PLCS Board of Education Special Meeting November 13, 2023

001all right good evening everyone uh welcome to the Pilon l community school board meeting uh Board of Education meeting excuse me for November 13 2023 I we'll start off the meeting with our pledge of Alle Allegiance please arise indice all right thank you very much roll call please here here here here here thank you very much all right uh please uh note the open meetings law that's posted at the entrance to the room and with that we will start off uh section two Communications with some recognition Dr rickley thank you very much Mr Bailey members of the board uh for our audience who is in attendance with us this evening thank you for being here and joining your board of education one of the things that we like to do uh at least at one

002board meeting per month is provide uh recognition for either staff or students who have brought recognition to the district their building or particular program kind of The Benchmark that we use is if it's some type of State uh or a national level recognition uh we'll celebrate all of them of course but before they come before the Board of Education we want them to be a state level honor and we do indeed have that with us this evening um before we uh call up uh this month's recipient just a little bit of background information uh this individual was recently named the elementary physical education teacher of the year by the state of Nebraska by the Nebraska Society for health and physical educator shape uh this individual is an outstanding teacher and an outstanding Leader by any

003measure there are a number of criteria that are specifically spelled out by the group that gives this award every year the criteria include uh the individual must prepare students for a lifetime of Physically Active habits the recipient must have a commitment to creating an inclusive learning environment that honors students of all levels of skill and ability the individual must measure attainment of curricular goals and determine gaps within learning and finally this individual should promote and ENC encourage inclusion support emotional development and open the door to creating lasting student and teacher relationships we are of course talking about the Nebraska the 2023 Nebraska Elementary physical teacher of the year our own Kyle McMahon please come down and be recognized by your Board of [Applause] Education [Applause] Kyle youve made the entire Quail nation very proud of

004you along with your school district so thank you for being here and congratulations on your accomplishment and with that Mr Bailey I'd conclude our recognition for the evening all right thank you very much uh next up Item B student Council from Pilon Lista South we have gii are you here hiding back there all right pick a seat any seat welcome GG hi Al righty thank you for having me tonight um unfortunately Cameron cannot be here because she has basketball tryouts so best of luck to her I'm sure she will do absolutely fantastic um but just to recap I am gig salic I'm a senior at Pilan Lista South and I am president of our student council um to start off with athletic events football finished 5 to four in the regular season um they were

005a state qualifier they did lose in the first round of state to elorn South it was a fun season with huge home crowds and fun theme nights in the black hole student section um cross country it was another strong season for both teams our boys were District Champs and finished third overall at State our girls qualified for State for the 16th straight year and were led by Caitlyn Schwarz who finished third overall in the state meet softball had a great season one season highlight was co-host hosting the nfca Katie Williams softball tournament at pilion Landing it included 24 teams from Nebraska Colorado Oklahoma and Missouri this was one of the biggest and best tournaments in the midwest um that's all for softball volleyball varsity volleyball had another amazing season with a final record of 35-2

006they were District Champs again but came up short of their goal after being upset in the first round of State Boys Tennis the team was chosen at the Metro conference for Team of the Year of sportsmanship and quality of play they finished 14th at the state tournament girls golf the team had a strong season they again qualified for state and finished ninth overall we were honored to accept the class A 2023 State volleyball sportsmanship award this award celebrates our team student section band and cheerleaders we had eight students signed National letters of intent on Wednesday to go participate in college athletics and winter sports kicked off starting today and we are excited for what lies ahead for these teams for activities um um activities and clubs are in full swing a few of the highlights

007to share the PLS dance team has begun competition season and for the first time ever we are hosting a regional competition on Sunday December 3rd our drama department just finished a production of Tuck Everlasting they will now take the show into state competition for play production so they are headed to Carney to do a one act and then they will perform at the Holland Center the entire show PLS band and color guard had another amazing season they got the runner-up trophy at state with the color guard receiving best guard in the competition Deca had 24 students placed in the top eight and nine of those placed in the top three at the DECA fall invite and PLS choir and band members are headed to Lincoln on Thursday to participate in Nebraska All State and are

008set to perform with other students from across the state on Saturday for events our ninth grade teams and Roc unit recently hosted an amazing Veterans Day celebration we were able to honor our staff that have served our great nation while recognizing all of the families in our community that have a connection to the military service we recently inducted 70 new members to our school's National Honor Society we thank chief Master Sergeant Melissa Royster for doing an outstanding job as our guest speaker student council hosted a me and my guy dance yesterday this was a new event for the student council and we were glad to Welcome Elementary students to our gym for a fun evening with their Dads grandpas uncles so on and so forth and that is all I have to report tonight um

009so thank you again to Dr rickley the superintendent cabinet in our school board for your leadership we appreciate all the support support that you give us for the students and the staff do we have any questions no questions busy fall and looking forward to seeing what the winter holds so yes very busy so thank you very much for coming thank you all right next up on our agenda is a public comment for items not on the agenda um please remember when I call you up um come on up to that Center microphone there um please state your name and address if you don't want to State your full address please state the city uh that you are uh from uh you will have a three minutes to speak Miss brinko will have the timer two

010minutes and 15 seconds that'll be the first beep and then three minutes um I think that's everything there so our first speaker is Mr Daryl lechner hello again everybody I remember you all well my name is darl lechner Jr and I'm a Lista Lista resident and I have two daughters to go to schools here uh first off I want to thank you again for having having us all here and giving us this opportunity to speak uh I wish to cover a few many of you are aware that I'm part of a research group that follows and does resech research across the country um the more we research the more and seriously we're alarmed um there are many wars obviously are going across our country many people do not realize that the BLM movement actually is

011tied to what is happening currently uh we actually found direct connection from their own statements from the these this group and organization through multiple sources across multiple cities and states and this is with the Palestine organization their their movement they don't exactly call it that but they have direct ties to that and that is why we are seeing so many protests and everything being pushed across the United States this again is a Marxist and a communist organization they have communist card carriers and they are everywhere we uh just two days ago we followed back and went back one year to uh a woman's socialist conference which was quite surprising we were thinking maybe more uh more towards a move uh feminist side of it which would have been more acceptable to us but we keep

012getting shocked and alarmed uh this one was was held in Atlantic Georgia uh one year and one day ago uh this was the most alarming and scary thing this was full of Educators professors and teachers across their state many other teachers came from out of state and they had speakers this organization is bent on the destruction of our United States this is all I can say this is real there's Wars going on and these are being funded by extremist groups and from outside the United States this we have verified if you do not realize it's here it is here I verified three professors out of the Uno directly who are tied to this organization if you hear the words Dei or social behavior learning many of this is tied with the these organizations they move

013people within these groups and they they influence teachers and they've been teaching this goes back 70 plus years this is not oh my God they're here this is all new they've been working within our institutions the uh APA uh American uh psych psychologist Association has deep ties with this also the more we research the the scarier this is most of our group members have been over two years we consist of gay lesbian transgender individuals Buddhists we we are not just one one group we're very diverse and we're researching and many of our gay people are very scared too they call it horon homonormativity they're attacking any and everybody if you do not agree with with them it's a very Collective very strong and very well organized organization and this is part of the reason why

014we lost one of our Schoolboard members currently I suggest you wake up and protect our kids because it's here now and in our state and in our city thank you all right next up uh Mr Ralph Tate good evening my name is Ralph Tate and I live in Pilon recently the Pilon Lista School District determined that the book all boys aren't blue was acceptable to remain in the Pilon Lista South High School this was done by following your policy guidance you had a panel review it the superintendent reviewed it and then the school board voted on it this was as complete an endorsement of the book as this school district could possibly make except for one School Board member who voted against it the reason I bring this to your attention is that the district

015is not acting in accordance with its own determination on March 27th when a parent read excerpts from the book the decision was made to keep the book in the library available to all children until the review process was complete which didn't happen until July 10th and yet when the video recording of the March 27th meeting was released that portion of the meeting was deleted with the comment due to the nature of its content this public comment has been omitted if the excerpts of the book are unacceptable in a public reading why was that not removed from public viewing while the book itself remained on the Shelf why not keep the video video recording available just as you did with the book itself until the book review process had been completed and now that you've made

016your determination why has the deleted portion not been restored are you now ashamed to let people and the public hear what you think is acceptable material for children excerpts from this specific book have recently been read by US senators and recorded in their public heans on YouTube videos as they investigated the issue of pornography in public schools they clearly thought this book was pornographic and yet the video was posted on YouTube while you determined that the book was not pornographic but determined that such comments were not appropriate to be released to the public I'm a little confused by removing the video recording of the book epars you are explicitly acknowledging that the book should not be read publicly because of its content you have in fact negated your own endorsement of the book and have

