Board of Education Regular Meeting

October 13, 2014 7:00 PM

Hayes Center High School

I. Call to Order - President Richards called the meeting to order at 7:08 P.M. in the board room at the High School.  Notice of this meeting was given in advance to all board members.

I.A. Roll Call – Board members present:  Connie Brott, Britt Hill, Amanda Johnson, Marian Richards, Bob Rosno.  Absent:  Joe Anderjaska. Also present was Superintendent, Ron Howard and Principal, Tony Primavera. 

I.B. Pledge of Allegiance - President Richards led the Pledge of Allegiance.

I.C. Recognition of Visitors – Visitors were invited to sign in to speak to the board. 

I.D. Recognition of Open Meetings Act poster – President Richards advised all in attendance of the Open Meetings Act poster which was displayed on the wall in the Board room.

I.E. Adoption of Agenda – Motion to approve the agenda as presented passed 5 - 0 with a motion by Rosno and a second by Amanda. 

Joe Anderjaska          Absent

Connie Brott            Yes

Britt Hill              Yes

Amanda Johnson          Yes

Marian Richards         Yes

Bob Rosno               Yes

II. Audience Communications 

II.A. IXL Presentation - Miss Stephanie Hansen, 4^th grade teacher, gave a presentation on the IXL program that students are using to reinforce math and language arts standards that are taught in the classroom. 

Joe Anderjaska arrived at 7:13 P.M.

III. Services Report 

III.A. Transportation report – Gregg Bishop, Transportation Director, provided information on the comparable costs of running the yellow buses versus a Suburban on the two west routes.  The board was in agreement to continue using the yellow buses on these routes.   Repairs will be decided on as they come up as to fix them or not or to use a different spare bus.   

III.B. Elementary computer lab update – Maury Cox, Head Custodian, reported on electrical problems in the Elementary computer lab.  He has received one bid to put in a new panel designated for the lab only.  They will be getting one or two more bids before proceeding with the repair. 

Anderjaska complimented Maury on how nice the football field looks this fall.

IV. Board Member/Committee Reports 

IV.A. Staff Survey – President Richards handed out results from the Climate Survey given to the school staff.  There were 41 surveys given out and 23 were returned.  Richards said these could be used to help set our District Goals.  They will be added as a Discussion item at the November meeting.

IV.B. District Goals – Mr. Howard provided President Richards with some information he had received on goal setting.

IV.C. Sample School Calendar – The board received a sample school calendar from another district to compare the number of Professional days to our calendar.  It was suggested to research other district’s calendars before setting our calendar for next year.   

IV.D. Core Community group/Logo – President Richards informed the Board that the Community Core committee will meet Tuesday at 7:00 P.M.  One item they are working on is developing a logo for the committee.  They would like to have a contest with the students submitting drawings and a prize given to the winner.

V. Administrative Report - Mr. Howard reported on a discipline issue at the school that dealt with drugs with two students being suspended.   

Mr. Howard apologized for the discrepancy in the game times on the school calendars and website.  They will continue working to deliver accurate information to the public.  Rosno suggested doing a Code Red call each week to announce activities, times and locations. 

V.A. Special Education/Title I information – Mr. Howard reported on the Title I and Special Education departments.  A workshop is going to be held for the staff to provide information on procedures to follow to improve these programs.    

V.B. A QuESTT is a new program being developed by the State, due to the passing of LB438. Mr. Howard reported that our Academic Strategic Plan is very much tied to this mandate.  Some changes will probably need to be made to comply with the A QuESTT tenets.

V.C. Parent-Teachers Conferences - Mr. Primavera provided information in his report to the board.  The turnout at the Elementary was 94% and 68% at the High School.

V.D. Website upgrade – We have purchased an upgrade to our current website to allow us to include more information, data and options.  We will be working on these updates over the next few months.

V.E. Principal/Activities Director report – Mr. Primavera asked the Board if they had any questions concerning the information they received in his report.  He reported that all seniors are taking the John Baylor ACT prep class this month.  President Richards asked if he had any interest shown yet for a student representative for the Board.  Mr. Primavera will start checking with sophomore and junior students.  It was also suggested to check with other districts to see how they implement and use their student reps on their boards.    

VI. Action Items 

VI.A. Consent Agenda  - Motion to approve the consent agenda as presented, items VI.A.1 – VI.A.9, passed 6 – 0 with a motion by Brott and a second by Johnson.

