again for allowing us to present once again at this meeting and for the positive impact you guys continue to have on all of us and our school district by serving in your role. We're very very proud of our school and what we've accomplished and what we will continue to accomplish as we finish off this year. Last month, I think how many days? Yes, however many days. Yeah, I think there's like 17 days or for me there's 17 days. Not anybody's time like that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Kenzie and Abigail. That was wonderful. And reports now from the superintendent. Uh thank you very much, Miss Wit, members of the
019board. Again, thank you for our audience members who are with us tonight. Uh it's kind of hard to follow both the recognitions as well as from our student council reps, but we do have several things going on uh around the district. First off is I just want to single out uh my administrative intern, our own Scott Hilgar, who's an administrator with the Omaha Public Schools as part of his program, is joining us this evening to sit through the the board presentation. And Scott spent some time uh shadowing with me the last several weeks. So Scott, thank you for being here and good luck as you finish out the program. Uh around the district, all kinds of really fun and exciting things. uh perhaps chief among them is we find ourselves in the middle of April
020which is the month of the military child. Uh just as a reminder to the board and the community under Dr. V's leadership and our principal's leadership we went from having two of our schools that were purple star designated to all 21 buildings which are purple star designated which is no small feat. Basically, that means that we have met certain standards laid out by the Department of Defense, uh, Department of Education that says you are a military friendly school and you support both the men and women that wear our uniform as well as their military dependence. So, this is a really big deal for the school district. We had several different ceremonies last week highlighted by an event at Pil Vista High School. Uh, we have a couple more scheduled this week. Uh the highlight of
021the week was perhaps traveling to Lincoln where government Governor Pillan uh signed a proclamation and asked Dr. Rippy and I to be there as he was signing the proclamation again uh indicating April is the month of the military child. So for our men and women uh who are protecting this great country of ours, thank you to you and to their dependence. We know the burden that you bear as being family members. So thank you very much uh from a very grateful school district. Uh, also wanted to share that I had the great fortune to travel with three of the school board members to the uh, national school boards conference in Atlanta. I won't say too much about that because I bet you'll hear from our board members on that. But it was a great opportunity
022to network, hear from some national level speakers, listen, learn, and just connect with other educators from around the country. So, thank you to the board for supporting that. also wanted to share with the community that we have started the process on establishing the boundaries for elementary school 17. Now, while that building will not open until the fall of 2026, so approximately 16 months from now, uh we want to have the boundaries well established before the school opens its doors in approximately a year and a half. Our first board meeting or excuse me, our first community meeting was at Prairie Queen last Tuesday. We had approximately 20 community members, several board members that were there. We have two more meetings, uh, at least two more meetings scheduled. One tomorrow night, 6:30 Liberty Middle School. Another Thursday
023night, 6:30 Liberty Middle School. You don't need to sign up. You don't need to RSVP. Show up, listen, learn, bring your tough questions, and it'll be a great opportunity for us to establish priorities and talk about the boundaries for our brand newest elementary school. Uh, also wanted to talk a little bit about another highlight. Uh I shared this with the board already, but in addition to traveling to Lincoln for the Purple Star designation ceremony, also had the opportunity to travel to Lincoln and listen to the band uh excuse me, the the the show choir from Liberty Middle School. Uh they were so incredible. I don't know how many students we had packed into the rotunda, but it was no small number. And the acoustics in the capital are amazing. It was in the Rotunda just
024outside the legislative chambers, high ceilings. If you've been to the capital, you know what I'm talking about. But they represented the district in Liberty Middle School so very well and they sounded so amazing. Uh even uh speaker uh John Arch who hails from Pavilion stepped out of his office and he listened to the full concert from our vocalists. So it was an incredible experience to see our middle schools students perform. Also wanted to thank our title one principles. We have five title one buildings. We had several uh board members show up. Uh Monarch High hosted. Uh we had a great event. We had wildlife encounters for the kids. We had a really great guest speaker. Uh our numbers weren't what they were in previous years, but it was still a great opportunity for our parents
025to come out with their kids, have a free meal, hopefully learn, and engage with our administrative team. And last, but by no means least, we have our final community closet event of the year. I think everybody in the district's probably aware of what the community closet is, but uh we accept donated, gently worn shoes, clothing items, uh hygiene items that have been donated, and we distribute them to families that need them. April 26, 10 to 12 at L Vista Middle School. I'll put in a shameless plug for Dr. Meyers. Usually, we have loads and loads of volunteers. For whatever reason, we're a little bit short on volunteers. If we have anybody that's interested, including board members. We've had board members in the past, including Mr. Bailey that has come out and volunteered. If that interests
026you in the lease, that is April 26, 10 to 12 at Le Vista Middle School. And with that, Miss Wit, I would conclude my superintendent comments. Thank you, Dr. Rickley. Board member report. Who wants to be first? I can start us off. Um I had the opportunity on April 1st to travel with Miss Wit to the open meetings law workshop. Um some great reminders for me um as I continue to learn um procedures and processes of a board of our board. Um so they went over um uh many of the the rules and guidance that we have so that our meetings are run effectively. Uh on April 2nd I attended a fourth and fifth grade music program at Anderson Grove with a sports theme was the feature and I just really appreciate how our music
