PLCS Board of Education Meeting August 28, 2023

001all right good evening everyone and uh welcome to the papilliona Vista Community Schools Board of Education meeting for August 28th 2023. first item on the agenda underco of order please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance all right thank you very much roll call please here here here here thank you very much that finishes up section one please call your attention to the open open meetings law which is posted at the entrance to the room appreciate that and getting into section 2 Communications recognition Dr Rick Lee thank you very much Mr Bailey members of the board and for our members of the community that have joined us here live thank you for joining your board of education and for those that are watching on YouTube thank you for engaging with your board virtually for those of

002you that are regular board Watchers you know that at least once a month during the school year sometimes more frequently we try to bring attention to either students or staff members or in this case an entire program that has brought some type of Statewide or in some cases National recognition to their program we have a rather unique program here at Papillion Lavista Community Schools that we're very proud of we have the program administrator administrators Dr voison and Dr post I'll get to that in just a little bit but a little bit more about project search and why we're providing some recognition this evening there are National project search employment outcome Awards you can see some of our students and some of our staff that are the project search work site is actually located at the

003Embassy Suites in La Vista a facility that most of us are very familiar with the Embassy Suites have been terrific Partners in working with our staff and our students and frankly creating some job opportunities for our students the project search employment outcome Awards recognize program sites that have achieved 70 to 100 percent competitive employment after graduation from surge for all participants in a given year the papona Vista Community project search was one of five step five sites in the state of Nebraska so it's very exclusive that received this recognition in 2023 program sites from 39 States and five foreign countries were recognized for hitting that 70 to 100 Benchmark this award was formally recognized to National project search Conference of July 11th of this past year not only are they providing some outstanding work opportunities

004for our kids but they're making a difference in their lives and their family lives and uh all of us get the great Fortune at the end of the year of attending a whole bunch of different senior send-offs and graduation ceremonies the board knows exactly what I'm talking about when I remind our community that that's about as a heart rendering uh ceremony as there is just to see those kids who've accomplished so very much in spite of their challenges and their families who are just invariably beaming with pride this is just a really special program it's a small program as you can see it's a limited number of students typically 10 to 12 per year but it is making a huge impact on our students lives or families lives and our community Dr voice and Dr

005post please come down and be recognized by your board of education I believe you brought one of your staff along with you please come on down and be recognized by your Board of Education [Applause] big time Dr Boyson would you join us for one picture we'll post this one congratulations [Applause] thank you for our staff for being here thank you to the levist Embassy Suites for supporting our students and families it is a very special program a very special award and with that I would conclude our recognition for the for this evening all right thank you very much next up military advisory Colonel Patrick kalisiak how are you sir great glad to have you evening Colonel hey good evening once again thank you very much for the opportunity to speak here tonight um I have

006four items that I'd like to bring up the first is last time I was here I mentioned that we had a PCS hold that was affecting some of our families that were coming in some of our families that were departing that hold has been lifted we just have a couple of families that we still have that are going to be coming in or a couple that are still going to be a little bit later to depart than what we had hoped and I greatly appreciate the patience that you and your teachers have shown on our families is uh unfortunately they're kind of caught up in just being able to move when the military says it's time for us to move so again just want to thank you very much for that um second uh had

007a Amazing air show this last weekend so hopefully everybody got the chance to go out there that was looking forward to a great event especially for our young students to get an opportunity to see what uh the Air Force does and what we can get out of Aviation so opportunity for a stem booth there as well for a number of the younger kids to go through and I saw a number of families that were going through there so we will be looking to have one here this next year hosted at office about the same time in August next summer so we're really looking forward to the opportunity to be able to open the base and to let the community and our students on again see a little bit of what we do and get them

008interested in Aerospace going forward the third item is just a small item that we have going on in the base for many of our young children that we have trying to understand what a deployment is for their mother or father who might be taking off one of the things that we do every year is a mock deployment line for our young students and an opportunity for them on the 23rd of September just to kind of see what it looks like as Mom and Dad get ready to go and head off for anywhere from a couple of months to up to a year abroad so the kind of the process that we have to get them out of the door and kind of ready to go and take off a chance for them to kind of

009see how that works and then lastly I know we have a number of members of the school board Community here in the school community that are retirees from the base we do have a retiree appreciation day as well on the 14th of October coming up here so for a number of like I say a number of uh teachers that we have in our retirees and again a lot of other members that work here for the school just an opportunity for them to come back to the base and our opportunity to thank them for their service and continued support of the military so that's all I have pending any questions from the board here all right seeing none thank you once again really appreciate it thank you Colonel I do believe oh please val did you

010I I think your your offer will apply to at least one sitting member I'll head over there current team thanks Colonel Bailey I'm sure we'll be there and I I have to tell you I had meetings in Lincoln so I was driving down the interstate and I was seeing some other interesting contrails in the sky and courses I got closer to Lincoln I saw the second best aerial demonstration team in the United States Arsenal and that is Blue Angels the best of course Colonel Bailey would be the Thunderbirds which goes without saying it's the grandson of an Air Force pilot I think I can say that so in any way thank you for your service Colonel always a pleasure hearing from you appreciate it thank you once again appreciate it have a good evening all

011right next up on the agenda is public comment for items not on the agenda uh just a couple quick reminders that each individual once I call your name come on up and state your name and address and then you'll have three minutes to speak as always about two minutes and 15 seconds the first people go off and then uh after that you'll hear the three-minute beep if you get that far um do ask like I said everybody uh please maintain the decorum that I've spoken about over the past month or so as people are speaking I appreciate that and with that being said we'll call up let's make sure I got the right pile I do we'll call up uh Elena Wilson good evening my name is Elena Wilson my address is on the form

012that I provided I am a proud Public School parent and teacher but tonight I am speaking on my own behalf the most important thing you need to know about me is that I am passionate about Jesus I'm not yet the person I want to be but on my personal faith Journey I'm no longer the person I once was the last four years have created an upheaval in our world our country our community and even in our homes but through it all my faith has been unshaken why does the board need to know about my faith I've seen some very troubling Trends in recent years I've seen Faith use as a weapon I've seen it used as a tool sitting before me I know many of you have some form of a faith background I've seen

013your faith used to build up our community by providing programs and Facilities such as the community closet I've also seen it used as a battery in Ram to quarrel about masks immunizations and now library books a current board member is one well is one currently running for the school board have gone on the offensive and used scripture to back their positions and yes I know in Ephesians the word of God is also called The Sword of the spirit but in my understanding that is to be used to fight evil around us and not people a board meeting last month data was given on the mental health of staff and students I have the most amazing colleagues and truly see greatness in plcs but we're facing a new world since the global pandemic and we are

014weary a board member was quite concerned and asked how she could help boost the mental health of our staff a good start would be to stop calling us groomers and accusing us of indoctrination inappropriate material in our schools I can see how that is considered evil and I can see why you are passionately opposed to it I get it those are not books I want in the hands of my children but this fight has become personal when a school board candidate is doxing members of the public because they disagree with her that is not faith I've seen the false tears I've read the online comments about you being persecuted and bullied because of your faith well a wise friend once told me we need to ask ourselves if we're being persecuted for free and fools

015for Christ or are we just being fools that's a personal question and I can't answer that for you it's wholly appropriate that our faith should be the guiding principle and how we conduct our lives but when serving a public school whether that be as a teacher staff administrator or board member there's an obligation to serve everyone and there's no room for individual preferences to dictate decisions that affect the whole I have so much gratitude for the board members who use tact and diplomacy and Graphics in making difficult decisions Christ tells us that we are they will know we are Christians not by our war on masks not by our Warren Library books but by our love it's time to start loving each other and be known for greatness thank you all right thank you next

016up Aaron Jones hi Aaron Jones 10254 Windward Avenue in Papillion long time Observer first time speaker unfortunately three minutes three minutes isn't long enough to introduce myself so I'm going to get straight to my point this year is my ninth as a plcs parent and while nowhere is perfect I'd like to use this time to give you some examples of how my kids and family have been supported over the years Alicia denas came to my daughter's very first figure skating competition on a Sunday morning drove to every single student's house to bring supplies to a virtual school and then again to bring kindergarten graduation gifts Cami Moran taught both my kids first grade is currently at the top of my daughter's ranking of all her teachers she invited my son to come read to her

017class his sister's class each day A Memory my kids get to share forever Lynn cush my sons reached for Success Mentor from second through sixth grade she's come to see him play baseball and when kovitz sent us home she brought him an end of the year lunch Runza that they ate together on opposite sides of Our Deck Dan cowk came to Rumsey when my oldest with a life-threatening food allergy was starting first grade he listened took me seriously showed us empathy and made a lot of progress in making School safer for my son he's taken pies to the face been duct taped to the wall and even kissed a frog when the school met its fundraising goals Emily Lytle Smith we met Emily when she was a first year teacher and she welcomed my son