Joe Anderjaska          Yes

Connie Brott            Yes

Britt Hill              Yes

Amanda Johnson          Yes

Marian Richards         Yes

Bob Rosno               Yes

VI.A.1. Approve minutes of the September 8, 2014 Budget Hearing and Budget Summary, the Special Hearing to Set Final Tax Request and the Regular Meeting 

VI.A.2. Approve September 2014 Bank Transfers 

VI.A.3. Approve September Activity Fund claims for $10,482.06 

VI.A.4. Approve October 2014 Hot Lunch claims for $4,101.49 

VI.A.5. Approve September Petty Cash claims for $731.82 

VI.A.6. Approve September Depreciation Fund claim for $645.00 

VI.A.7. Approve additional Sept, 2014 General Fund claims for $417.77 

VI.A.8. Approve October 2014 General Fund claims for $197,691.27 (Payroll $159,447.93 Bills $38,243.34) 

VI.A.9. Approve Financial Reports of the District 

VI.B. Approve changes to Superintendent Evaluation Tool – Motion to approve the changes to the Superintendent Evaluation tool passed 6 – 0 with a motion by Rosno and a second by Brott. 

Joe Anderjaska          Yes

Connie Brott            Yes

Britt Hill              Yes

Amanda Johnson          Yes

Marian Richards         Yes

Bob Rosno               Yes

VI.C. 1st Reading - Amend Board policy #5020.45  - Motion to approve the 1^st reading to amend Board policy #5020.45 passed 6 – 0 with a motion by Anderjaska and seconded by Johnson. 

Joe Anderjaska          Yes

Connie Brott            Yes

Britt Hill              Yes

Amanda Johnson          Yes

Marian Richards         Yes

Bob Rosno               Yes

VI.D. Interlocal Agreement  - Discussion was held concerning the Interlocal agreement drawn up for the County, School and Village.  Concerns and suggestions were discussed.  The board would like to see the following changes:

·         The name of the position to hire be changed to Grant writer/Economic Developer

·         Under Financing, add “not to exceed $30,000”

·         Number of days of contract TBD

·         Find out if this Economic Development project could become a separate taxing entity

·         2 of 3 entities must vote to end the agreement

Motion to table item VI.D., Interlocal Agreement, passed 6 – 0 with a motion by Anderjaska and seconded by Brott.

Joe Anderjaska          Yes

Connie Brott            Yes

Britt Hill              Yes

Amanda Johnson          Yes

Marian Richards         Yes

Bob Rosno               Yes

VII. Discussion 

VII.A. Enrollment Incentives – Mr. Howard provided the board with various ideas of incentives to offer to attract students through option enrollment.  A few of these were discussed.  The School Improvement committee of Brott, Hill and Richards will meet to discuss this further.

VII.B. School Board Student Representative position – Discussed under V.E.

VII.C. Extra-curricular programs – Mr. Primavera told the board that he intends to allow the 6^th grade boys to play with the JH in basketball this year so we can field a team here instead of going to Wallace. This will be optional to the 6^th grade boys and not required.  If the need arises for the girls, we will do the same.   

Mr. Howard informed the board of discussions he has had with neighboring districts concerning options for Varsity football for next year.  He stressed to the board that he is only trying to find every possible option, as right now, there would not be enough boys to field a team by ourselves.  It is very important that our students have the opportunity to play.  Connie Brott also shared some information she had from NSAA.

Mr. Howard will be going to the Wallace School Board meeting this week to thank them for allowing our JH boys the opportunity to play with them the last 3 years. 

VIII. Information Only  

VIII.A. ESU 15 & 16 Board Workshop is scheduled for January 28, 2015 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM 

VIII.B. Area enrollment comparisons - This information was provided to the board.

IX. Future Agenda Items/Other 

IX.A. 2013-2014 Final Fiscal Audit report 

Rosno inquired about the old JH football helmets that were given to Wauneta-Palisade.   

Richards would like to set up a new board member workshop in December.  She will look at the calendar and get that set up with NASB.

IX.B. State Financial picture 

IX.C. New Board policy 

Executive Session - Motion by Richards, seconded by Rosno to go into closed session to discuss administrator job performance and to prevent needless injury to the reputation of the district.  The meeting will adjourn upon coming out of executive session.  Recording Secretary, Bishop restated the motion and took the roll call vote.  Motion passed 6 – 0.

Joe Anderjaska          Yes

Connie Brott            Yes

Britt Hill              Yes

Amanda Johnson          Yes

Marian Richards         Yes

Bob Rosno               Yes

President Richards restated the motion. The Board entered executive session at 8:57 P.M.

The Board came out of executive session at 8:59 P.M.

X. Next Meeting - November 10, 2014 

XI. Adjournment - The meeting was adjourned at 8:59 P.M.

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Board President

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Board Secretary