001foreign good evening hi it is show six o'clock here so uh good evening and welcome to the Papillion La Vista Community Schools Board of Education I guess our board meeting and also before we get to that we're going to have a hearing to set our final tax request we'll start with that first so first on our call to order Pledge of Allegiance please rise I appreciate that all right uh next uh roll call please here and if I could get a motion to excuse Mr Lotus from the meeting this evening so moved all right I got a motion from Miss Fisher in a second for Mr madler and roll call please yes yes yes thank you very much all right as I said this first part is a hearing oh I'm sorry before I get
002there sorry uh make sure I announce that the opens meeting law is posted at the entrance to the room if you have any questions on that and also uh public comment uh public questions and comments can be made at the conclusion of the hearing actually I haven't received any forms for that so I guess we won't have any public comment for this so that being the case we will go ahead and go to the hearing to set the final tax request uh purpose of the hearings of your support opposition criticism suggestions or observations of taxpayers relating to the 2022-2023 final tax requests at a different amount than the prior year tax request Mr Richards thank you and good evening at the last meeting we did our budget hearing which we covered some of this information
003but tonight is the tax hearing so we'll talk about taxes in particular and I want to start out by talking about when valuation increases state aid decreases so this year in the district like pretty much similar to last year at about eight percent valuation increases in our district and that's valuation of all property residential commercial those types of things that count towards valuation increases for schools state aid decreased at 7.1 percent so the formula for tioso or state aid dictates that when a district starts seeing valuation Rises they have more resources so therefore they need less from the state and that's the way the formula works and it's a difficult for people to grasp that at times and we've as you know we've talked about putting together bills to to have that go away and
004have a different type of tax decrease for property taxes within our district for our citizens and we haven't been successful quite yet but we'll still continue to advocate for property tax decreases throughout the district at the state level because that's really what we're talking about here today overall expected Revenue increase with property taxes and state aid for 2022-23 is 3.29 percent so our property taxes have to go up state aid goes down and we end up with about a 3.29 percent net gain in Revenue expected kind of put this on a chart you can kind of see over the last four years how that looks when state aid was over 38 million there in 2019-20 and now down to 32.4 million property tax request in turn has to jump up and make for that deficit
005and state aid plus any additional increases we have for our our needs at this school district [Music] and most of the time in a growing environment our main Revenue sources again our two main Revenue sources for our district each year are the tax request and state aid and you can kind of see that in a different look where yellows and stated going down gray and property taxes continue to go up so the proposed property tax for 2223 general fund 78 million 787 000 and 87 878 dollars the bond fund is 18 million 176 048 and the special building funds 2 million ninety five thousand nine hundred and sixty dollars for a total amount of 99 million 59 886 dollars again increase of 7.58 percent from a year ago proposed property tax rates for 2022-23 if
006the property tax rate if we were leveraging just the same exact amount of property taxes as last year uh would leave us at a dollar just over a dollar Seventeen per hundred dollars of a tax assessed value and we are proposing a two cent Levy decrease even though we're asking for more property taxes we are dropping the levy uh proposed property tax levy of 1.26 for per hundred of assessed value for 22.23 just to get back to the budget information our general fund will increase by 2.8 percent uh this upcoming year uh bond fund a two percent increase and then a special building fund which includes our construction money for Bond projects uh actually decreases by 48 because a lot of less projects that we'll be doing this year compared to a year ago and
007then based on the proposed property tax request and changes in other Revenue the total operating budget for our school district will decrease by eight percent overall with that I'd be glad to answer any questions that you might have concerning our taxes for the 2223 school year I know we've talked about it before but for the benefit of our audience and anyone who might be listening can you explain how property tax is assessed yeah property taxes are assessed by our um assessed County Assessor and uh you know we get that a preliminary number in June of every year from the county assessor kind of gives us an indication where we're going to be and then people can file uh protests against those assess values and then we get the final amount in August 20th of each
008preceding year so we have a little bit of time to kind of play with the numbers and make sure we have our tax rates and budgets set accordingly does the school district have any input on what the vet property value will be no none whatsoever Mr Richards if I may I think Ms witt's question is very timely particularly as it pertains to the tax hearing that we had last week at the point of Vista South that we had five taxing jurisdictions we were one of them Gretna Public Schools Bellevue Public Schools two municipalities specifically city of Vista city of Bellevue the three main concerns I heard expressed at that tax hearing were won the timeliness of the postcards going to the taxpayers almost without exception they arrived late and in some cases they arrived literally
009hours before the hearing which had people pretty ticked off and understandably so I think it's important for our taxpayers to know that those postcards do not come from the school district and it's our belief they don't even come from the county I believe they come from the state which agency I can't speak to but it was difficult to hear for for people to be so dissatisfied and unfortunately we have little to no influence over that process I think the second concern that I heard from a number of testifiers was my assessed value went up twenty thousand thirty thousand fifty thousand or more again that's not something that the school district impacts we don't have any influence whatsoever over the assessed value of either commercial or residential property certainly having high quality schools tends to cause
010houses to appreciate more quickly but in terms of our direct influence on that process there simply isn't any the third concern that I heard does pertain to us and we do have influence and that is the budget the comment I think that we heard over and over it's time to tighten your belt and that's when we tried to take a moment to explain what those drivers on our budget really are and Mr Richards has articulated those in previous hearings I think it Bears repeating though 86 percent of our budget is directly tied to staff salary and benefits and the single largest beneficiary of that is our teachers they are 900 or 1800 employees there are other drivers on the budget at a much smaller degree just like everyone in the audience here is seeing what's
011happening with groceries our food costs go up just like everybody's seeing pain at the gas pump we have gas to put in Vans and buses as Miss Siri has pointed out textbooks that a year ago cost a hundred dollars cost 140 dollars so I understand where the frustration comes from I really do when you see nine percent inflation that's everybody's feeling that pain it's just difficult when sometimes we get beat up by things we have no control over such as when a postcard lands in your mailbox or what your house is now assessed at I just think it's important that our community understand that great job Mr Richards thank you all right no no other comments anyone okay thank you again one last thing I guess I want to say you know to add to
