001uh we'll start with section one call to order please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance okay roll call miss W here Mr Bailey here miss wood here Mr Lotus here Mr madler here Miss Fisher here I'll present thank you I'd like to remind everyone in the room that we have the open meetings Lop posted as the entrance to the room uh moving on to section two communication we have the student council report for plhs so please welcome diar Lopez Torres and Nova deby welcome I think your last one too probably yeah all right thank you for having us all right so on to our last report so over spring break and into our fourth quarter we have sprung see what I did there into action here's a quick recap for Sports in soccer the girls
002had a big win last week versus the Titans it was 1 to zero with a late goal by Emma W wusi there we go we competed well and lost 02 to Maran and then took a 4-Hour trip to North Plat and beat Jason Ryan's Bulldogs five to zero boys got a big win out of Carney Saturday and they won in a shootout and the boys had a light week only playing one match versus Omaha South and we competed very well eventually losing to a good South team in track we competed indoors at the College of St Mary our boys finished second and our girls won the meet and for our event winners for the boys we have Travis Hines for the triple jump Demarcus mccardy for the long jump and Jesse Malone for the high
003jump or hurdles excuse me and for the girls Sierra Williams won the 400 Morgan Glazier won the high jump and 4 by we won the 4X 400 relay with Williams Glazier chadic and Campbell and the 4X 800 relay with both carnic and Anderson and on to baseball construction continues to push us back to Uno and we're going to stop our construction work in order to move back to Frick in this month our new stands and concrete work will wait until after the summer season is over last week we won both of our scheduled games and Brett holer faced 10 and struck out eight versus carne and we then beat North Friday 2 to one but it was too cold for Saturday's game versus Norfolk coach Jim coach Jim Thomas won two state titles and coached
004over 3,000 games for the monarchs and our tournament this weekend was named after him in his honor this is coach Thomas turning in the lineup card for the opening game and we thank coach mcap for putting this together we won the tournament and beat Bel and beat Belleview West 5 to four and we head into the Metro tournament as the number one seed and we'll play at frck Thursday at 5 for golf we had our superintendent cup versus the Titans on Monday and we thank coach Kendall for his work hosting this competitive field and finally for Sports in tennis we won a triangular with Pas and Pap South on Tuesday we then went on to a very strong tournament with Kos and finished seventh and Julia Mosier was edged out of the semi-finals and placed
005fourth now for our Student Life um we had the act for juniors today and preac for sophomores um and kindly student councel gave each Junior a snack and two pencils yesterday um for prom it is coming up on the 20th the junior class board picked a theme elected candidates for court and we are selling tickets Junior committee has been working hard and selected the theme called once upon a time um again with student council we were able to read to elementary students along with Papio proud PL club and NHS to all North Side fer schools and it was a fun day and the students enjoyed it uh student council members will be attending the greater than one District that will be including 15 students and it's an inclusion Summit in Lincoln tomorrow for Hope Squad
006hope week has been um has had spirit days and videos and announcements all bringing suicide awareness to light as well as creatively handing out pins for students with the kind note attached uh there was great work and shout out to Molly gra grao and her crew she has a knack for her selection of programs and casting um for the Adam show Adams Family um show they had and at blhs we put on um by Drama by the drama department is Saturday April 13th for the spring craft fair and um backer night it is our largest fundraiser of the year that supports all Monarch athletic programs it was an evening filled with um dinner drinks silent auction items Raffles and a lot of fun uh thanks uh to those of you who contributed to the backer
007night Saturday it was a great night and we appreciate you for your generosity um cheer dance and color guard had recent tryouts for next year and Papio proud had great success on March 7th during their Multicultural Fair it was a beautiful show um an overall great success and then lastly heading to graduation uh honors night will be held May 6th to congratulate all seniors and their hard work and graduation is coming soon and seniors will be walking on May 12th so that is what we have thank you for having us yeah uh may ask either one of you seniors I am a senior senior I'm Junior okay well you got one year left but uh thanks for coming this year I mean thank both of you for coming but best of luck next year with
008whatever you are venturing off to um you both of you have done a great job up here and um yeah look forward to seeing you at probably honors night and then graduation as well yeah thank you I appreciate it yeah have a good night thank you okay we are moving on to Item B public comment for items not on the agenda we have two of those this evening I'll remind each speaker that they get up to three minutes total oh all right sorry about that uh okay so each Speaker gets to up to three minutes when I call your name please come to the podium State your uh name and address or city uh Miss brano will have the timer first beep at 2 minutes 15 seconds and the second beep when you're done at
009three minutes uh we will start tonight with Mr Mike Erdman thank you uh Mike Erman 926 South Madison Street Pilan Nebraska um I'm here again tonight to uh continue my concerns about upcoming election and candidates that are trying to fool you not by what they tell you but by what they're not telling you many will use terms like accountability and transparency so let's talk about that recently a candidate canvas my neighborhood I met with a few of my neighbors after their visit and this candidate never mentioned the following mention the fluff in their campaign handout no mention of bringing a concealed firearm to a school board meeting on a school property and that they evaded police questions when confronted about the firearm no mention they were cided for a felony and that with a good
010attorney they were able to plead down that felony to a misdemeanor giving them the ability now to run for a school board position no mention that they were even banned from attending Schoolboard meetings for a period of time after that conviction funny thing about conservative arguments on gun crime is they always say we have enough gun laws we just need to enforce them I guess this is just another case of tough on crime conservatives where the old adage is those laws apply to thee but not to me then there's the Facebook page sarpi politics which this candidate appears to be an admin all kinds of negativity and halft truths written about our teachers and our school district there and where this admin posted and I quote I disagree with the existence of the entire public
011school system and Department of Education think about that this poster even equated the Dare program which teaches kids about the dangers of drug use to grooming I wonder if this candidate will confirm or to die those comments are theirs so we appear to have a candidate that deplores the public school system but wants to be on its School Board is this just an attempt to dismantle our thriving and healthy school district pay attention everyone needless to say uh my neighbors were shocked to hear this information some they said some said they would have asked him to leave if uh they had known this and certainly won't be voting for them where the transparency and accountability of this candidate demand that this candidate demands of others who is this candidate you wonder if you don't already