017admitted it's not suitable for public release how is it that if it is not suitable for public release you have now determined it is acceptable for children under the age of majority to have access to such a book your own actions speak in opposition to your determination someone made the comment that ideas have consequences and bad ideas have victims the people who are being victimized by this decision on the part of the school board are the very ones you are tasked with taking care of the children it appears to me that you could do a better job of that thank you yep that's it for uh public comments for items not on the agenda so moving on to item d uh Dr rley superintendent's report thank you very much Mr Bailey members of the board

018and again welcome to those audience members who are with us tonight as well as those who are watching at home via YouTube we appreciate your commitment to engaging with your board of education uh we have two important celebrations this week one from last week first is we are celebrating American Education week this is not a local celebration this is not a Statewide celebration this is a national celebration which uh basically singles out our schools and the work that's being done every single day in them to support our families and to support our students uh if you're paying attention at all this happens annually it's always the week before Thanksgiving and and it also happens the same week where we do our our state school boards convention week so for all of our teachers our Paras

019our early childhood Specialists our drivers our custodians all of those people that work every day to provide the best possible services to our kids to our families to our community thank you for the work that you do our country would be in much poorer shape without your efforts uh also want to take a moment to thank uh our service men and women uh we weren't in session on Veterans Day uh celebrated on Saturday of course but wanted to thank uh all of our nation's men and women that have worn our nation's uniform including the gentleman to my left uh former 05 in the US Air Force our own Colonel skip Bailey thank you for your service Colonel Bailey uh we serve 9% of our student population uh which identifies as military dependents we know that

020the military is vitally important to this community and we wouldn't have this great country of ours without their service so heartfelt thank you for all of you that currently or have worn our nation's uniform along those lines Mr Bailey and I and M Whit among others were able to attend a few Veterans Day programs they're very common across this District uh in fact because there's so much overlap between and among our elementaries it's impossible to hit all of them but uh we hit Hickory Hill on Friday morning it was outstanding uh and then I hot tailed it over to Anderson Grove uh where they were doing a celebration and and also recognizing Anderson Grove Elementary as our second purple star school the first of course is Pilan L Vista South High School uh basically there's

021a number of criteria this is a national program in recognition of efforts that that community and that that staff has done to be military friendly specifically in embracing military dependents and their families uh so really proud of the work that pilion Lista South has done to become a purple star designated School very very proud to welcome Anderson Grove into that very elite family we're going to continue to look at other schools that have high military dependence in their student enrollment and hopefully we can add more schools to the roles uh also wanted to congratulate uh several of our Sports and activities this last fall as winter sports gear up both our football teams made playoffs they made early exits in the first round but awfully proud of the way they comported themselves uh volleyball uh

022we had a number of Administrators and board members around the table that were at that opening Monarch Titan there weren't a lot of balls hitting the floor and I think a lot of us probably have a few extra gray hairs watching that unfold but it was just the level of volleyball was incredible the Vol the amount of fan support was incredible uh in fact we found out Pilan Lista South student body was recognized with the sportsmanship award by the NSAA it's a little bit rare for a school to to only have the one south of course exited after one round when they were beaten by Monarch and four usually you had go two games deep into attorney if not three before student body is represented so to to only be represented in one game and

023have the student body make that much of an impression in one match says very highly about uh the teams at South and their students that follow but congratulations to all of our high schools all of our activities band has had some outstanding honors we're going to be uh doing some All State Choir I believe at a future meeting uh also wanted to remind the board and Community as I mentioned earlier that the state school boards conferences this week that that is an annual conference put on by the Nebraska Association of school boards it's an outstanding opportunity to hear from nationally recognized speakers breakout sessions do some professional networking and uh collaborate with other board members from across the state also wanted to remind the community that we have our last Community closet event coming up

024of this semester on December 2nd from 10:00 a.m. to 12: uh for those of you that are not uh informed the plcs community closet is an Endeavor where we have partnered with with Cavalry Shadow Lake to provide clothing and basic hygiene items to some of our most vulnerable families we are doing outstanding work and we are making a difference in our fam's lives last two things for the board members uh one just wanted to remind the board that Miss barano will be sending uh the superintendent's evaluation survey on November 14th I believe that's tomorrow so that'll come via email so our community is aware I am evaluated independently by board members before they collectively pull those comments together and then those are discussed public publicly and last but by no means least we've been promising

025this for months now and we're just now getting around to it uh the board had requested that we try to schedule future board meetings regular board meetings at our schools specifically schools that have been touched by recent Bond work thanks to the generosity of our taxpayers and our community members so we are tentatively tentatively planning on December 11th at pilion lav Vista South High School more details will come uh gives you about a month to uh uh to plan we'll get you the particulars on the specific room assignment as we firm that up but for our community members we want you there we need you there we do like to mix things up a little bit and for some of you you probably haven't been in our schools in a while this will be a

026good opportunity not only to see our schools but to see your tax dollars at work so U more details to come but December 11th 6: PM regular board meeting in Le of this location will be at P Lista South High School at a room to be determined and with that Mr Bailey I would conclude my superintendent's report all right thank you very much right next up board reports de on October 31st I attended the liaz on lunch at Lista Middle School we talked about um future Facebook live topics that might be important for the teachers to hear um they have started Unified sports I believe and girls wrestling which they said had overwhelming participation they thought get 8 to 10 and they had over 40 is that what they said wow yeah um what I

027was most appreciative was the incredible gratitude from the staff for the principal um inclusive leadership using data for decision- making and uh just the general culture of the school was very heartwarming and just before we got finished my grandson showed up and said hi to everybody which was a great surprise um on November 11th we I attended the access your future open house for eighth graders to learn about stem and media and all the different programs that they have available to kids it was incredibly well attended there were a lot of people there and my grandson's hoping to apply for one of those acmis and lastly was the Veterans Day assembly it was a heartwarming it was beautiful it was uh inspirational the the third grade song Sacrifice made had me in tears almost at

028the end and um the slideshow of all the different family members went on and on and on and on it was does again very heartwarming and inspiring over hiring by the way for plcs Paris Etc uh I also had a liaison lunch on November 1st I Believe been long couple of weeks so um at uh Liberty Middle School with the young adult transition program yatp uh moved moved into the new Wing uh at Liberty so um we had a great discussion on a lot of new a lot of different topics but really on how they were you know adjusting and just some some instant feedback after the first couple of months in that in that building so it was a great conversation it's a fantastic program uh it's definitely that space is they're still getting

029used to it but it it is allowing them to provide uh a little bit better learning environment than the prior location that wasn't really set up for the the growing program that it that it is so uh got some ideas and feedback on what they would like to see in their new building as we start getting into the design phase of the yatp building that will be built uh at Liberty so a great uh great conversation and unfortunately I didn't embarrass my daughter so I let seventh grade lunch came as I was exiting the building side and get a chance to to give her a little tease in front of her friends but uh fantastic program uh definitely check it out they they they're glad even their support staff having their own space in their

030room and more storage uh it's just really allowing them to to grow and that's it's a growing program so it's it's pretty exciting to see so I'll finish up I know you've touched on I think everybody's touched on number of these but the State volleyball was amazing you're right it was it was hard to sit there and just watch back and forth and on the edge of my seat I think the entire time um as we sat and watched that match and uh of note uh John Cook sat down there for a while we're not we were debating up there my wife and I who he was watching but it was pretty amazing uh to that he came down there like I said I'm sure it didn't go unnoticed on either one of the the

031benches down there that he was there um I did also did a Lea on lunch at trummel Park um it was it was uh very good to see them um great food and good conversation uh it's interesting they're on the beginning phase of getting ready to have a lot of construction done done and so there a lot of the talk was how's this going to work what's it going to look like what how is it going to affect the teachers and the students and when and when is that construction going to go on I know um you had mentioned you know possibly how we could make this work and and you know maybe try to pull in some Portables to move classes out as classrooms were being done and then move classrooms around um I

032know that my wife works at Carriage Hill when they went through theirs I know she moved classrooms a couple times and it's definitely uh difficult and I tried to reassure them that yes it's hard to see you know it'll be difficult as classrooms move around and move kids around but that what you get at the end is something amazing uh when all the construction's done so again very good uh conversation to talk to him about that among other things uh that we discussed um and I was also like we mentioned at that Veterans Day par or ceremony the amazing thing to me I mean the number of slides that were up showing everybody's grandparents and cousins and everybody else that served went forever and right be was was it before that or was it after

033that that that she asked all students that had somebody in their family that was associated with the military to stand up and who knows if they but it seemed like like three qus of the students stood up so you just kind of went oh wow okay so um but it was it was a neat ceremony to attend um and have a couple guest speakers come up that were parents and speak um so it was great to go see I enjoyed it all right any other board comments all right all right fantastic well we will keep moving along here uh item F under Communications committee reports uh first up buildings grounds and finance yes we did meet a couple of times uh since the last meeting uh we met on November 3rd uh primarily to um