012that real quick is that I mean you know we obviously most of us were there at that meeting sitting here and we pay those same taxes and everything else it's not like we're exempt from any of this as well so I mean we feel that pain we feel the pain of inflation as well so I know that you know you all done a great job in trying to limit the increase in that uh in the budget but obviously the cost that you mentioned are still there so all right thank you very much um all right then we will adjourn this hearing at 6 10 P.M and we will continue with our regularly scheduled programming of the Board of Education meeting we have already done section one the call to order so from there we'll go
013down to section two Communications and first up Colonel Cooley our military advisory welcome sir welcome colonel pleasure to be back as always uh very exciting week at off it our Runway reopens on Friday so I I I I gave I gave the team a standing Applause Just by myself it's uh it's it's great to uh be just on the cusp of coming back so as I said before 750 Airmen a day that are moving out to Lincoln and uh Lincoln has been great to us the uh the Lincoln Airport Authority has been uh tremendous and the 155th air if you willing Wing have been just great Partners we had a chance to run out and talk to their leadership two weeks ago and just thank them for everything they've done for us but nonetheless it
014will be great to be home uh so the uh General Mark Kelly the commander of Air Combat command uh and Colonel Thompson the 50th win Commander will be on the first jet that lands uh somewhere around 2 15 on Friday afternoon and there will be the first tire tracks on the on the runway not a jet has touched down on it yet so very exciting time uh also alert missions will be returning this fall so with our Tacoma Looking Glass missions and our national Airborne operations center missions daily returning to fairly typical alert missions starting again this fall uh we will be closing down the Lincoln operations uh sometime next week we have moved around uh 50 truckloads of equipment back to off it already and we're about halfway done we're at a at a
015pause right now because we cannot move any more equipment uh until the until the aircraft have returned but uh that is going along fairly smoothly we've had the local companies doing a great job it's helping us out with that um we have an exercise coming exercises excuse me coming up in October and November uh testing deployment and Readiness there will be some uh long days and probably some impacts on families but uh the they will be going uh of just a few days at a time in October and November into fiscal Years also this week we're anticipating A continuing resolution but obviously I can't see into the future so there's it is possible that we have a government shutdown so the active duty Personnel will remain at work or something in Personnel would be on
016furlough until uh the National Defense authorization act or the continuing resolution uh make it through uh not atypical we've seen this of course before and operating we operate under a Canadian resolution for uh much of the last fiscal year demolition for our flood recovery is nearly 100 complete it's close enough to we might as well call it 100 complete the uh the base light complex was the last to start and that is almost complete as well uh bringing in significant soil to build up to the 500 year flood Plains so around 60 000 dump truck loads of soil uh being brought in and much of that is uh on the north side of Base has already been brought in so anticipating construction start obviously we have to wait for settling and then we are running
017out of uh concrete pouring season in Nebraska so earth work but I won't have to insult your intelligence by telling you how the weather will uh Stifler plans and it was an interesting my first fall since I was deployed last fall where it went from 100 degrees to 64 degree high in the space of 24 hours so um remarkable the 170th group of the Nebraska National Guard celebrated their 20th anniversary two weeks ago so Colonel went to Wendy excuse me Colonel Wendy scorsia is the group Commander there and had a very nice event celebrating their 20 years at offit and their their expanding rule Congressman bacon and uh Major General black the action in general were present for that celebration so very exciting time we're very much going into the enjoying going into the fall
018Halloween my kids are already talking about Halloween so I would imagine your your kids are starting to think about that as well uh pending any questions uh that is all I have for this this update yes sir I happen to live in the flight pattern and I have missed uh the uh the uh the activity in the air I really have yeah they it's like security blanket I guess for me we are it has been quiet on base yes and I get to see the variety of airplanes and I I have an interest in that absolutely you may have seen the FAA the Federal Aviation Administration was over last week and they were working on certifications so they brought one of the aircraft in and we're working on working in a pattern to make sure
019uh the uh all the landing systems and the various radar Etc were functioning appropriately so uh the Aero Club aircraft the Cessna 172s will be the last to come in but they're only a few days after the the air for the main Jets Colonel I'm sure the runaway project being completed has eased all kinds of short-term pain for our Airmen and flight Crews and so forth and so on but with it with its completion does that make offset in the 55th more competitive for potential future missions I mean what what's the long-term implications of the runway project being done sure uh difficult to talk about or difficult to see into that into the future with future missions uh with the inability to operate aircraft for the last 18 months it certainly didn't help make it
020more competitive but it allows us to make sure that we are meeting our flying our program so the the number of hours that we have told our combat command and the combatant commanders that we will fly the missions that will fly it makes it uh more realistic that we can meet those fulfill those goals because we don't have the significant Logistics tail with it moving the Personnel around but as far as inviting more missions I I know my boss is always inviting more missions but we have nothing uh we're not anticipating anything at this point so a lot of pressure on the first guy land in that airplane because everybody can see the tire marks and see where they were on that run they better be exactly down in the center one third down the
021runway exactly that's right so I have to ask which which airplanes coming in first RJ or is it RC it is an RC um I don't I do not know if I'm for the confidence in RJ but I don't know which one uh which model number it is I'm just just curious all right any other comments thank you very much appreciate it thank you gentlemen thanks for your time all right the next thing on the list is our public comments for items not on the agenda uh just as a reminder uh individuals who want to address the board got a few here when called upon please come up and state your name and address for the record uh make sure that you don't exceed three minutes I know Miss branco's got the timer there the