012know just simply Google concealed firearms spillian Schoolboard meeting and you'll know do your research if you plan to vote be an informed voter so I have two questions for the voting public first what's a bigger threat to our community and our students words in a few books or a candidate that would create a life and death situation by bringing firearms on a school property that opposes those books second what is more important to our community and its students candidates that want to create Solutions and solve real issues or candidates that appear to despise our school district and want to create Havoc to further a political agenda like I've said before there are those using our students your kids as pawns to further their political agenda and careers remember the last Board election gave us one
013of those radical candidates you know the one the one on a mission that resigned in disgrace and embarrassed our district we don't need any more of that nonsense so let me close with this a popular phrase that conservatives like to use and that phrase is simply this elections have consequences thank you thank you Mr Erman uh next up for public comment for items not on the agenda Mr Michael kuchenmeister uh Michael kuchenmeister Lista uh good evening I'm I'm here tonight on behalf of plv Ed matters a political organization that was officially launched a little over a week ago by plcs parents from across the political Spectrum who found unity in support of our schools and staff and I'd like to introduce ourselves and why this organization was started our organization was founded with a purpose
014a shared passion for public education and a deep appreciation for those who help shape our children's lives as parents within the plcs community we've witnessed countless remarkable moments facilitated by our dedicated teachers and staff unfortunately we we've also observed unwarranted negativity and baseless attacks directed at our Educators and school board members we firmly believe that those who love and support plcs far outweigh the dissenting voices with this conviction we founded plvad matters a United nonpartisan effort to ensure that plcs remains exceptional for our children your children in our community we love our schools here in Pilan L Vesta we love our teachers and we stand firmly behind those who help make this District as amazing as it is we're here to not only support Board of Education candidates who share our love for our district
015and Community but to defend our Educators in schools from baseless attacks by those who'd rather tear it all down our teachers deserve better than that and so do our children please check out our website at P pved matters.org where you can find more information on what we're about what we stand for what we hope to accomplish and finally how you can support us again that's plv EDM matters.org all one word PL LV M A ts.org we have some information on our website about the plcs candidates we support already but we'll have more information about the other candidates soon in the meantime you'll also be able to find our links to our social media accounts there so you can keep up with what we're up to please join us as we seek out candidates who wish
016to build a stronger more Equitable education system one that welcomes all students empowers our teachers and enriches our entire Community together we can build a more promising future for both our children and and our community thank you H Meister moving on to item C superintendent's report Dr R thank you very much Mr madler members of the board uh for those our community that are with us this evening joining us live thank you for being here for those that are watching online via YouTube thank you for engaging with your community and your board of education virtually it matters we appreciate your support um we did something a little bit different with the agenda uh this week we decided to merge some of our uh recognitions along with my traditional superintendent report I'll get to my superintendent
017report in just a moment uh but we have a special group of uh ladies and gentlemen that are with us this evening start there first with our recognitions and for those you that watch our board me our board meetings or have attended in the past you know that at least once a month we try to do something highlighting either our staff or our students that have distinguished themselves in some type of an outstanding Manner and we have a number of students that have certainly done that uh so we have some Deca state champions in y back we back all right very good we have some state champions in our midst uh and deca if you're not familiar with it it's a student leadership grow it's traditionally focused on business skills and Entrepreneurship in particular and
018this district has long boasted really strong Deca teams at both Pilan Lista high school and Pilan Lista South and we have students represented from both this evening uh so because we do have I think we have students from both schools here tonight uh we'll do Monarch first we have one uh one recognition from Monarch and then we've got a couple from South so we'll do Monarch first bring them up take a picture and then we'll uh bring our South students up as well so moms dads whomever is here uh perhaps supporting your uh pride and joy will we'll give you an opportunity to come up and take a picture if you so wish so a little bit about these individuals these students placed first in their category we had top three finishers in each category
019which are now invited to the national competition which is held in Anaheim California uh Pilan Lista High School had four students finish in the top three those were all individuals by the way Pilan levista South had 15 students finish in the top three including three individuals and six teams of two ladies and gentlemen this is outstanding outstanding performance from our students in skills that we know that will equip them for that next phase in their life whatever that may be military Workforce twoyear foure schools first up from Papo L Vista High School I don't know did I see Priscilla come in uh so Priscilla Peterson is the adviser from papon L Vista High School and the student we are honoring tonight is Mr Vincent Timberlake who is a sen senior at Monarch Vincent come on
020down and be recognized by your Board of [Applause] Education [Applause] well done Vincent outstanding our business office is always looking for good people Vincent so uh keep us in mind when it's time for that next step uh your school district is very proud of you Vincent thank you for being here this evening from pilion LV Vista South uh I don't think we have I didn't see Ally here was Ally here Allie's right in front thank you for being here coach Gillan uh we had three individuals uh from coach gillan's team we had Zeta light who is a senior and on the team award so this was kind of an aggregate award that included a variety of individuals we have agar B who's a senior and Emily Cortez who's a senior also we had Jacob hippie
021who's Junior and Logan Dei who's also a junior I don't know which were able to make it please come on down and be recognized by your Board of [Applause] Education you absolutely [Applause] and ladies likewise what categories did you win I was in project management community aess project management Community awareness sports and entertainment marke sports and entertainment marketing outstanding your school district is proud of you and likewise we love to hire our grads ladies so don't forget about us after you've uh forged your way in the world those are skills we can use Miz Wht uh so thank you parents coaches and most of all our our Deca competitors we are so very proud of you representing both Monarch and Titan in such a positive way uh I'll conclude my recognitions and on uh uh
