SEPTEMBER 17, 2007
School Board Meeting
PUBLIC HEARING TO CONSIDER EXCEEDING
THE BASIC ALLOWABLE GROWTH RATE BY 1%
PENDER PUBLIC SCHOOL – ROOM #110
September 17, 2007 – 6:45 P.M.
President Felber opened the public hearing at 6:45 p.m. for purposes of hearing support, opposition, criticism, suggestions or observations of taxpayers relating to exceeding the Basic Allowable Growth Rate (BAGR) by 1% with the following members present: Connie Felber, J.J. Maise, Robert McQuistan, Dan Wichman and Jean Karlen. Absent: Matt Peters. Also present were Superintendent/Elementary Principal Joe Sherwood, Secondary Principal Jason Dolliver and Recording Secretary Barb Preston. Visitors: CoraLynn Malmberg, Tanya Oligmueller, Rusty Bartlett, Cyndi Conroy and Lonnie Ford.
Superintendent Sherwood provided reasoning for exceeding the BAGR and answered questions.
President Felber closed the public hearing at 6:49 p.m.
PUBLIC HEARING TO CONSIDER THE 2006-07 BUDGET OF EXPENDITURES
PENDER PUBLIC SCHOOL – ROOM #110
September 17, 2007 – 6:50 p.m.
President Felber opened the public hearing at 6:50 p.m. for purposes of hearing support, opposition, criticism, suggestions or observations of taxpayers relating to the 2007-08 Budget of Expenditures with the following members present: Connie Felber, J.J. Maise, Robert McQuistan, Dan Wichman and Jean Karlen. Absent: Matt Peters. Also present were Superintendent/Elementary Principal Joe Sherwood, Secondary Principal Jason Dolliver and Recording Secretary Barb Preston. Visitors: CoraLynn Malmberg, Tanya Oligmueller, Rusty Bartlett, Cyndi Conroy and Lonnie Ford.
Superintendent Sherwood provided an overview of the proposed budget of expenditures and discussion followed.
President Felber closed the public hearing at 6:55 p.m.
PUBLIC HEARING TO CONSIDER SETTING THE SYSTEM-WIDE TAX REQUESTS
PENDER PUBLIC SCHOOL – ROOM #111
September 17, 2007 – 6:55 p.m.
President Felber opened the public hearing at 6:55 p.m. for purposes of hearing support, opposition, criticism, suggestions or observations of taxpayers relating to setting the tax levies for the general, qualified capital purpose undertaking, special building and bond funds with the following members present: Connie Felber, J.J. Maise, Robert McQuistan, Dan Wichman and Jean Karlen. Absent: Matt Peters. Also present were Superintendent/Elementary Principal Joe Sherwood, Secondary Principal Jason Dolliver and Recording Secretary Barb Preston. Visitors: CoraLynn Malmberg, Tanya Oligmueller, Rusty Bartlett, Cyndi Conroy and Lonnie Ford.
Superintendent Sherwood provided information as to the proposed General Fund System-wide levy, the Qualified Capital Purpose Undertaking Fund levy, the Special Building Fund levy and the Bond Fund levy.
President Felber closed the public hearing at 6:57 p.m.
PENDER PUBLIC SCHOOL BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING MINUTES
Pender Public School – Room #110
September 17, 2007 – 7:00 p.m.
The Pender Public School Board of Education met in regular session in Room 110 on Monday, September 17, 2007. President Connie Felber called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. with the following members present: Connie Felber, J.J. Maise, Matt Peters, Robert McQuistan, Jean Karlen and Dan Wichman. Absent: None. Also present were Superintendent/Elementary Principal Joe Sherwood, Secondary Principal Jason Dolliver and Recording Secretary Barb Preston. Visitors: CoraLynn Malmberg, Tanya Oligmueller, Rusty Bartlett, Cyndi Conroy Norvin “Fuzz” Hansen, Ray Welsh and Lonnie Ford.
President Felber notified those present that as of July 1, 2006, Nebraska Statute 84-1412(8) requires that the public be informed about the location of posted information regarding the Open Meetings Act and drew their attention to the copy posted in the meeting room and accessible to all members of the public.
President Felber reviewed the agenda as presented, affirmed that every board member had received notice of the meeting and that the time and place of the meeting had been published. The Policy section of the agenda was amended as a result of the September 16 Policy Committee Meeting by striking consideration of a new policy proposal on reimbursing tuition fees to teachers, striking consideration of policy 2110A and 2210A, striking consideration of Policy 4000, amending consideration of Policy 5303 and 5417AR and 5418-5750 to consideration of the balance of the 5000’s for a second reading, consideration of the 3000 and the 6600 sections of policy, and the amended agenda was finally approved.