022first beep if you don't remember I think it's uh was at 220 is that what it is 2 15. I don't know okay something like that and then the next one will be at the three minutes so with that I will call up our first uh speaker it's uh Miss lowen Evie hello my name is Logan EBY I reside at 1401 Edgewater Circle Papillion 68046 my comments are about check number 142-182 issued to the Sarpy County Election Commission in the amount of 25 628.55 Mr Lotus current board president running for re-election Mr madler Treasurer and Miss Fisher secretary signed the check miss Emily Eddington Sarpy County election commissioner sent Papillion Lavista Community Schools a letter referencing Nebraska statute 32-1203 charging the district for the primary election held on May 10 2022. Ms evington's stated statute
02332 1203 the correct citation is 32 1202. I made a public records request to Ms Eddington asking for an itemized statement that supports her charges she provided the same letter the district provided when I made a similar request my question to Mr Lotus Mr madler and Miss Fisher in your personal capacity have you ever written a check over twenty five thousand dollars without asking what the exact charges are if your answer is no then why would you in your official capacity sign a check in the amount of twenty five thousand six hundred twenty eight dollars and fifty five cents using public funds without knowing the exact charges especially when the Sarpy County election commissioner did not provide an itemized invoice thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening all right thank you second speaker
024this evening Mr Michael cookenmeister hopefully I said that right Michael cookmeister 10231 simranos Drive I'm here to talk about a preferred pronoun and naming policies or guidelines again as you're probably aware the World Herald is now given this topic some coverage and our district was one of the two districts named for how we are instructing our staff to disrespect the privacy and preferences of our transgender and non-berry students I've emailed the sport about how these guidelines or policies could be considered discriminatory under the U.S department of education's interpretation of title ions protections since we're treating our transgender students differently when it comes to their preferences for how they wish to be addressed so if you haven't read it please do I think it's inevitable our district will have to deal with that at some point
025or another based on this alone beyond that it makes me cringe to think that legally covering our bus would be the primary motivator to honor our students pronoun and naming preferences and to make their well-being priority number one I'm confident that this board is concerned about our students well-being so I'm hoping that is enough to act and this isn't just about so-called parents rights being prioritized over the well-being of our students we need to recognize the inherent danger and bring the students parents regarding to a discussion about the student's gender identity when the student doesn't consent to it yes it'd be fantastic if all homes were supportive and recognized and affirmed these students entire selves but this district is kidding itself here when it assumes that that is the case we know the stats I
026refer to them in the last meeting we know that the majority of transgender students aren't able to say that their homes are a safe and affirming space simply by being themselves we do not know which homes are safe for transgender children we absolutely need to trust our students when they say contacting their homes about their gender identity is a bad idea we need to ask them if it's okay and respect that for their own sakes for their own health in all the ways that manifest itself poorer academic performance higher risks of depression anxiety and suicide at a most dire policies are actively affirm of students gender identity is simply Suicide Prevention at the absolute minimum we shouldn't we be doing everything we can to lower that risk because with these current guidelines and policies in
027place we just aren't to our Allied teachers and staff once again thank you for trying to do the right thing for making yourselves available and showing support for more vulnerable students thank you for trying to protect them you deserve more praise and recognition than you currently receive I'm sorry about any attempts by our district to keep you from doing otherwise will I recognize how disheartening that can be please don't lose your spirit your presence and support is crucial and it's very much appreciated by many of us here inside and outside of the district to our Administration I'm sure you probably received some kind of legal advice or virtual for one reason or another that these so-called guidelines are to protect the student or to protect the district that seems iffy especially since the other districts
028in the area don't seem to agree but I have to ask if we're more interested in protecting our own butts over safeguarding the well-being of our students what on Earth are we even doing here thank you for your time all right thank you very much our last speaker this evening is uh Ms Brittany holtmeyer hi hi uh Brittany holtmeyer oh sorry uh 207 Ridgewood Drive um I wanted to give an apology especially after speaking with the teacher in the district who felt like they were being a nuisance to the district for reaching out and asking for help from the superintendents with nothing in return I'm sorry to those teachers who are still coming to work and who are drained I'm sorry you're at your wits end I'm sorry if you felt like giving up and
029I'm sorry that you are not being heard when you express your concerns and not getting the help that you have called out for I'm sorry no one has listened to you and I'm sorry you're losing your love and passion for teaching I'm sorry if you haven't felt valued if you feel overworked underpaid and if you haven't heard a thank you in a while just know even when you truly don't see it your students love freedom they may not know what you're dealing with or what's going on in the inside but they'll forever remember how you presented yourself on your hardest days just by you showing a smile please know your smile your encouragement your affirmations you showing up every day a student will always remember that and you are making an impact and I'm sorry
030to the teachers who have resigned these past two years I may not know everyone's stories but I do know a lot as they have expressed to me to the parents who have lost trust in the district you may have moved here for the schools in small town community you may have went to school here growing up and fell in love with the district just as I had and I'm sorry it's not the same that it used to be I'm sorry to those of you in the community that have felt betrayed and lied to I'm sorry for the division that has happened from not so great choices the loss of transparency the loss of learning and for the Mental Health crisis that is now on the rise just know it can be better and it will
031get better and we need each other now more than ever and we will get there so once again I am sorry and please know that there are more people willing to listen and take a stand for you and I just wanted to leave with some encouragement have I not commended you be strong and courageous do not be afraid and do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go Joshua 1 19. thank you all right thank you all right uh next on the agenda under Communications is uh superintendent's report thank you much thank you very much Mr Bailey members of the board and for our community members who are with us tonight as always thank you for being here and for those who are watching on YouTube we appreciate
032your engagement uh it is wonderful to have so many people who are interested in their Board of Education in their school district the good news first homecoming week for Papua Lavista high school so you'll recall we celebrated similar week the week's activities for papilliona Vista South uh they finished with a victory over Omaha Burke I'm sure it's just a coincidence but the Buena Vista High School is also playing Omaha Burke so we'll see how that how that works out but a special congratulations to the homecoming Court royalty of papilla Vista High School the game is this Friday 7 p.m at Foundation field and hopefully we'll have a good turnout to root on the monarchs also did want to bring up the tax hearing again even though we talked briefly about it I want to thank