022to my superintendent's reports uh these next uh these next few weeks are incredibly busy uh before we get into that though I did want to make the community aware we did have a correction uh to the travel report uh my name appeared and you'll see it in uh this month's uh travel summary we incorrectly listed the sponsor of an upcoming conference uh it was listed as the national school boards assoc assciation it's a federal advocacy conference in Washington DC at the end of this month April 28th through May 1 the sponsoring conference is the Nebraska Association of school boards not National and that was incorrect so the dates are correct the person is correct the conference is correct we had the wrong sponsor so my apologies for getting that wrong it is corrected in this
023month's travel agenda uh also wanted to thank the community wanted to thank the board for moving our board meeting from last night to tonight that's highly irregular we rarely do that I could probably count on one hand how many times we've done that in the last 10 years uh a number of our board members and myself were fortunate enough to travel to the school board's conference I think you're going to probably hear more about that um from our board members in just a little bit great opportunity to to work with our board to meet other board members other superintendents from across the state we had some great keyter some great breakout groups I was personally able to attend a number of breakouts on issues regarding uh General communication strategies uh Federal updates uh Mental Health
024employee recognition and the very last breakout session I attended before we uh left was on artificial intelligence and how that is impacting our students our instruction and how we can deal with technology moving forward some really fascinating stuff so again thank you for being uh flexible with us community and with board and hopefully moving the the meeting from a Monday to a Tuesday didn't put anyone out that's not something we will typically do also wanted to let the board know that we're wrapping up our advisory meetings for the year as the community and the board is well aware there's a number of advisory groups that we meet with uh three four times a year in the case of our students we meet with monthly uh but we met with our student advisory uh for the
025second to last time and we had a really good conversation with Dr VI Ral about um the use of social media and we also had a good conversation with uh Shireen Siri about our Tech audit so basically we were asking our students what works what doesn't what can we improve on everything from devices to internet connectivity the Google Suite it was a great conversation to hear directly from our students as Frontline users uh what we're doing well as well as the things we want to improve upon we carried that over then to our classified and certified advisories which also met last week a teacher advisory and the classified advisory includes drivers it includes par Educators includes clerical support staff really good group and we had that same conversation with both groups about technology what's working
026what's not so that will inform our thinking as we move forward uh with future technology purposes purchases and finally we have our last business advisory uh this coming Friday the business advisory consists of between 25 and 30 Business Leaders and elected officials uh I know one of the things that they'll be very keen on discussing is legislation which brings us to the Nebraska uni Camal I know uh Brett's going to give us a brief update uh we're almost done today was day 57 of a 60-day session uh the last day or two tends to be issuance of proclamations legislative resolutions things of that nature so if it's not if a bill hasn't made it across the finish line yet they're quickly running out of time there's still a couple of big issues we expect to
027hear from but uh yeah we're down to uh three days left in the unic Camal also wanted to remind the board and Community we've got the final Community closet event of the year that is April 20th at LV Vista Middle School want to single out Dr Beck Myers for her leadership in putting these events together I think I gave you the statistics at the last board meeting the numbers of families the number of articles of clothing that have been given out uh by the community closet the impact our families are having on other families is staggering because it's not the school district that's providing uh these items ladies and gentlemen it is it is volunteers it is parents it is families it is kids that are coming in and dropping off garbage bags full of
028hygiene items and gently used clothes rare is the day that we don't see people coming into our central office and our schools uh delivering items that are making a difference for families that need that help uh and I couldn't be prouder of that a couple other dates that have been mentioned that are not on the board agenda uh May 12th we've got commencement ladies and gentlemen Monarch goes first this year they are at 100 p.m South goes at 5:00 p.m. it seems far too early Mr madler to be talking about commencement but here we are and finally we've got a primary coming up which I participate will have all kinds of local implications because we have 10 candidates for our school board as well as uh we got a national election we got a presidential
029election in November so I anticipate uh voter turnout will be high I hope it is traditionally we've had anywhere from 17 to 20% uh get out and vote ladies and gentlemen it is one of the things that makes this a great country we need to exercise that right that has been given to us so uh get off the vote on May 14th and with that Mr mad i' conclude my superintendent thank you Dr rickley uh mov on to item D board reports well Dr rickley already mentioned the school boards but I wrote a little bit more than he said um uh first of all going to one of these conferences is an opportunity to check ourselves make sure that our Direction and uh our decisions are kind of aligned with with the rest of the
030country and the benefits are from learning from others who are experiencing the same issues that we are and the methods that they might use to work together to find Solutions so some of my main takeaways uh one of the sessions I attended was on uh combating hate and racism and I learned that larger more diverse communities even bigger than ours of course because there are many in the country are dealing with harsher incidences of hate and racism and schools are just microcosms of the community and the poti politization against diversity Equity inclusion is creeping into our community here as well but we here in pilion are better than this and I'm proud that our mission is to build a climate and culture that will welcomes and supports all populations another session um that I was
031very intrigued with was trauma and informed care and this is relevant to our strategic goal to address mental health we have a great resource with Deb Anderson who is working to bring Knowledge and Skills for to our staff to recognize and address trauma in the session I attended one statement that spoke to me was my child is not giving me a hard time they are having a hard time and sometimes we assume a child is acting out against us when they are really asking for help and this is an area that I am proud that our district is actively working to address um the another session and I'm almost done with the sessions was supporting students who identify as transgender this was the last session that I attended it dealt mostly with the legal ramifications
032of update Title 9 regulations which are expected to be released in less than two weeks assuming they stick with their schedule anyway uh this is an area where we as a district may need to review and update our own policies and um related to gender identity and such depending on on the new regulations it's important to remember public schools are responsible for the safety of all students with mandatory reporting requirements when there is reasonable cause to believe that child has been subjected to abuse or neglect but my favorite thing was the Saturday keynote and people may have seen the photo or the Norman Rockwell painting of a young black girl being escorted to by the FBI agents as she started her first day at an all-white School Ruby Bridges was that woman and she was