018to her class mid-year after he had a lot of issues in his previous classroom she spent time getting to know him one-on-one and every single Behavior issue resolved she was quite literally an answer to this family's prayers at the end of the year I framed the starfish story for her if you're unfamiliar please google it she absolutely made a difference to that one and will forever have a special place in my heart Laurie Herrera Hill took my daughter under her Wing when she switched elementary schools last year when some classmates were making inappropriate comments and gestures which by the way I can promise you they didn't get from books she handled it and then took my daughter aside and told her that good friends will never make her feel uncomfortable what a profound moment those

019are words I will remember and repeat to her as she continues to grow and I don't want to leave out Kylie Benson director of kids club at Rumsey also came to that very first skating competition she's amazing and I cannot sing her Praises enough it's obvious she loves the kids and her job and her program there is phenomenal so as you can see my kids have had their teachers support inside and outside of the classroom after spending the last several months watching and listening to Chronic complainers many of whom don't even have skin in this game I want to make sure you know that while at the moment they may be the loudest they are not the majority thank you for all you do to love on our kids all right thank you next uh

020Michael kukenmeister Michael cookenmeister my address is on the Forum I'll start out by congratulating Dr rickley for being recognized as the Nebraska superintendent of the Year personally I've been feeling very encouraged by your words more recently as we've witnessed this District continue to face a politicized assault in books some communities teaching empathy and public education in general made me very proud to see an email of you back in our Educators including our amazing Librarians and curriculum staff and expressing your confidence in their ability and professionalism as a whole to make trustworthy decisions I continue to believe we have the best staff in the state and standing together with them as a whole and support is crucial in keeping it that way and I want to thank you for recognizing what that a diverse student population

021has diverse educational needs it reflects well in our district and to add to that to our board congratulations on your board of Excellence award there's something for the district to be proud of and I think it's demonstrated without the curriculum policy was handled thank you for taking considerable time care and effort and fully understanding the books and curriculum issue I appreciate the transparent in-depth discussion on the policy and the interest you've shown in ensuring the policy is clearly defined and understood and I know many others feel the same way in this state we've been hearing a lot about the importance of so-called parental rights whatever actual meanings are loaded behind that phrase however I find it curious how suddenly the emphasis on that one takes a step back when it comes to who's allowed to

022participate in a formal review process intended for those who are most impacted by resulting incisions we have heard residents with enrolled students non-parents and even non-residents voice their opinions week after week I failed to see how these voices are being suppressed restricting those who aren't personally affected from abusing a formal review process isn't suppression is common sense as for us parents and Guardians have enrolled students we still have control over our own children's education the district gives us tools to opt out and they encourage us to use them if we don't like something however our Authority as parents ends at our own children it does not indefinitely extend to everyone else's children if we're that concerned about a book after hopefully actually reading it we can request review I failed to see how this is

023so restrictive and terrible so what's the real issue here to those protesting a ticket issue with review committees reading the contestant book cover to cover and actually fully considering the value of the contested book being more fully informed before coming to a thoughtful decision is simply showing responsibility the issue is not with the current rights appearance it's clear we already have a large amount of control over our own children's education I think some people simply want the ability to parent everyone else's kids as well the excuse is well if you want your kids to be reading that book buy them in the book and make it available yourselves so I'm supposed to never let my kids explore books that interest them on their own I'll have conversations and possibly monitor things if I feel the

024need to but I'm not going to tell my kids what does and doesn't interest them nor am I going to demonize an entire profession because I'm unwilling to have difficult conversations with my children the small minorities of extremists think it's more reasonable for everyone else to build entire libraries on their own than it is to Simply mind their own business that's not reasonable and it makes no sense teachers teach let other kids read lead trans kids be it's a public school it's supposed to be for everyone it should be a welcoming place for families of all types thank you um all right thank you our last uh speaker for items not on the agenda Kimberly Moore hi Kenmore La Vista resident um I wanted to take a couple moments today to talk about the amazing

025things that the pillion La Vista Community Schools Foundation does um the for those that don't know as I'm sure most of you do know but many of the audience do not uh the Papillion Lavista Community Schools Foundation is there to create and enhance educational opportunities for plcs students that otherwise wouldn't be possible and also to create a future where the circumstances of plcs students and families are improved all of the programs that they run are done by Community donations Community donations from worldwide from alumni at Papillion La Vista schools and individual donations as well and fundraisers um the programs that they do that enrich our children's lives our sixth grade outdoor education Middle School tutoring College jump start dual enrollment courses Reach For Success career academies cooperation best para conferences 4th grade Pioneer Days post

026prom graduate safe plv media academy career fair they offer more than one million dollars in scholarships to plcs grads in over 30 scholarships they also have a student emergency fund and the community closet I love that I live in a community in which so many are invested in every child getting a quality education and not because of any government mandate but out of pure American Civic mindedness and uh an awareness that equality well-rounded education is the foundation to a strong and healthy democracy thank you all right thank you moving on to item d uh superintendent's report thank you again Mr Bailey members of the board I want to welcome everybody to our board meeting this evening thank you again for being here I just wanted to note that it's been a busy few weeks as

027we've transitioned back into the 2023-24 school year last year was particularly difficult not because of curriculum not necessarily because of schedules or back to school or anything like that but the heat did put a tremendous strain on our buses on our HVAC units and on our staff that were struggling to to keep up with that really want to throw a shout out to Mr Richards and his buildings and grounds team we have a very small group of HVAC Specialists that were running around trying to keep ahead of the issues he was also working closely with a number of people to make sure that about half of our buses do not have air conditioning about half of the fleet does about half dozen and came up with some some innovative ideas on getting some water bottles

028ice down so our kids could stay cool on those really hot days so special thanks to everybody that pitched in and made the first few weeks successful and as we transitioned the first break of the year which as you know is Labor Day this coming weekend all district offices will be closed Monday and observance of the holiday students will report on back on Wednesday Tuesday is a professional development day for staff I also wanted to share with the board that your cabinet and your superintendent have been Fanning out across the district doing school visits the purpose of those visits is it's one part visibility it's one part to kind of see the the progress that have been made on the facilities over the summer and we also like to do some check-ins with teachers and

029principals to see how class sizes and the overall picture of the building is doing Dr settles will have a full report on both Staffing excuse me and enrollment but right now our class sizes are looking really really good uh Dr settles and her team have done a wonderful job of getting the right staff in the right places I also want to Echo the earlier comments on the papaya Vista Community Schools Foundation we hosted our Gala event it was a terrific event and I believe we raised a record amount a hundred and sixty thousand dollars that is not net I haven't seen the final net numbers as they pay off some of the the costs associated with the event but it was just a really classy evening at beardmore Event Center I should have mentioned a

030number of times a very great venue it is located in the school district by the way the the award winners we had from Sarah Rose Summers we recognize Dr Enid Shone wise we recognized uh the five Colonels from Papillion La Vista High School the award winners were were absolutely outstanding I couldn't have been prouder of the people that were there and the event itself so congratulations to the foundation for a wonderful event also wanted to wish best of luck to all of our students and student athletes as they enter the fall Sports season Fall is an incredibly busy time needless to say uh it's marching band season it is football season it is volleyball season it is softball season it's cross country season it is golf season in addition to all the other extracurriculars and

031activities that our students do so please get out there and support our students it's a fun time of year and speaking of fall Sports I would be remiss if I didn't remind the community we've got a little football game on Friday just a small one we've got two undefeated teams the monarchs have played really well they went on the road and beat a top five Miller North team and Titan is tuna when on the road to North Platte and then one at home last week against Fremont so Titan Monarch figures to be a pretty fun game it's going to be hot Monarch is the home team and as always Mr President I am hoping for a tie so we will see how that shakes out and with that President Bailey I'll conclude my superintendent's comments

032I like it very very well done Thai yep it's great all right thank you very much next is uh board reports for everybody says they attended the gala we all accept Brittany I'm afraid it got to attend the gala and it was fantastic and I really appreciate that student MCS who were just amazing I don't know how old they were but they were tiny and they were great so um I also want to thank the foundation for uh have holding the event and allowing all of us to get together and and share the community time and then see the people who got the awards who were so well deserving they were all impressive but those five kernels were something else weren't they um and the other thing I did was attend curriculum night for Lavista

033Middle School my grandson's a student there the teachers were excellent to listen to we learned about the classes then we were able to walk around the building and I got to try a PTC strip to see if I could taste the bitterness and it's called phenol theocarbamide I could not taste it but my grandson could so yeah just because it was broadcasted that I didn't go as time I didn't choose not to go I do senior pictures and I've had them scheduled so but I do but I did see pictures of it and it did look like a great evening and yeah I support the foundation all right um yep because it was good it was a great great time I enjoyed it but I won't go over and over again because yeah we had