033the board for being here several community members who are here this evening I believe were there as well I was at Buena Vista South we were proud to host that event according to the county statistics we had 232 two attendees 38 public comments and then the five different taxing jurisdictions Who provided an explanation of their budget and their tax ask so this is the first year that we have done this tax hearing it's due to a new state law that passed and that was a great opportunity for us to interact with our community and hear their concerns firsthand also wanted to remind the board we had our very first liaison lunch of the year we put those on hold for a period of time during the pandemic when we were limiting outside visitors Mr Lotus
034and I met with the staff at G Stanley Hall had a Jimmy John's had a good conversation took some questions from the teachers and it was just a great opportunity I think for Mr Lotus and I to hear what's going well as well as what some of the challenges are that our teachers are facing also had the opportunity with Lois Erickson to kick off a number of cooperation best business partners as our community may be aware we have a very active Business Partnership program I believe we have over 300 area businesses some within the school district some outside of the school district that have partnered with us to provide supports to our families our teachers and our kids so to be able to kick off those Partnerships is always a really fun event and lastly
035wanted to remind the board in our community we have started our community engagement process by which we are sharing potential future facility improvements the board has seen this presentation in fact we shared it I believe at the last board meeting so that our public has had an opportunity to see the list of schools that are impacted currently there are 12 schools that are on the list plus our young adult transition program our purpose now our objective now is to get out and share that information with our staffs we will meet with every single one of our building staffs as well as different Community groups and it will be culminating with two Community forums one at Monarch one at Titan I believe those are both in the month of October more information the 20th and 27th
036thank you Ms Fisher so we'll be sure to get out information on that on the specifics as we get a little closer but those we typically have really good public turnout for those two events and lastly the board has asked that I provide a summary of public records requests as part of my superintendent's report moving forward so once a month I'll provide just a very brief summary of the public records requests that have come in I did not provide names at this meeting but if that is something that the board wants me to provide we certainly have that data so since we're playing catch up in the months of August and September where I combine the two months so during the months of August and September we had six public records requests the question came
037up how many of those specifically involved board Council ksb law two of the six involved legal counsel the aggregate amount of time that was spent by staff collecting disseminating the information reviewing the emails if it included emails and text messages and then sending it back was 11 hours and 40 minutes so just under 12 hours and we do still have one request which is still pending due to its size so if the board wants something different in future meetings I can certainly provide that but just wanted to give the board an update on our latest public records request and with that Mr Bailey I'd conclude my superintendent's report thank you very much all right next on the agenda is uh board comments I'm not going to be here at the next meeting so I want
038to get this uh just uh plug out but we are 45 40-ish days away from the election so just want to have everyone that can vote make sure you go register I think yeah till the end of October um there's a lot of resources out there on candidates for all the different uh roles so especially those that are in our schools that this would be their first time just you still have a little bit of time to register so just want to put that little PSA out there for people that's it I just wanted to say one thing I'm pretty excited and we got a lot of things going on the calendar but one that's not on there since I arranged it with the Hal coordinator I'm going to be a hosting 12 Hal students
039this Wednesday at UNO they're going to take them through the Sims so got a couple of our students out there doing it so I'm really excited to host them down there so I'm very excited about doing that so just wanted to bring that up and with that no further board comments we'll move on to the next item committee reports first buildings grounds and finance starts meeting the year scheduled next week to meet thank you human resources and student services we did have a meeting and we will have an agenda item tonight for the action items thank you very much and finally curriculum and americanism we've not met all right thank you very much that includes concludes section 2 Communications moving on to section three action items uh for action item a action by consent before
040we uh vote on that I need to bring out a correction the page that talks about new contracts uh Ms Marissa Terry she's been hired at Patriot and not Prairie Queen so we made that mistake so if we could include that when we have our action by consent please I make a motion to approve the action by consent agenda with correction as stated all right so I had a motion by Ms Whitt and a second by Dr Tafoya roll call please yes yes yes yes all right thank you very much board meeting minutes of September 12 2022. I'll make a motion to prove the board meeting minutes of September 12 2022. second all right I had a motion by Ms Fisher and a second by Mr madler roll call please yes yes and see the
041budget hearing minutes of September 12 2022. take a motion to approve the budget hearing minutes of September 12 2022. second sorry motion by Mr mandler and a second by Dr Tafoya roll call please yes all right thank you very much uh item D the adoption of the 2022-23 budget of funds thank you Mr Bailey yes sir we've had a chance to have a budget hearing and go over these numbers with the board and within our committee uh budget grounds and finance committee as well and uh the numbers are set has written within the packet tonight and I would be happy to entertain any more further questions that you might have uh I don't have any questions but I just want to say since it's regarding the budgets I uh you know we went to the
042a number of us went to the budget hearing on Thursday night I you know it was a couple hours long with the public comments so I appreciated hearing everyone's comments um you know for Bellevue and Gretna and and Papillion as well everyone was included but there was uh one person um I think the realtor from Bellevue I don't remember her name but she was brought up a good point for the homestead exemption too again you know property taxes can be a burden so we just want to make sure that people have uh know some of the options out there and um the homestead exemption can give you a break on property taxes for I think over 65 and based on income criteria so um I just thought that was a good note by one of
043the community members um if you know of someone who would who would maybe fit in that criteria the Nebraska Department of Revenue has more information there and I also want to say because there's just an article I think 10 days ago that new uh State um tax break on School District taxes I think that started in 2021 that was between 20 and 25 percent of the property taxes that uh one pays um on any property uh I think they came out and said that 200 million dollars have been unclaimed in that uh the state income tax credit which is I think fully refundable and you have to file your state income tax return to get that but again that should be 20 to 25 percent uh back of those property tax so those are just