027professionals continue to engage our kids by making the programs fun for them and there was a definitely high engagement there. Um on April 2nd, I uh had the pleasure of attending the uh liaison lunch at PLC um our early childhood center with Dr. Rickley and Miss Siri. Again, we spent some time discussing their program review that was just completed this year. They were very excited about that process and even surprised by some of the outcomes. Uh they walked away with some good data and uh feel that this is data that they can continue to use moving forward. Uh they talked about some next steps over the next couple years. You know, moving some sites out into into some of the buildings uh potentially um providing more small groupoup spaces as we transition those three-year-olds between
028uh the early program and into more of the preschool program. um there will be some changes um in their six how in six pence we'll have a new um administrator or new leader of that next year. Um and they continue just to look at more opportunities uh to engage all of our children especially the birth and three kids. Um but it was definitely a pleasure to spend time at the PLC center. As Dr. Dr. Rickley said, "I had the privilege of going to the national convention in Atlanta the 4th through the 6th." Um, and again, walking away from there with um, uh, a great uh, feeling that, you know, we do things really well in Pavilion Levista schools was one of the the takeaways that I have had. Um, as you learn and hear from
029other other districts around the country, it was an interesting convention. I think um many of the presentations had been prepared six months ago and as we're aware things have changed over the last six months and so uh there was um some discussion about that about governing um and meeting the needs of all of our students um as things change and how do we adjust at the local level with some of those changes that the fed that is occurring at the federal level. Um so again it was a good opportunity for some learning for me for give me the opportunity to reflect on some things. Um we had the great student council reports and one of the fun sessions I went to was just about how do you get kids more involved with the board of
030education. Um so that was great and I also had the opportunity to attend one on strategic planning. So with that down the road for us I thought that was very appropriate. um attended the teammates board meeting on April 8th and they're preparing their budget for next year and preparing to elect new officers. Again, the boundary discussion at Prairie Queen that was on April 8th and I just really appreciated the parents feedback that we received at that meeting very helpful. I thought the title one parent event on April 8th again that's awesome to see the title one teams work together to put on that event that does help them meet the requirements laid out in some of the federal grants um as they gather input from parents and work on their compacts at the building level
031and and some of those things. and they've done that in a very strategic way um to get that to get all that information as well as making it a fun and informative night for parents. Suanne and I went and listened to the speaker and he talked about um behavior and so as any parent uh or grandparent knows behavior is always a big part of life with kids. And finally on April 9th uh Mr. Bailey and I attended the last maybe meeting of the year and heard about how other uh groups in the area, other school boards are finishing up their years, their season, their season. I guess it's a season finishing up the year. That's right. So, thank you. All right. I guess I could go. Um, a lot of these are repeats, but um,
032I I was very honored that uh, PL Vista South High School asked me to come speak on the 31st as part of the uh, month of the military child. Um, they kind of had me speak about my experiences and what my kids went through and how they could uh, they could help with uh, you know, continue to to do everything that they do. Uh, it was an honor, like I said, to speak to them. Um, so that was a that was a lot of fun. And then um yes set at the boundary meeting on the 8th. I know with both of you I plan to be at the one tomorrow night and Thursday. But do appreciate all the parents that come out to those um and um and offer their opinions and their perspectives. It's
033it's really good to hear uh kind of you know gives a different perspective um you know than what we typically get you know amongst ourselves um which is really good. So I enjoyed that. The title one event yeah that's the second one of those I've attended and and we always do such a great job with that. the everybody that's there working so hard. Um, and I'm amazed because it's I mean what a time did it start 6:30 and those folks had been at it since you know 7:45 or 7:30 that morning and they were still ready to go and full of energy and everything and for all the parents and the families that showed up. So it was uh it was it was fun to watch. Um so uh that was pretty much echo what
034you said about the maybe meeting but it was good. So thank you I uh had the trip down to Atlanta for the NSBA conference. A handful. We went to a number of sessions, but the the ones that really stuck out to me with the the one and I had the most takeaways was a session on long-term mental health impacts, chronic absenteeism, protecting children, and community partnerships. Uh the speakers from all of those sessions were great. I mean, speakers from across the country. uh and the Q&A, even just the conversation from these sessions from other board members and administrators. Um I have a a notebook full of notes that I plan on uh putting together in a more legible format than my handwriting and emailing all of you. So I will get I will try to
035get those out this week or next week. Uh, but again, like Miss Wood said, I just enjoy having the conversations with other school board members across the state, listening to what they're dealing with now, what they've dealt with in the past, how they've handled issues. You know, you can always learn from how other people are handling things, either either, you know, takeaways from how not to do things or, you know, what worked well uh for them. So, I I always enjoy that conference. Uh, I also had the NASB legislative committee meeting today. I know we have legislative update on the agenda later on, so I'm sure I'll I'll chime in with Mr. Richards there, but I think what we're on day six we're over day 60, getting close to day 60. Yep. So, yep, we're
036coming down to the end. Um, but it'll be a lot that we need to keep our eye on as there's still so many moving pieces uh down in Lincoln. And that's it for me. Uh I attended um Monarch Backer Night uh a couple Saturdays ago. Uh it was a really wellorganized uh event. Uh it looked pretty much sold out. I didn't see an empty chair uh in the building. Uh so great. Uh they had a you know 10 minute 15 minute of a stand-up comedian. Uh and so just kind of livened up the night and then led for some just fun fun conversation. So, I know it was a very successful event and they raised uh quite a bit of money for the Monarch programs. Um, outside of that, I've been attending way too many