034a great time um next up then we'll go with committee reports buildings grounds and finance uh we have not met since the last meeting we have a meeting scheduled for September 15th thank you human resources and student services 23rd we had several topics one included teacher letter student teacher and teacher ladder stipends the administration recommended collecting more information before finalizing recommendation but there are other districts in the metro area who are including larger stipends so we want to make sure we stay pretty competitive with those we talked about scheduling board meetings Mr madler suggested board meetings perhaps at some of our buildings to show up how the bond work has improved the facilities so we may consider after looking at security and Facilities if we're able to have one or two board meetings throughout the

035year at our schools around the community uh the 8000 series policy we talked a long time about some of those changes we viewed all the changes that were suggested and made recommendations and those will be shared in upcoming meetings and finally there are some policy changes coming forward from the legislation from legislative laws that the our attorneys are looking at right now and those will be coming forward in September all right thank you very much and last curriculum in americanism all right thank you very much all right uh we'll move on to action items I will use this time right now for the public comment on items on the agenda as a reminder we do have some on some of our topics here tonight when we get to that topic I will first thing I

036will do is I will have uh whoever speaking will let them speak first and then we can make our have our comments afterwards like I've been doing in the past here so and as always again you will still get once I call your name you'll come up and give me your name and address and you'll have three minutes just like items not on the agenda and the you still get the same timer that at 2 15 at three at three minutes all right for that the first item is action by consent I'll make the motion to approve the action by consent second all right uh I had a motion by uh Mr madler in a second by Miss Fisher um roll call please yes all right thank you very much the next one item B

037is policy 7000 construction Mr Richards thank you Mr Bailey um there haven't been any changes since our last meeting on policy seven thousands just a few Technical cleanups and two two of the policies there that was discussed at the last meeting I'd be happy to answer any questions if there are any additional thank you I'll make a motion to approve policy 7101 and 7102 as discussed all right a motion by Mr lotus in a second by Mr madler any uh discussion okay we'll call please yes yes thank you so much item C maintenance contract agreement 20 23 24 and 24 25 Dr settles yep thank you uh what you have before you is exactly the same as what you had at the last meeting the proposed contract that has already been voted upon by our

038maintenance staff I'll make a motion to ratify the negotiated agreement with the maintenance step represented by SEIU Local 226 for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 contract years sorry all right thank you I had a motion by Ms witness second by Miss Fisher any discussion any comments on that by the board all right roll call please yes all right thank you very much next will be a doctor settles again as we talk about the custodial contract agreement for 23 24 and 24-25 yep likewise eyes and I guess I could have mentioned the only changes on those are that the draft has been removed for your consideration on that but the custodial agreement has been ratified by the membership and you'll see it presented there the same as you had at the previous meeting well I'll move to

039ratify the negotiated agreement with custodial staff represented by SEIU Local 226 for 2023 24 and 20 24 25 contract years second all right thank you a motion by Mr Madeline is second by Ms Fisher any discussion on this item by the board appreciate all the effort that goes into this because there's a lot of work that goes into addressing all the concerns or just getting everything right with changes and things and it is so nice to see that we continue to have very successful negotiations and I believe that we do a very nice job as a district to make sure that our staff are taken care of and that's in large part due to our HR department I'm working so hard to do that so thank you for the work that goes into this all

040right thank you then I'll have a roll call please yes yes yes all right thank you very much all right we're moving to item e uh issuance not to exceed 25 million General obligation bonds for 2023 election Mr Richards thank you again Mr Bailey uh my dad like to ask Mr Cody Wickham to come back up from D.A Davidson who is our firm representing our bond interest interests here tonight we talked about at the last meeting issuing the first 25 million General obligation bonds from the 2023 election and we're both here to answer any questions that you might have since the last meeting and if you have any comments that you want to share before we get started sure yeah thank you Cody Wickham D.A Davidson 450 Regency Parkway uh Bond underwriter for the district

041we went over most of the details um two weeks ago as far as how the financing is structured and what we're projecting for interest rates uh just for those in attendance tonight and at home I'll hit on some of those highlights we're planning on just doing the first 25 million this will be our first tranche in a series of five not to exceed 129 129 million 900 000 uh the resolution in front of you tonight is to just authorize the first 25 million the thought with that is each time you go back out for another Toronto bonds we'll do another resolution just to provide transparency to the folks in the district um the the good news as was mentioned a couple weeks ago is the way we're phasing in these bonds over the next five

042years you'll fit well within what you had told the public through the campaigning process the that this would not raise their bond Levy in fact due to the higher than expected valuation increase you're actually going to be lowering your bond Levy from 23 cents down to 19.99 so that's good news and this series of bonds will fit within that and also all subsequent series that we have slotted out we had our call with the rating agency Moody's on Friday Mr Richards and I uh Mr Richards did a great job of painting the painting a picture of the district and the financials and how everything's looking for this first issuance that still has to go to committee which is happening this week and we expect to have the rating back on Thursday the analysts that was

043involved and it's not her final determination but one of the comments that she made was she did not see any anything that would put downward pressure on the district's ratings so we expect to receive that strong double A2 very high investment grade rating so once we have that in hand on Thursday the thought as far as timing is to hold off next week with the holiday being on Monday we wanted to basically have a full week of everyone back so we have a good audience when we go out and sell these bonds thank you Cody any any big changes over the last couple weeks as far as the you know potential rates we did see a little uptick in the meeting Market uh anywhere between 8 to 11 basis points over the last week today

044it was actually down a little bit so we've just kind of seen some Peaks and valleys from two weeks ago not a big change from where we were at um we'll see what the next two weeks bring there there is another fed meeting at the end of September that will be out ahead of so I wouldn't expect any major swings unless you saw some global news that would impact that thanks bless you all right anything any other comments if I'll make a motion to approve the attached resolution in an amount not to exceed 25 million dollars of General obligation School building bonds to facilitate the beginning schedule for the 2023 Bond projects as presented second all right I have a motion by uh Mr lotus in a second by Mr maddler any final comments or

045discussion all right roll call please yes yes yes yes okay yep all right thank you yeah thanks thanks for the reminder we'll make sure we get everybody's things Cody thank you very much thanks Cody have a good night appreciate it all right final item action items item f is a policy 6405 appeal to the Board of Education we do have one um speaker for the item for this item so I will go ahead and allow um Mr cookenmeister to come back up Michael cookenmeister better Michael cookenmeister at Lavista addresses on the Forum I just wanted to read an excerpt or a couple excerpts that are found near the end of this book in support of it um so he starts out let's see here there's a little bit here I must say that it was

046challenging to write a young adult Memoir especially because I didn't even know that was a thing I should also say that writing a memoir only being 33 years of age seemed a little narcissistic at first but knowing the legacy of the book isn't about me it removes nearly all those feelings is for you there were no books for me to read in order to understand what I was going through as a kid there were no heroes or icons to look up to and emulate there were no road maps or guidelines for the journey and again because I know there wasn't and still isn't as much out there I made it my original goal to get this right and working on this book I brought to life brought to life a lot of stories involving a

047black family Dynamic that isn't often talked about a family that is queer affirming while still learning about and navigating difficult spaces I released the deepest and darkest things about my past in the hopes that someone might see a reflection of themselves in the words and know that they are not alone but they too can grow and Thrive and so that they may not make the many missteps I took along the road but the most valuable thing I hope this book will teach others is as it has taught me is that there is noise a solution that sometimes think some things just end the way they end that some processors are always going to be an ongoing thing that the five-year-old me it wasn't the 15 year old me it wasn't the 25 year old me

048and won't be the future of me that they're so that there are some things that I that I just don't have an answer to describe my story the story that has now been told so if nothing else we now have a start and then the very last sentence I think speaks a lot whether this book is a bestseller or a flop if one person is helped by my story then it was all worth it thank you all right thank you and I'll turn this over to Ms Siri all right good evening Board of Education so as I summarize there in the background of your board packet tonight we are bringing to you um the final appeal for the book um that um that was started for the review process excuse me sorry on May 24th

049with the committee uh patron of the community filled out a reconsideration form and at that point we formed a committee at the end of May and that committee consisted of parents from both high schools certified staff members principal parents from both high schools as well as a director from the curriculum instruction and assessment team that led the process that process took clear through the end of June 23rd in which the decision that was reached by the committee was that the book would remain on the Shelf they answered three questions as part of that process the first one was in its entirety is their value for plcs students and the second question was do they feel that the book fits the community and the third question was do they feel that it's appropriate for the grade

050level that has access to it that decision was communicated to the patron and at that time the patron appealed it as outlined in board policy 6405 to the next level which was Dr rickley at that time Dr rickley then independently read the book as well and also reviewed the information from the committee's findings and he then wrote his own summary and communicated to the patron his decision which was to uphold the decision of the committee from that point the patron then appealed it a final time to you as the Board of Education in which the subcommittee met and discussed what that should look like as well as reviewed the materials provided by the committee and Dr rickley to see if the policy 6405 had been uphold in the process and so you will see there