044a couple PSAs I want to get out there one from being from the budget hearing meeting I thought just was a good overall comment I appreciate all the work that has gone into the budget uh this year I know being the first one here um that you've really put together you know kind of took over from Mr Lewis uh last year and we know that you know times aren't the easiest with all the price increases but you're trying to as a as a service you're trying to balance the dollars that you're bringing in and the services that you're providing because the community has expectations the types of services that this District provides so while you uh you know that doesn't mean you have an open checkbook it is a find balance that you're trying to
045walk not taking too much but providing the right services and I think this budget does a great job of finding that balance and just want to say thanks for and the whole team that uh works on it because I know it's a lot of work in the back end thank you appreciate it I will make the motion to approve the adoption of the budget for 2022 23 through the budget resolution and state budget forms 2022 2023 as presented second all right thank you very much I had a motion by Mr Madeline in a second by Dr Tafoya any further board comments and if I could get a roll call please yes thank you all right uh next on the list is our policy number 4143 our temporary early retirement Dr settles yep hi there so
046you're not going to see a lot of things updated in this I'm very loud about a little bit better you're not going to see a lot of things updated in this we update the dates annually and then we consider how many spots we want to have each year as well as what the amount would be for the early retirement voluntary separation program so the recommendation from the HR and student services subcommittee that met would be to approve 15 applications up to 15 I should say those are due on December 1st and the you'll see dates updated throughout that policy as well just to kind of save you from having to do the math if you're kind of curious there are 66 eligible staff this year who could qualify for this last year we had 12
047spots used and there were 56 eligible and the year before that we had eight spots used and there were 53 eligible so I would imagine that it's pretty likely that we would use all 15 spots this year if we do get more than 15 applicants that's something that the subcommittee first considers based on the length of service the salary amount the areas that the staff would be resigning from and then determine whether or not to bring a recommendation to you to approve extras or not do you have any questions at all no questions for me Dr settles I just want to thank you for your good work on this and and I think this is yet another data point for us that flies in the face of some of what we're seeing happening across the
048country where districts are seemingly hemorrhaging Talent and in two of the most difficult years we've experienced during the pandemic we had 15 open spots and we didn't fill them that says a lot to me about our teachers level of satisfaction and how happy they are to work here there's exceptions to every rule of course there are in an organization of this size but to not fill our 15 allotments the last two years pretty remarkable I hope we do fill it this year we want people to be able to retire on their terms but hats off to you for the outstanding work you've done I'll make a motion to approve the total of 15 applications for the 2022-2023 school year for early retirement second okay any further board comments all right I had a motion by
049Ms Whitt and a second by Ms Fisher and roll call please yes yes yes yes thank you very much all right that concludes our action items for this evening uh next up our discussion information items item a superintendent's performance goals for 2022-2023 thank you very much Mr Bailey members of the board members of the community this is something that we take uh spend a significant amount of time on every single year that is the superintendent goals and I think it Bears mentioning to our community uh just how this process looks and what the goals are that we have proposed to the Board of Education so what Nebraska state law requires of superintendents across the state is that they be and they be evaluated no less than twice a year in their first year of employment
050that no longer applies to me this is my 10th year of employment by this District but we still choose to go above and beyond what state law requires so typically the process starts into spring where we start pulling together different data sources the data sources would include uh the staff and the community survey for example that Ms I'm in briefed us on it would include the peer-to-peer colleague survey that I give out every May where every single administrator in the district has an opportunity to provide feedback and say this is what we think Andy is doing well here's the things where Andy's missing the mark we look at other perceptual data we look at test scores and we certainly spend time looking at the Strategic plan because that is the road map that the community
051and the board have provided as the long-term objectives for the district so we bring all that data together and then we start looking at goals that hopefully support those data points typically we settle on between four and six goals this year is no exception but before we settle on goals we typically have a fall retreat uh we share this preliminary information with the board so that they can have an idea of what we're proposing and then once the board is comfortable with those proposed goals we have a conversation in the fall which is what this conversation is about tonight then there's at least at least two different uh formal conversations around those goals that are selected one in December which is the Midway point in the year where I provide a mid-year update saying I've
052made progress in these areas but there's still a few areas I'm continuing to work on and then I provide a final report to the board typically in May early June where I say the school year is over here's where we've made progress here's where we still have work to do so it's very much a cyclical process it's very much a collaborative process and in addition to those formal evaluation meetings that the board has I meet with each one of these board members at least once a month and we have lots and lots of conversations about my performance the board's expectations of me in the direction we're headed so I'm very proud of this process I think it works no process is perfect but I feel really good about the direction we're headed I think for
053transparency's sake just briefly going through these six goals for the community would be of some benefit and I think what you'll find if you follow this from year to year sometimes the goals look very similar and other times they look very different I'll try to highlight that as we go through this goal number one for the upcoming school years execute the district strategic plan I believe that's been a goal almost every single year since I've been employed for the last 10 years we have three separate goals one of which we'll hear tonight which focuses on Mental Health the other two deal with HR recruitment retention strategies and then we have a teaching and learning goal dealing with academic rigor goal number two Implement an engagement plan for the district facility needs we spoke about this
