001good evening and welcome to the Pilan listic Community Schools Board of Education meeting for November 27th 2023 our first order business please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance un States all right thank you very much uh a little bit different tonight because we have a new sixth member here so uh our next order of business will be your oath of office thank you very much uh Mr Bailey members of the board uh before we do this uh Tim honored uh ceremony I did want to take another opportunity to thank the community for the outpouring of interest in the open board position uh for those of you that weren't paying uh weren't able to to attend the last board meeting or the last couple board meetings as this process is unfolded uh we had 71 applicants
002for the open board position uh which is an incredible display of of interest in any Community much less a community our size so for those that interviewed thank thank you uh for those of you that applied thank you and we will always be looking for good people not only to work in this school district but also to serve on its Board of Education so again super grateful uh for everyone that participated in that process uh now as we begin uh we are going to celebrate the newest member of our board uh Miss Lisa wood uh just as an editorial comment I thought the five candidates uh that we interviewed were outstanding uh outstanding in every way and represented this community and what this community is all about extremely well uh I don't think it's a
003stretch to say that Miss would absolutely distinguish yourself in a group of really really outstanding individuals so as my future boss uh congratulations on being selected and uh without further Ado I don't know Miss zon if we'll have anybody available to take a couple of pictures while we do this and post this uh but just so the the the community members that are here in attendance uh understand the the process this only happens after a board election most frequently happens in January when we're seating new board members or in the case of a resignation when we select a new board member so it's not something we do often but it's something that we're deeply proud of uh the peaceful transition of power whether it's the president of the United States or a Pilan Lisa Community
004Schools Board of Education this is the Hallmark of democracy this is a Hallmark of what makes this country truly great as power passes peacefully from one group of individuals to the next and to be some one small piece of that puzzle Mr Bailey members of the board is a pretty special experience so without further Ado Miss Wood I'd invite you to come up here next to the flag uh I will recite the pledge and I think you have a copy and Miss Iman if you would capture this for posterity sake I would be grateful Miss wood if You' raise your right hand and repeat after me I state your name I Lisa wood do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitutions of the United States of the United States and the
005state of Nebraska and the state of Nebraska and will Faithfully discharge and will Faithfully discharge the duties of the office the duties of the office of member of of member of the school board of pan L Vista the school board of papilon L Vista Community School District Community School District according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability by the power vested in me you are now the sixth member of the Pilan listic Community Schools Board of education on behalf of the community board congratulations Miss Wood thank you dry [Applause] absolutely M Wood will serve out the remainder of Miss Hol Meyer's term uh which is basically three full years plus one month the month of December when we have one Board of Education meeting uh thrilled to uh count
006you as a member of this board Miss Wood and uh excited to do the good work that we do uh uh hand in hand and with that Mr Bailey I would conclude the oath of office all right thank you very much now if we could do a roll call with all six members please here here here here here thank you very much all right make sure you please uh call your attention to the open meetings law that's posted at the entrance to the room appreciate that uh moving on to section two uh Communications uh a uh recognition I know Joe isn't here but I know you're going to say a few words uh about him uh yeah thank you very much Mr Bailey uh members of the board so for community members that are watching
007uh and in attendance thank you for being here as always thank you for participating and engaging with your board of education we try to do recognitions at least once a month uh sometimes more frequently uh Mr Joe rachek a journalism teacher and more commonly known as The Voice of the monarchs uh was able to make it tonight but but this one has some urgency this is a really big deal uh and Joe is for those of you that know Mr rachek is much decorated he's received many awards uh Statewide and nationally but this is one that we didn't want to wait to announce uh Mr rachek was named the ne Nebraska high school press Association distinguished advisor of the year that typically goes to either journalism teachers teachers that work on the yearbook very often
008there's overlap between the two but to be recognized by his peers as the best in Nebraska is nothing short of exceptional and it uh just continues the the nice run that we've had uh recently we've had PE teacher of the year Dr voen was named special education uh director of the year so the district just continues to churn out some really outstanding individuals uh we do believe that Mr rachek will be here at our December meeting so hopefully we can recognize him in person uh Joe if you're watching ing we're deeply grateful for all that you do for our students and families uh but really wanted to get this in front of the community and the board and hopefully we can uh celebrate him a little bit more in a in a couple of weeks
009uh and with that Mr Bailey I would conclude our recognitions for the evening all right thank you very much yeah let's hope we can get Joe here in December that would be great all right next up on our Communications our military advisory uh Colonel kis yeah well welcome sir hey good evening thank you again very much for the uh honor to speak tonight uh just a couple quick updates uh last time I was here we were talking about uh the budget and Congress not having a budget at the time so uh as you all know we've had the continuing resolution that was passed bring us uh at least into the next fiscal or to the next calendar year um but so right now we don't expect any other impacts that we have to the base
010or by extension to any of our parents or their their children uh that would be students here um one other thing that I had the chance to do this this last month is I was uh a member of the association of Defense communities uh panel uh where we had a chance to talk about Omaha the Metro the greater metro area as one of America's great defense communities uh and one of the things I had an opportunity to do was to really uh talk about the great partnership that off at Air Force Base has with the local school boards uh pilion L Vista bellev being two of the biggest ones that we have uh so great opportunity for us to talk about all of the great work that is done here with the schools to be
011able to take care of our military children and our students uh so great opportunity to explain uh not just across the rest of the Air Force but all of the other defense uh bases and services that we have and the local communities on how we have such a great partnership so just again opportunity for us to be able to explain what you do to take care of our military students every single day very appreciative of that uh a couple upcoming events that we have is our annual holiday tree lighting November 30th uh from 5:00 to 7:30 uh that's going to be happening at the Youth Center uh on base uh off of 25th Avenue we also have uh this next year planning for the 22nd is our going to be our kindergarten Readiness Roundup it's