051tonight that there is a recommendation from the American Civics and curriculum subcommittee um based on this appeal for the book all boys aren't Blue by uh Greg Johnson all right thank you very much I'd like to make a motion to accept the American Civics and curriculum Board of Education subcommittee's recommendation to uphold the decision of the committee and the subsequent decision of plcs superintendent Andrew rickley that the book remained and the plcs high school collection second I'd like to share a little bit of perspective to the rest of my board members and how I feel about this I believe people should have a choice about what they'd like to read or what they choose not to read and I believe that each individual parent has the right to decide for their children what they should

052also have the right to read or maybe not to read we may not always like the content of a book in its entirety and I do believe a book should be read in its entirety before making that summation but you may not like that content or maybe not like all of it and that's a choice for you yourself to make and for you to make for your family but I do not support the right of an individual to make decisions for other individuals and their families so I believe that we've set up a good process that needs to be supported we had a wide range of people sitting on this committee some that would say probably that there were parts of the book that maybe they didn't like and parts of the book they thought

053were very good but overall they felt the book in its entirety had value to add for students at the right level so once they made the decision I felt very strongly that this book had been vetted the way it should be giving its time and I believe that this is the right decision to allow individuals to make the decision for themselves and for their students and not to have a individual or a small group of individuals decide for everybody else what is right or what is wrong and that's my my reason for supporting this decision and and stating that I believe it's the right one uh Mr I think everything you said was uh it was very well said and uh I would completely stand behind it thanks one of the things that I wanted

054to point out that I when I was looking back at this and is what we discussed in our subcommittee meeting is that you know our subcommittee when we was appealed the second time it wasn't about us reading that book it had been done by the committee had been done by Dr rickley we were looking at it as looking at did they follow the policy and then the procedure within that policy and if they did then when that's what we felt then we then that book we should affirm what that decision was and that decision of course was to leave the book on the library shelves so that was one of the big distinctions that I had a discussion with a couple people about that a couple of board members about that and that's what I

055wanted to make sure that you know that's what we're looking at so you know I have read the book but I did not read the book as part of this process it was done like I said to make sure that we were upholding the policy and like you said the procedure and the procedure is very good we do have a very good procedure so that's what we are voting on tonight so I just wanted to bring that point up any other discussion um they actually had some of those questions down about the whole subcommittee and what was the discussion behind it um and I mean I agree I am a parent for Parental choice and I don't want my I don't want somebody else telling me what my kid can and can't do so which

056is why I had suggested um to put such content of books or books that parents don't want their kids to read I know that there's a process that they can fill out to have their kids not be able to check a book out I understand that but to me that doesn't stop them from viewing it walking down the aisle of the library which is why I had suggested putting it behind a librarian to where if they wanted to get it they'd have to get it so I just wrote down some stuff about the subcommittee which you had answered to me it doesn't matter what the cold contents of this book is about the excerpts that have been read in this room by Mr weiniger they have already been called pornography by members at this table

057it has no business being in our it has no business being distributed in our plcs collection and let me be clear I'm not a book Banner as a board member I have said to remove this book all boys aren't blue because it has been stated by board member msuyan Witt and superintendent Dr rickley that it was read that what was read was pornography and clearly pornographic it's beyond the pale to me that Dr rickley msuyan Witt would backtrack their statements once finding out that this book was actually in our collection and to Dr rickley and to president skip Bailey and Sue and Witt how how belittled Mr weiniger was up here not only is he a community Patron but he is a parent with children in this District so Mr weiniger as a board member

058I truly am sorry for what you had to endure as a concerned Patron and parent and for that I apologize but as you know this isn't our collection and thank you for bringing it to the attention of the people and I just wanted to read a couple quick quotes that I have this one was from Miss Witt excuse me excuse me sir could you please tell us the point I don't need to listen to pornography the next one by Mr skip Bailey one last thing and this is verbatim one last thing I wanted to bring up while this and other discussions are going on I think Miss Siri looked this up Mr weiniger's book that he decided to so graphical read is not in the Papillion Lavista Community School collection so regardless of what you

059had to endure I apologize for that but it is not in our collection and I wanted to bring it up and to Dr rickley I think it's frankly despicable that someone would either Overlook that or knowingly mistake facts and come up here and read excerpts from a book that are clearly pornographic a book that found to not be in our library it's beyond the pill someone would do that so for you guys to not even read the book but to hear what he was saying up here with just a couple excerpts from this book you labeled it for what it was you said pornography and it was clearly pornographic and that right there should have just been like with your conscious mind like we should probably take this out since I just called this so

060to me I know I met with Dr rickley and I met with Miss Siri and I'm still confused as to how you backtracked your words once you found out this was in our library like there needs to be accountability here and like I've said before I'm not a book Banner I'm all for a parental choice but when somebody is calling something pornographic and then yet you you pass you write this whole thing about it and say you're okay with it because the whole content but what you had heard from here you called it for what it was so I just want to know like once you found out it was in the library why did you change your stance of what you had said no stop stop he can clap for his people yes it

061is enough please enough all right if you'd like to speak to us after the meeting you can speak the meeting following that incident I did apologize for using the word pornographic because I did not believe that the words in that book were in the content that they were intended pornographic I believed that they were read in a pornographic sexually explicit Manner and I said so I also found out after the fact that the items that were read were not in context to the book but were excerpts that had been drawn out specifically for the content to be explicit and to be raise the ire of people and cause the disruption that it caused so he did not read the entire book either he only read the content that he wanted to make a known to

062the public as pornographic in his own way he even admitted that he has used pornography since he was 10 and I don't think that it's fair to adjust that everybody else he said when he went to the library and he was 10 that's when he was introduced to pornography and then miss vermotoner the psychologist who came said that anybody who reads pornography can become a pedophile I don't think that's a fair depiction either I don't think that we should label people that way I don't think we should label books as pornographic if we haven't read them in their entirety and I think that we should have the freedom of choice in our libraries and I will stand by the decision that this board made just called it for what it was what he read was

063explicit whether it gets herself that were explicit he did not read them anything it comes straight from the book from from pulled out sections that were not in context little tiny sections it's in the book from what he just threat but it is not all the way like I mean your book looks that you just you put all this all in one it's from multiple pages from little and they're just a sentence here or there so you know from a 200 Page Plus book so it's not that and that's that's what I just said I don't care what the whole content was because from what he came up here and just read and if you think this is funny talking about pornography to kids that's disgusting no I think it's funny that you don't care

064about the content of the whole no I do I have the book and I've read the book and so for YouTube you don't care about the content from from I don't care about the whole content because what he had just come up here and read the last time they called it pornographic and clearly clearly pornographic and pornography okay okay superintendent superintendent of the year like look behind you be known for greatness like this is not great once you have somebody calling this pornography and you're still allowing it in life I think there's a couple of important distinctions and I think our community uh needs to know this um I mistakenly gave Mr Bailey the information that it was was in our it was not in our collection I was wrong and as you're well aware

065I apologize for that the next meeting I I don't have the ability to go back and change things that are undone but what I can do is I can apologize I can do better next time so for you to continue to hammer that I use the word pornography now you're laughing so I'll point that up uh actually I didn't but but be that as it may I apologize Mr Bailey apologize Ms would apologize sometimes I make mistakes I try to own them and I tried to do better moving on I do think that there is fundamentally something different between cherry picking excerpts from a book that they are they're they're explicit and I'll be perfectly Frank when I read that book there were parts of that book that made me squirm overall I thought the

066book had a beautiful message about understanding about the importance of family about the importance of Faith about the importance of higher education were there three or four pages about sexual intercourse that made me a little uncomfortable yeah I'll be honest there were so in the moment did I choose a poor choice of words when I said pornographic I did and I apologize for that I'd love to be able to go back and change that but I don't have the ability to do that no one around the table does either but overall I think the best we can do as a board is if we make a mistake we own it we apologize and we move on and that's what we've done so for you to continue to hammer on this and you and I have

067talked about this one-on-one have we not and I apologized and I told you exactly why I felt the way I did you accepted it you moved on but yet here we are still talking about it in a public forum so there's no more because it's on the agenda that's why I'm bringing this back up so what what would you like then if you know if we apologize I told you that we're sorry and that we made a mistake and we're trying to move on it's just to me like once you found like when he was up here and then you came back and said you know it's not in our library I can't believe he would come up here and read this kind kind of stuff and then and I get that but now that

068you know it is in our library it's like a story changes and I just wanted to make everybody aware that I am not for this I obviously am voting no for it because I don't support that I don't support giving kids pornography or pornographic content because that's what it was then don't let your kids check it out but we had a consensus from a team of parents teachers administrators read the book who all agreed that it had value the superintendent read it he agreed it had value we reviewed the process as a sub kind of agreed that it has value and therefore Mr President I think we should call for the vote I just want to make one quick statement this whole Meyer who just said we are you don't agree with giving this book