033the first black student to be integrated in all white school in 1960 her kind demeanor and meaningful comments were inspiring a few of her comments that I was drawn to was a quote she said from Martin Luther King I Have a Dream speech I Have a Dream that all little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but the contact of their character she observed that the character of her teacher on that first day in that all-white school that while the teacher looked like the people outside she did not treat Ruby in the same way the people outside treated her she was welcomed cared for and included she said you know there's a time when black folks were hung for even having a
034book or admitting that they knew how to read and now there are people who want to ban books or limit access and what she said is true it's a sad observation of our political disgrace and she is an author a civil rights activist and inspiration to our better angels and I'm glad to have had the opportunity to witness her thank you yeah I had the privilege of attending the conference it's been many years since I've uh been able to with either covid or Sports schedules so I'm glad I could join uh Dr rickley Mr madler and Miss Whit down in New Orleans for the conference uh I focused a lot of my breakout sessions on things that absolutely impact the district but also were uh going to be impactful uh for my children uh things
035that they're currently facing or could be facing um and I always like to throw in one to to see what it's like you know we are a fairly large District in the state but as you get out to other states especially like Texas uh a seemingly small district is 37,000 students uh so my first session uh it focused really on the the theme was on really your strategic plan uh and scorecards and how they you know create metrics uh for the superintendent but also uh for their District Alone um but they spent quite a bit of time obviously just talking about the challenges of being such a large District especially a district in El Paso Texas and dealing with uh the migrant crisis as well as uh English language Learners and the different challenges and
036tracks that they' have had to create in order to uh keep a high standard and and academic rigor um it's just amazing to see that I mean 37,000 students they had they're down from 45 buildings to 37 they have seven high schools um 81% Hispanic population in the area uh and so just um what a different strategic plan looks like it's something that involves that many buildings that many students that many staff uh was pretty eye openening um and and got some good takeaways on some different metrics and things that that they looked at that that we can definitely talk about at our district uh the second one um was standing room only people filing out the door uh as you can imagine it revolved around social media uh and the impact that it's having
037on uh our students um I was pleasantly surprised by the second speaker I went wow this is a extremely Highly Educated professional uh you know event speaker it turned out to be a college freshman who wrote a book her junior year in high school that was published uh um I it blew me away uh how eloquent she was how educated how just like just a perfect I mean just a great speaker I mean she blew the attorney out of the water uh he had a hard act to follow um and so she during Co in 2021 realized she was just depressed and and having challenges and and finally realized that it was because this was constantly in her hand and and she wrote her book really on the the dopamine impact and uh she published
038it with a with a PhD um and just so she decided as a as a young high school student that I need a break so she started with a 60-day social media blackout uh and what really stood out to me because I see it constantly with my children was she had started it on day I think it was day four she was out to dinner with her family she had her phone out it was on the table she kept tapping it and finally her father said hey what are you doing she said what I'm not doing anything he said you've tapped your phone like 45 times in the 10 minutes we've been sitting here and that was her eye opening she didn't even know she was tapping to see if she got comments or likes
039or whatever so it was pretty impressive I'm I'm looking forward to uh going out and purchasing that that book and and seeing because it is it is a societal problem right now but what she concluded was social media and we've seen in the new news and everything about how you know what the what companies are doing there's I went to another session where how on how many lawsuits are out there against meta and Google and all all those places but her message was really it does have some benefits it does keep folks connected that maybe wouldn't be connected otherwise it does have you know certain positives to it but you know finding that happy medium is what she was really uh concluded you know in her book was I I can if I'm responsible I
040can use it for its attended purposes without it becoming an addiction and then having the other uh problems that might come with it so pretty fascinating session um the other two sessions focused on Mental Health um one was focused primarily on student mental health and different supports and services that could be provided uh and different national resources and things that are are uh occurring throughout the country and the the final one was on our employee um you know creating a mental wellness program uh and what those look like so there's just some good takeaways um as this being the second conference the thing I always like and Miss Whit mentioned is you know it's it's a good reality check for us to go uh and make sure that when we say oh we are study
041of the art we are using the best practices and the best tools and resources to to go get validation that we really are um you hear where some districts are struggling where they you know they're in disarray have conflict that they've got Staffing shortages well beyond what you know we're seeing here um it's it's it's pretty at least reaffirming that uh what our our staff our our you know leadership team all of our principles and administration are are executing our strategic plan to the manner which we High hold it to its high standard so that's that's always uh one of the best takeaways to come back with um outside of that I wish the DECA students would have have stayed so I I may be the only one in the stay that's not confirmed that
042in my category my senior year I won both third place and first place I was awarded third place at that State conference I graduated I got a call from Mr Logan about a week after graduation said hey come up and see me said okay went to his office he hands me a plaque he said the state apologizes they read the results in reverse order you actually won the state championship and because of that I was like oh I only finished third in the state I'm not going to go to Nationals so I did not go to Nationals because of that but I I have both blacks in my storage drawer so good times Well I didn't go to the National Conference but um I did a few things I'm in a the foundation uh been
043meeting quite a bit uh the one that we met was the teacher Grant uh subcommittee and uh had a good time with that looking at all the grants uh teachers are amazing all the the grants that they put out so uh can't reveal anything yet but April 25th April 26th um we'll be heading around to all the schools I know you were there also so I give you props as well because we use a lot of your information as well but uh really excited to hopefully I can join them on the 25th and we can go around and looking forward to presenting uh some grants to some like I said some just fantastic uh things that are that are going on the people the ideas they have are amazing so that was one and then
044the other one I was on the I'm on the uh the Gayla subcommittee for foundation so uh August 24th at 6 pm at the beardmore uh Event Center uh that is when it is and um we are looking I'm looking at you all not necessarily but kind of to everybody we're looking for donations uh you know if you know people in the community um any kind of you know Community donations so that we can have our silent auction there raise some money all the money that is raised uh goes directly back to uh the teachers um to buy supplies for the kids or the supplies themselves they'll buy this the school supplies and everything for kids so it's a really really good cause um so I think I'm not 100% sure but I think you