012an opportunity that we have especially for our brand new parents uh with kids going to school for the very first time opportunity for us to bring in uh some experts that we have both within the military but also o open open the opportunity for the school districts to be able to provide members to come and just talk about what it's like to transition and get kids ready to go into kindergarten uh again that's going to be on the 22nd and I know after the holidays that's when we'll uh kind of make the formal approach on you but just want to let you know that that's something coming up and it's been greatly supported uh here by pan L Vista in the past and look forward to that in the future if you have the opportunity
013to do that um we also have the 100th anniversary of opid Air Force Base coming up and that's going to be on the 10th of May and then we do have our preparations underway for the air show coming up the 24th through the 26th of August U that'll be at off it so really getting into the plan planning for that right now and looking forward to having a spectacular show this next year and then the last item I do have is last month I had the opportunity to brag a little bit on Miss Leanne yanov she is our school liaison officer uh for winning at the group level uh our civilian uh Ward civilian of the quarter uh had and just wanted to point out that Leanne actually ended up winning at the wing level
014so amongst the 4,000 people that we have within the wing she was recognized in her category of civilians as the civilian of the quarter uh this last quarter for us so uh just an opportunity for us to recognize the wing the amazing job that she does to be able to take care of all of our students uh and I know that she has been a great partner uh with the school board and School District here and really do again appreciate uh that back and forth in the open communication that we have um that is all I have pending any questions from the board all right thank you very much greatly appreciate it again thank you sir thank you yall have a great evening you too thank you sir all right next up under communication is
015our yatp presentation uh Heather post Jamie Crane and Kelsey Peters it's what I have listed hopefully that's the three that I've got all right yes good evening Board of Education as they're making their way to um the table uh we are lucky to um have with us tonight these three individuals that work with our yatp program are young adult transition program and I asked them tonight uh with their presentation to give you a broad overview of what a typical day looks like for a student at yatp so I'll turn it over to Heather and team yeah all right so yes I am Dr post um I am the principal out of the young adult program and then we have Kelsey Peters who is our speech language pathologist and then Jamie crane is our Lead Teacher
016so we thought the three of us could kind of give you a glimpse into what it kind of looks like on the dayto day so um our young adult program so the main focus of our program it serves students that are 18 to 21 that are on an individualized education plan so are receiving special education services and you know the team has met and said there's a need for them to continue on in school until they're 21 because there's unmet transitional needs so we'll kind of talk about how we meet those needs and what that looks like um but we really focus in on what are their post-secondary goals what are they going to do when um this our students leave after 21 so that's kind of our main focus um so this is kind
017of what it looks like in the day of kind of our students so they have rotation time um between job sites so some students in the morning go to job sites in the morning some go to job sites in the afternoon and then kind of Vice Versa the other part of their day is instructional time so depending upon what their transitional goals are what their secondary goals are we kind of then focus in on those for the the rest of the day um and so very much it is structured very different and every year kind of looks a little bit different depending on the students and their needs and stuff like that so um the skills really that we focus on throughout their day cooking cleaning daily living any sort of individualized goal that they
018may have for them um for their education recreational activities instructional time and much more so just really depending upon that so Jamie if you want to talk a little bit about unique uh unique is our new curriculum and um basically it is it focuses on several different topics so um we focus with personal life daily living um and then Community Living um and each of the um units there's 27 different units during the three years that the students are with us they rotate every three years so the students will be getting um each lesson if they're with us for three years so every month the lesson changes it incorporates um topic stories it's it focuses on math budgeting um a lot of job exploration so um filling out form applications um exploring different types of
019jobs um and it just really it's kind of nice because before we um kind of thought we knew what we wanted to teach the students and now we have a a a curriculum and it really has hit a lot of things that we probably never even thought about before so we really enjoy that we have this it was a really good addition um the staff and students that are building we have three special education teachers and they are full time a speech language pathologist and they're two and a half days a week six to seven par professionals and they also do appcast job coaches also in the community and then the students um we have anywhere from 28 to 35 students in our building with up to 45 including project search So within the young
020adult program Y and kind of just talking about like our young adult program we have students that are um off like off site or off our location and they attend different programs so that's why it kind of ranges because in the building at one time can vary greatly just because we have students that attend um like mineral Meyer there's um some transitional services that happen there but then they also come to us for a portion of their day too so yep and some some have jobs so some May only come two days a week like it just really varies on kind of what the students goals are so yeah and now we're just going to kind of tell you a little bit about some of our job sites and some of the great things that
021we do out on those job sites so um two of our restaurants that we have Texas Roadhouse and Mama's Pizza Texas Roadhouse we've been there um several years now a couple years probably um the students do a lot of prep work unfortunately they don't open till 3 and we are over for the day during that time so we come in in the afternoon and we do some prep work before the the restaurant opens we roll silverware they have a need for that we help set tables we wash the menus we do a lot of the prep work there um Mama's Pizza is brand new this year we go there in the morning time and uh we are doing some food prep they fill Ranch cups and kind of help with chopping vegetables and things they
022do a lot of the cleaning so they clean the restrooms they clean the tables they vacuum a lot of prep work before they open and it's been a really good addition um we uh we go to we rock the Spectrum which is um it's just like a sensory gym for anybody I mean anybody but specific for people on the spectrum of all ages um they do a lot of cleaning tasks there also and then it's cool because they we get to see them enjoy sensory breaks too like just see how much of a need that is for their body so they get some brakes worked in there and um a lot of cleaning tasks and then our hry dly Zoo um is a longer job site so they it's further away so they get to