069to our kids we are not giving this book to our children it is available if their families feel it's the right thing for them but it's not I just want to be clear we're not handing this book out so um just the clarification that's all yeah and I think it's also helpful to bring the tone down a bit and stop calling everything that has sexually explicit language in it pornography I mean it's a 320 page book that I'm sure is there obviously are some passages that are uh have some sexual content in it but pornography is material that was made to be sexually explicit that's what its main intent was and I don't think this 320 page book from all the review that that we've seen from everyone that's reviewed it in its entirety that

070they've agreed that in its full with all the context around it it is not pornography that there's a difference between passages that are sexually explicit and a piece of work that is pornographic they're just not the same thing all right if there's no further discussion roll call please yes the policy was followed as intended no all right thank you very much moving on to section four discussion information items the first item is the plhs media Academy renovation and we do have uh two folks that are going to come speak on that so I will call one of them up first uh Mr Jim Frederick all right good evening my name is Jim Frederick 9020 Granville Parkway LaVista Nebraska ever since my time as a student here in the district it was the dream of one

071of my most influential teachers to have a district Media Academy and a top of the line in school studio with the support of the district the schools foundation and the instruction passion and dedication of Mrs Becky Hoke the POV Media Academy has been enriching students for years I've witnessed just a small portion of this work pride and passion in this program has provided the students in the past as an announcer for Papillion Vista South football and basketball now I have two students in their second year of the program and I can say plv Media Academy is an absolute Gem and its instructor is one of the best Educators I've ever been around my girls will tell you POV media isn't just a class it's a family last year it didn't matter if they were a

072freshman all the students were welcoming and willing to help them learn students and their instructor put in Endless amounts of time throughout the year to help promote Student Activities and Athletics at both plcs high schools the academy not only teaches media skills but my kids and their peers also develop skills in multitasking organization communication professionalism research speech math I could go on and on learning not only takes place during the school year but also during the summer my girls communicated with Monarch and tight coaches scheduling times to review their team video projects with them the storyboarded researched music and communicated with local television news stations Nebraska public media and the United States Olympics to ask for video footage for one of their upcoming projects one of my daughters was able to use her art skills

073to create a logo a special logo to use during the streams my other daughter was able to secure an internship as a freshman with the athletic department at the University of Nebraska at Omaha because of the skills and professionalism she has learned through plv media she has exceeded expectations and Uno has inquired about taking on other students from POV media in the fall my wife and I we really don't see our girls on Fridays until about 10 pm or after because going to school all day and then putting in a time to stream the events happening at the District Stadium on Friday nights but I'll tell you it's all worth it and even with the time they devote to this great Academy my girls are outstanding students who excel in the classroom in the marching

074band in the marching and concert band on the track and field team and in the art room thanks to the district meta and the schools foundation for helping to make the dream of getting a state-of-the-art studio for plv media reality it will be a game changer for both high schools and for the students in this Academy Mrs Becky Hoke is an educator students remember forever whose positive impact leaves the lasting impression that helps them succeed in life as a board I ask that as this program continues to grow to please learn more about plv media and see how you can make a difference Provide support and help Mrs Hoke and this program continue to be the leader it is in our state thank you very much [Music] all right thank you very much I'd like

075to point out Mr Bailey that that individual Ms Hoke is in attendance um it's a little bit out of order I suppose but thank you for your leadership and the outstanding work you do Miss hope and uh I'll call up Mackenzie Frederick um hi everyone my name is Mackenzie Frederick my address is on the Forum I'm a sophomore at PHS and I'll be telling my story of the media Academy media is so much more than just an academy for myself and 28 other students across both high schools it's a home a family and most of all a place where people discover who they are I've had the great privilege of growing up in the Papillion the Vista Community with loving parents who also went to school and worked in the district as I got older

076they took me and my twin sister Maggie to multiple High School events we attended the Monarch Titan football game the color of Hope basketball game and the musical Beauty and the Beast I adored every minute I was in the high school I can help but feel a sense of Pride and belonging my favorite events to go to were always the football games when my dad was a Titan announcer from 2003 to 2015 we got to go open the booth with Tim every so often I didn't realize it then but in my own high school career I'd be spending a lot of time up there he ended his tenure as announcer so when we'd go to football games my dad brought Maggie and I up to see the media Academy in action I remember the first

077time we went like it was yesterday the three of us walked up there and I saw all these cameras and huge pieces of equipment I had absolutely no idea how they worked Miss Hoke then came around the corner with a smile that lit up her whole face and talked to us for 10 minutes about everything and anything at that moment I knew when I eventually joined the academy she was going to impact me in ways I couldn't imagine so fast forward to this time last year when I started the Academy I joined to see Sports from a different perspective into a homage to my community after my very first stream I felt alive the TM atmosphere of a football stream is uniquely special I saw firsthand how the game impacted the crowd the athletes their

078parents even our media crew I'll never forget that proud feeling and out pushed me to capture the same feeling in my work from that point on I dived into the Academy I learned video editing Photoshop animation Graphics sound design graphic design and script writing through the class it allowed me to channel my passions into something I love since only last year I've created Five hype videos worked at least 15 live streams accommutated six volleyball matches been to countless glamor shot sessions gotten footage at 10 high school games organized two media days for various type videos interviewed one of phs's most decorated alumni Allison Weston contacted ESPN the Olympic images team and Nebraska public media taking photos for projects and currently I'm creating a video package for the Allison Weston Invitational on top of all that

079through my experiences in the Academy I gained an internship with Uno Athletics last December I filmed women's basketball and volleyball for the school over the summer I created four videos for basketball that were posted online on Wednesday I'll be attending the greatest women's sporting event history volleyball day Nebraska Courtside with the unot my favorite part of the academy is spending time every day with people that bring me joy they inspire me to become a better person I couldn't have done any of it without the guidance of Miss Hoke and the older students taking me under their wing media has forged me into someone that would make the little girl going up to see her dad in the announcing Booth extremely proud all I have left to say is thank you to miss Hoke and I

080filled with anticipation for my next three years in the academy thank you thank you very much thank you Ms Frederick repeat all right uh I guess the discussion I got Mr Richards and Ms Simon is that correct correct just to give you a little background we were notified uh last I think late early spring that we received over 170 or about 175 000 in Grants for meta for this project so we were excited to do that of course these projects are more complex than originally if you think they're going to be so we got our architects involved from bcdm to start putting a process to work together to try to gather this vision and Greg steerens here from bcdm tonight of course you know Miss Simon's part of that Vision as well and they're here

081to kind of share that with you tonight we're taking it through the district process we will go out for public bid on the construction portion of course there's going to be equipment costs as well involved in this project and architectural services it's probably going to be a little bit more than 175 000 I'll be transparent up front but as a district we really want to support this from the special building fund any excess costs it shouldn't be much more than that but just to make sure we're being transparent up front on the projects this is a really exciting project to be able to be a part of and kind of see the first-hand accounts of that tonight uh is great to see um so we're really taking a kind of General classroom at plv high

082that kind of have the general floor plan there as you enter in from from the north that that blue classroom on the west side of the school is really the general classroom that we're transforming into the media Academy so zooming into that so you can actually tell what's going on we're kind of subdividing that that space the vestibules you come in is really just as a sound acoustic buffer from the corridor we then have a control group Booth production room and voice over booth and meeting meeting with uh District staff and and program Personnel kind of coming up with this uh this Vision here on the left side is a is a ceiling plan so really there's three smaller rooms are just your typical kind of drop-in ceiling but there is an exposed ceiling with

083kind of the structure is a sprayed acoustic stick material and then an exposed pipe grid to provide flexibility and hanging equipment etc for the needs of the room we're also kind of putting new walls and insulation around the perimeter of the room to kind of sound isolate this all with acoustic wall panels as well and then there is a existing mechanical unit above the the ceiling there that will move out to the corridor to avoid any of that that noise as well so kind of all in the division of of making this as uh acoustically great space as it can be for the the production value I want to just add a little bit of background history Mr Frederick almost stole my thunder um I was thinking this morning I think this vision for this

084project probably goes back nearly 30 years at least 25 plus years we had a journalism teacher at the high school um who I met with on a weekly basis and we talked about how we were going to get this project going and partner with the Communications Department as well as the high school journalism Department to make this a reality and after we tragically lost her in a car accident it kind of got put on a back burner and then Becky hope came around and she has taken this program to a Unreal level without a studio and it's the one piece that is missing in really putting this all together Dr rickley and I've talked several times about um just our role in video from the communications department and some of the things we can do