045can already go and um start um rsvping for that and getting a table or getting your tickets I don't have all the top of my head how much the tickets are but um it was a great time last year we had a really good time I know a lot of us I think five of us were there obviously you were not there but the five of us were I think we had a really good time so looking forward to going back this year so just want to bring that and uh Mr Bailey do you remember what was the requested amount for the teacher grants you had rough ballpark this time around and number of Grants the number of Grants I think there were 52 grants a lot and I'm trying to remember the the amount
046wasn't it like 150,000 or something like that I think that's what yeah yeah they budget what 120 still 120k a year a great opportunity for the the staff and the teachers to um get their proposals in and and I mean we go through them you guys went through them this time around and and debate them and hopefully surprise uh some with some good news in the coming weeks absolutely we will definitely do it it was like it's it's a lot of fun to do especially when it's somebody else's money you know the foundation money that I can pass out so yeah there you go all right thanks uh I also went to the conference down in New Orleans uh it was a great time uh as the others speakers have already said you know it
047was also great to spend time with the other board other board members uh nationally and locally we spent a good amount of time with some of the Millard board members and Belleview board memb MERS mainly because we're in the airport at the same time and stuck in airports for hours with them uh is a joy uh speaking with them and understanding what's going on in their school districts and and and what we've been doing as well before the actual sessions so attended a handful of sessions around um issues like navigating sensitive uh issues in in political landmines we know we've we've dealt with those and we you know it seems like every so often there's a new one that pops up so just how bad as to to handle uh those situations uh uh some
048meetings on uh like running effective meetings more parliamentary procedures we want to make sure that what we're doing is is correct and and staying up to date with best practices um but understanding that every state has different open meeting laws that we have to adhere to uh probably the biggest one that I went to or the the one that gave me the most self-reflection was on uh board self-evaluation um I think we've talked about it but I don't really remember the conversation about it uh recently uh but doing like a board assessment right we assess the superintendent we assess the staff we the students get assessed uh you know so just thinking about you know it could be beneficial for the board members to do like a board self assessment and and review it to
049usually you know a summer Retreat um so I don't know what that would look like specifically but just something that got me thinking that could be good just so that we understand that we can have uh our inputs so if there's areas that we want to get better on or improve or um the the meetings that we have or what we go over uh we get that out there and and discuss so we want to make sure that we are as as great of a board as we can be and no way of doing that unless you have the conversations uh to understand where everyone's at so that was probably the biggest um uh takeaway for me and then also you listen to I mean it was an honor uh to listen to to Ruby
050Bridges speak about her life story and I mean I think it just shows you know as a six-year-old going through that I think she said uh that for an entire year she had to be walked to school by four federal agents um because I mean just for her own safety and one how resilient children are to be able to go through that uh is just is just and didn't break her um is amazing and it also shows you the power of education and the value that her family placed on education to have her go through that uh they knew it would be wor they knew it would be worth it and they uh um and she's a huge education Advocate right now um going in and out of going in in schools and and telling
051her story so it was an honor to to listen to her and I think that's it for the conference any other board reports no all right moving on to item e committee reports buildings grounds and F uh we had to reschedule our meeting from last Friday to this Friday we've got uh uh other than legislative update nothing early on tonight's agenda um there will be probably plenty on our meeting here in a couple weeks after we meet on Friday at 8 amm okay next up human resources and student services the HR student services subcommittee made on met on April 3rd all subcommittee members were present we were updated on on the school nurse position openings open enrollment updates they told us about the number of option enrollment applications and the number of spaces at our
052schools there's some negotiations that will be uh held for the Paris and the secretaries later this spring with the goal to be settled by mayor early June Dr settle shared the results of a staff survey with the group and that salaries were the top priority for the individuals whose mitted survey responses um we talked about the par to teacher programs Peru State which has been doing that will need to suspend the program due to staffing issues we're hoping they will re regenerate that program but the good news is that we are currently recruiting for the new Uno par to teacher pathway that will help par Educators move into Elementary or special ed teaching education programs um administrator salaries super contract were reviewed and uh we are again hoping to have that brought to the board
053by early June proposals for the police department um have been reviewed for changes in the structure of the school resource officers further discussion and Clarity is needed regarding the impact and benefit to the district and our next subcommittee meeting is May 6th okay thank you Miss Whit uh curriculum and americanism have not met okay that wraps up section two moving on to section three action items item a action by consent I'll make a motion to approve the action by consent as presented I'll second okay we have a motion by Miss Fischer and a second by Mr Bailey any discussion no roll call Mr Bailey yes Miss Wood yes Mr Lotus yes Mr mler yes Miss fer yes Miss Whit yes motion carried okay Item B policy 3,000 Business Services Mr Richards thank you Mr mler
054uh yes we reviewed this at last meeting uh there were two wordsmiths in there uh we say section three within the document and it doesn't match the rest of the document so we changed that to part three uh so it matches with the rest of the policy um otherwise the rest of policy 3000 has been reviewed I'll make a motion to approve the policy 3000 Series Business Services review and propos changes to policy okay we have a motion by Mr Lotus and a second by miss fiser any discussions no uh roll call please Miss Wood yes Mr Lotus yes Mr mler yes Miss Fisher yes Miss Wet yes Mr Bailey yes motion caring okay moving on to item C Energy savings company the Esco projects uh Mr Richards yes another one that was reviewed at
055the last meeting um The Proposal is still intact as it was presented at the last meeting except it still has Liberty Elementary on there which is still my fault for not getting that cleaned up from facility Advocates um but we'll make sure that gets cleaned up in the contract once we get to that point where we're comfortable in signing that any questions or comments no I just appreciate uh you and your team uh getting out ahead of some of these projects I mean we know lead times on some of these uh HVAC and boilers and other uh HVAC you know needs uh can be you know 10 to 14 to 20 weeks out uh depending on on what we're looking for so uh as we said in our last building and ground meeting uh we're