054a little bit earlier in the evening we're not saying the word bond out loud yet because we don't know if there will be a bond and if there is one we don't know the timing yet we don't want to get the card ahead of the horse we want to talk about Community engagement first and we have some ideas that we want to float in front of our staff in our community and that's going to be a big part of what our team will be working on the next six to nine months goal number three Implement district-wide climate culture and visibility initiatives one of the things that I heard loud and clear from our administrators when they were evaluating me as well as what we heard from our staff on the year-end survey is visibility I
055think for all administrators but for me in particular has suffered the last year 200 covet and I think there's some climate things that we need to work on and some culture things that we need to work on and that starts with me it starts at the top the buck stops with me and there's some things that uh that we're going to put in place to hopefully address that goal number four update District Safety and Security protocols we talk about Safety and Security all the time around here and we would be absolutely foolish not to unfortunately every time we turn around we see another school shooting or incidents of violence around the country and we just want to make sure we're being proactive with our training with our facilities with our safety protocols goal number five
056expand District staff recruitment retention strategies that speaks directly to one of our strategic planning goals we know in all environments attracting and retaining high quality people is very challenging and Dr settles has done some remarkable things in this area and that's going to be continue to be a challenge for us moving forward and finally number six is the one that I hope none of us ever need and that is Implement our recovery plans as they relate to the pandemic it is my hope that we no longer have to go to masks ever it is my hope that we never have to go into a situation where kids in remote learning ever I think we all learned some hard lessons these last two and a half years we did what we had to we acted in
057the best interest of kids we made decisions based on safety and there's some things I'm very proud of and there's some things quite frankly if we had to do over we'd probably do different so we want to be ready in case something happens but at the same time I'm very confident in saying based on conversations we've had with the health department and others that hopefully the pandemic is firmly in our rear view mirror those are the six goals as they stand not asking for the board to take action on them tonight would gladly answer any questions the board may have about those six goals we've had a lot of conversation about these goals so I'm feeling pretty comfortable with them and as always that we may move and shift as we need to as we
058go through them as other things come up so um but I think it's great that we have that opportunity to let our community know what we're currently working on what the expectations are from you and where we're going moving forward so it's a great reminder to have that opportunity so thank you I just want to say thank you for going through all those um that's I think it's a good reminder just as uh Miss Fisher said that it's of what we constantly work on what we talk to you about I agree the meetings that I know that I have with you once a month are very productive to be able to just kind of sit down and talk and talk some about those goals maybe not directly but indirectly we talk about those so I
059really appreciate all the work uh that I know that you are continuing to put into those goals into for the Excellence of this school district so thank you very much thank you any other comments all right I'll move to the next item Item B under discussion information items strategic plan strategy number two update Miss Siri all right good evening Board of Education uh so tonight we are going to give you an update on our second strategy of our strategic plan uh this one focuses on mental health and I have asked members of the action planning leadership team for this strategy uh to come tonight they're going to give you an update um who we have with us is Miss Michaela bobaida she is principal at Golden Hills Elementary Dr Tammy Boyson who is our director
060of special services Dr Deb Anderson who is our mental health liaison and Miss Jessica prusa who is a vice principal at Papillion La Vista South uh miss Monica Thompson is also a leader on this particular team but I don't know if she was lucky or unlucky enough to be an outdoor Ed tonight with her kiddos so she couldn't be here but I'm going to turn it over to these guys and they're going to kind of take you through the progress that we've made on this particular strategy first of all thank you for having us here tonight we're really excited to share with you the many amazing things that have happened in the last two and a half years since the February March 2020 meetings where the community groups um identified mental health as an area
061of need within our community but also within our district and at that time they created the strategy that you see up there with the goal of having all of our students have that opportunity to learn and refine those mental social physical and emotional well-being skills that they need to be successful each and every day within their life from there we had another committee form to work on the specific result that at the end of this process this is what we wanted to walk away with and that is having mental health protocols and supports identified and implemented so that resources were more readily available more widely available for our students our families and our staff and for this we do have a couple key action items that we wanted to um just let you know what's
062been going on for our strategical number two that have been put in place over the last two and a half years one of them is to communicate and Market the mental health services and resources that includes the new hotline there used to be an 800 number that was a national hotline they've taken that and they've changed it to just 988 it's three numbers so students can call or text whichever mode they will prefer so we really want to take that market that out and make sure our community has that number next thing is just to support the whole child and really to streamline the social emotional learning curriculum and align that with the current counseling curriculum that's in place in all the schools as well another thing is just expanding our Community Partnerships to provide
063more mental health supports not just to our students but to their families as well in our social worker have done a great job at knowing what those are and marketing and getting those out to our students we Universe a mental health screener for our students that we do and basically what it is it's just warning signs for our students of some behaviors and then finding supports for those students who are struggling with those behaviors as well and then just to continue to build a support system for students to feel them make sure that they're safe and secure at all times nice to meet all the you my name is Debbie Anderson I am like saying I'm bullet number one so I am the addition of the mental health liaison and this was thanks to the
064district having the foresight to say we need to get some Esser funding so that we can be committed to our students wellness and resiliency so that position was added and then also a new social worker was added it was planned at a social worker anyway because of the expansion that was happening in the district but the Ezra's funding allowed that to happen sooner so that's been a really good thing what I've been doing and you're going to hear some of it high level but not alone with everybody here is a lot of what I say I'm collecting the dots connecting the dots and correcting the dots so gathering information on the resources that we currently have available then making sure that all of those are connected together so everybody knows what should be happening and