037sporting events uh lately. I apologize for looking windblown because I well I am. Uh, it was a very windy soccer practice today. So, we're we've had nothing but them. Uh, so, but it's good to see supportive crowds, you know, at the baseball games, soccer games. Uh still I got to get out to see my niece in track and field uh yet uh this spring. Um but looks like as the Pilion South student council mentioned, you know, some good successes uh at South and as well I know quite a few uh successes at at Monarch as well. So outside of that, that's where I've been. I uh attended the April 1st open meetings law and I I've read that act many times but you always learn something new so it was always informative to go to
038those at the national school boards association April 4th through 6 my focus on uh governance policy changes in federal law that might affect our district some takeaways include establishing board norms procedural aspects for running meetings family and community engagement strategies and goal-based budgets I really did appreciate uh especially the round table times when I would sit next to people from different districts around the country and you're right the diversity of the way they operate their districts is unbelievably different than the way we do and ours is perfect I don't know why they don't copy us but it just didn't make any sense but they were you know it was really good and and good relationships were made and um I appreciate having been able to go that they did talk a lot about how important
039professional development was at all aspects of of the school district from from the people who wash the dishes to the people who sit at the board table how important it is to to keep professional development going and I agree with that 100%. Uh but everybody the in the end it was student focus was the number one goal of everyone there and student growth and achievement. So it was really good to be around people of the same thinking as you. Um Tuesday on April 8th I did the boundary listing session at Prairie Queen. I really appreciated the parents who were in the room. They they had some insightful and informative um hints for us or suggestions. I thought things I hadn't thought of. So, I'm looking forward to the next two this Tuesday and Thursday at
040Liberty. And then the family night at Pilion High School, Pillian Lab Vista High School. Even though there weren't as many families as we expected, the families that were there were having a good time. The kids were there. I think that's a wonderful experience to be able to be together and and the importance of being able to come and and work on the federal programs um requirements for that. It's it's helpful to have everyone there and Mr. Dr. McNiff from ESU5 was very informative on child behavior. I wish I'd have known some of those things when my kids were little but too late. Okay. Any any other board comments? All right. The next is our committee reports starting with buildings, grounds, and finance. I believe we met right after the last meeting, right? So, we did
041have a meeting last three weeks ago. Uh yeah, it's been a while. I was trying to think. Yeah, we do have a meeting in two weeks, but a number of the items that we discussed at the last committee meeting uh uh is we are going to be discussing later for both action item and then the uh discussion information items as well. Human resources, student services. Yes, we met I believe the following day. Um and we have multiple items on tonight's agenda. That's we focused most of our time on during that last meeting and curriculum and Americanism. Yeah, we met way back on the 25th of March as well. Um we had a number of things as everybody else has said that are going to be on the uh agenda for tonight. And uh in addition
042um we uh talked talked a lot about the strategic plan and how that uh the beginning of that is going and how we're that the group has met the student advisory groups have met. Um and then we had certified and classified advisory groups are going to meet as we start to get that process rolling. Thank you. Moving on to item three action items. Action by consent. I make a motion that we approve the action by consent items as listed. Second. We have a motion by Miss Wood and a second by Mr. Bailey. Roll call. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Miss Butler? Yes. Mr. Madler? Yes. Miss Wit? Yes. Mr. Lotus? Yes. Miss Wood? Yes. Motion carrying. Thank you. Next item on our agenda is the Pil Vista High School and Liberty Middle School track construction project from
043Mr. Richards. Thank you, Miss Wit. Good evening, everybody. Um, we did receive two bids on these uh two projects here. Uh, the low bid being from Neaha Sports Construction out of Lincoln. Um, they've done many of our projects in district and they do a lot of school districts out out of the district. They've done Memorial Stadium turf, so it's a pretty reputable company here. Um, it's at 1,295,233.58. Uh the project does include uh replacing the Monarch track, uh concrete replacements at that track area, uh improving the shotput area. Um we are um recommending getting new goalposts put in on that practice field. Those are really, really old goalpost goalposts over there at Monarch. Um, as part of this, while we're in there, um, we'll be replacing the sighting for the shed as well, um, at
044the Monarch site and then replacing or not replacing, but resurfacing the Liberty Middle track. So, as part of this project, um, as you know, uh, with the bond that we will be doing Pilion Middle and Le Vista Middle this summer, uh, with the track resurfacing or actually total replacements on those two tracks, which we've already approved earlier this spring. So, uh, all three of our middle school tracks will actually have a track surface. Now, um, this project does fall within our estimated budget range that the engineers had estimated and the administration would recommend approval of this bid as presented. I'll make the motion to one approve the Pilion Leista High School track replacement and Liberty track surfacing projects as presented by Neaha Sports Contracting LLC for the amount of 1,295,233.58. and two to delegate authority
045to and authorize the superintendent of schools or assistant superintendent of business services for the school district to sign, execute and deliver such con construction contracts, sign and approve any change orders, pay the contract price and other expenses related to the construction projects and take all other action necessary to complete any requirements or obligations under the construction projects and contracts. I will second that. I have a motion by Mr. Madler and a second by Mr. Mr. Lotus. Is there any discussion? Roll call, please. Miss Butler? Yes. Mr. Madler? Yes. Miss Wood? Yes. Mr. Lotus? Yes. Miss Wood? Yes. Mr. Bailey? Yes. Motion carry. Thank you. Our next action item is policy 3000, business services. Mr. Richards. Yes. Uh, we did review policy 3000s and we did not find any uh need for changes at this time.