056just grateful that you guys are always forward thinking and and some of these we've we've gotten well past their their usage date uh so we've got a great return on our investments and some of these and even though uh you know you look at Liberty Middle needing something you know uh these things happen and you can only uh you know put so much maintenance into them to where now the maintenance is out pacing the cost so at some point you got to you got to just find get a new one and and hope that you know it it it does better than the old one so thank you so much for for putting this together and and getting us ahead of the curve and getting these things where they can be replaced as either part
057of bond work or uh you know done over the summer where they're ready to go for for our students and staff with that I'll make a motion to one approve the guaranteed maximum price for each of the five in infrastructure projects for Lista West Golden Hills Pilon Lista South High School pilion Lista High School school and Liberty Middle School as presented and two to delegate authority to and authorize approve the president of the Board of Education superintendent of schools assistant superintendent of Business Services or a design for the school district to sign execute and deliver such constru Construction contract sign and approve any change orders retain necessary Professionals for assistance pay the contract price change order increases and expenses related to the construction project and site preparation work and take all other necessary uh action
058to complete any requirements or obligations under the construction project and contract second okay we have a motion by Mr Lotus and a second by Miss wit any discussion no roll call Mr Lotus yes Mr medler yes Miss fiser yes Miss W yes Mr biley yes Miss Wood yes motion carried thank you moving on to item or section four discussion information items uh item a student technology purchase for 2024 we going with Lucas is coming up welcome Lucas good evening uh in front of you is a discussion item in anticipation of a purchase that we plan to bring back to the board at our next meeting on April 22nd we've released a requests for prop proposals which is part of our annual process now this is not the first time we've been here talking about this
059but it's for our uh student technology Fleet in our 1:1 uh grades 7 through 12 um we are running a very similar process to what we did last year we've we've kind of got a really good refined um straightforward process for both us to follow internally and our vendors are are uh very used to it now and I think appreciative of the process we run uh it opened last Wednesday we had a pre-bid meeting this morning to go through the RFP and answer any questions that vendors might have and then we will accept bids till next Wednesday I believe April 17th at 9:00 we'll open them publicly and then we will evaluate those and review them and bring back a recommendation to the board this year uh as you as many of you remember we
060purchased uh grades 7 through 12 all at once uh at the beginning of the covid pandemic and so one of the things that we are working on continually and remind the board of is um now diversifying so we can can create us so we have a cycle we have a plan for that so this year actually will be one of our smaller purchase years it will be one grade level and we'll cycle um some other grade levels in a different manner uh and then we'll come back next year we likely be two grade levels again last year we did two grade levels um and this this uh plan long range will get us in a more sustainable format um as Dr rickley mentioned earlier did a wonderful job covering the process that we're also going
061through to refresh our technology plan we have a 5-year technology plan that's historically happened in the district for the last at least 20 years as far as I'm aware and there certainly could be some changes in that plan that we would we would keep the board apprised of as well and if there are any changes um that would be laid out over the next five years we'll incorporate those into any future purchases as well um with that unless there's anything I missed Miss Siri we'd be happy to answer any questions otherwise we'll plan to see you back in a couple weeks um I've got a couple questions are we still happy I assume with the Chromebooks you know we are gathering input on that right now okay um uh so I think as I as
062we've talked before um anything that was manufactured in large quantities at the very beginning the pandemic there's certainly some challenges with uh we certainly saw that with that large group that we purchased uh early on subsequent groups of devices we've seen better results with um and as always part availability part pricing is something that I get a lot of feedback on um we we don't upcharge for any parts that we use for anybody who doesn't participate in the protection plan um and and parts can vary and so that's certainly something we'll always look at as we evaluate these and try to get the best most efficient units and parts uh for our our students and their families um but in terms of what the devices can do to meet our curricular needs um I think
063in general we're we're getting good feedback on that there's certain certainly specialty areas um where that's uh the needs are different but uh we've got a few more groups to work through with our technology Plan before I but but at this point there's no intention to change from Chromebooks for at this at these grade levels anyways yeah it's always the balance of the the quality of the equipment versus the the cost of the equipment exactly yeah um and it's probably good to note that last year we actually um purchased a different version of the Chromebook it was different manufacturer different model so we're already comparing models yeah part of our process is we require every vendor who wants to participate to send us an actual unit we literally tear it apart look at it um
064we put it in a few students hands try to try to get some feedback on them before we make those purchases so we'll be we'll be doing that right now they're showing up at our door I do think it might be good to note that when uh Dr rickley talked about uh his student advisory one of the questions that I asked them was um when they have their school device and they're at home how many of them have a personal device which I believe all of them did but two and then I asked so are you working on your personal device or your District issued Chromebook and they all say Chromebook so and oh the ones that we're replacing they're four years old now uh let's see or will be when they are they will
065be when they y they will be when the yeah you know roughly out of that original bash four years ago what percentage you had to replace we've had to repair yeah repair or I don't have that off top of my head but I could get it okay if you're interested yeah if it's like 30% maybe we need to up the um turnaround time yep I can get that for you okay think that can I also go do you have another one yeah no all you I was gon to say I noticed you had the Chromebook cases in here as well now have you is that kind of have you experimented with those because I know you talked about you know not upcharging and having to repair and everything it looks like here the one you
066mention or that something was mentioned about uh of course I lost it now that I oh nutcase rugged shell will be considered that are highly equivalent to that so I guess that's something to try to help with the uh damage so we provide a case with every device um we also require vendors to send us samples of those cases we test them out as best as we can it's that's you know It's Tricky you got to find a case that matches the machine right that you're going to pick so there's two sides to that balance um the the cases I think uh yeah they make the machine a little bulkier but they do provide some protection it's they're never perfect right they're never enough or never what you need in every situation but they they