023go in the morning and then they're there till about 1 o'clock usually like Heather said our job sites are usually half and a half and then they switch and then our students at the zoo stay a little longer um they're working in the treetop uh restaurant right now so like a lot of food prep um some interactions with customers on the the floor like clearing stuff off um wiping tables and yeah they really enjoy that Community closet within our district so the students uh we do a lot of pickup here at the central office we take it to community closet um they sort through it and they get it ready for um the community to access it they do a lot of sorting a lot of hanging up a lot of sorting by size it's
024just a really good skill for them to be learning uh sarie County tourism has been awesome it's kind of over by Warner Park it's part of Warner Park it's attached to that building um they make a lot they do a lot of um there's a lot of some things that they do and so they make up a lot of um bags for like golf tournaments and um any anything that sarpi County may be at giving out like promotional items and things um it's been it's been really good because um students we have a lot of students who love to sort and you know sequencing things and so it works really well because they they love that part so Pilan landing and gford farm so Pilan Landing um is we we we get pretty lucky with
025the p Landing because we can go there for like gym time also in the winter which is really nice and so we've kind of partnered with them a little bit um they do a lot of cleaning tasks there also um we also have a student who uses a um a communication device she works at the front desk and so she greets customers as they come in and um that's been a really nice Edition this year um we've gotten a lot of use out of that and then gford Farm is brand new it's a bit of a drive but um didn't quite really how far out it was but um it's been really nice so we we do a lot of the maintenance on the grounds we're pulling weeds and um they got to actually go
026into where the chickens are and collect the eggs and then we wash the eggs and kind of prepare them for for use and so um the students have really enjoyed that um and then we are doing AAC outings once a week we take a group of our students who yep AAC stands for alternative and augmentative communication so any student who doesn't necessarily primarily use their voice any alternative way to communicate so um pictures I think our brains think of devices but it could be any way to help you understand their message that isn't their voice is what that stands for so we take that group of students out into the community once a week and we call it um Community integration so the whole goal is for the community their little niche of community whatever
027that might be to get comfortable with them and comfortable with talking their their language um so the whole goal is for the community to interact with them to interact with their device so they feel validation of their voice too um so we do that once a week Pilon Landing has been huge for that we come to central office once a week and do we set up like a little market which helps just natural communication um but feel purposeful so they they really enjoy that yeah and so then we also do outings um kind of depending upon the month kind of depends on how many we do so Fridays are typically our outings days um and so it's just some sort of wreck and Leisure activity where we're integrating them back into the community because we
028know once our students leave us at 21 like this is their community so we need you know community community members to be familiar with them and to kind of know them and to kind of figure out okay what is the best way to interact with our students and then just knowing like they need leisure activities too so it kind of varies across the board kind of what we do from Parks to I mean we've done the zoo and painting and all of that kind of stuff and sometimes it also depends on the curriculum we're teaching what what you them yep um I know like we talk about Job preparation and things like that and we do like a mock interview here at the central office and that really the students really enjoy that also yeah
029okay so that is it and we just um I know wanted to put a big thank you out to our board and our community members just for supporting I know as we're getting ready to um make plans to build um the new young adult facility um so we're just super excited and we're yeah just very thankful that we have a board that supports our program and kind of sees the vision with us so we're very excited about it yeah Heather before the board ask you um questions will you talk a little bit about like how does this look for a student in compar in comparison to their high school education and where yatp Falls could you just talk about the pathway a little bit yeah definitely so um typically most of our students um will
030complete their educational career like 912 um they may not earn all of their credits and so that would be something that you know the IEP team or their individualized education plan would say they need transition services and so that's when they would come to us so it'd be after they walk at their own graduation ceremony then they'd come to us for that 18 to 21 year I mean depending on the age and stuff like that um some get three years some have four years some have two years so just kind of depending on kind of the needs of the student and stuff like that but it's a school year in which they turned 21 is their last year with us is that what you're kind of talking about okay yeah yeah for sure one of
031the things that I enjoy most has been going to the YTP graduation program every year and the self-confidence that those students have when they're up there on the stage and they're talking about themselves and presenting who they are is just wonderful just just tells me that our district takes care of the whole child and it's it's an honor to have this program in our district and I'm happy that you're going to have your own facility that will be even better for the work that you do with our students thank you so much thank you I was going to Echo we had like a um talent show the other day and the confidence that like just when you said that so confident and like support of each other like no matter what they did nobody I
032mean nobody booed obviously but it was just all so much cheering and support and like you got this you get up there so I Echo that that was great yeah uh I want to echo on the YP graduation last year was great to see and then the families that were all there too uh you know and going through the slideshows I'm just seeing the smile on everyone's faces was great uh it looked like yeah have a lot of great opportunities uh for the students are there any types of opportunities that you're wishing that that we had like any any types of opportunities that were still on the lookout for for uh for these students um I think these two I mean I think we're always problem solving I don't think there's a day that I
033don't go out there that they're like hey I have a great idea so and so loves this can we do this and I'm like okay let's let's kind of think logistically so I think these guys are always adapting with our students like I don't think there's something like I don't know on the the tip that I can think of un I think the easy answer is the building is going to solve so many of our like that's going to be so great for us um job opportunity wise it it's also year per year student by student what they say they're interested in I think that's why the zoo is new for us we just got connected with the zoo um because the student was very interested and then all of a sudden several are interested