034we had a long agenda but we didn't get very far uh through it uh discussing the board vacancy process uh as well as then uh we reconvened uh before the special meeting on November 6 um the audits on the agenda this evening uh we talked about some potential Partnerships uh with Community Partners for some opportunities that out there um there's some other land that might become available for district uh use that's potentially part of our strategic plan uh so uh just was made aware of that um working on the interlocal agreements with finalizing those with the Granite Creek development or the new Elementary kind of standard protocols there working on that um we did discuss potentially of using Portables uh at at different schools if it was able to speed up the timeline of the

035process and not be as uh disruptive so we're definitely evaluating those and um the media center project that we obviously rejected the the the bid that was outside of our original plan budget uh so we're uh working with uh our Construction uh advisers to kind of see okay where did it come in differently than we thought and what would be you know real a real expectation uh to then get it back out for bid and and hopefully get that project going so not getting it done as fast as we we we hoped but uh obviously we've got to do our due diligence and make sure that uh we're getting proper bids for our tax dollars and that was it list thanks all right next up human resources and student services uh nothing we haven't met

036thank you and finally curriculum in americ is uh the only meeting that we had was a short meeting prior to the meeting on the our special meeting on the six just to talk about the process um of that so other than that we do not we've not had a meeting but we'll be scheduling one here in the future all right thank you very much all right next up uh action items section three uh letter a uh action by consent I'll make a motion to approve the action by consent as presented second all right I had a motion by Miss Fisher and a second by Mr Lotus any comments all right roll call please M binko yes yes yes yes yes thank you very much Item B under action items is the 20242 school calendar Dr

037settles thank you very much yes you will see that in front of you with no changes from the last time that I presented this to you um so upon your approval you would find that our start date the first day of school um for the 2425 school year would be on the 13th of August um with a half day for several of our students and everyone starting up full-time on the 14th um you will find that the last day of school is on May 22nd um the calendar includes 173 student days for elementary and 175 student days for our secondary students for staff we show on this 187 days um there are an additional 3 days not shown that are for parent teacher conference time um that includes both the time spending conferences and some

038planning time for those each semester um the last I'm sorry the spring break is planned for March 10th through 14th of um I would recommend that once this is published um people do take a look or bookmark the calendar as the colors sometimes do help as well and I know that those that are here in the audience are probably viewing that right now as a um um black and white version but we'll definitely get that posted and um shared through newsletters and such uh pending approval here point of clarification is it I show the last day the half day on the 23rd is that correct oh I'm so sorry yes you are correct May 23rd the Friday just wanted to make sure that was clear on that one okay thank you I agree with the

039color when we got our packet I thought how beautiful that that was so yeah get the color version it's great um I'll make a motion to accept the 20242 school calendar second all right a motion by Miss wit and a second by miss fiser any comments all right roll call please yes yes yes yes yes thank you very much all right um item C under the action items is the audit for 2022 and 23 Mr Richards thank you Mr Bailey and good evening Board of Education members um I'm proud to present our audit report for 2022 23 uh school year odonnell fenek wills and fet served as the district independent Auditors this year um auditing the district's Financial funds from fiscal year September 1st of 20 22 through August 31st of 2023 um just so

040you're aware the school district AIT consists of testing our internal control procedures um by pulling a lot of our transactions throughout the year in various areas um testing our compliance the state federal and local policies and then the Auditors reviewing and assisting and developing the district's Financial reports as well uh to the Nebraska state auditor and the Nebraska Department of Education for the fiscal year um I'm happy to report the Auditors had no findings this year in in the report uh in all those areas that were reviewed um the audit report will be ma made available on our District's website by tomorrow afternoon and as a member of the public if you're trying to access that you can find that at plcs schools.org uh then you click on about us and then budget info just

041quick highlights on the general fund side um it was a little abnormal this year uh or this past year we spent 142 m661 uh revenues were 138 m235 th6 um that might sound that might make uh your business manager have a heart attack in normal years uh but as we know we were uh working to bring down that cash Reserve by giving our staff stiens uh during the year last year so this was a plan draw down of our cash Reserve um where our District's expenditures would exceed our district revenues this year due to stiens and it almost happened exactly the way we hoped it would it take our cash Reserve back down to that 20% um where we want to hover around um I would like to thank the buildings grounds Finance subcommittee of

042the board and their due diligence this past year reviewing our finances monthly um our District staff especially Director of Business Services Terry stab uh for her hard work and our staff's hard work and our department to stay diligent uh within our department and make sure we do things uh the right way um with that I would um propose any questions or entertain any questions or comments at this time um well I just want to say that it's always gratifying to see when there's no findings that are negative um and I appreciate that the recommendations that we come across each year are addressed and so that we don't see them again so uh great job in your department and everybody involved in making sure that we are following the correct action taking the right action and

043allowing us to get to the audit it successfully so thank you for all the work that's done for that thank you yeah now big thanks to your business team um as a former auditor and now somebody that gets audited uh multiple times a year uh I know how how much effort uh it goes into uh pulling all the the required information answering all the questions having them on site not you know taking care of them and doing your day job at the same time uh and and there's been nothing but but increased uh testing and emphasis on multiple areas uh with all audits so they they definitely uh are a little more strenuous than they you know they were even a decade ago so much appreciated to to be able to read through the audit

044report and have no findings and um you know know that our our fiscal responsibility as a board uh you guys are executing what what our expectations are so really appreciate that yeah thank you very much I do appreciate it um all your hard work all your team's hard work on this absolutely I don't get audited but I've had plenty of inspections over the last like couple weeks so I get it so I appreciate it it's always good to come back with a positive report so any further comments all right can I get a motion please yep I'll make a motion to acknowledge receipt of the audit report for the fiscal year 2022 second all right a motion by Mr Lotus and a second by Mr madler roll call please yes yes yes yes yes all

045right thank you very much all right uh we'll move on to section four discussion information items excuse me mercy um item the only item here item a the interlocal agreements for the Granite Creek site Mr Richards back to you yes thank you again uh the district has two interlocal agreements before the board to review tonight uh both are to enter into agreements with the sanitary Improvement District number 368 of sarie County which is the Granite Creek subdivision if you remember the board approved the land purchase on that back in 20 2022 uh The First interlocal Agreement has to do with the retention basement that will be located on the school district land um the developers will be constructing that Basin and then once it's complete the school district takes over maintenance of it that's pretty

046typical of what we see uh when we have a new development and a new school going into into that area uh as you saw with prie queen and Ashbury very similar arrangement to those two schools um the second interlocal agreement has to do with providing services and Facilities within the subdivision that would are required for the school district to eventually build an elementary school within that subdivision um if you think of it just like when you buy a home um that home within that new subdivision uh has these costs by homeowners that have to be paid by for infr infrastructure improvements uh such as sanitary sewer Paving of Frontage um Capital facilities electrical services and general condition costs as your a homeowner you typically uh pay that over about a 20-year period um you have

047interest recruit and everything else typically as school district we pay those costs as we're getting ready to uh move forward and they're getting ready to move forward with their in infrastructure as well um it's based on a percentage of the amount of property you own within that subdivision the amounts determined the district owes for special assessments is $452,900 for a total of $1,231 N35 um both of these agreements um are have been reviewed uh by our Engineers who lamper nerson typically reviews those costs with us as well as our legal counsel uh who deals with many school districts in the same boat as us and making sure that those uh fees stay pretty standard throughout all school districts in the Metro area um with that if you have any questions I would be happy to

048entertain those right now uh thanks Mr Richards and uh where do the funds come from to pay this uh this actually funds are set aside for these in the bond so this is a bond 2018 it's been earmarked for this for several years uh to come about here uh as we get ready to build the school and how does it compare to what we were planning on um for casting for yes it's it's I think I had 1.3 earmarked for this uh for those fees and it came in just under that gotcha thanks any other questions all right thank you very much thank you all right um now we're going to move into uh section five which is our board education selection to fill our board uh vacancy as you remember from last week um

049we took 71 candidates and uh picked our top five we have all five of those folks sitting here in the crowd so what we're going to have them do is we're going to have have you five come up um I guess we'll just go from our left to right um in order that we had them we that we drew your names I think it'll be uh Dr tofoa and then Miss Butler uh Miss Wood Mr bamer I hope I saying that right is it bamer is that sound right he's not paying attention bamer okay good and Mr Lang so put you in 1 2 3 4 five everybody get some water yeah it's probably a good thing right all right um welcome first of all happy to see all five of you congratulations um being

050the five here uh what we're going to do is well as you may or may not know we're going to give each of the five of you up to five minutes to tell us about yourselves tell us why you think you should be on school board um we will have the timer gone um so you will hear that beep at about what 4 minutes and 15 seconds is or something like that so like I said if you don't want to speak all five minutes that's fine as well but you have up to 5 minutes to speak um and then we'll go like I said from my left to right here in that order and then once we are done with that then we have questions as board members that we will ask you we've got