085with more Facebook lives and more parent engagement and some of those types of things and so as Becky and I talked like this was a perfect project she deserves all the credit for writing the Grant and getting the funding for this and really providing the vision um to bcdm on what what needs to be included a couple things I just want to point out the portrait backdrop which was totally Becky's Vision we can now do our board portraits there we don't have to hire an outside photographer I mean it's just a great it's going to be an amazing setting Facebook live there's a full green screen instead of us taking a sheet and holding it up in our office and trying to use it as a green screen will actually have a green screen for

086production but I think the most important part that I I'm most excited about is having this opportunity for the students and you heard McKenzie talk about that it's just it's going to be an amazing it already is an amazing program this studio is just going to take it to the next level and we're super excited about that questions I don't know if I have any questions except that I know this isn't big enough yet I know that it has to get bigger because I long long decades ago worked at Omaha public schools in their telecommunications department they have a public radio station they have a television Studio they have a you know they have everything and it's so I learned how to run the radio station as an employee not as a student and I

087learned how to truck a big old camera around which I know they don't do anymore but there's not just recording something there's editing there's um teleprompters there's CGI there's all kinds of things that go into media that's not just running a camera or audio recording there's a lot to it it's a huge career opportunity for our kids and I think this is fabulous it's just got to get bigger in my opinion I just want to say that one of the things about our Academies is they provide an opportunity for students to learn about things that might really interest them and create a career down the road but it also helps them to find out that that may not be the best thing for them even though they enjoyed it and it was a good experience

088but the academy structure is set up to give students opportunities and there's no doubt that this particular Academy is providing outstanding opportunity for students as Mackenzie was very eloquent in sharing with us as well as her dad but I think the thing that strikes me the most is as with our academies and particularly this one this would not be where where it is today without dedicated engaged teachers and support staff so from the bottom of my heart I want to say thank you to people who truly want our students to have opportunities to have the opportunity not just to experience something but to really maybe jump start a career or maybe find a different pathway for themselves this is innovative it's pushing students it's everything we hope for in an academy so thank you for

089everything that everybody has done to have that happen now to have this wonderful opportunity to grow it it's pretty exciting opportunities for the students as you said they're great for them to um like Mckenzie was saying even just being around people I mean making lifelong friendships and being around people with similar interests and finding those interests and developing those skills uh for later on in life but it's also a good um service for the community as well and and putting these on I had my uh oldest 10 year old birthday party Friday night so I couldn't go to the football game but when I got home I turned on YouTube and watched the plv media the last five minutes of the game and there's a couple hundred people watching live at that time and I

090don't know how many people were in and out during the broadcast but it's a great way for the community and those who don't live here but live elsewhere that aren't able to attend some of these events to to be able to see them online and I think the kids the students do do a great job and again the experience that it's they're getting is I think invaluable so I love projects like these yeah I was at the foundation meeting when when Becky presented all this as well and um I she did a phenomenal job just listening to listening to her which obviously she's got you know two big fans up here that were that were trumpeting her but I sat next to Jill Frederick may or may not know her um and of course she

091was all smiles and just couldn't stop talking about her two girls and everything they've done but um just listening to Becky and you know you're right it's her it's a passion I mean she's she's put so much more into this rather than just showing up you know and doing a little bit with the students and going home I mean she's obviously as amazing and so I appreciate all your work um I just can't say enough like I said I'm a huge fan of the academies you know everything that the people who work in those academies do but something like this I think is just going to be I think is a huge game changer and um look forward to it uh so Mackenzie I guess you'll probably I don't know if you'll see it completed

092we'll definitely have to come back and uh and help help afterwards right so all right and I won't tell the people from Uno that you're wearing Creighton tonight by the way all right thank you thanks Greg thank you just next steps we'll be putting this out in the next week or two for public bid um cost estimates are in the low 100 000 for the construction services side so hopefully we'll hit those estimates or beat them uh when we bring back those bids to you sorry Mr what what's the time frame when are they when are you guys hoping that this would all be done yeah we're hoping um I mean it's construction's tough to Hope anymore but uh uh it timeline wise we originally wanted to have this program up and ready in January

093we're going to be cutting it close okay all right thank you very much uh second IRB I'm sorry under discussion information items is the 2023-24 budget parameters uh Mr Richards okay and and that'll bring you over the clicker and I'll be ready to roll here nothing just wanted to give you some general budget parameter info tonight uh we'll have our budget hearing September 11th at 6 pm to give you more details I wanted to kind of give you the overview of what I'm seeing here once we got our certified valuation in August 20th that kind of sets the tone for the rest of the budget there so permanent preliminary valuation or valuation increase of 12 12 to 13 in that in that area state aid decreases uh 3 million 237 328 dollars less than 22.23

094that always happens when we have valuation go up uh State a does go down that's a decrease of 10 percent what's different this year is the Nebraska legislature with Governor Billings leadership has brought more money into public schools here which is a really good thing it's been lacking for a long time I know the School Board Association has talked to the state about this for many years trying to get the state to pay more and not be so reliant on property taxes so you'll see you'll hear that theme tonight a little bit so special education expenses will be unreimbursed at an 80 rate now in Nebraska versus the previous 43 to 47 percent rate okay allowable budget Authority I'm going to come back to that here allowable budget Authority for us will be up three

095percent this year um you normally get two and a half percent base at every District in the state across Nebraska gets a two and a half percent allowable budget Authority increase every year um you can go up higher than that based on special education costs state grants federal grants so that can take it up above there and increase enrollment um so we're sitting about three percent I'll get into the details of that why we went up three percent here in a minute too property tax request we're going to request I mean with your permission of course I would recommend that we request 80 million eight hundred eighteen thousand hundred eighty one dollars that does include the one percent County Assessor fee for taxa collections um this is up two point seven four percent from last

096year's amount the district is estimating 144 million in total revenues and expenditures in 22.23. or 23 24. so we really at this point with our cash Reserve where it's at feel comfortable hovering at that 21 20 21 cash Reserve that we really want to try to hit The Sweet Spot with our revenue and expenses being relatively close you know when you're talking about 144 million dollars it's hard to get it exactly uh both on the revenue and expenses side but we'd really try to do that um to other info includes additional Staffing and salary increases is approved by the board we have technology sustainability continue to be built in with that transfer to the depreciation fund really we've taken our technology Cycles all through the depreciation fund now so when we transfer a million dollars

097from general fund to depreciation each year we had that separate depreciation fund budget and that pays for most of our cycles for students and staff for the one-to-one program within the district and sometimes some other things within the technology world that we need as well sr3 is still around with the federal level so our federal spending will continue to be higher we do have two new federal grants that we've applied for that we shouldn't hear about here in September that will contribute to higher than normal federal spending levels which is good because we are actually getting the money in we just have to have the authority to spend it tax levy information this is probably the best news that we Nebraska schools have heard in a very long time as far as property tax holders

098it's not a it's not a great uh permanent fix by any means because we're kind of back in the same boat next year as we've been in the past it's a one-year fix and um I mean we won't go back to the dollar twenty six twenty eight twenty nines but we'll be hovering right around that dollar 14 for a while until they continue to have discussions on how to fix the tiosa for me a little bit better to where districts with higher valuation increases don't get robbed on that side of the state aid and have to continue to keep their property taxes higher so that's one thing we've always talked about fighting and down to the legislature each year it's been a one on one of our topics of conversations with Senators since I've been

099here and I think there's there's some movement down in Lincoln to continue to try to look at that all you have this there's no way that I would think we'd go back up as high as we are but do you feel fairly confident that we're going we've got just this little bit of space we may see it go up a little bit or stay freely fairly static yeah I think I think what you're going to see is what we've done since 1819 there with our property tax levy so it's just a new Baseline now at 1497 hopefully we can continue to drop out a penny you know each year like we've done back then but we're going to kind of back to that cycle from the dollar fourteen found New Foundation level if that makes

100any sense so this additional special ed money that's coming in you know the legislature made it very clear they'd like to see districts school districts across the state uh drop their Levy in response that's the way they can get their that third stool uh so to speak in in public school funding um the state get a little more involved than that which is what we've been advocating for so that allows us to drop eleven and a half cents of the total Levy three cents off the bond about eight and a half off the general fund so that's kind of what we're projecting at this point based on what I talked about earlier on the revenue side budget timeline from here August 11th we met with the buildings grounds Finance subcommittee kind of went through some

101of these things we got the certified valuation on August 20th made our adjustments from that August 28th tonight we're just giving you some preliminary budget and tax information September 6th the budget and hearing information will be published in the Sarpy times okay based on the numbers that I talked to you about tonight September 11th will be our budget hearing at 6 pm September 20th uh all tax request information has to be published in this Sarpy times September 21st is the Sarpy County tax hearing at 6 30 pm at Bellevue East High School we are not required to attend this year um because of that influx of money we didn't have to raise our property taxes uh to the excessive amount that the county thinks is too much or the state thinks this too much not