046I make a motion to acknowledge the review of series 3000 business board policies. Second. I have a motion by Mr. Bailey and a second by Mr. Lotus. Any discussion? Roll call. Mr. Madler? Yes. Miss W? Yes. Mr. Lotus? Yes. Miss Wood? Yes. Mr. Bailey? Yes. Miss Butler? Yes. Mr. Madler? I already said that. Next item on the agenda, mass communication systems. Dr. Veriel. Good evening board. I am asking you to approve the amended contract as presented at the last meeting for our mass communication system which includes upgrades to both our desktop mass communication app and our mobile mass communication app with updates to the PLCS mobile app coming next school year. I'll make a motion to approve the final site contract addendum and to upgrade our mass communication system to messages XR Enterprise and Teacher
047Communications Enterprise. Second. Thank you, Miss Wit. Yes, Mr. Lotus. Yes, Miss Wood. Yes, Mr. Bailey. Yes. Miss Butler. Yes. Mr. Madler. Yes. Motion carried. Thank you. Next action item. Act on the cancellation of contract for Mr. Jeffrey Fabble. Miss Dr. Settles, please. Thank you. Uh yes, as you're all aware, uh we have been working on a personnel situation recently since our last board meeting occurred. Um just to give you the background on that, Mr. Jeffrey Fabble was placed on administrative leave on March 25th, 2025. The next day, the Douglas County Sheriff's Office did deliver a letter to him from us um stating that the board of education would be considering cancellation of his contract um of his employment here pending board action. Mr. Fabell had the opportunity at that time to request a hearing per
048state statute within seven days of receiving that notice and we did not hear from Mr. Mr. FBEL regarding that. So the school district has complied with all requirements, the statute and policy regarding the cancellation of Mr. Fable's employment contract. Now the board must make a decision um to cancel Jeffrey Fobble's employment contract and that would be effective immediately. We also just for your own information did notify the um Nebraska Department of Education of Mr. Fable's arrest on that very day. Uh now following tonight's action, we will be able to um have the final piece of our formal complaint to the Nebraska Department of Education um regarding his violation of professional practice. I'll move to cancel the contract of Mr. Jeffrey Fowl for the following resolution. Whereas the Douglas County Sheriff's Office notified Jeff Fowl on
049March 26, 2025 that the board of education would consider the cancellation of his employment contract effective upon board action. And whereas Mr. Fable did not send a request for a hearing within 7 days of receiving the notice. And whereas the school district has complied with all the requirements of statute and policy regarding the cancellation of Mr. Fable's employment contract. Now therefore, be it resolved that Jeffrey Fable's employment contract be canled, and the same is hereby canled effective immediately. I'll second that motion. Thank you. I have a motion by Mr. Lotus, a second by Miss Wood. Do you have any discussion? And I will tell you if you want to discuss specifically Mr. Fabble, we have to go into close session. If you have any general questions about process, you may direct those to Dr. Settles.