067do certainly help um and so we provide those for every student the other nice thing about the cases um is it allows our students we allow our students to put stickers or customizations on the case not on the Chromebook um so it gives a little bit of ownership um in a lot of in a lot of situations and and I think we've gotten good feedback from our students on that so yeah any other questions for Lucas thank you thank you Lucas Luc okay moving on to Item B Ela adoption is that Miss Siri yes so um good evening what I have in front of you for discussion tonight is um information on the resource R st resources that have been selected as you know uh we have been working on updating our English language arts
068curriculum over the past year it is currently in the toolbox cycle um our curriculum is written by our teachers um and guided by our curriculum directors and our curriculum team uh we align that with the Nebraska state standards and then we also um use best practice and research to help us determine what that curriculum looks like and from that resources are identified that can be utilized with the curriculum and they are vetted and piloted um and then there is a decision um for purchase and that is the stage that we are at this past year we had over 120 um teachers involved in that pilot and curriculum writing process um so what you have in front of you is this is for grades K through six um 78 we actually purchased out of last year's
069budget they were earlier um this is between um two companies this is an eight-year contract is what it would be uh we negotiate eight years because our cycle is seven uh we do pilot obviously and we also calculate for growth in there um we do eight years in case there would be a reason that the standards um could possibly be delayed like a pandemic say or um if you have a budget situation English language arts is the most expensive adoption um so it's to it's to create a little bit of wiggle room uh the two companies um are amplify and hmh um amplify is for kindergarten through grades five and um hmh is for grade six in this case but they are also providing for 78 so 67 and8 would be in the same resource
070so um you can see there we are going to be utilizing uh just north of 4 $100,000 from essers also for this purchase um that was identified early on and it's actually how we're going to close essers out um so that portion will be applied um to these two vendors um we will actually use those funds to pay for kindergarten resources for the contract for eight years as well as the pilot materials um for the upcoming school year so the amount that you see in front of you then will actually be divided over um two years we divide it out over the next this current school year and the following year as well and that is how we've budgeted for it thank you Mr Richards so questions that you have or Miss Siri uh one
071question one comment maybe the board has some too uh question is um I know that we do an extensive amount of vetting internally principes teachers reading Specialists Department chairs do we ever give the community or parents the opportunity to look at these materials yeah great question so we actually vetted narrowed it down to two resources um those two resources were piloted and we also had um a public viewing we had days that we opened up to our community where they could come in and see both resources that were um piloted um or going to be pilot piloted we were just starting the pilot at that time um but yes so we do that and then of course anytime we have a parent that would like to see the resources that are used with our curriculum
072we also set that up for them as well thank you for that and then comment and I don't want to preempt a board member here because I suspect that they've probably heard this as well but as we go out and meet with our staff and our buildings most notably probably with our leas on lunches where board members and superintendent go out we just have conversations with teachers and principls and staff about what's going on The Good the Bad the Ugly uh this curriculum adoption has come up if not every Lea's on lunch at least 60 to 70% of them um it's at the heart of what we do we are in the teaching and learning business but to have teachers and staff so excited about a curriculum I can't recall a similar time in my
07328 years of doing this where it has been so warmly received uh and I think that's a great Testament not only to your team Miss Siri but the tool box members themselves the the teachers the professionals that are vetting the these these products and saying this is what we think is best but let's go pilot it and see what we get so uh it's pretty remarkable in fact I can't think of a single negative yet that I've heard other than we want to try it now we don't want to do the pilot any longer we want to do it now because our teachers our parents and our kids are genuinely excited about so just thought I'd throw that out there yeah and it's probably thank you for that and it's it's probably good to share
074that um the entire implementation is right at 2.2 million for all of ela we've spread that out obviously that's between multiple resources as I've listed here um but it is such an imperative adoption because English language arts is at the heart of what we do it impacts every other area um math will be next but there's been quite a few changes in the area specifically of re reading um and uh the toolbox has worked really hard on this and I really appreciate the fact that the teachers are willing to take it on because it is additional work for them because uh it's like being a new teacher again and you're just piloting it may work it may not work um and at the end of the day they still need to reach their target of
075educating those kids um and then my team J Julie saour especially has worked really hard on this contract to to make sure that we get a good shipping cost to sure that uh materials will be delivered by June of every year so that we have time to do what we need to do and um our rep our Representatives have been good as well but but it is a big undertaking and she deserves the credit for that contract is Staff Development from the company included in this implementation so parts of it are and of course you can purchase additional um we've had uh We've utilized it a little bit we just had our first everybody at the element Elementary last staff development day we the monarchs hosted which was very generous um and that the directors
076LED and they went through the shifts and the why and it was bigger it was more than the resource it was the actual curriculum but it included pieces of the resource um as well um but we're also going to utilize our toolbox members um because they have piloted it they've had experiences with it um but yes there are avenues for that if that's what we choose to do we've been using um the company honestly with our coaches our instructional coaches right now and our principles a little bit also trying to get a feel for how good it is so um we talk often about assessment and you know how we assess our students and things every time we usually adopt something new we see the challenges of that con sometimes uh present for us with
077assessment so what do you anticipate some challenges with our assessment scores or will be looking as this one of those transition times can you talk a little bit about that please sure I think that's that's a great question B um I I do think that there will be a transition period uh what we're seeing in the pilot the students are performing really well um I don't want to jinx us but I will tell you that um our transition and um through this process and with the new standards um is very strategic around um reading and in Reading instruction um using scarb Burrows rope um philosophy um it is more rigorous and so um you know we are going to to Dr Ricky's point I am also hearing from the teachers can't we just just let