051a way we're going to do it we'll make sure that we let you know who we're going to ask questions to first um and every uh all that good stuff U the one thing I have been asked and I did remember Annette Believe It or Not There are two microph ph's up there um obviously you can hear that we've got ours on I would ask that when you speak make sure you have the microphone in front of you and make sure it's turned on that little button in front of it will turn everything will turn that green um that way if you don't we might still be able to hear you folks in back may not and then we have the camera and everything Folks at home we want to make sure they can hear

052you as well so want to make sure that you have that turned on um and then uh once we finish uh with the um five minutes and then the questions um then we will um debate and make our decision after that have I missed anything okay well that's the case then Dr Tafoya um you are first up Sir welcome andk thank you I have a vested interest ining list excuse me I also have a cold I have a vested interest in propelling listic Community Schools not only my attack taxpayer but I'm also a parent of two children who graduated Mar at marar also I have two uh six grandchildren four of already graduated as Titans our children are our most important asset and our country's future will hinge on their success public education becomes Paramount

053in their achievements so it is incumbent for us to give them a world class opportunity for Education their academic health is a critical necessity but physical and mental health are equal importance to ensure that this is achieved the educational environment must be free of discrimination bulling and criticism their individual rights must be preserved education and experience are very important for a member of the Board of Education with 44 years as a small business owner of a dental practice I have experien dealing with the public sector and knowledge of being pH physically responsible during that time I have volunteered for many Civic organizations and service groups within the community I also served 20 years as a member of the pilion lesta school board in 2006 I was a recipient of the third annual an mctier award

054as a best School Board member of the year in Nebraska in 20 years on the board the pilion Lista area has more than doubled in size I'm proud to have been an instrumental part in helping the district grow from one high school to two two middle schools to three 8 mil elementary schools of 16 plus the ideal school and the addition of the academy programs the pandemic presented discussions of ethic ethic proportions the need to provide inperson education was a critical Factor as I look back on those two years I am impressed with the results we obtained last year we were successful in passing the largest bond issue ever by 66% this Bond will improve Safety and Security throughout the district and update our older facilities future growth is a growing necessity I know that

055the responsibility of the board is supervisory the board oversees the budget policies and activities of the superintendent the superintendent and administration and staff oversee the operations of the district the role of the board member is to supervise and not to micromanage I'm knowledgeable of the policies to protect the students staff and the diversity within our district the policies are the backbone of the district and without the policies it would create chaos last spring was the sixth time that I made a commitment to be on the propan listic community school board in the primary I finished second for one of the three positions available in November the top four of the six candidates receiv received most of the votes and I finished fourth in a hotly contested race since the other three were seated that makes

056me the top vote getter of the November 2022 election as I have said before I have 20 years of service of those 20 years eight were as president four as vice president one as secretary three as Treasurer and the last four as aort member I have the leadership and experience to make a positive contribution to the board if you are looking for a new member to be a calming Force respectful professional have integrity as well as a person who will be objective in his decisions listen to other board member members of the board teachers and patrons then I am your person I believe in public education I know the district I have the knowledge education and experience to do the job in a professional and rational manner of the 72 candidates that applied for this

057vacancy on the board I am the only one that has been elected and served as a school board member what do I bring to the board I bring experience passion for education and knowledge to help you get you to move this great School District forward thank you for your consideration of me and thank you for the service that you provide for the student staff in the district all right thank you very much I have a comment can I comment can I pass them out I'm sorry what did I printed out my comments for all of you no just go ahead and go ahead yep I just want you to speak because we don't just going to leave it just like uh we normally do at a board meeting so we don't pass anything out so

058okay that's fine I appreciate it though yep want to make sure that Miss Branco is ready and then uh all right you are turned off so go ahead and turn yours back on and my life there you go you're good go ahead thank you hi I'm Elizabeth Butler I'll start with providing some background information on me I have lived in pilion for over 14 years with my husband Jim we met at Pilon days I'm a mom to two boys Charlie who's in third grade and Wesley who is in second grade at Ashbury Elementary I have a bachelor's degree in in political science from kraton University and a master's degree in public administration from Drake University my entire career has been dedicated to Public Service I was appointed Ed as a Pilan City Clerk in 2009

059and served in that role until 2017 when I accepted the city clerk position in Omaha throughout my career I have been a community partner working with businesses and residents to make this area a great place to live I'm committed to community I'm a firm believer that what makes a community great is people volunteering their talents it is that mindset that led me to get involved in numerous organizations in the area I'm a graduate of leadership sarie co-chaired the 2013 shiaka event was a teammates Mentor at both high schools I assisted the Pilan historical downtown Business Association navigate state liquor laws for their now sold out Sip and walks I was on the Pilon Historical Society board where I volunteered for years at the Winter Wonderland event by coordinating Santa's arrival at his very popular spot

060at the portal Schoolhouse one year I helped plan the LV Vista New Year's Eve Gala volunteered at and participated in numerous pilion race series events member of St Clum Kil church and currently serve as a secretary on the executive proboard now that both of my boys are in school I'm an even more engaged parent I want to be involved in an important part of their day as a mother that is one of the reasons I ran for this school board in 2022 I believe strongly in investing in education to better serve the community I want to use my sensibilities as a mother of two school age boys my government knowledge and Community relationships to ensure that all kids receive an excellent education and experience and truly be known for greatness so why pick me I'm

061a professionally I'm a professional policy maker my Master's Degree focused on public policy I'm constantly analyzing other government entities agendas and policies to see what works and doesn't on a larger scale last year the Omaha voters passed my suggested changes to the Omaha Charter that revised the petition notification process for my office ultimately benefiting the taxpayers in 2021 I got a state law pass to modernize the notification process for the Board of Equalization this law impacts all government entities throughout the state during the public hearing state senators referred to this bill as good government law it was passed unanimously beyond that for the past 14 years as a city clerk I have advocated for transparency and streamlining process I embody transparency and efficiency I have successfully implemented an online public records request system cutting the

062response time by 75% made all Omaha city council public documents available online and searchable created an electronic voting system that meets the requirements of the open meetings act and implemented a method for the public to remotely participate in Council meetings I am a lifetime learner I have taken every opportunity to continue to learn about best practices in government taken numerous training classes on the open meetings act I'm a go-to person for advice on running meetings parliamentarian procedure and policy I'm a proven leader I'm the current president of the Nebraska municipal clerk Association past president of the Omaha unit of parliamentarians and a graduate of the international city manager association emerging leader program one of the promises during my 2022 campaign was to keep the tax levy low as a steward of public funds I carefully

063budget for projects while curbing unnecessary spending since taking my role in Omaha I have cut my Department's budget of nearly $1 million by 5% and continually have money left over each fiscal year in fact this year I'm returning nearly $30,000 to the general fund so what do I hope to accomplish if selected I will work with the board and administration to continue to build a school district that is attractive to families students and teachers to provide opportunities and programs that serve this community specifically I want to expand early childhood education hire more Mental Health Counselors and behavior Specialists I will also work to protect teachers plan Time by picking me you will get a board member that will keep the momentum going a strong leader that is committed to this community that is an Engaged

064parent and a professional policy maker who will work with you to achieve the goals of this District thank you thank you very much are you ready to go all right you have a microphone I think I have it on I think you do all right hi I'm Lisa wood thank you first of all for giving me this opportunity this evening I wanted to start out just by giving you some information about my professional career currently I've entered the stage of my life where I'm retired it's great let me tell you but um prior to that I spent 38 years as a professional educator the first 14 years of my career were spent in the classroom in central Nebraska I spent four years as a kindergarten teacher and 10 years as a first grade teacher for

065Loop City Public Schools and St Paul Public Schools following that I moved into the administrative position and was the building principal at St Paul Elementary School for the next eight years then in 2005 my family and I made the decision to move to Pilon Lista Community Schools and I became the principal at Lista West Elementary and I must be very sincere and tell you that's a very special part of my career that I'll always treasure I was at Lista West Elementary for 12 years and then at the end of my career the last four years I spent at the central office where I was administrator of federal program and in that role um I prepared the title one grants and made sure that those uh grants were followed um as identified by uh the guidelines

066of title and I also um oversaw the English learner program um K K12 through in the district um two other growth experiences that I think were important when I was in the district um I was the principal for the summer school program the elementary school summer school program for 16 years and in the final year um in the district I was one of the principles for the remote learning program during coid where we um served several hundred students remotely along with a staff of about 60 teachers that really made things work besides my professional career um I've also had the perspective of being a parent in the Pilon listic Community District um my youngest son uh enrolled at Pilon Lista South when we moved to town as a freshman and graduated from that school School