050Any discussion? I just had a question. Can you just very generally, very broadly go over the district's hiring process? Y sure. So, hiring practices in general are governed obviously by several authorities. Um, but then specifically here in PLCS, we do have board policy in place that we do follow. Um, that's 4,01. Um and in this situation and all, we do follow those board policies. Um those hiring processes include obviously extensive reviews of applications of all of the documents that the applicants provide. Um we vet transcripts, go through written and um verbal reference checks. We do screening interviews and then as well as in-person interviews. Um we verify um the certifications of the applicants and um there's other pieces that go into that as well. It's a very extensive application or a very extensive process. Uh
051following the acceptance of a job offer, we do follow up with a number of things while we are onboarding the person. Uh, and that does include comprehensive background checks. Those background checks are um they include but aren't limited to statewide criminal, national um federal criminal, national sex offender registry, adult and child abuse registry and multi-core jurisdictional searches as well as checks of social security numbers and names. Um and pending things that may show up on that. Then we have further processes that we follow. So clearly what we did we missed some things with this and uh you know obviously we we are all you know very upset about this and I know I've spoken to Dr. Rickley I haven't spoken to you directly about this but um are we looking into trying to further some
052of this because clearly one of the things you said was documents provided by the uh the applicant. Is there a way to find documents that may not be provided or anything like that that we could look forward? I know you may not have an answer now. I guess I'm kind of looking for a a general what can we do to be to get better so that this sort of thing does not happen again if we can possibly keep that you know from happening? I know that it's you know it's there's only so much we can do but is there anything else that we can do or that can be done um by the company that does the background check um to like you said to Yeah. So, um, we do have a a very extreme,
053um, comprehensive plan already in place with our one source, our background check company, and, um, the background check that we're using, you know, is successful in situations, including this one. Um, we do always want to use this opportunity though to get better. So, we train every year um our administrators in a a very robust way on our hiring practices. And so those practices are something that um in situations like this, but in general, always that we're improving, we revamp them every single year as far as making them tighter and more um involved. So, and this situation is no different than those that we need to utilize situations to try to improve processes. Um, absolutely. Yep. I appreciate it. Thank you. I think one of the other things, Mr. Bailey, um, shortly after this came to
054light, both Dr. Settles and I independently reached out to Nebraska Professional Practices Investigation so that they were aware of the situation. Uh, we had an extended meeting with the CEO of One Source, does all of our background checking information, make sure we weren't missing something from that perspective. And we also reach out to Sarpie County Sheriff's Office. Vetting police officers isn't the same as vetting teachers. We understand that. But we're always trying to see what we can learn from a particular situation. Even in a terrible situation such as this, there's lessons to be learned, and we will absolutely get stronger as an organization because of that. Thank you. If there's no further discussion, call the vote, please. Mr. Lotus, yes. Miss Wood, yes. Mr. Bailey, yes. Miss Butler, yes. Mr. Madler, yes. Miss Wood, yes.
055Motion carry. Thank you. Our last item under actions by consent by action is the 2024 2025 inclement weather adjustment to the calendar. Miss Siri. Yes. Good evening. The wind has picked up. It's like they knew we were going to talk about weather. Okay. Um what you have in front of you in the board packet is a response to um our current 2024 2025 school year calendar. Um as you know, we had seven days that we lost of instruction due to weather this year. All taking place in the second semester of the school year. Um what we looked for were solutions that basically could do a couple of things. Um we missed seven days. We do not need to make up all seven days and that is not the request tonight. Um what we are looking
056for is a way for us to increase all instructional time for students. That would be valuable. Um, we also need to take into consideration um the outline guidance that's in rule 10 specifically when it comes to our senior students as their calendar ends early due to graduation. And um also rule 11 outlines minutes for preschool which was impacted by the seven days. And then finally with the adjustment in the calendar, we wanted to ensure that our staff had an opportunity for their professional development um as well. So the recommendation that we're making tonight, if you look there, is you will see um currently we um are looking for one day for all students and that day is April 21st. In the calendar as it stands right now, that day was a professional development day with
057no students reporting. So we are asking that that be a regular school day in which both students and staff would report. The second request is the preschool on April 28th. We did not have preschool scheduled in the afternoon and so we will pick up that time for our PM preschool to help with their minutes. And then the last two focus mainly on the senior class. Um the senior class was to um be finished on May 8th with a partial day and we are asking that they attend the full day that day and their last day be the 9th of May. Um on the last day for seniors they literally go through a checkout process. They practice for graduation and we have a senior celebration uh usually in the the high schools plan an event for
058them. So that will actually take place on the 9th and the 8th will be a regular school day with us using the April 21st date which was the staff development date as a day for all students. Then that professional development day for our staff would be moved to the last day which is May 27th. So basically what we're asking for is one day for all students, two and a half days for seniors and a half day for preschool with the adjustment in the calendar. questions or clarification. Uh before we get there, I'll make the motion to approve the recommended calendar changes for 202425 school year as presented. Second. Thank you. I have a motion by Mr. Bailey and a second by Mr. Madler. Discussion, please. Miss Siri, uh, thanks for putting this together. I know,
059yeah, I mean, seven snowcold days just isn't ideal. Trying to make sure that we're getting our students the, you know, the instructional time that we want them to get. Uh, and so I know we've you and the team and Dr. Rickley have been working hard to get it this this plan together. Uh can you talk through the importance of getting that last staff day on the calendar, you know, since they have to miss the one potentially on the 21st and why it is important to get it back on the calendar at the end of the year. Sure. So we have lots of things planned on those staff development days. Um our buildings have their continuous improvement process meetings. They have staff meetings. In particular to the one in April, we do our curriculum implementation training
060for the upcoming year. Uh we are currently in the process of implementing English language arts um at every grade level specifically at the elementary from first grade through sixth grade. Um so that's a really heavy day for those teachers as we're trying to make sure that we provide to them everything they need um to ensure that that implementation of that new curriculum and it does require some instructional shifts um can be successful in the upcoming school year. So, it was really important that we kept that day as well as a lot of the other pieces that were planned that will be missed now that we're making that a student day. I will also tell you that our conversation really centered around um what is the best opportunity for our students as far as instruction goes.