078us go we this is better let's just go but we've tried to be very um strategic and plan to make sure we Roll It Out Slow to make sure our teachers are prepared um and also to make sure they're comfortable because it it is going to take a little bit of heavy lifting to transition um and along with that we will probably see that in our assessments as well it's also hard when you take a direct shift in a curriculum if I'm being very honest where rolling out kindergarten next year strategically uh the pilot teachers are also going to do a second year um because now that we've written the curriculum we want them to try it with the resource um but there will have to be some Scaffolding in those grade levels as we
079transition okay any other questions for Miss Siri I would like to know what what Miss Siri was going to uh provide an answer to Dr Ricky's question so for you guys wondering what was going on he said Miss Siri and his Siri went off and was recording that question so I was waiting for the response yeah we were we were wait Marcus and I were waiting it happens all the time in the office half as good as the respon so I wish I owned that Siri but all right thank you moving on to item C legislative update Mr Richards well two weeks later we're back um not a whole lot to update uh especially in the big bills of Finance we're still waiting they did pass 388 and 1331 which is going to be the
080vehicle that we really need to keep an eye on I know there was a lot of bills out there they've kind of been Consolidated into two bills 3888 1331 um those will more than likely be on the floor tomorrow we won't know till later tonight on the agenda uh because they only have like Dr rickley said three days left um which makes this session a little bit different than I've seen in the past uh to say the least and doing this long time I know Dr rickley has to um but to see bills come down this late without getting to the select file with the correct amendments and having every having the votes and all of that uh is different uh for sure so we have no idea what's going to happen down there uh
081the next couple days um whether they'll have the 33 votes or will they only need 25 uh to get it through we'll have to wait and see um I know the governor has said special session if they don't get those Finance bills done um to get the property tax relief we've heard rumors of taking just 1107 which is prop Nebraska property tax credit and moving that to the school districts for dollar for dooll property tax relief because right now we still have a lot of districts not taking that um advantage of that populations um lorn's a good example Senator Lenahan was on the floor last week talking about it only 62% in elorn I think it was 52% in Ops uh populations taking advantage of that so this would get at 100% property tax relief
082for everybody within the school district um if they do move that 1107 money which is part of uh the overall Bill anyway um the big hangup I think continues to be the sales tax increase the scent uh to get the necessary votes to make all this happen at the 40% the governor wants in property tax relief um so there's a lot of horse trading going on down there a lot of Communications in the tundra runda and uh off to the side on the floor um trying to get this something across the finish line here but in a short session this I've never seen it since I've been around something this big go through a short session successfully um so a special session may be needed um just to give you a heads up uh one
083other bill I wanted to bring your attention that I didn't talk about last week was lb 71 that's Senator Sanders Bill uh which is the parent transparency bill you are all very aware of that you've heard about it for the last three years really uh last two it's kind of been shelved uh and it finally made it out um this will be a difficult Bill to implement but I think as a district we should feel pretty comfortable about the things that we're doing within the bill uh that we just need to bring and do a little differently to make it more transparent or whatever it may be on our website um and they're going to make us redo our policies a little bit According to some of the things that need to come out um
084which is all a good thing in the end we we've always to be transparent with these things and have parents make decisions for their kids and I think this bill um pushes us a little further to do some of those things um so looking forward to those things and one of the things we were very excited to see was the amendment that came late from Senator Sanders that doesn't make this effective till uh July 1st 2025 which is us another year to implement because trying to do as many policy changes that are going to be necessary with this bill uh are going to take some time to be thoughtful and considerate uh in our approach to getting those things taken care of within that bill any questions comments that I know uh everybody's following it
085uh down there so it's it's been wild so by the time the session wraps up it will wrap up before our next board meeting uh two weeks from yesterday so what we'll do when it works for the board and for president madler Brett and I'll work with uh Senator gay former Senator gay to deliver his after Action Report where we can kind of go through some selected bills certainly not all of them uh but we'll go through some selected bills and kind of give you the status this passed here's how it's going to impact us this didn't pass here's what we think might happen moving forward my guess is if property tax uh relief is not part of the final uh legislative package that will come back either in a special session as Brett pointed
086out or in uh the next bium so more details to come but we'll stay on top of it yes and just to just to share with you uh NCSA does their recap of the legislation legislation every year and it was scheduled for a April 15th uh and it got moved April 22nd because there's just not a lot to share quite yet because everything hasn't gone through um so it'll be different but we we do have that NCSA wrap up the day of the next board meeting I believe uh so we'll be putting it together Fast and Furious for you on that Monday Night board meeting have like Dr rickley said we'll have Mr Gay down and answer any questions you may have on his side too thank you uh it's probably a good reminder only
087tax days is less than a week away so anyone in the community make sure you're filing for that uh property tax relief uh or the credit back um for what youve paid against the general Levy 20 to 25% uh 30% 30% general fund and special building fund the two combined and you get 30% back yeah so yeah please take advantage of that yep be sure to make sure you're doing that yeah yeah and if you file through Nebraska e file it does take you to the sarie county external State you can find search your parcel number it'll bring in and then it'll calculate the amount and bring in that information straight on to your state return so they have greatly used technology to make it hopefully easier for folks to take advantage of that credit
088so sorry the CPA and me got got nerded out there so yeah all right any other questions for Mr Richards no well Mr Richards thanks for obviously staying on top of all it there's a lot of moving pieces and coming down to the wire so good luck okay item d uh review policy 4,000 Personnel Dr settles yeah hello everybody uh it is April which means the 4,000 policies are up for review that's the Personnel um policies so if you note anything that you want us to take a look at as you're going through those please don't hesitate to send me a message our team is also going through those um the 4000s are a bit Hefty so uh we began on those a couple of weeks ago and we'll continue to go through those until
089um recommendations have come forth for you okay thank you Dr settles moving on to uh section five future board calendar uh April 12 2024 we have our DARE graduation at portal at 145 uh April 13th 2024 we have prom for pilling the Visa South High School at beardmore Event Center April 20th 2024 prom uh for pavalon L Vista High School at beard War Event Center and then April 22nd 2024 our next Board of Education meeting uh at 6 pm here at central office and seeing no further business in front of the board I adjourn the meeting at 7:12