067my daughter is currently a teacher in the Early Childhood Program in the district and does some of the very important work with the youngest Learners we have and I have two grandchildren in the district uh that attend one of our elementary schools here and so my perspective um is Broad and and I have the ability to um look at it for my professional as well as my personal lens I think that it's really important um and I heard I think it was Mr madler talk at the last board meeting about how there are so many different community service opportunities to pursue and he encouraged those 71 people that applied to look at some of those and as I've moved into retirement I have found that I wanted to be very um focused and intentional as

068I chose the ways that I wanted to spend my service opportunities um I I've committed to giving myself a year because there's so many good things out there you could find multiple things to do each and every day but I think it's really important to have that good fit um I have been able to find uh a few opportunities uh that are of value to me and ways that I can serve uh through my church um I feel um food uh security is very important to me so I've been able to commit to some food bank opportunities as well as meeting the needs of some of the other community members that we have in need when I saw the opportunity to participate or be a part of this opportunity as a board member again I

069looked at my skills and talents and felt that from my experience U my knowledge that I have as a professional educator but even maybe more importantly the passion that I bring I dedicated 38 years of my life and my career because I believe in teaching and learning I believe that every child that walks into our school should have the opportunity every teacher should be empowered to do their best and I would continue that commitment as a member of the Board of Education to be a member of your team and continue the good work that you've done up to this point I'd like to also take a minute just to commend the four other people at the table with me that are willing to give their time and commit to being a member of the board

070and and that service I think it's very um commendable that both Fred and Elizabeth ran in the past election which again shows their dedication but again when I think about it it doesn't really surprise me because over the years I've always seen people step up in filian L disted schools the school district is important to the community and they follow through with that so again thank you very much for this opportunity all right thank you very much we'll give Miss Branco a second here make sure the timer is all set up and then I'll let you go you ready to go got the microphone turned on all right perfect thank you Mr Bailey um i' like to first off uh go by saying man I'm I'm super nervous for tonight I'll tell you and and

071uh I just want to say very uh honored to be up here with the rest of this panel I know this is probably a really difficult decision for you guys and uh you know we all really want to serve the community members uh in this District uh I'd like to first off really kind of focus in on my family uh married my wife Christina super supportive I I tell you she definitely helped me pick out U my clo for tonight so that was nice of her so I'm sure she's watching right now and so that recognition is good so uh we raise our three boys together here in the Pilan Lista School District uh three boys are that are very unique and different and it's just super exciting to watch them grow in this this

072community and go to sports sporting events and and go to school events as well and be a part of PTO and other things uh for for my kids and it's it's really important to note that because decisions that are made on this board directly impact them so decisions that I would make would directly impact them and also for my 2-year-old so decisions that I make uh today or or a year from now are definitely going to affect him later on so it's important to note that it's important to note that I've lived my entire life in this community um my first school that I ever went to was Lista West Elementary years ago and and uh my father you know he grew up here and and went to uh Pilan monarchs and I think it's

073important to note that that my family is embedded here I'm embedded here and I'm committed to a life here you know my wife and I chose this community to grow our children and and we're not going anywhere uh they're all young and and yeah we're not we're not going anywhere our family is here our friends are here and it's just just a super great place to be and and and we really appreciate what the board's done and and what community members have done to make it a great life for them as well um touching on like community service uh especially I'm part of a the Pilon Optimus club I'm a member there to where we uh collect funding and and look into different opportunities and and organizations to help and directly impact this Pilan Lisa

074school district and provide grants and scholarships to to kids in your school district so that's really great to be a part of that organization and most notably as a board member of the Pilan Community Foundation to where I've been since 2019 and uh it's important to note that because I am a board member just like yourselves I I go to board meetings on a regular basis and committee meetings and in part of something greater than myself something to where we're uh looking for the betterment of this community and making decisions that don't just affect uh you know people around us but just directly impacting our community itself and and we're notably mentioned with Pilon days and winter wonderland where we put those on every year and we do so much more to where we're able

075to collect funds and and look into different nonprofits to also assist and grants and scholarships again to your your your students to your kids in your school district and so we definitely help them out each and every year so it's great to be a part of that um and and to my main I guess what takes up majority of my time in my career is is as a police officer uh being a Pilon police officer here in the city of Pilon for the last 7 years various roles to include as a ro patrol officer and school resource officer and now deare officer uh as a road patrol officer the main commitment there is the protection of our citizens uh across the community and also our schools and it's important to note that and going into

076as an SRO as a school resource officer because I've spent a majority of my time up at Pilan liista high school as a school resource officer for three years and then now a DARE officer to where I'm in your schools talking to your teachers talking to your students talking about the impact that decisions that are made in this room impact them on a daily basis I think it's important to note all that because this board has a unique opportunity to really focus on a decision to where you could make a decision to have somebody that's uh in your schools also a father uh here in feedback across the community and toward my number one priority is the safety of my kids but also the safety of this community the safety of your staff safety of

077your students and its facilities I was directly involved on critical inance and threat assessments from across the district for years and I'd like to continue to do that uh even if not selected tonight I think again this board has a unique opportunity to bring a public servant uh on the board and then also if not selected tonight I can assure you that I will continue to uh be an advocate for for this community and protect this community and also be a great role model and resource uh for your staff and students thank you thank you very much your wife did a good job picking it out too by the way so sorry just had to give you a hard time all right yes oh all right I've got it we got we got a couple

078of them that got it so one way or another you're going to hear about it if you go over five but it seems like that's okay that happens that happens all right so then uh my other timers are you all ready all right good evening I'd like to take a moment to thank the board for selecting me as a finalist among this esteem group of candidates I cannot be more honored to be here representing the parents of the community as a father of four and a thought for professionals seeking to enhance what I believe is the best school district in the state my name is Jeremy Lang I'm a proud product of the Nebraska Public School Systems uh from Gilder Elementary to Brian High School to UNL for my undergraduate to lastly Uno for my

079uh MBA I've worked the last 19 years at fnbo where I currently serve as a senior director of operations where I manage a team of over 40 people responsible for keeping our systems operational and healthy driving continuous Improvement and leading our robotic process automation strategy and team beyond my team I've had the opportunity to sit on steering Committees of large projects on oversight boards like our data governance committee I also recently have led Bank acquisition activity um and vendor contract negotiations that I believe would be experienced that would be helpful to the pilion school board um as we oversee the superintendent the development and execution of the Strate strategic plan and the implementation of the bond program beyond my professional experience I just want to take a minute to talk about how childhood development has

080long been a laying family tradition growing up I lived in an inhome daycare run run by my mother and I was constantly surrounded by children my mom would do anything that it took to support the parents and kids to be successful in school even while Mom was busy at school sorry excuse me um with 10 children running around my siblings and I were able to partic participate in sports learn the importance of hard work and seeing it firsthand at home while getting help with homework needed my mom is long since retired from child care but I do get to see the same passion that my mother put into all her daycare kids now into what she does with her seven grandkids my two grandmothers were part of the Ops School District my grandma naan ran

081the kitchen at Louis and Clark Middle School for years ultimately retiring from the school district I remember her needing to be up early during the school year to prep and breakfast for hundreds of kids and then as summer came each year you'd find her sleeping in late each morning trying to catch up from a busy school year so I can definitely appreciate what our our teachers go through she had a commitment to the kids and her staff that is similar to what I get to see every day in our district at school drop off my grandma L took a part-time job at Brion High School while my siblings and my cousins were enrolled she worked within the kitchen and the various snack Shacks where she would load us up on Donuts and juice to make

082it sure we made it through our next class it was awesome to have her close to us growing up and I'm appreciative of those types of opportunities that exist in and around our school systems for family to get involved and stay closely linked to their community that family passion for kids has descended through the generations and landed squarely with me where my volunteer time has been spent on education and childhood development supporting Junior Achievement in schools around this uh the city as well as serving on the save board board program that serves third grade through e8th grade students with the opportunity to be tutored by local college students on our campuses around town experience the trade programs through Metro participate in extracurriculars by providing funding supplies and equipments for sports music and other programs that

083the students could not otherwise afford all those childhood professional and volunteer experiences connected to create the candidate you see here today that is passionate about education supporting our community and willing to work hard to make our School District the top in the state and Beyond I know if I'm selected as a board member I'll be doing all three of those amazing women for my family Proud by serving our community and over 12,000 students in our schools thank you for your consideration I look forward to the round of questions thank you all right thank you very much appreciate all that all right so it's I'm going to try to explain here hopefully I'll get this right what we're going to plan on doing here um we essentially have five questions that you will all be asked