102the county so we're happy to not have to attend that this year we'll probably be back next year because we're going to have the state aid dropped underneath us and have to keep the property taxes higher unless they get a fix in the legislature over the next year um September 25th is a tax hearing here in the district level at 6 pm and we'll adopt the budget that night or recommend adopting the budget that night September 26th submit budget to the Nebraska Department of Education the county clerk and the state auditor and then we will do October 9th in a board meeting the tax request the resolution and we'll get that out to the same entities as well in October so it's nice that they push the timeline back I talked about that last year

103it gives us an extra couple weeks to really from August 20th on it's it's in full go to get this budget developed but they did give us an extra few weeks to get all this done and again so we're submitting in October instead of late September so good news this year on the budget front and the tax front so next year I'm not so sure but I'll try to do as best I can I'm glad that we are not required to attend after last year it'd be nice not it's nice not to have to do that yeah and I will say you know there every district is so different there'll be districts that have to attend and we're just in a different situation with the valuation increases we've seen where some of the other districts

104aren't they're not getting the same kind of money we're getting and they're going to have to attend and explain that and every district has that story all right any any other comments thank you very much Mr Richards I appreciate all that all right the next item up for discussion is the policy 8000 board organization in operation before we go to get to that I do have one um public comment so I will call up Ms Kim Moore I just wanted to take a few moments to express my support of items one and two of policy 8100. um I think okay can I get your name oh sorry Kim Moore uh City of La Vista that's my fault sorry about that um so I just want to like I said to take a few moments to

105express my support of items one and two policy 8100. um I believe that these items are integral to uh the keeping the standard of Excellence in education that Papillion lives has had for decades now the board the teachers and the administration of plcs have always upheld the standard of Excellence not just in educating all students in the basics but equipping them to live a life spent pursuing and achieving goals and upholding their civic duty to serve democracy and to make this country a better place just to highlight um like examples of this I wanted to kind of shout out for a few different graduates from the last few decades in 1992 graduated Allison Weston she ended up being the captain of the 2000 Olympics volleyball team today she is still considered to be one of

106the top 10 NCAA volleyball players uh the class of 93 gave us moral Dandridge who was a Broadway and TV actress in Grammy and sag Award nominee in 1999 we had Adrian Whitsett who was an Iraq war vet and now a news anchor and Brandi Peterson who many of you will recognize from KETV News anchor it also gave us Josh Nelson who is was a DJ for many years is now an executive producer of radio shows out in California the class of 2000 we have Suzanne Witham who is a managing education director of Ozarks actors theater we also have John Campbell who is a former KETV meteorologist and now VP of customer experience and Innovation at Sada it also gave us Kenisha Williams who is the founder of the non-profit our Gathering Place the class

107of 2013 gave gave us Sarah Rose Summers who was our 2018 Miss USA the class of 2015 gave kinso cotton a 19 time NCAA division one All-American track star 2018 gave us Andrew Sprague who is a music educator today in part of vision quartet we have had multiple officers in the armed forces including but not limited to the class 75 Colonel Donald Kelly the class of 76 Lieutenant General Frank Kisner the class of 81 Colonel Anthony Dean the Class of 84 Brigadier General Peter gersten the classes class of 89 Colonels Ryan Rogers Ronald toy David Haskell James Howard and Michael McClung in the class of 06 Lieutenant Jennifer malandra we've also had students lose their lives including Captain Joel Cahill first lieutenant Mark nziska and Joseph Kemper who all died in Afghanistan or Iraq all

108these students have enriched and defended life in America in some Manner and all were able to partly due to their Superior experience in plcs schools as both a graduate alumni myself and a parent of a current plcs student I wanted to thank the board the teachers The Librarians and the administrators that make this possible Ms Moore would would you uh do us the favor of emailing us that list there were several of those names I know we track internally but there are a couple of names I think that will maybe not have been on our list that's a it's a wonderful roll call of people that have brought distinction of the district thank you for sharing that all right thank you uh we'll continue with Dr Settles great thank you uh yes the policy 8000s

109have been up for review and you have before you a quick summary of those listed on that front page and then throughout the packet you'll see those highlighted as there's been changes along with the summary of what the change what the reason is behind the change so for that first one 8100 we did do some heavy lifting in a subcommittee on this last year but we had made some notes throughout the year of different things that we've noticed as some redundancies so that takes care of one of those pieces that is redundant and the next piece 8202 there's just a very slight clarification of a practice and language in 8310 we combine both 8310 and 8311 which can then on the next one eliminate 83.11 they basically say the exact same thing on 8320 the

110photo identification badges those are already taken care of in 8220 which is about onboarding new board members in 8420 that talks about participation by citizens that just makes a change to the public comment on the pink sheet filled out people would still put their address but this simply states that people can State they their name the organization there with if that's applicable and the city or town along with their address if they would like and then lastly 844 clarifies electronic means of minutes as opposed to a distribution of them as I understand used to happen many many years ago yeah looks good I appreciate all those changes any discussion any comments about it anyone else yeah I just have one thing one thanks for um sitting down I think we spent another hour on on

111these uh policies uh really going through them and I think this will be a lot cleaner on the 8420 on the slight change to the public comments stating of the address I know we need the I think State Statute having the address um on the pink sheets on the form keeping that but you know we've moved away from people saying their address when they're coming up you know I I don't really care what the person's specific address is but I think it is helpful to understand like where they let you know if they're uh what city they live in if they're coming from Lincoln to speak for us which they have all the right to come from Lincoln and speak to us uh but I think it's just it's just good to understand where where

112the people uh live and so I think stating the city uh I'm fully supportive all right no further comments thank you very much doctor settles I appreciate it in the last item uh for uh discussion tonight is the parent survey data Ms Simon okay our last piece of survey data um if you'll remember I presented the staff data a couple meetings ago so this is the parent side of that I always start with this slide just because it's best practice in communication so really where rad is evaluating the communication that we've done in the past and also conducting research for um how we're going to use that information moving forward with our planning a little bit about the survey itself we had um a little over 3 100 parents complete the survey that's a 45

113response rate so 45 of our parents completed this survey which is huge actually um we need roughly three to four hundred for it to be statistically valid um and we have three thousand uh 47 of the elementary parents completed it 43 percent of the middle school and 42 percent of the high school and some of those parents fall into multiple categories the survey really looked at how do parents get their information what information do parents want we looked at climate both for students and parents and then on this particular survey we asked specific questions about the bond issue because it was immediately following the bond issue so let's start with how parents get their information you can see all the different sources there school newsletters and District newsletters at the top school newsletters of course

114are number one and that's the way we want it is that parents get the direct information about their child's School directly from the school and then the next highest one is the district newsletter I do think it's important to point out that that bottom line that looks kind of orange there on the screen um is is local media and a lot of times we get flustered about news stories and what's happening in the media but what we've found from research not just in our district but Across the Nation is that the media really doesn't influence people's opinions about our schools it just reinforces What What In opinions parents already have so and this survey would prove that as well um we asked about are they getting the right amount of information about different topics so

115we ask about the school district strategic plan Mission and belief School Board actions legislative actions and the budget this is a three-year comparison I think the thing that's important here which is what we really want to see happening is that we are staying the same or we are increasing so parents feel like they're more informed or more likely to get the right amount of information this year than they did last year or the year prior and that's what we would want is for that trend line to continue to go up like that probably my favorite part of this parent survey is to really look at learning and how is communication impacting learning um just a little bit of a history lesson with our elementary schools right around the time of covid we stop doing classroom

116newsletters um and we started to see a decline in did Elementary parents feel that they had the information they needed about reading and about language arts um we saw that to the point where we were not comfortable we were in the 63 64 percent area um so last year we implemented classroom newsletters again as a part of that newsletter teachers included what students were learning that week what was coming up the following week and then how parents could support those Methods at home or the learning at home and you can see those first two questions are just Elementary you can see the jump that we saw based on doing that one change in our communication actually bringing that communication back and then you can also see and these are the key things that we know

117from both local and National research that impact a child's education what parents want to know about the classroom they want to know what their child outs learning they want to know about their classroom teacher they want to know how they can support what the curriculum is all those sorts of things you can see that the trend on those other two areas in fact if I broke out elementary middle school and high school that Elementary was at 72 percent on both of those last two questions what your child is learning and how parents can support at home academically so that the changes that we put in place last year truly impacted the results that we saw these are just some more specific questions again I just want to call your attention to that trend line and

118that would be true at all three levels Elementary Middle School and High School we're seeing the trend go in the direction we saw the trend going the wrong way um during covet and now we're seeing that Trend go back in the direction that we want it to go this was a question specifically about the classroom and what's important to parents as far as how they get communication you can see email overwhelmingly and this is broken down the lightest color is Elementary then middle school then high school and then the dark color is the district number so you can see how important the email and classroom newsletters which are kind of interchangeable because the classroom newsletter is emailed are to the impact of what parents are learning about what their child is learning about in the