034which obviously it's great um so we're always thinking of new things it's h great to see the support out in the community too welcoming and these students uh to try to help out as well so thanks for the presentation and for all you do the community is great they're just so welcoming our students in their in their businesses and things nice your 27 themed units was that something that your team developed or does that come from the state or can you talk a little bit more about that yeah so we use a platform um called unique Learning System and so it is all based on all of the extended indicators from Nebraska so if you pull up depending on which unit or theme were on at that time you can then pull it down okay
035what extended indicator does this align with so we can say you know when we're talking with parents like this is the reason in which we're teaching it so it's not yeah it's not developed by nde but all the extended indicators is what it aligns with so yeah and there's a lot of um Metro districts now starting to use kind of um uh kind of a themed unit kind of curriculum as well so yeah oh yeah it's huge it I think it's huge for our kids and for our parents because we send out things like hey we're working on their past passports to kind of talk about okay what are their long-term goals what are their short-term goals do you have your services started all of that so it kind of lays a lot of that
036out for us it also really helps us before we developed our own curriculum or the teachers and um you would you have to have three years of curriculum so not only do you like have something per month you got to have something for August but three year you know just so they don't get bored and repeat the lesson so it's nice to have it yeah you said that some of them are only there for two years are there certain things because obviously that curriculum's based on three years are there certain things you try to hit or do you just pretty much go in the order that that you showed up there is that I guess I that's what I was wondering too because yeah if they're doing three years they're going to get all of
037them but yeah I didn't know if that would so usually we just stick to like the year in which like aligns with those themes because typically what's changing is the theme but the basic like you know extended indicators are not so we're still aligning it it just may be a different theme a different activity or a different Recreation activity that's aligned with it so that that might be some of what they're missing out on um but then we also have to tie it back to their IEP goals or you know and so we kind of balance both of them kind of with that so yeah and the two years um basically they're there until later in 21 some students are a little bit older when they start with us and then also um many of
038them in their last year move on to project search if they are looking for competitive employment so um that's kind of the natural progression that would be next so sometimes they get two years with us and then they move on their third year ladies this was a terrific presentation thank you for being here tonight uh Mr Lotus and I had the benefit of uh having this conversation with you over lunch about three weeks ago but the rest of the board wasn't privy to that it was Lea's on lunch so you've you've seen the program at Gold Coast Road Lee space you've seen the program in your current space at Liberty appreciate their Hospitality so kind of paint a picture for the board what what are the Lessons Learned what as we put um the the
039final details with the building plans they uh west of Liberty what are the things that you see we need to be mindful of as we're designing that building and eventually building that building what's working what's not what do you need I think if we're talking about Gold Coast Road um I think um a space for them just to have movement like a like a multi-purpose space would be great um right now I think um even though libert is awesome um we don't have a cooking we we don't get to cook a lot because we don't have access to stoves now um so just making sure we have a functioning kitchen that that you know a couple kitchens if we can and just so that we can because that's a big part of what we do
040um so right now we're just kind of trying to cook make things that are require no heat or anything like that so um but yeah I think it's been great Liberty has been awesome but yeah I think um we realiz a specific thing we realized that we that was positive of Gold Coast is we had access like eyesight access um to other students it was kind of all one room and then but divided by rooms so we could hear if something needed to be attended to in the other room and at Liberty it's it's a school so it's built like classrooms so something could be happening in another classroom and we would have no idea what's going on so there's benefits to that sometimes to separate students but then realizing oh we we do need
041to know what's going on in all parts to the building too so yeah and I think just like they talked about I think setting it up so that we can meet their post-secondary goals so the cooking the cleaning being able to have space for you know that wreck and Leisure being able to walk the space and stuff like that but then also just having you know kind of dedicated classroom spaces so that these guys can you know form groups and stuff like that and be able to do that as well so yeah I think we've yeah we've loved being at Liberty it's kind of given us um that building feel to be like we're part of a building and and stuff like that and I know our related service providers you know they are also
042um housed with us at Liberty and I think that's been a great benefit because they help support our program like we're kind of one building all in all so that's been awesome too because they really we kind of lean on them too for any support too and I also think doing it right because I think we are going to be kind of the ones that the other districts in the Metro are going to be kind of coming and seeing what we've developed um because there's not a lot out there I think if we can do it right and do a really good job with it I think that'll be great thank you thank you very much all right as they're uh transitioning out here we'll move on to the next one we have public comment
043for items not on the agenda we have a couple of those tonight uh please remember when I call your name please come up and state your name and uh your address if you don't want to State your address please State the uh the city uh that you live in remember you have 3 minutes uh we do have batteries so miss Branco will uh set the timer and it'll go off the first time at 2 minutes and 15 seconds and then you have about another 45 seconds um for that three minutes all right um with that I think we'll call up our first one it's Mr Kevin Padilla good morning or good evening the Pilan Lista School Board my name is Kevin Padilla and I reside in pilion I would like to take you back to
044the 28 August Pilon Lista school board meeting whereby this board minus Lisa wood voted to keep all boys aren't blue on the school shelves let me emphasize five board members voted to keep the book while one board member showed courage and stood against the book all all boys aren't blue has no intrinsic value and various passages throughout the book are reprehensible where is the value of keeping this book on the Shelf the school board was part of the process from which the decision was derived to keep the book in schools and now I must ask myself is there value in keeping Schoolboard members on the school board that voted in favor of this book just asking the World Herald interviewed Miss fiser and she explicitly said I believe each indiv idual parent has the right
045to decide for their children what they should read or not read that's a choice for you to make for your family well miss fiser if this is so then why did the school board make the decision for all Pilon Lista families to keep this inappropriate book on the Shelf you are not following your own advice the decision um the school board has taken the decision away from families and making the decision for them did the school/ Schoolboard send an email note or correspondence of some sort to parents about this book being approved for the library or do you hope nobody notices can we say Hypocrites if a family believes this book was Val of value then buy it off Amazon for your own School library for your own home library but it should not be