084and the way we're going to do it to try to make it kind of fair so we don't end up with Dr deoya answering first and everybody else getting to copy him we're actually going to start with question one I'm going to ask that to all five of you and then U we're going to go to question two and we're going to start with candidate two and go that way question three if that makes sense until we finish through five questions so all of you have a chance to answer one of the questions first and all of you of course answer one of the questions last so um that was uh what we decided three of us I don't know if you all know this but Mr Lotus myself and Miss wit were all in

085your shoes the last time we did this in 2017 sitting right there so um so anyway that's what we came up with so any questions on that part like I said we'll kind of go through there so you'll hear like I said I'm going to ask the question first droy I'm going to ask you a question we're not going to put any Tim liit on the questions obviously um if you draw it out and start going into your whole five minute spe speech again I'll probably ask you to quit but if you answer the question um as asked and then like I said once we all ask the same question to all five of you and then we'll go from there hopefully I made myself clear and didn't go too crazy on that did I

086miss anything get anything wrong all right we'll give that a shot so that started Dr tooy if you want to grab a microphone there so we can make sure we can hear you that'd be the other thing if you guys could just make sure we pass microphones around so everybody can hear you and I appreciate that again got to put my eyes on all right there we go so the first question tonight uh Board of Education decisions May conflict with your personal beliefs from time to time how would you process a conflict between your own beliefs District policy and student needs I do not feel that uh on my personal I do not feel that we should have personal agendas uh involved with our in subjectivities or uh polic uh politics involved with what we're

087doing I think that uh uh to make the decision we have to be objective first of all we have to find get the facts and from those facts you go ahead and make an objective decision and go with that but uh there's no place on the board for for personal agendas or uh subjectivity I don't I don't see that at all especially Poli itics I definitely think that's not does not belong in there thank you very much would you like me to read the question again no okay I think I'm good um yeah I definitely agree with that um politics doesn't have a place here we have to do what's in the best interest of the school and the students um it's okay to express maybe your opinions on it but once a vot's made

088it's it's done um yeah that's all I'll add because you answered it great I think you know if I understood the question or from a perspective of uh the kids um all of our decisions are kids first that's what it's about it's where're we're making sure that the decisions that we make are are focused on what's best for kids and that's done by F following the policies that we have in place and the policies that you continue to review and evaluate the policies give us the guidance that we're able to make to move forward and when becoming a member of a board that's what you are you're a member of a team and so your personal feelings come second to what the group decides is best in being able to follow policy Implement policy and

089meet the needs of students and staff uh could you repeat the question just one more time thank you Board of Education decisions May conflict with personal beliefs from time to time how would you process a conflict between your own beliefs District policy and student needs definitely I think I can speak to exactly continue on to what the other uh interview you said speak to the fact that we're just one vote uh in a room of other people who have different perspectives and ideas I think when it comes to we have to have an objective uh disc decision to where to where we're unbiased selfless uh independent vote truly to where we're able to gather information from across the district from people that are uh supplying us information and facts and information and and make a

090well-informed decision based on those facts and not something that uh we truly just believe in or something that we we we dealt with in the past I think as a police officer it's great to bring that perspective to this board to be completely honest with you to where uh morals and ethics come into play to where just like on the road or or in your schools to where decisions that are made have to be based on the facts uh that are presented in front of us and again facts information making well-informed decisions that's what we do or you do on the board and um I think that's the view that everybody should have thank you thank you in my business role at fmbo or making decisions balancing stakeholder input feedback and desires all the time

091and so as I look at serving on the board um one of the I think the key elements is what are you grounded in and I think that's serving the stud students first and foremost and so regardless of how I feel about a decision it's all about what's best for the kids in the district second to that I think it's be it's incredibly important that the board collaborates and comes to a decision together um around unification around the district I think um we've seen way too much much divisiveness and I think we as a group need to come together third um pulling in data where it's possible and I recognize it's not always possible but there are opportunities to leverage data and decision- making and I think where possible we absolutely should bring that forward

092um I think that helps everybody come to that same position moving off of personal opinions or biases towards what's really right for the district so that's how to approach those types of questions and challenges thank you all right thank you very much Mr madler I get the long one so if you need this repeated just uh let me know okay so miss Butler uh you'll start this one and then we'll move on public schools in the state of Nebraska operate under local control however legislative actions sometimes require that districts comply with added curriculum or other requirements that could interfere with how the district operates is there anything you would do as a board member when legislative bills begin to step into school board responsibilities well absolutely um I as you saw from my speech I

093have no problem going and working with state senators um on bills in fact I do that in my job with the city of Omaha um they'll call and ask for my opinion on stuff that relates to metropolitan cities so I have no problem working with legislature um to help assist on bills that would affect and benefit this District um and provide my input and go back down and testify on our behalf one of the primary goals of this board of education is to choose a leader a superintendent uh to lead your district and um I see um the role of our superintendent um as as being one of the roles being a voice for us at the legislature and I think by selecting and supporting and evaluating our superintendent and providing um him uh or

094her with uh you know uh guidance um it is very important that our our superintendant um make themselves visible at legislature um that they appear and um uh speak and and share so that we ensure that um our board is able to be in step with what the legislature wants done but in the same way be able to do what we know is best for kids and if we see a change needs to occur then we need to make sure that we support our superintendent um and that we uh work with our lobbyists and that we make the changes um that will best meet the needs of our kids I think I have the added luxury of being in government uh not shy from talking to community leaders and uh people um throughout the community

095and throughout the state on changes that directly impact our community and our citizens I think advocating for our our community our parents our staff members our our students would be in line with what I already do in government and that is advocating for others and doing what's best for other people I think just being in government again and and I'm I'd be totally or actually extremely fine with communicating with other people and and doing what's right for our staff and our students uh at the local level that that coincides with State Law changes and and I think it's great that this board has brought on looking at past board meetings and being here and watching it's it's been nice to have individuals come and and talk to to us on changes that are upcoming and

096and current and making sure that this board is is up toate on any type of current changes so we're prepared uh districtwide to make changes that affect our staff and our students thank you to be quite honest um being fairly new to the school system and board policies um I don't know the answer to that yet and so one of the things I would be looking at is what is the appropriate role um in engagement with whether it's lobbyists whether it's state legislator versus the role of uh Dr Andy rickley um when and where we can leverage resources within our um board's control and school boards or organizations control around communication if something really looks like it's going to overstep our ability to serve our students and serve our students well what I do know

097is is relationships are key and making sure we understand and appreciate the stakeholders involved within our state legislature how it interacts with this board and with our peer boards across the city and state that's really where I think as a board member I need to continue to understand and learn and see what role I might play in engaging with those state legislator and engaging in our community to make sure that legislation that's passed is something that ultimately serves our students and serves them well thanks uh I feel it's very important to uh open up communication with our uh legislators in Lincoln and also in Washington and uh I do think that uh this has been a chronic problem in the last few years uh with the U legislation legislators trying to uh come into our

098boardroom and tell us what to do do and how to do it and each time they do that they uh not only Implement uh changes in our curriculum and the way the we do business in as a board me members but it also they fund they do not fund them and we let we need to let them know how we feel about it and if they're going to do these things they're going to have to fund it because we only have so much in the budget they make a decision and then then the that there's wasting money on something that we already are providing there are three four bills that I could talk to you about right now I think you people already know about that because I've I've had these discussions and uh each

099in each case they overstep the uh the boundaries and uh and they've come into our boardroom changing our curriculum like I said earlier and CAU made had the additional cost and uh not only that the teachers now are burdened with the changes the B the teachers are are uh overworked as it is we don't need the legislators coming in and telling us that uh we need to make them work harder because we're going to change the way we're doing business it is imperative that we do uh maintain not only with our lobbyist let him know how we feel but we also have to maintain a relationship with uh the various legislators that we have in our community in our immediate community and reach out if you do know other since I've been around here for

100since 72 I've been around here a long time and uh I have gotten to know legislators in Omaha and uh and so and also in Lincoln and so I have been talking to him about the concerns that I have about him uh uh I sometimes think they're not listening but I'm going to keep talking so communication is the main thing I think we need to let them know how we feel about the various uh bills that are presented and uh give them something to think about when they do make those decisions all right thank you um we will move to the third question now Miss Whit and we'll start with Miss W all very much you've been really good so far um so this starts with Lisa what do you believe to be the biggest

101challenge facing the Pilon Lista School District at this time and why well I think the magic starts in the classroom so how do we recruit and retain the Fantastic people that we have teaching in our classrooms I think that's one of the challenges that we have today I think that we can say that we have an outstanding staff now um but as our Educators uh deal with uh ongoing challenges and um and it it will become harder I think to keep those great people in in our buildings and so I I think it's really important because it is at that very basic level we're teaching and learning occurs and to continue to have uh outstanding School District we need to have our focus on outstanding staff not only in the classroom but our support staff