065to strengthen the supports that we already have in the district and by the way we have a lot so that's been really gratifying to find out and then finally to correct the dots means to identify where the gaps are and make sure that we get those gaps closed Tammy I think I think okay so talking more about some of the things that we've been working on so the first one elopement um we do not have a bunch of students running off and getting married um elopement in this case does refer to that flight kind of kicking in so at times some students feel like they need to leave the classroom and we needed to have protocols in place to make sure that we are both documenting but also the teams needed to get together and
066put some safety plans in place make sure that we know where students are and how we can get students some resources so they didn't feel like they needed to leave the classroom but if they do find a safe place in the building that they can go to someone that they can talk to so we've worked a lot with a committee on on some of those protocols uh Miss prusa mentioned that continuation alignment of counseling social emotional learning curriculum to make sure that their the counselors are reinforcing the same thing that classroom teachers are teaching within the social emotional learning curriculum with all of this we want to look at sustainability so we're putting some systems in place to help students and we need to make sure that we can sustain that over time so Dr
067Anderson has just been uh so uh great in helping us find those opportunities she's very networked in both our metro area across the state and nationally and very knowledgeable about some of those resources that we can tap into so that we can sustain the good work that we're doing and then also uh we had an opportunity this summer esu3 has they brought a bunch of school districts together and talked with us about creating a district mental health leadership team so there's a number of school districts that are participating in this we begin this summer and it's a good group I think there's about 10 11 of us on the team made up of central office staff and then also we've got counselors social workers School psychologists Behavior coaches that are on that team as well
068and then Michaela sits on that team as the chair of our strategic goal to mental health committee so that we're making sure we're connecting that strategic goal with the work that we're doing with that mental health leadership team and on that team we said we went through an assessment then we set goals for ourselves and then we're sticking to those goals aligned with the Strategic goal as well and then really putting those committee together and then we have a larger committee that I believe Michaela is going to talk to you about in a minute to really put those action steps in place and make sure that we're meeting needs I was just kidding it's Jessica okay all right so that's a little bit about some more progress that we're doing you Nexus you thank you
069okay a couple of these things we've already touched on the communication and marketing of the new 988 number versus the 1-800 and old tax line that has been used also the mental health collaborate collaborative team and like Tammy had mentioned that's with counselors social workers School psychologists Behavior coaches just so everyone is very familiar and on the same page with as to what resources we can provide students and their families and how we can best support them to make sure that they are able to to learn and you know to make that a priority for them because if we don't get some of these other things some support for them in that area you know it's really hard for them to focus on algebra one when they've got bigger issues going on and then the
070last thing is just the expansion of Our Hope squads last year at Papillion Lavista South we started a hope Squad it was our first year and Deb Anderson has been amazing in finding support and funding through region six to get a help Squad at all of our secondary levels and for those of you who are like what's a hope Squad what is this hope Squad is a really cool program it's a nationwide organization that was actually started in Provo Utah and what it does it's a peer-to-peer suicide prevention program so students are dominated by their peers to be on the Hope Squad it's not just something anybody can join they are put through some pretty extensive training and we always tell our Hub Squad members you are not to be a counselor you are not
071to be there to for someone to dump all their problems and issues on what your job is as a hope Squad member is to take that student who's struggling and get them to a trusted adult so that trusted adult can get them the help program has been very successful so far at Papillion Lavista South there's a couple other metro area schools that have it as well and we're just super excited the rest of our secondary buildings are going to be able to jump on this and support students at their buildings as well so I get to be the bread of the sandwich and I'll I'll wrap us up here today by walking you through our next steps um all of these next steps really revolve around making sure that we're increasing opportunities for our students
072our staff and our families to have resources available the right knowledge and the different connections that they need to ensure that we are serving the whole child and the whole family so where we will continue to go and and a lot of these things are being worked on as we speak continuing to build those connections to resources within the community those are are critical uh like I said we don't just serve the students we serve everyone and so when we're able to connect families to what they need and the correct resources we can truly serve the whole child streamline those processes that we have in place we have a number of wonderful processes within our district to address mental health um what we found as we started to do this work this summer was that
073maybe we could improve the efficiency and the number and really streamline how we set up all of our processes revolving around Mental Health we want to continue expanding those opportunities for families and staff to continue to get the information they need on Mental Health we will always be looking at those needs and those areas for growth we know that things evolve and change and we need to make sure that we're continuing to take a look at those identifying them and then putting plans in place to move us forward and finally we need to make sure that we continue to build and offer the necessary professional development opportunities for staff they are with students six seven hours a day plus if they are coaching them in after school activities or they are in clubs and so
074we need to make sure that they have the right resources the right training to know how to respond when a child might need a little extra support so again we thank you for having us here tonight and we are opening to any questions you may have I have some comments or questions so number one my I'm raising a grandson who's a little bit autistic and so he's been in a Loper and he was on IEP which is beneficial because I had we had things in place where we met with and talked with his team to make sure his mental health and his schooling was in order so this is even for people who don't need an IEP and that's what I want to make sure people know this is for every single child who may
075experience a mental health issue anytime during the year and people are going to be put in place to help that child in that family that is correct this is for all I was very happy the day that I met Dr Anderson she came to the wellness committee and explained her situation what the situation was in there and I saw that progress was taking place this presentation this evening has I do appreciate the effort that you place people are putting forth because this is a problem that we cannot ignore it is very Paramount that we do something about it and uh thank you thank you very much for all you do I think one of the things that really strikes me about this is that you've always talked about it's not just about the child the