061Losing seven days of instruction is tough. That's a week and a half. And honestly, the days at the end of the year are good, but not always helpful for instruction because at the end of the year, things have happened. So, like for example, our high school students that are in an advanced placement course, they have an AP test taking and putting days on the end of the school year, that test has already happened and they didn't receive that instruction that perhaps would have prepared them to be more successful on that. So, we tried to really look at where is a day that would benefit um the instruction and also relieve some of the pressure. Our teachers will feel a lot of stress as they try to end their school year. They're seven days short. Um
062so that requires a lot of flexibility and um bending on their part because they want to ensure that kids finish where they're supposed to so they're set up for success with the next year. So the April date really made sense. Um the bad part was is we were worried about losing that time with our staff to help prepare them. So that's why we moved it to the 27th. So the other thing I would just add is the seniors. If we have a senior that is not um ready or not completed by that May 9th day, we also lucky for them they can continue to come um and we will make sure that they have what they need so that they do finish their educational journey and can graduate on time. So even though that's our
063last day for seniors, we do have seniors that will need to come in and finish requirements so that they can graduate with their class. and that's available to all seniors if it's needed. I think as all of us on the board have heard over and over again how much the elementary is loves the new uh CKLA program and I know that teachers uh really are excited about getting that going and so giving them the opportunity to be prepared because I know the professionals we have out in the building want that information so that they can move into the next school year ready to go. So, it's unfortunate that they have to come back after Memorial Day, but I think knowing the professionals we have out in the building, they want that information. And so, I
064appreciate that. And I also just appreciate your comments about finding and building in meaningful time for instruction. And I think that gives us as a board um some food for thought moving forward and how uh you know we might make adjustments to upcoming calendars so that those days aren't left at the end but that they can be worked in throughout the middle of the year to be more meaningful. Yeah, thank you for saying that. I was going to bring that up. I really think as a board we need to look at our calendar and see if we can find days um that you know I don't I don't know the best way to do it off the top of my head but so that we can be more prepared for this instead of catching um
065families off guard by taking a day like this and not using the three days at the end of the school year which as you mentioned don't help our seniors a whole lot since they graduate early and they're the ones that need the minutes. Um the other thing and I do appreciate do appreciate all your work. I know I brought up to you since my wife is an elementary school teacher adding minutes uh to days um and I know that you all uh we talked about that quite extensively and for elementary school teachers that's a lot easier than trying to do that at the middle school and high school um where you'd have to add on just a couple minutes to seven or eight periods or whatever they're going each you know for a number of
066days which just again doesn't give them meaningful instruction. So I just kind of wanted to to bring that up that we did talk about that quite extensively. Um and um uh again, thank you for and and everybody for all the work of of putting this together. And I'll just comment. I mean, as a parent, we're told by the schools to make plans on out of school days so our kids don't miss in-classroom learning and here we are as a board changing the calendar and taking away those days off. I am in full support of the calendar change. I do think it's the best option, but I also um in in full support of finding those days in the school year. I think you may see uh at our next board as early as our next
067board meeting uh a proposal to potentially uh modify the 202526 calendar. Uh we didn't want to put it on this uh this specific agenda and confuse things. Is this this year? Is this next year? Uh so with the board's approval, we will absolutely revisit that. Uh the other thing that I think is really important to remember, first off, I want to thank our staff and our parents for being flexible. I know this is not ideal. Uh also want to thank Miss Siri and Dr. Settles for their hard work in putting this together. Um this is no easy task. um when when we want to start school at a particular time and be out by Memorial Day and have a certain number of uh days for winter break and then we want to have time for
068spring break and then you start pulling all these lovers. You get to the end of the school year and you have seven snow days which were not necessarily accounted for nor typical typically we got two to three snow days uh and we have very few options uh left at our disposal. I will say this though uh even if every one of our grade levels including our seniors and early childhood students would have met the mandated hours of82 at the secondary level and32 at the elementary level I would personally still at be advocating that we find the time why because instructional time matters and in my 12 years here I have found that this is not a district that's okay with the bare minimum uh this is a district that aspires to something greater and perhaps
069the single greatest tool we have in our toolkit and advancing student achievement is time with students. If we learn nothing else, nothing else from the pandemic when kids were out for long stretches of time and teachers were out for long stretches of time and school districts across the country were in remote learning. Learning does not occur in those kind of environments. It just doesn't or certainly at a very reduced rate. So contact time matters. This is our best effort to recoup some of that uh instructional time. Again, I know it's not ideal. I hope this doesn't sound preachy. Uh but it is something it's what we're in the business of. We're in the business of teaching kids and when we have a deficit of instructional hours, it is our job to make up that deficit
070even though that may create challenges for families and professionals along the way. And we shouldn't apologize for that. Uh so I just want to thank Dr. Settles and Miss Siri for what they've done and thank the board for being so thoughtful to their approach and and looking at this year's calendar and potentially next time when we revisit 2526. Thank you. I I agree that um instructional time is was our number one conversation during our robust subcommittee meeting about how the calendar changes could be made. And uh and I appreciate that we're going to look at next year's calendar, make adjustments so that those times can be made up during the year rather than waiting till the end of the year when as we know it's very hard to get kids to sit still when it's
071almost the end of school. So uh thank you for that and also I appreciate that the professional development day is being um kept because that curriculum is important and uh I think like I said earlier professional de development is important at all levels and our teachers we appreciate them and they are professionals and they do their job and we appreciate them for what they do. So are we ready to vote? Before you vote, I just want to thank you as a board to for allowing us to have those professional development days because a lot of districts don't get those and they are expensive days, but they're very valuable and to Dr. Rickley's point, it is what prepares our staff to serve the kids the best they can. So, thank you. Thank you. Ready, Miss Wood?