102as well our pair of professionals our custodians you know how do we continue to recruit and retain those great people that help us do the great work of working with our kids I think that's one of the the the challenges that the board will face right now I think uh preparing for this interview a I looked at many challenges that districts from Across the Nation kind of deal with and especially not only here in Nebraska but other states it it's definitely going to be our our teachers you know I have the luxury of being in your schools and and working hand inand with your teachers and collaborating and working with administrators and I think making sure that our teachers are happy they're they're available to uh educate our young minds and also be available for

103parents for input as well and talking with teachers from across the district uh over the last several weeks uh definitely that's what I heard I heard a lot of from them specifically about how it would be great to focus more on on the kids and have more time to focus on their learning and I think that that's mainly from a retention side I'm going to focus on them more especially when it comes to their their their days off things like that and then also from a recruiting standpoint it's not like what it used to be to where we had dozens of teachers applying for one position and it's a lot less just like other Industries as well law enforcement included and I think we just comp continue to be competitive competitive with other school districts

104in the metro area and do what's right so we can focus on uh getting qualified passionate teachers in our classrooms to where they can educate our young minds and uh prepare them for the future so as I think about the most important challenge facing the school district right now um it's really that our our kids are a future and what I've seen recently in preparing for this session today is our kids' performance in school is falling postco we had many challenging years there and so when I think about the most challenging thing for this district is how do we not only support the students but the teachers and helping those scores bounce back the movement uh going to college increase back to Norms that we've seen over the last decade that have been falling um

105math scores English scores science scores they're all kind of down a couple percentage points um and to me that has to stop we have to figure out a way to where that those scores B bounce back up um for our kids and for our future so that would be my answer thank you Dr tooo I uh I feel like the one of the most pressing things that we have going on in our district and in throughout the nation is uh a mental health mental health has uh reared his head you know before when I first started doing the school board back in the 1990s and that uh we didn't have the mental health problems that we have today and uh I think technology rigorous we are uh there seems to be so much so many

106more problems for these people to handle and there that is one area that I think that we have to concentrate on I think that uh one of the problems they mention over here that we have with teacher retention everything well with teacher retention not only does it mean that we have to financially uh provide for them so they live decent we also have to provide an environment for them where they can Excel we also have to take into consideration that because of the mental health that we have throughout the nation now uh we have to address that issue uh we happen to be very lucky in the fact that we have a superintendent that considers this uh one of the major problems that we have and he has taken steps to to take care of

107it and so our district is moving forward in that direction we have a long way we've gone a long ways but we have a long ways to go so um so I guess I'll differ from everyone else um I actually wrote down an answer um because I thought this question might come up and mine is actually growth uh this area is booming sarie is one of the fastest growing counties in or it is the fastest growing county in the state um um so I know that pilion is vastly growing as well um and when I worked in pilion um I was in the room and part of the executive team to manage that growth so I have the knowledge and foresight that is required for long-term planning while still looking at short-term action to meet

108our needs today um it's just making sure that we have the facilities and tools that will retain teachers and families in the district as we go grow and making sure that we still keep the teacher student ratio low your turn all right so kind of the opposite of the prior question so what do you see as the largest opportunity for the Pilan listic community School District at this time and why we definitely have a unique opportunity here uh in the Pilon L School District in that we have four different cities that we have to communicate with and and work with to make sure that uh our focuses on the community members not only just in pilion L Vista but also bellw and Springfield um because the school district is continuing to grow and it's surrounding

109those cities uh as well so definitely a growth that focus on the fact that we have great infrastructure here in the Pilan Lista School District we are strategic on how we do bonds um over the last several years and we spread those out and work on our great schools and and our strategic planning the luxury of looking online on your strategic planning as well and looking into 2026 when it came to uh what the focus on for the future and annexations as well and and I think an importance on that is definitely focusing on young families uh in the area young families that are coming to the area as well and making sure that we're looking at that growth pattern and also um with the redistricting as well if that came to light that we

110would have to look into that also thank you as I think about the Pilon Lista School District the greatest opportunity it's the fact that this school district has so much incredible community support and so when I think about the most recent Bond issuance passing with 65% and as I read the news over last week about how several nearby Iowa school districts couldn't pass with over 60% and will be struggling I think that opportunity is something that needs to be capitalized we have tremendous support for the school system the schools should be leading the state and and anywhere that we're not I think we should be taking advantage of that um ground 12 support and pushing the state forward when it comes to education public education um and so that just that feels like ongoing opportunity

111for this District thank you absolutely so what do you see as the largest opportunity for the Pilon listic Community School District at this time and why the largest opportunity the fact that uh we have a tremendous uh school system thank you I'm always getting in trouble with these these mics as you all know anyway I think the largest opportunity we have is the fact that we have so much growth going on so much so many uh companies coming in the infrastructures uh that that has developed over the last few years has brought all these large companies in we have U Amazon we have Facebook we have so much Intel coming in here and uh the opportunities for employment the opportunities for Education uh we have them all here in sarpi County you mentioned about the

112fact that there four of us all four communities and all four districts are growing exponentially because of all the uh opportunities that we have and uh where the populations come from is beyond me but we will be be uh doubling in size within 10 years and uh I've seen it before and it's going to looks like it's even going to increase even more but uh the opportunities uh for the business careers and uh and the education are probably the two things that I think is GRE best yes and the opportunities that I see again is just it's managing that growth um as I mentioned and still offering the services that attract families teachers and students um and that's just expanding you know on the stem stem classes that were mentioned earlier um so again it's

113just managing the growth and kind of along the lines of what everyone else said great answers I love the community support the growth those are great things one of the things that came to mind for me is I think we have an opportunity to be a leader in the state as I've observed uh the department of Ed struggle with some assessment practices and how we can best assess our children I think that Pilan L Vista schools along with Miller public schools and some of the other leading districts in our area have some great assessment ideas and I think that excuse me I think that we can share what we know works we can be a leader in helping our whole state move forward and put into place some assessment practic practices that will allow us

114to accurately assess our kids and help us determine next steps for them um as we move down the teaching learning um continuum turn my microphone on we are down to our fifth and last question for all of you the district's current strategic plan focuses on rigor mental health and recruitment retention of Staff as the district considers goals for an updated strategic plan what goals do you believe we should focus on can you repeat that one more time sure absolutely mded the district's current strategic plan focuses on rigor mental health and recruitment retention of Staff as the district considers goals for an updated strategic plan what goals do you believe we should focus on so as I think about um the public institution that we're all here to represent today I think one of the most

115important components of that will be inclusivity I know you have that in a lot of your materials online it's an important part of the school board and school system but as I think about a public institution I want every student and every teacher in our in our school district to feel welcome uh we have people come from all walks of life and so when I think about one of the key elements I think that even drives into the mental health component but at the end of day we need to be a supportive environment not an environment that's tearing down and so that's one of the key elements that I'd see in a strategic plan um the second and I think I'm going to Echo some of the previous answers is how do we handle growth

116without loss of quality um s county is growing like a weed it's incredible to see as a lifelong s County resident um but balancing that within the Strategic plan to continue to hold ourselves to a high standard while expanding and growing as a net positive migration School District I don't see that ending I think you built such an awesome reputation here that we got to figure out how to maintain it um going forward thank you thank you Clos situation no exactly which goals which goals I should concentrate on um you mentioned the two biggest ones that i' that I mentioned the health and the retention those are the two biggest ones but uh we do have to U continue uh taking care of the growth the growth is going to uh be a a large

117amount of attention in the next few years as it has been in the past but uh growth the uh Improvement and and uh our uh educational system uh although we are in the cutting edges of of uh of uh education right now our curriculum is is one of the best in the nation um I don't know I really don't know what I would which one I con would concentrate on I would just like I said I would two that I wanted is what you you're talking about as far as the residual the The Fringe I don't know what what I would say I'm just going to have to let it go um well first of all I am on board with the mental health um and behavior Specialists I want to work to hire um

118more of them so I would work with the board and administration to do that um again like I mentioned the other thing I want to do is expand early childhood education to and make it available to more families um again I'd work with Administration to make it happen I know things don't happen overnight it would have to be budgeted I'm not going to raise a tax levy to do it um so it would just be working with the board and administration to see if we can make it happen and make it fit in a future plan these three s strategic goals are outstanding and it's hard to think of anything else that um the the panel hasn't talked about tonight we've talked about Recruitment and Retention mental health and I'm a big believer that looking

119at rigor is extremely important as we look um as it was alluded to you know how do we help our kids um improve um their scores and and how do we help kids be successful academically rigor plays a big part of that I think the thing that you know we know is that strategic goals take time and so continuing with the same goals is not a bad thing is one of the things as we move forward though it's maybe how do we is there a way to integrate so that we can work smarter not harder that we can make it so our staff who's throughout the district including you know all of our administrators who are already working extremely hard how do we move forward with these strategic goals in a thoughtful way so that