076student it's about the family it's about the staff making sure that everybody along that path has the support that they need to help do the best that we can when it comes to our students from a mental health perspective if you've watched over all these years you know if you go back 10 20 years ago this is a very different time now that we find ourselves in and school districts are playing a bigger role in trying to help make sure that our students are healthy from a mental health perspective but we can't do that if we're not taking care of our staff if we're not making sure that they're prepared and feel comfortable being able to and it certainly doesn't do any good if we're not helping the family as well so that's the thing
077that really strikes me about our mental health program is that we're trying to include all of the areas so thank you for helping to share that so families know there is help in this District not just for their student but also for their for the family but there's also help for our staff as well so thank you for the information I want to piggyback the thanks and the um for putting it together and for presenting as you guys go through it you know keep uh keep Dr rickley updated on if there's anything else anything the board can be doing to help policy changes um switching resources uh you know keep keep everyone keep us updated on that um I did have a question this year over last year we've had some attacks nationally and then
078even in this boardroom on SEL I could I don't know who wants to take it but would one of you want to clarify what our goal is with SEL and what the purpose of it is and why it is important to be putting so many recent resources to it in the district so I'll start and then I'll let them fill in so we've had our SEO curriculum for uh several years now and really what it is is it's those part of it is character building skills and also emotional management with kids um for themselves helping them recognize when they're sad when they're frustrated when they're angry what the difference is some kids have it very naturally and easy some don't and so it's about helping them regulate that and also understanding it I think it's
079everything from in kindergarten when we talk about washing hands before you eat lunch to how you interact out on the playground what does it mean to be fair so our teachers have done it for a long time I think it was structurally putting in a time for them to to do it strategically as far as like I think part of the conversation I've had with people that have reached out and asked about it I think part of it is a misunderstanding of what it is and what it is not that is also part of it and then our counseling curriculum of course goes right along with it too and has for a long time and we even had some overlap there and you'll notice that in the slides we talked about how it needed to
080be aligned like where do we have repetition and are we using the same terminology and that sort of thing so that was work that came a little bit later but our counseling it's always been in our curriculum cycle and we've always looked at it and evaluated it now we're just putting both pieces in there and as Tammy pointed out it's really about making sure that the classroom teachers are reinforcing and the counselors are reinforcing too so that kids don't they're getting the same message so anything you want to add there is he did a beautiful job thank you um one of the things that we've we've discussed is that these SEL lessons social emotional learning lessons have really taken place even when we were in school it just looked different whenever we had maybe a
081coral with a friend out on the recess ground our teachers brought us together and taught us in that moment how to work through that and how to be able to get along how to share when we became upset because maybe we didn't get a hundred percent on a paper having that person that could walk us through how to handle it at that moment now we just have that curriculum in place where we're we're working with kids each and every day to be okay to know how to manage and regulate those emotions but really how to get along with one another one thing I I think that that frustrates me sometimes is when I hear people saying our teachers didn't go into this to be therapists or counselors or social workers or whatever the SEL curriculum
082does not require that these lessons are largely pre-packaged they're largely an extension of what good teaching has looked like for Generations and frankly our job as Educators is to remove barriers that get in the way of learning we cannot teach algebra one to miss prusa's point if kids are bringing emotional baggage from home and part of what we do as professional Educators is address what those obstacles are social emotional physical and try to get around those obstacles so that real learning can occur and I'm just really proud of the efforts that this team has made in SEL and other areas and couldn't be prouder of the direction we're headed so thank you for the question I mean not really but just I was just gonna kind of piggyback off what Michaela said um I've always
083been an educator I've always been in high school so I feel like I've got a really good feel with ages 13 to 18 19. um for the first time and my girls are in kindergarten this year so it's a whole new world for me and it's been really cool just to see some of the things they bring back from the elementary school that's I mean this sounds really weird but that's even helped me as a parent so just the other day they had a guidance lesson and they brought home like a little sheet of paper on how to problem solve so just simple easy techniques that both the kid and the parent can do on just basic problem solving skills I mean other than throwing a tantrum or doing a timeout or different things like
084that so um honestly as a parent that sounds silly but it's even helped me like kind of regulate the Motions of my you know six-year-olds because I'm used to Big emotions of 15 16 year olds so I appreciate it I get since I sit in this seat tonight I get the last word here on this but uh I appreciate Mark as you bringing that up because I was going to bring up the same thing I since since this District was attacked about their SEL and I know my wife listens to these meetings and she's a third grade teacher and she was just beside herself saying you know we this is stuff we have been doing they're just you know making it more into lesson forms so I you know I appreciate you bringing that up
085because I was going to ask the same question but I want to thank you all very much um like I said it's um you know the SEL whether it's formalized or whether it's informal out on the playground or something like that's extremely important especially in these times so really appreciate you all taking the time out of your evening to come here and speak with us thank you [Applause] all right uh let's see the last thing here future board calendar we got lots coming up here looks like the liaison lunches are taken off in force uh we have a liaison lunch Dr Tafoya here does with ideal on the 27th of September I'm just going to list these here for a second and I'll come back on the 3rd of October I get to go to
086Anderson Grove I'm really looking forward to that for liaison lunch and then on the 6th of October Ms Whit looks like you get to go to La Vista West another good trip so we got a lot of those coming up so pretty exciting to get those back on on the calendar October 1st the homecoming dance Dr rickley you mentioned uh playing La Vista High School and their homecoming that's fantastic and then October 7th uh no school for staff or students and October 10th no school for the students sorry staff you got to come in and do your staff development day and then finally also that day our next Board of Education meeting at the six o'clock here in the central office uh seeing nothing further on our agenda for this evening I will adjourn the
087meeting at 7 11 pm thank you all very much for