072Yes. Mr. Bailey? Yes. Miss Butler? Yes, Mr. Madlin. Yes, Miss W. Yes, Mr. Lotus. Yes. Motion carrying. Thank you. Moving on to discussion items. First, the 2025 student technology purchase request for proposal. Mr. Moore, Miss Siri. Good evening. Thank you. Um, so yeah, I just wanted to bring this to the board's attention. I went out for RFP, so request for proposal for the 2025 student device purchase. Uh we've done this since the pandemic uh to refresh the onetoone devices as well as our our Chromebook or our uh student devices at the elementary level as well. Um so uh it was open on the 2nd. It'll close tomorrow the 16th at 9:00 a.m. Um one thing I did put in there was a 60-day I tried to keep the price at a 60-day lock based on
073the close uh for tomorrow. So, I'm hoping we can keep those prices at the same at what they give us right now, barring tariffs and all that fun stuff. So, uh but yeah, that's that's the we've we've got some demo units coming. We've actually got some in stock right now. I've already got technicians diving into them, taking them apart, uh checking the the repairability on them, and and we're doing our our diligence to to evaluate them to try and find the best product for the students. So yeah, if you guys have any questions, let me know. Thanks for the overview. I'm sure it'll be interesting opening up those bids, see where they'll come in at. I I don't envy those that are having to come up with those amounts when there's so many moving pieces
074in regards to the uh supply chain and and their cost on these items. Uh so hopefully we can still get these uh within our budget, but yeah, looking forward to uh the next meeting when you have the bids. Yes, I as well. Thank you. Thank you. Next item, legislative update. Mr. Richards. Thank you, Miss Wit. Um the legislature uh is in like uh Marcus said, I think we're at 59 or 60. I can't remember which at this point, but um a key day to keep in mind is day 70, which is April 29th. Uh so that is the last day I think bills are allowed out of the committees. Uh so we should have a really good idea by the next meeting when Mr. Gay is here to talk a little bit more about bills
075that may affect us or not. Um most of them should be out of the committee at that particular time on that Monday night. So um just to give you a time frame there. some of the ones we're um going to let you know about that have progressed. Uh LB390 is the notification to parents of library book checkouts by students. Um so that did advance and uh we expect that to be signed by the governor here in the next uh week or two. um LB 140 uh the electronic cell phone policy um which mandates boards to have a policy on electronic devices within uh the school properties um is out uh and that one is advanced to the final reading. Um so the governor will be probably be seeing that one here soon as well. So
076th just to keep an eye on those two two bills. Um almost finished up with and then LB 653 is one that we're kind of keeping a close eye on here. Um that's the education priority or it's education committee priority bill. Um that has to do with special education option program. Um basically tells districts you cannot deny over 16% of your total enrollment um applicants. So it it kind of puts a a deal where districts right now can close capacity in um their special ed education programs by program or building for that matter because of staffing, right? Uh this bill kind of puts districts to say you've you must take them um if you have taken in that many over 16% of option within your district. So, it's kind of a a deal where we'll
077look at that formula closely, see where we're at. Um, if they if a if a parent applies to a school uh and that one's closed for special education, then we can redirect them to another school within our district that may be open. The problem is as other districts, especially the larger districts in the state, and I know the smaller ones are struggling with it too, we're already short staffed uh with special education as it is, and we're trying to explain that to uh senators as this bill comes out of committee um even better uh with more notes in there. I think it will be a cost to the state involved with this as well um you know, in a year that um they don't have the money to pay for things. So, there's some things
078still fighting that bill. There's going to be other bills attached to that and through amendments that 653 we're expecting. Uh we're expecting it to come out this week. Um that have to do with special education option transfers. Uh and you know, putting expectations on districts to do that across district lines as an example as well. Um so, lots to be concerned with about there. It's not that we don't want to serve special education districts and any of our districts that we've talked with about these bills. It's just staffing and capacity and space um and those types of things uh that are involved. I know there is a reimbursement program through the educational features fund that will reimburse districts back for larger amount students that get come into a district and uh option enrollment uh the
07930 to $50,000 range if it costs the district that much more. Um, but at this point, you know, and we are getting 80% back. And that was one of the things that they they bring up as well is that we're reimbursing you for most of those costs for these students um to come into your district. But I think as we get our talking points together to talk to senators about why this bill is important to us, I think the biggest things are the staffing challenges that we already have uh for the students that are in our district already um and the space involved uh for a lot of the programs that are at capacity already. Um so we'll look for that one to come out this week. Um, and then we're watching for uh we've