120they uh can be um intertwined together so that they can be U maximized um in a way where they um value the time and the talents of of people and um because any one of these if you take them individually is a lot and when we have all three it looks overwhelming so how do we continue down this path with these great strategic goals and and help them be the most effective as they that they can be um and and not overwhelming I guess is what I want to say thank you a lot of great initiatives that were brought up today I'd have to say definitely being Innovative uh here in the school district to where we're definitely a model for other districts as well and definitely known for greatness here in the Pilan Lista

121School District technology is something that I pride myself on knowing a lot about uh in my profession and also working hand inand with your school district back when they looked at the initiatives when it came to more surveillance uh to help our our staff and also for our staff and our students to feel safe for all our parents to when they drop their kids off to school they they feel that their kids are getting a proper education but also feel safe and I was part of that initiative back uh years ago working along with your technology department and I remember back when I was in the school as a school resource officer and and during the shutdown and during where we our Focus was on one to one with technology with computers in the secondary

122level and uh everybody buckled up everybody really worked hard and and got computers in the hands of our students um so they can learn uh at their best and for our teachers the training that they needed uh to make that happen I think technology would be fantastic if we were able to get that in the hands of students at even earlier level as well uh at the elementary level and especially being in the technology age I think that's something that we can look down the road for and go one to one at the elementary level so then they're prepared at the middle school high school and then later on in the future thank you all right thank you very much um that's the end of our question and answer so first of all before uh

123we go any further I just want to tell all five of you thank you very much much it's not easy sitting up here and and uh you know listening or to having to answer all those questions and everything like that and I do appreciate everything you all are going through right now um now comes this kind of strange part in my opinion is you get to sit up here and listen as we discuss who we want to be up here and know that you know it isn't if we could take all five of you I think we probably would take all five of you but I'm pretty sure we can't do that so understand we do appreciate everything you guys uh are going through and we definitely encourage you if you not selected tonight to

124continue uh working with our community and and to continue to be a good voice for our community so thank you very much so with that being said um now I'm speaking to my board members here um this is kind of where we are wasn't sure how we want to do this if you want want to give it uh each one of us want to give your top pick and then we can kind of see if um then debate and see uh what we think about those picks does everybody agree with that or is there another method you would like to do good everybody's kind of sitting here looking at me okay well then uh I guess that that means I get to start since I'm sitting up here at the head of the table here

125so I guess um like I said um the answers were incredible um listen to all these things I sit there and think maybe you know just have one of you be out replace me because you have some great ideas but um listening to all all five of them I would say that um right now I think my top pick my that I would like would be uh Miss Lisa wood would be who I would uh pick to join us up here yeah that's sorry um I'll go next um I'll just make a couple statements first before I get into that uh Mr Bailey you talked about how yourself and and Brian and suan all three went through this in 2017 can you rem me could you remind me which one was selected none of yes

126none of them none of the three so even not being selected all three of you stuck with it and had the opportunity to serve and that is a very good point to make thank you yes uh so don't don't see this if if it doesn't go your way as as uh hopefully you don't see it as being done as potentially wanting to get involved in this school district um it's probably the hardest I mean we've had to make a lot of hard decisions the last few years uh but this one is not an easy decision to make um uh but luckily it's you can't go wrong with the decision with with all five of you uh you all made me feel really insecure about what I've accomplished in my life while listening to you uh

127so just means I got to work harder in my day-to-day so thank you for that uh giving me uh bars to try to reach and and being I think all of you great role models for uh for this community too uh so I just want to thank you for putting yourselves out there uh like Mr Bailey was saying it's not easy uh it's not easy to show up and basically do a job interview on YouTube uh where people can watch it um just for the potential opportunity to serve your school district you're willing to put yourselves through this uh and it just says so highly about your character and your desire to serve all of that being said sorry um I think what I was looking for in this experience of of looking at where

128um maybe we might be lacking uh on the board as far as uh uh experiences that could help this board be a better board um I think I would go right now with uh Miss wood as well I think her with her experience of being in the schools in the classroom for all the years I think would be a good uh experience to have on this board I have to mimic what Mr Bailey and Mr meller said about how hard this decision is to make because every candidate up here would make an excellent board member I think I think we did a good job picking our final five and this is just unfortunate we have to now pick one out of these Fabulous Five candidates um every question you answered I think fit exactly with

129what we're doing and uh it's a very hard decision um I think I'm going to have to go with Miss wood as well because of the difference the things that she brings to the table that are unique from what the rest of our skills are at this table I think that that brings something that we don't have the classroom experience and the um input that we would receive that would help us with other decision making along the way but no I no I I know conversation so um um having sat uh at the other side of the table handful of years ago um it was clear from about two seconds after we stopped speaking that uh the three of us could we should have went home um I can tell you right now that that

130has not happened with this board um we've taken this extremely seriously uh to have 71 candidates uh put forth uh their names to to serve with us on this board uh was a tough enough uh task uh let alone just just to have the five of you up here tonight uh and your fantastic backgrounds uh and passion for this District um I to like Mr madler uh maybe it's the data accountant type people in us uh but I was uh you know thinking the same thing on I sit on many other boards and you you got to take that step back and say where are we lacking where where where do all of us have our attributes that that provide something different uh to the rest of the board um I went rounds and rounds

131and rounds um with folks um to try to make a decision um when it came down to it um one of the unique things um between a couple of the candidates were the candidates that uh did the hard thing and put their name in a in a public election um that was big for me um experience I mean everybody adds something so much different so um with that um my my recommendation for the pick would have been Elizabeth Butler this is really really challenging we have five great candidates sitting up here tonight who all brought really great ideas and thoughts to the table um there were some that I felt were strong stronger in answers on some questions and some that maybe were stronger in answers on other questions and I I'm always challenged by

132those that were willing to put themselves out there in an election which is a whole lot different um than being able to put your request in through here but ultimately for me it's about what while all of you have great things that you would bring to the table what do I think would best serve this board at this time um so I've been sitting here wavering between a a couple and just trying to make the decision um as best as possible um Dr tooya there's no doubt you bring experience you've had that experience on the board and you definitely have have helped this District throughout it growth time Miss Butler you bring a different perspective with your policy work and all of that uh that you've done through your different positions over the years Miss

133Woods you have the experience in the education field that's very different right you've uh been a teacher you've been a principal and you have those uh qualities that bring that but you also have knowledge about the educational practice so BR you bring a a community service through your work and the different uh boards that you've sat on and the same for you Mr Lang so I think everybody brings something different to the table um I started off at the first question thinking this and then as a second question went by and the next um and I really got down to two but my final decision is going to be M Woods but I do want to thank everyone for your time and your efforts here tonight being willing to put yourself out there is huge

134it's huge because you're sitting out in front of everybody and you're um on the Fly trying to take take a good stab at the questions that we throw at you so just kudos to all of you for being willing to do that all right we had four uh from Miss Wood and then you for Miss Butler are you uh I guess at this point take a motion um to vote um yeah do we have specific language for the motion or no okay yeah uh I'll make the motion to uh appoint Lisa wood to the open board seat I think that's great can I get a second second okay a motion from from Mr madler second from miss fiser any discussion from anyone before we go to a roll call I mean like we said from

135the beginning I mean there's not a single one of you that we wouldn't want to work with on this board so I obviously um had Miss Wood in my my top five for a reason I have no no problem with uh the support I do agree that uh her her background educational experience uh within this District uh particularly um in you know serving some of our our you know higher need uh schools and areas uh I mean it just it does add uh you know something that we we might be missing a little bit on this board so I obviously have no problem and and definitely support Miss Wood in her uh nomination all right anyone else want do a roll call please yes yes yes yes yes all right well thank you congratulations um

136[Applause] Lisa again once again thank thank you very much the rest of you like I said I agree five outstanding candidates we really appreciate it tonight all right I'll let them uh we're still going to finish our meeting here so if you don't mind we like I said if you you all five of you would mind staying around for a minute so we can say hi to you you don't need to stay up here you can go sit in the audience if you'd like let me finish the meeting and then we can uh go from there so or not or not all right as we finish up here um the last item um future board calendar we a lot going on here on November 14th um Miss fiser has a leaz on lunch with the

137ideal program 11:50 um the we've already mentioned it the 15th through the 17th the nasb state conference at the chi Health Center uh in Omaha I know a number of you are will be going to that November 20th uh we have the foundation board meeting uh with Mr madler um Mr Lotus myself and Dr rickley the 22nd of November no school for it's a staff development day so no school for the students and then November 23rd and 24th of course uh the Thanksgiving holiday and then we will meet again on November 27th for our next Board of Education meeting here in the central office at 6 PM um and we will swear in our new member at that time anything else before the board at this time if not I will go ahead and adjourn

138at 7:56 p.m. thank you very much