046in school libraries this would suffice both sides this book is poison for our children it contains lewd material additionally within the World Herald article Miss suanne Wick called the reading of sections from all boy aren't blue pornography and then later felt compelled to apologize you got it right the first time this is pornography by any definition Miss Whit then said the section read was read in a sexually explicit manner who are you kidding how does one read in a sexually explicit Manner and how would you know that it was read in such a way just asking the American public education system is meant to provide a trustworthy environment whereby students can learn and grow but there is limit to the range range of acceptable ideas that should find their way into schools who makes who
047makes the decisions on these books Librarians school boards subcommittees token parents what about parents that did not get asked about the book what do they think just asking did you know that on 12 September 2023 Louisiana Senator John Kennedy read from the sexual book all boys aren't blue during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to drive home growing calls from parents to have age appropriate literature in schools and libraries one last question is the school board decision to keep the book in school libraries made on behalf of kids or groomers just asking thank you for your time all right our second speaker is Mr Ralph Tate good evening my name is Ralph Tate my address is in pilion the opportunity scholarship act lb 753 passed earlier this year a critical part in electoral form of government
048is for the electric to be well informed and to that end I make the following comments lb 753 is initially cap $25 million for tax credit scholarships and then increases to an annual level of $100 million over 3 years when compared to State annual public education expend expenditures in excess of $3.7 billion it hardly seems worth the fight the bill provides qualifying children a scholarship for a higher educa higher quality education as determined by by by their parents or Guardians not some bureaucrats in Lincoln eligible students primarily include those from lowincome families and students with special needs this is hardly the group of students that are claimed to be the privilege Rich the most current Nebraska student centered assessment system proficiency results show approximately a third of all eighth graders and a half of 11th
049graders with the ACT test in the state do not meet standards for English language arts mathematics and science for PLC the ACT scores aren't much better 40% in those in those uh grades in that grade of 11th grade uh are failing uh in those subjects for 11th grade Hispanic students in Nebraska Public Schools over three qus perform below standards while over 80% of black students below perform below standards one of the best ways to break the poverty cycle is with a good education are we serious about addressing social injustice and breaking the poverty cycle or is it only when it doesn't interfere with our own interests not all solutions to social injustice have the same outcome some focus on Fanning the Flames of racial Discord and hostility While others focus on correcting underlying causes of
050disparity the place to focus resources to resolve these social issues at the is at the beginning of the process K through 12 education not at the end when the number of qualified minorities are no longer available lb 753 affords the opportunity for low-income parents and Guardians to send their children to academic institutions that will help break the poverty cycle imagine a world in which 50% of your medical prescriptions are not accurate 50% of automobiles sold do not meet safety standards 50% of commercial aircraft are not flight worthy or 50% of food sold does not meet Health standards who would want to live in a world like that why are we willing to accept that a third of eighth graders and a half of 11th graders in Nebraska public schools are not meeting competency standards when
051the role of education is to help prepare children to be productive contributing members of society thank you all right moving on to uh item e under communication is the superintendent report Dr ickle thank you very much Mr baile members of the board again for those watching at home on uh YouTube as well as those that are in attendance this evening thank you for being here and engaging with your Board of Education First off wanted to wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving hopefully all of our staff of our patrons all of our community members had some time uh to reflect on the blessings of living in this great Community this great state this great country of ours it's one of my personal favorite holidays of the year to reconnect with family and get away from the office
052for a little bit and I hope you all had that same opportunity with your families we do have three and a half weeks until the end of first semester uh finals are in the third week of December that's fast approaching doesn't seem possible we're already talking about second semester but that's what it is is for semester always goes by incredibly fast uh also wanted to remind our staff and our community that we have our last plcs Community closet event scheduled uh for first semester it is this Saturday 10 o'clock at Lista Middle School uh that event will run for two hours uh again we previously uh hosted an event at Lista Middle School coat Mitten hat Drive uh especially with the weather turning cold uh it couldn't come at a better time I think I
053reminded the community we served upwards of 150 families at our last event so we're we're doing some really good work uh thanks to our partnership with Cavalry Shadle Lake uh as well as the cities that have long supported this effort uh also wanted to remind our Board of Education uh that Ms iman's position has been posted and Dr settles and I and cabinet have been working on uh parsing through the candidates we ended up with 35 candidates uh we had some internal interest but the majority of those 35 candidates that applied for the position were from outside the organization we will be interviewing a number of them this Wednesday uh it was a deep pool uh Dr settles did outstanding work in getting the word out uh this next individual is going to have big
054shoes to fill needless to say filling Miss iman's position but our hope is to complete the interviews on Wednesday uh tender an offer later that week and hopefully we'll have uh an announcement shortly thereafter uh we know that in a position as big as that that there will be some transition time all of the individuals will be interviewing our our gainfully employed and typically we'd want them to have at least a month um notice to their current employers before they would uh be able to come work for us so that will betime second semester so more details to follow but we are approaching the end of that process also wanted to thank the board for attending the State education conference which was the week before Thanksgiving week uh that is a Statewide conference hosted by
055the Nebraska asso Association of school boards it's always that week before Thanksgiving we had some great Keynotes uh I wasn't able to attend on Friday you know commissioner Maher Governor pillan were both uh keynoting uh Friday uh I've met with them prior to that um but sorry I wasn't able to be there on Friday but certainly grateful for the board being there uh for some of the pressions on Wednesday and all day Thursday we had some outstanding sessions and it was definitely time well spent uh also wanted to remind the community we've got uh some parent engagement coming up in the form of Karen hzy talking about Internet safety now uh m hzy is a really engaging speaker she is an expert not only on um what the law requires as well as just some