080got a list that we think are going to be attached to that 653. Uh, we'll just have to wait and see if those come to fruition this week and we'll talk to you more about that at the next meeting as well and our subcommittee meeting. Um, so with that, I mean, those are the ones I wanted to bring up to you tonight and then uh we'll know a lot more by April 28th meeting to talk to you about. Yeah. And on the option enrollment one, yeah, you get, you know, we're reimbursed at 80% but it's always a year behind, right? So the district is out and then the following year you you do get that reimbursement which I think for smaller district that's even more meaningful as it can be a larger portion of their
081their budget. But like you said on the the finding the people, if you can't find the people, there's nothing to get reimbured for. uh like we we need we need help on being able to get special educators, you know, through uh the college system, get certified, and then, you know, be being be wanting to go down that path uh because there's just not enough of them out there. And for a district that's already struggling to find people to fill those roles for their own community and district residents, um being told we need to take those from outside of the district and try to support them when, you know, we still we still have openings on with just what we have, it just it makes it tough. But I know those are the conversations being being
082had down there and will be interesting to see where where it ends up. Yeah, that will on the library. Sorry. Do we push that notification or it's passive where they can come come and look it up? Because we can parents can already do that. Correct. On our system. Right now, parents can So, it's currently in the app. So, when a parent looks up um their students schedule or they're looking at their students grades, there is a sub tab that says library. And if they click on it, it will tell them what books their student has checked out, when it was checked out, and when it's due. And of course, the following law will um require us to push that out or if they can just It's it updates every night. So um they will have
083full access to it. And then our fallout system of course is available through our district website where they can research any book in our library. Yeah, the the bill last I saw it was it had to be pushed out, but I don't know if it was amended. Okay. Yeah, I think it did. And that won't be uh take effect till 2627 school year. So, we have some time to kind of get organized and make sure we're ready for that. Okay. Thank you. And lastly, I thought I heard that the governor was limiting the number of bills that could be piled on to a Christmas tree law that he wouldn't sign any that had more than a certain number. Is that true? Yes, that has been said by the governor that he doesn't like when legislation
084gets attached to other bills to get onto the floor. Um, so we'll watch closely with that on his opinion on when these Christmas tree bills come out with multiple bills attached. Um, I know they're trying to do those as amendments now and and how much he'll have a taste for that. We'll have to wait and see. Yeah, I think the senators are going to test him on that uh statement. Yes, they are. And speaking of governor and the budget and everything, you know, he's trying to take funds from lots of different places. And I heard today that one is uh paying for ACT testing um for students that it would still be a requirement, but then the school districts would pick up the cost of the ACT testing. Is that something I have not heard
085that yet, Miss Wood? But that's something we'll try to keep our ears to the ground on. Yeah, I think the appropriations committee hasn't yet fully released the budget, but in the governor's proposal, it was to remove the funding for the ACT tests for all the juniors. It doesn't say, so it leaves in that all juniors have to take the test, but it pulls out the state funding. So, it doesn't say the district has to pay for it, but it also doesn't say who is paying for it if they aren't. So, I think still TBD. Thank you. Very interesting. Last item on our discussion and information is policy review for 4000 series. Dr. Settles. Thank you. Yes, the month of April u is time for the annual review of the 4000s personnel. Uh based upon this
086review, if there are items that we need to bring back to you, we'll do that uh hopefully at the next meeting and then um take bring a recommendation to you for action in May. Please let us know if you have anything that you notice um that you would like us to take a look at in there and um let myself know or let one of the subcommittee members know. Thank you. Thank you. Item five, public comment for items not on the agenda. We do not have any tonight. I'd like to review the future board calendar. On April 18th, no school. On April 23rd, the 2025 years of service and retirement here at central office at 3:45. April 26th, prom at Pillian La Vista High School. And on April 28th, board of education meeting here at
0876 PM. I want to thank Miss Baranko, our recording secretary, and Mr. Moore for technical support. No other business. We close at 7:13.