119classroom social media is a vehicle that we allow our teachers to use but it clearly is not where parents are getting their information about what's going on in the classroom I think it just reinforces it's just one more method maybe they can put the same message they're putting in the email also included on social media is just one more way to communicate to parents classroom I will say it wasn't really designed to be a communication tool in fact for parents all they get is the weekly summary if the teachers turn that on about their child and what their child's learning but parents seem to really like that Weekly summary in fact Mr Bingham and I talked a little bit about do we need to be doing something different with that because it is a source

120that parents like climate data for the parents um first we asked about open communication do they feel that they can talk to their child's teacher do they feel that they can talk to their child's principal um both of those are in the 80s the can they talk to their child's teachers pushing 90 that's really positive um and we all know that our we would always strive to have a hundred percent satisfaction with every single parent but that's probably not realistic and to be pushed in the 90s is really positive for our teachers climate for the students the one thing I would say is that that 86 percent is student discipline that was a trend that we saw in the survey data both from a parent perspective as well as from a teacher perspective is concerns

121about discipline um and you can see that that's the the biggest one strongly agree and it's also the one that declined just slightly um the other one I would draw your attention to is that green line that goes through the middle there is 72 percent and that's I believe my child is learning at their Max potential and I happen to know that our CIA department has a focus this year across the district on rigor and increasing rigor and I think that that is something that our parents are asking for they want us to make sure that we are pushing students to their Max potential Climate about parents our parents treated with respect we're at 86 percent again the trend lines are either staying the same or going in the direction that we want them to

122go the qualitative data is that we have open-ended questions at the end this one was really hard because um the strengths staff is always our number one strength um and that's a tribute to people like Mrs Hoke and the amazing teachers that we have throughout this entire School District um it always always always is the number one strength that we see generally speaking other strengths just quality education people are generally happy and pleased with the school district and communication both at the teacher level as school level and at the district level concerns student behaviors was the number one concern that we saw we also saw that rigor piece come out in the comments that parents wanted students to be pushed a little bit harder to Excel and then specific communication about student achievement of their

123child and how their child was doing and I think we'll see that that will be a focus probably at the secondary level that will try to see how can we do a better job of communicating how students are doing the bond issue questions first we asked awareness I would love to know where those nine percent that said they were not aware of the bond issue were hiding um because we did get some written comments about we may be over communicated the bond issue but we'll take that so there was about nine percent that across all the levels that said they were not necessarily aware of the bond issue but to be at 91 percent we can be pretty pleased with those results then we asked how did they get their information and how would they

124prefer to get information in the future about Bond issues District newsletter was the number one source which makes sense because we really try to we have tried really hard to keep District related information out of the individual School newsletters and that's why we do a district newsletter we did use the school newsletters with the bond issue for some specific communication about things that were happening at that school which I think is why it's as high as it is the interesting thing to me was that they would prefer School newsletters versus the district newsletter if you look at the 58 compared to the 61 and then you can see all the different forms of communication Direct Mail isn't nearly as high with our parents because they get those newsletters the broader Community which we know is

125about 69 percent of our voters don't get those School newsletters because they don't have children in our schools the one thing that we asked which is really just a communication tactic we asked what what were the talking points what was included in the bond issue and people nailed them almost verbatim if you think back to our communication plans that we presented for the bond issue and said these are our talking points it's exactly what parents said they got from the bond issue so that was exactly what we wanted improve Safety and Security update older facilities no tax increase and then growth we always end the survey um with parent perceptions we ask parents to grade both our communication efforts which was at an 89 as well as the district as a whole um what what

126would they give the district on a letter grade um these scores that you're seeing are a b the bottom number that you see there that's kind of in the orange that is and we take this question directly from the pdk survey that they do Across the Nation about public schools and those are the ratings that you get the 54 percent that's floating out there pdk did not do their specific survey during covid they did a covid related survey so that's why the 44 is not connected to the 54. um generally speaking adults Across the Nation feel better about their Public Schools according to that pdk survey which I think is very interesting you would compare that National ranking of 54 percent 68 on that pdk survey are parents rating their school their child's school and

127that was only parents the 54 is all adults um and so 68 nationally would give their Public Schools um a grade that their children attend a grade of a or b and you will see that our parents would give us 87 percent of our parents would give us a grade of an A or a B what are the next steps with this um really these survey results Drive our communication plan and that's what we're in the process of right now finishing I shared a little bit of that with you at the board retreat um I think one of the key areas that is going to be we know one of the key areas we've already launched this um that's going to be a part of our communication plan and a goal for this upcoming Year's

128parent engagement across the district and just how can we make sure that parents know how much we value and need them engaged in their child's education and what can we do and so those four bullets there are kind of the four buckets on that parent engagement falls under and we're spending time with our principals at our admin meetings going through how can we increase parent engagement in each of those individual buckets in each of the principles are working on parent engagement along with the rigor which honestly we see the two very connected we know that when parents are engaged in their child's education students do better and so tying those two goals from curriculum instruction together is really focused on what our goal is which is academic achievement for our students so and I'm sure

129we'll come back at a later meeting and share all the different goals that we have in that communication plan but parent engagement is one of them questions uh thanks for presenting as always on the ease is over 3 000 parents that said yes right which is a very high number and uh that's an impressive uh response rate of 45 for parents especially towards the end of the year as uh they've got a lot parents have a lot going on uh as well and it's never easy you know the role of the communications is difficult because not only you have to communicate with the staff and the students in the community and the parents but I mean there's 7 000-ish parents everyone you ask you know did you get the right amount of information yeah some

130said no but you don't know was that too much or too little right there's always the everyone consumes information differently and wants a different level of information so you have the hard job of trying to balance the uh the you know probably the averages there for them but out of the uh 45 that responded how many open-ended comments did you get oh my gosh I should know this off the top of my head there were a lot um in fact one of our assistant principals did an internship with the communications department and she helped analyze those survey results because it was hours and hours I I want to say because there were two there were three open-ended questions um so there was the one about the bond issue and that one was pretty simple because

131it was a lot of the same um and then there was what are the strengths and what are the concerns about the body shoe there were probably over 2 000 comments I could get you that exact number um but it was it was a lot um some said you know no suggestions some of them were simple but for the most part and and basically with those open-ended comments we go through and create a tally list um and start to theme and group them together and then tally each of the responses um one of the things that's challenging that's different with the parent open-ended responses versus the staff um the staff are all commenting about the same thing the parents um a lot of times it's very specific things for their schools um so I really

132encourage principals to go through those open-ended comments and look at themes that emerge just from their individual school so we may have a whole building that has specific comments that don't necessarily fit into the overall themes what we're looking for from a Communications standpoint is what are the themes that emerge across all the buildings in all different levels but yeah there were a lot I don't know the exact number yeah yeah it's some Epson comments um the uh you answered my next question of if you could break it down by the school that or you know the paranet kids now that might that could also be tough because a parent could have kids in three different schools or whatever and you're trying to you don't know exactly where that comment which school it was relevant

133for if it was a you know hey my uh School newsletter doesn't fit my need here and you have three different newsletters that they could be getting so so we that's a great question so basically what we have is four surveys embedded into one So based on their first question that they fill out what level their children are at that triggers which survey they get so if I'm an elementary parent I only get Elementary questions if I'm a Middle School Parent I get questions about the Middle School newsletter if I have children in both my survey is a lot longer because I get how how does your Elementary School newsletter how is your middle school newsletter um so and that makes a challenge when we then pull all four of those so then you've got

134you've got some people that have people that all three kids at all three levels or just one of the three and then we have to pull all that together in the end um so yes it's if parents have kids at three buildings they're answering kind of the same school newsletter question three times because they answer it for each of their schools the open-ended questions are more of a challenge because we only ask them once and so we put specifically in the comments we ask them to designate which school it is they're talking about but parents don't always do that so sometimes principals will get an elementary school will get comments about the high school because that individual also had kids at the elementary but the comments are really designed at the high school thanks um

135one of the things that I just want to take the time to do is thank our parents who take the time to fill out this survey this data and information is incredibly important to us and I know from all my years on the board we've always taken it to heart we've always used it to help guide us moving forward with changes in the way we communicate or how we present information so I just shout out to the parents who take the time because we are all busy we all lead very busy lives and this took time out of their day or their week to provide the district with this information so thank you so much to the parents who took the time I know it takes a lot out of your lives but it does

136mean a lot to this District this board our administrators the communication Department put a plug in for Google Classroom I had to have a conversation tonight with my grandson about a missing assignment so we do use that and and the Google Classroom is helpful too so those are really good tools for parents to use thank you very much appreciate all your hard work on this all right uh last up here of our future board calendar um as Dr rickley's already mentioned uh September 4th the uh Labor Day holiday um the offices will be closed and then the fifth no school for students will be a staff development day and then our next uh Board of Education meeting will be September 11th at 6 pm here in the central office and unless somebody has anything else

137I'll adjourn the meeting at 7 52 pm thank you very much