056real practical advice for educators and parents and students alike uh not only citing case law but also examples uh locally regionally and across the country of where parents and Educators and kids have haven't done a good job of monitoring their social media presence and some of the outcomes associated with that so that's December 7th 6 p.m at P Lista High School I believe will be uh broadcasting that on social media as well as well as uh keeping an archive video so if parents students staff aren't able to attend uh they can bring it up at a later date uh lastly I just wanted to do a shout out uh for several of our staff members uh we were greeted this Monday morning with uh a gas leak at Hickory Hill Elementary we had some staff
057that were just really on top of things they did exactly what they should have done they contacted our central office they contacted Black Hills Energy we contacted law enforcement we contacted the fire department they responded within minutes got the kids out of the building walked them across the way to Lista Middle School Dr Carson and her staff were wonderful hosts um the good news is it was a very minor leak uh we got our kids back in the building kids weren't happy about that I think in fact there was maybe probably a Lusty boo that came out from the crowd when we announced that school would be resuming shortly my point in sharing that is this school district works because we have really good people and this District works because we have outstanding Partnerships Without
058fire without police protection without uh Community vendors like Black Hills Energy our own buildings and grounds Mr Richards and I were there at Hickory Hills uh inspecting the the boiler room without all of that the things just don't happen and it could have had a much worse outcome but it didn't and there was very little Interruption to the day thankfully and we got our our crew up and running so again just want to thank everybody that was involved as well as our Community Partners for uh for making what could have been a really bad situation largely uneventful so with that Mr Bailey I would conclude my superintendent's report all right thank you very much yeah definitely not a text we all wanted to see it this morning but so glad it was very minimal and
059everybody responded so appreciate everybody for doing that all right uh item F under communication is uh board reports well I can start us off um I'll start by talking a little bit about the state conference there are a couple sessions that I found very educational and good and one was on AI and chat gbt um I won't claim to be the most technology Savvy in the group here but um in listening to a lot of of the conversation the information that was presented this definitely has some concerns attached to it um some work that needs to be done to make sure that everything is is being handled accordingly they actually talked about superintendents who who may take notes on chat gbt or others and why you may want to look at that so there was
060just a lot of really good conversation about that par at that particular session the other one I attended was the state Schoolboard member Q&A and that was also very interesting glad to see the state schb members taking the time to come and actually really listening to what people had to share um some of the comments in that were also about things like Ai and chat jbt and some of these other uh uh concerns that that they have as well as just um General things coming in front of the uh state board and the new uh leader of that whole group and what's happening there uh he was there and had some conversation as well so it was a great conference overall did bring back some great information as always it's interesting to go not only
061because of the sessions you get to attend but the conversations you get to have with board members from other districts across the state um small to large they all have something to share that's of value to all of us so it was really good um the second part of my conversation is around my L on lunch and that was held it ideal uh Dr Rick Lee was there for part of it misseri was there for part of of it and we had a lot of conversation about quite a few different things uh some short conversation about the book review process but most of the conversation was around the ideal uh review that's currently in process and what ideal should look like down the road uh we had a lot of conversation about the changing student
062demographics of those that are attending ideal the space that it requires because we have more sophomores than we've had before for and how do we provide all of the educational courses that need to be done we talked about um what is the purpose of Ideal you know there's a lot of things we could talk about credit recovery or Behavioral or uh student fit those kinds of things we talked a little bit about providing the support that students and staff both need in that environment um so I think it's really going to be great as the review continues on for ideal and more information comes forward for all of us but I do think uh the conversation with the staff there was just outstanding um there's so much more I could talk about but it just
063was a really great liaison lunch and with a lot of really great information shared so the lunch wasn't bad well I didn't eat I didn't eat the lunch lunch for all of you was great but I didn't eat the lunch um anyway that's all I have for this for this evening um also went to the uh State Conference Dr rickley you forgot the one uh big highlight of the state conference where uh you were recognized as the superintendent of the year it was great to see you a couple of your kids out there uh skipping a little bit of school and having lunch with us as they and yeah yeah freezing um but it was great to see them there uh for them to see uh your recognition and for your staff some of the
064staff to be able to come out too that was great um some of the sessions I went uh to were around um State uh State uh construction and finance laws uh national uh court cases on school boards um it's always interesting to hear what's happening in other states we talked a lot about what's happening locally I think the most interesting one was uh Miss Whit and I were at it where they had I think five or six high school students from uh different districts uh come and talk through their experiences in uh throughout their their school uh I think most of them were seniors Juniors or seniors uh they talked about the the things they liked about it some of the opportunities that they wish they would have had uh and then they did a
065Q&A with the board members and the room was packing Miss W and I were standing in the back of it and for these five or six high school students to to be able to sit there and take questions from from board members at a room probably of a hundred people I was just really impressive of uh what they you know sign themselves up for but I asked them a question on on what the district what school boards what uh schools uh what their school districts their communities can can do to help them with uh mental health you know that's a things that every everyone struggles with maybe in their own ways at different levels uh and a few of them answered but one of them I think was from cofton gave uh really uh I
066thought a good answer that I thought was worth sharing she talked about the stress and the pressure that is put on students from parents from teachers from coaches from if they have a job their bosses from their friends from fellow students from the community as a whole and all of the pressures that uh we put on students as a community and that's at time easy to forget that they're 15 16 17 18 just trying to figure things out and uh what this student said was a lot of times what they're missing is just someone to vent to and to talk to without trying to get someone to help solve their problems they just want someone to talk to uh walk through some of their concerns without um you know being told one thing or another
067just just someone to listen to so I just thought it was a good reminder at times I am a problem solver if someone comes to me with problems I am real quick to be like oh here's here's have you tried this have you tried this I think it's it was a good reminder for myself on the just sit back listen offer if they're asking uh for the advice but you know a lot of times people just need someone to talk to so that was I thought it was a really good session I want to follow up on what you said because two of the students in that presentation said that they had suffered some mental health concerns and for them to be able to stand in front of that room and convince that I thought
068was very brave of them and they were all very excellent speakers um the the sessions that I attended were mostly focused on policy and mental health so um much of what you said is exactly what I felt it was a great experience to hear if you hear we need that professional development as board members and I think as long as they continue to think in the terms of we're here to present to school boards and not teachers or administrators but board members who need to hear policies and things that we can do to be better board members I think is uh very valuable to us well I attended DARE graduation at Anderson Grove um I was there as a grandma actually um but it was it was fun to see these kids um and the
069understanding they had of the Dare program and how the decision-making model continues to be a focus of this program and something that kids need and will utilize um they I also thought Anderson GR did a great job of it not only having DARE graduation but also incorporating their band and music and using those as ways to communicate what they've learned through dare and I was so impressed by the size of their band um they had a large number of students participating which is is great for the future so it was wonderful program all right thank you very much anything else okay uh great then we will move on to uh item G uh committee reports uh buildings grounds and finance uh we have not met since the uh last meeting we have one scheduled here
070I think next Friday yeah week from Friday okay thank you very much human resources and student services I we remind everyone if they haven't seen it on Facebook that there's a walk-in Wednesday this coming Wednesday for anyone interested in considering a position uh with the district and I think that's at 6 p.m I oh one o'clock on this Wednesday okay 1 through six 1 through six and our next meeting is scheduled for uh the 4th next Monday great thank you and curriculum and americanism we have not met since last meeting but if I recall we have a meeting set for tomorrow evening all right thank you so much all right uh we don't have any comment uh for items on the agenda so next we'll move to section three action items um item a action
071by consent I'll make a motion to approve the action by consent as presented second all right we have a motion by Miss Fischer and a second by Mr madler uh any board comments roll call please yes yes yes yes all right thank you very much Item B is our political representation contract uh Mr Richards thank you Mr brayy tonight I'm happy to present the contract from Catalyst and uh Mr Tim Gay uh to be considered by the Board of Education um they serve a strong purpose for us down in Lincoln each uh legislative session and even outside of session for that matter um just a reminder you know our legislative priorities a year ago were funding for school safety uh property tax relief significant uh local control of curriculum matters uh and recruiting and retention
072of teachers and I think if you look at that unfortunately for Dr Siri we didn't do as well on the curriculum matters but uh the other three we seem to make a lot of progress on and uh I think and I think Catalyst had a lot to do with that I really do uh you know being one of the larger school districts in the state um he's able to get us in to see senators and and talk about some of these important issues um and we'll continue to advocate for those things uh we'll run those by the subcommittees again this year uh for what our legislative priorities are uh they tend to be in these particular areas uh for us um so but we'd love to have your feedback during that discussion as well as
073we get into December and January and Into the Heart of the legislative session so looking forward to that um price for services on this contract remain the same and they have for several years uh Mr Gay uh owns this company but he is a member of our community and believes in our school system um and wants to give us a very fair price for those Services uh some of the key duties they're listed on the contract within your packet um but you know setting up those meetings with with Senators uh throughout the year um keeping District up to dat on key bills is huge uh attend hearings uh take notes we get the notes and the minutes from those hearings even off session um Monitor and Report any key legislative activity uh so they're there
074every day through the evenings monitoring uh what's happening Happ down in Lincoln and they'll call us at 10:00 at night sometimes with information uh that we need to be aware of uh and then assist with testimony uh you know we've testified the last several years on some of these issues and we'll continue to do so and they they help us uh build that testimony um to be effective so with any questions I'd be happy to answer any of those sorry uh yeah I think one of the benefits I see from um Mr Gay in Catalyst public affairs is coming to multiple board member or multiple board meetings a year and providing updates on some of the bills and just even staying on top of all of them how many do you remember how many bills
075were introduced last session over 800 uh uh a lot of bills and it was good to get the updates uh on not just what what was introduced because you can you can kind of go through and uh and see those they get kind of slowly introduced but then all of the discussion on what what that bill will look like before it potentially gets to the floor what it the discussions are for each bill and the committee hearings or what amendments are potentially going to be proposed on a bill so that you can kind of get ahead of it understanding uh you know how some of those are being positioned before they get to a vote so then you know you guys can have those conversations ahead of time so I think it's it's uh um
076valuable to get that information uh for us I know Dr rle you and Brett you guys consume uh by far uh more of that information than I do uh or that the board does uh from Mr Gay so that's kind of where the benefit I see and so I I am uh supportive of the contract I just want to say I do appreciate that he has kept his fees as same as one of the things that you know that makes it nice and and uh so we do appreciate that uh for him like you like you mentioned he is also a Community member who cares very much about this community it's not just a someone coming in from out of state or what you know that isn't as familiar with you know what our community
077needs so it's nice that that we have that ability I will uh make the motion to approve Catalyst public affairs as a District's political representation at a yearly rate of $39,000 Plus expens from January 1 2024 through December 31st second all right thank you have a motion from Mr madler and a second from Mr Lotus any further discussion all right then roll call please yes whoops wrong yes yes yes yes we got to be careful we got we got a wit and a wood sound an awful lot alike now all right thank you all right the next is uh item C the interlocal agreements for the Granite Creek site Mr Richards yes thank you uh we bring these back tonight uh for action for the board uh these two interlocal agreements have to do with
078the maintenance and retention of the retention basement for uh Wastewater within the subdivision of our property uh at Granite Creek and then infrastructure costs for the sanitary improvement district uh within the development as well uh for a new elementary school that um you know we have hope to have up and running um by 2026 I believe it is fall of 2026 so we're getting ready and prepared for that particular time and the design of the building and and starting that build uh the next few years any comments questions nope I'll make a motion to accept the interlocal agreements as presented for the Granite Creek site second all right I have a motion by Mr Lotus and a second by Mr madler anything else any other questions right roll call please yes yes yes yes yes
079yes all right thank you very much I will now move into our uh discussion and information items uh the first one is going to be the superintendent evaluation uh that will stay with me um we do our uh yearly uh or annual review yearly review the of the superintendent's performance um it's accordance with our board policy and procedure um so usually in November uh we gather data from the board members we have a survey that goes out um I have the results here I will get those results out to all of uh the board as well to make sure you all have those but uh um the survey consists of uh 15 questions uh 14 of them um are actually 13 of them are dealing with um different items and if the Dr rickley meets
080um uh exceeds or does not meet expectations um I won't go through every single one of them but just to give you an idea um Dependable on reliable uh attendance um communicates effectively with board members competence in the performance of Duties these are some of the questions um that we have creates a vision and culture of Excellence for teaching learning professionalism Resource Management um and then question 14 um is if oh no I'm sorry I guess it's not question 14 I was thinking it's question 14 so there are 14 one the superintendent performance on goals um is the 14th one and then um we have 16 questions I apologize man I'm having issues tonight so 15 the 15 one is where we can give our board comments um based on his performance um so we
081all have the opportunity to write comments about it and then the 16th question which is the one I was confused on there I apologize is if we recommend Dr rickley for continued employment um when uh and I once I received this from everybody and obviously Miss Wood you did not um since you were not here for the last year you did not evaluate Dr directly so there are five five of us answered um the questions um Happ to say that the five of us felt that um Dr rickley either met or exceeded uh the expectations um that were set out for him on these different questions on all of the questions um so um appreciate that and uh very much and I should say that I have gone over this with Dr rickley we met
082before this meeting so um this is not a surprise to him he and I um spoke about this at length when we met um I guess it was last Tuesday um and um and then um as far as the board comments go they were very uh positive in general I think the one thing that um you know I won't call it a negative but I'll call it one of those that you and I talked about need to take maybe a little more time kind of you know step back from things and maybe relax every once in a while you know take a day off or something I think that was mentioned a couple of times but uh uh you do work very hard we do appreciate everything you do um and uh again very happy
083to to say that the five of us um recommended you for continued employment uh and so that is um like I said it was a very um U good uh evaluation review of your performance like I said and we talked about that um uh at length so can I answer any questions from the board or any discussion of the board I know again you all filled it out you all know what you commented but like I said I will get these out this out to you um hopefully tomorrow will be my plan so any questions on anything all right so I guess at this point we just need to make sure that we uh know that we reviewed um all the data and that the consensus regarding our super the superintendent's performance um and I
084think we have done that so without any further comments and I will move on to the next um Item B is rule 10 compliance Miss Siri yes so this is um our annual uh notification that as part of rule 10 which by state law are the governing um assurances that we meet for accreditation with the state of Nebraska um each year we are um required to fill out Assurance statements um and that has been completed and submitted to nde that happened um on November 1st um approximately um all of those assurances um together are the 12 sections that we have to meet in order to be recognized as an accredited Institution um so that our transcript u means something for our kids uh and basically there are several pieces that we do throughout the year
085that you are familiar with um that you may or may not realize are part of those assurances so for example when you pass the calendar um we have calculated the instructional minutes as well as the student seat time on that that is part of the requirements for rule 10 the Multicultural report and the instructional Staffing um report is also assurances that are part of that report so there are multiple pieces that we do throughout the year but that has been submitted um obviously as we have things that come up or things that um nde sends back uh we evaluate those as soon as we get those and we look um to fix those to assure that we stay in that accreditation mode uh for example right now HR is working on a situation we have
086with one staff member over certification um so we're constantly working through that but that's all been submitted for the this school year um and that is just notice of that is where we're are so all right thank you any questions or comments for Miss sir okay thank you very much all right we will uh move on to section five the future board calendar uh December 1st Lea's on lunch with Anderson Grove with Mr madler uh December 8th another leaz on Lo lunch sorry uh Lista South with Mr Lotus and that is at 12:30 yours is 11:45 Mr madler I'm sure you knew that and then finally December 11th uh will be our next Board of Education meeting uh at 6 o'clock it says central office but uh we're doing this one at um uh thank
087you Mr Bailey for catching uh my error that should read at pilion Lista South we are still finalizing um the room assignment I think it's likely that it will be at the flex space on the northeast side of the building um one because that's a big open space so that if we have um members of the community that would like to see that space we'll have plenty of space for them but also that is part of the 2018 Bond issuance and part of the goals uh the board's objectives in doing it at a building was to show off some of the expansion and renovation work so more details to follow but uh tentatively if we could shoot for December 11th Board of Education 6: p.m. at papilion Lista sou likely the flex space northeast side
088of the building will'll have people uh at the ready to help get you pointed in the right direction if you're not familiar with that space I just going to ask that question will there be signage and people available to guide people to where they need to go because if they're not real familiar with the building it's can be sometimes difficult to maneuver around absolutely yeah both we'll have people at the main entrance in case people go there as well as on the north side of the building uh with with both people and signage so we get people in the right spot so we'll absolutely make sure and do that Miss Fischer thank you for that all right thank you very much um that's it for our future board calendar um seeing no other business before
089this board I will adjourn this meeting at 7:07 p.m. thank you very much