Motion to approve the minutes of the August 13, 2007 regular meeting amended by striking paragraphs 7 and 8 on page 5 as they were duplicates and adding a statement indicating the board’s desire to reconsider adjusting the long term sub rates at a later date when they considered increasing the substitute daily rate to $90 and the August 29, 2007 special meeting amended to indicate that Wichman and McQuistan were present was made by McQuistan and seconded by Peters. President Felber stated the motion and the result of roll call vote being all ayes, motion carried.
A motion to approve payment of bills as follows: General Fund - $136,982.61; Hot Lunch Fund - $8,106.75; and Payroll - $105,452.30 was made by McQuistan, seconded by Peters. President Felber stated the motion and the result of roll call vote being all ayes, motion carried.
Secondary Principal Jason Dolliver presented his administrative report using a Power Point presentation and reported that the 2007-08 secondary student enrollment reported to the Nebraska Department of Education totaled 152 students as compared to 153 students in 2006-07. ACT information was shared that demonstrated Pender student achievement slightly above the State averages and informed board members that a German foreign exchange student enrolled at the school on September 10th. Mr. Dolliver thanked Glenda and Mike Gatzemeyer for the donation of a trumpet and Jeanne and Steve Hansen for a saxophone that will be used by our instrumental music department. In addition, Mr. Dolliver informed board members that Mr. Dregalla had shared with him a plan to develop a band instrument donation drive through advertising in area newspapers and that Mr. Dregalla would be taking his band students to events at the Lied Center with the only cost to the district being for transportation because the Lied Center donated tickets for the students. The mathematics portfolio review will be held on November 1 and preparation is underway for that review. Homecoming activities scheduled for October 12 were shared indicating that all events will take place on Friday. Coronation will occur during halftime of the football game and the dance will follow from approximately 9:30 to 12:00 at the school. Mr. Dolliver provided updates on athletics and activities occurring this fall by sharing statistics for athletics and details of the Farm Safety Day hosted by our Pender FFA Chapter. Mr. Walker and Mr. Dolliver sponsored students from the physics and chemistry classes to Wayne State College’s planetarium. Constitution Day was recognized on Monday, September 17.
Elementary Principal Joe Sherwood using a Power Point presentation shared some new practices that he had implemented in the elementary for the 2007-08 school year including having 2 office days per week in the elementary office, performing walk throughs at least bi-weekly, and supervising before school, recess and lunch. Mr. Sherwood reported that he plans to begin teacher evaluations in October and to provide monthly character assemblies for elementary students. In addition, he reported that the students and teachers in grades 3-6 participated in the FFA Farm Safety Day, that the 5th and 6th grade students would be going to Ponca State Park to participate in the Missouri River Outdoor Expo and that all K-8 students would participate in the Aims Web benchmarking process on September 18th.
As part of his Superintendent’s Report, Mr. Sherwood informed board members that he had been elected to the ESU #1 Advisory Council on which he would participate with superintendents from each county in the ESU #1 area in providing guidance and advice to ESU #1 Administrator Bob Uhing on budget planning, staff development direction, developing topics for superintendent meetings and hearing in depth reports from ESU #1. In addition, he reported that he has done the preliminary work on developing a Poverty Plan as required by NDE Finance Department as part of the State Aid determination for 2008-09. Mr. Sherwood presented a request from the Thurston County Sheriff’s for donations toward the purchase of a narcotics detection K-9 and said he would explore a donation from the “Casual for a Cause” fund that had been established by staff. Mr. Sherwood reminded board members of an upcoming opportunity for value-added district leadership training at the NASB State Education Conference to be held in Omaha on November 14-16, 2007 and encouraged them to attend a pre-session being offered by Tim Waters, McREL President and CEO. Results of the surplus sale were shared indicating a total collection of $572.50. Mr. Sherwood asked the board to approve disposition of the remaining surplus items and stated that the two auction houses he contacted were not interested. Mr. Sherwood suggested that items be made available to students or staff free of charge and Board members agreed to the plan for disposal.
Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment (CIA) Director Sherwood thanked board members for the suggestion of including the parent survey with the handbook distribution and reported that well over 150 responses have been received and are being processed for a new report that should be available in October. Teacher surveys on “Best Practice” self-evaluation were completed during pre-service and that report should be available in October as well. Assessment work is moving forward with subset revisions and updating notebooks and spreadsheets. Mr. Sherwood reported that Jason Dolliver and Lisa Johnson attended a Data Analysis conference. Mr. Sherwood stated that Lisa Johnson has proved to be a tremendous asset to the team. Staff Curriculum Committees have been established, expectations of the committees explained and the committees have begun to meet. The Flexible Funding plan has been explained to staff members as well. Mr. Sherwood reported that State Education Commissioner Doug Christiansen has been in contact with him after receiving a copy of an article he wrote for the Pender Times on 21st Century learning and advertising the World Café activity and has expressed interest in coming to Pender to meet with our staff during a` scheduled teacher inservice. Lastly, Mr. Sherwood reported on the STARS process for 2007-08 and Pender’s upcoming Math Peer Review.
President Felber implemented the Procedures for Public Comment established by the board in January. Mrs. Felber received a completed Public Comment form from Cyndi Conroy and after the questions were reviewed by Principal Dolliver, agreed that all questions would be answered and discussion allowed during the agenda item provided to discuss 2008-09 Football Classification.
Motion by Wichman, seconded by Maise to approve the enrollment option application of Whitney Malcom (11th Grade) from Wakefield for the 2007-08 school year. President Felber stated the motion and the result of roll call vote being all ayes, motion carried.
As a result of the public hearings and discussion held at the hearings and at prior meetings, Board members were prepared to act on several items to establish the 2007-08 budgets of expenditure, levies, BAGR and levy exclusions.
Motion made by Maise, seconded by McQuistan to approve exceeding the $1.05 levy limit due to the Temporary Early Retirement Early Leave Incentive Program (TERELIP) and the reduction in state aid through exclusion as allowed by law through the 2007-08 budget. President Felber stated the motion and the result of roll call vote being all ayes, motion carried.
Motion made by Wichman, seconded by Peters to exceed the basic allowable growth rate by 1.0% for the 2007-08 budget year. President Felber stated the motion and the result of roll call vote being all ayes, motion carried.
Motion made by Karlen, seconded by Maise to approve the 2007-08 budgets of expenditure as published. President Felber stated the motion and the result of roll call vote being all ayes, motion carried.
Motion by McQuistan, second by Wichman to approve the 2007-08 Tax Request Resolution for all funds with the tax request set as follows: (1) the Tax Request for the General Fund should be, and hereby is set at $1.0475 (includes State Aid & TERELIP exclusion amounts) for the 2007-08 school fiscal year; (2) the Tax Request for the Bond Fund should be, and hereby is set at $.1496 for the Pender School District only and at $.0666 for the Pender School District and its affiliate (Cuming County District #82) for a total bond fund levy of $.2162; (3) the Tax Request for the Special Building Fund should be, and hereby is set at $.0252; and (4) the Tax Request for the Qualified Capital Purpose Undertaking Fund should be, and hereby is set at $.0520 for the Pender School District and its affiliate (Cuming County District #82). President Felber stated the motion and the result of roll call vote being all ayes, motion carried.
Board members agreed to consider agenda item #10 – Annexation Issue for Assisted Living Facility at this time. Al Maul, representing the Pender Community Health Care Foundation, distributed drawings of the proposed assisted living project and informed board members that the Foundation has asked the Village of Pender to: 1) annex property from north of the ball park to the dike; and 2) to rezone the area to residential to allow construction of the assisted living facility. A requirement of this request to the Village is to have approval by the Pender School Board of Education. Mr. Maul asked the board members to consider approving his request.
Motion was made by Maise, seconded by Peters to recommend to the Village of Pender Board that they approve the annexation and rezoning requests as presented by the Pender Community Health Care Foundation. President Felber stated the motion and the result of roll call vote being all ayes, motion carried.
Secondary Principal Jason Dolliver presented an administrative recommendation regarding football classification beginning with the 2008-09 school year. The administrative recommendation was to move to 8-man football for the next 2-year cycle as provided by NSAA. Mr. Dolliver continued by presenting facts and sharing opinions gathered supporting the recommendation. Many good reasons were cited for remaining 11-man and for reclassifying to 8-man. Mr. Dolliver explained that all options had been explored including cooperating with a neighboring district in order to remain NSAA qualified for 11-man. Cost of the change was considered and enrollment projections, including male enrollment only were reviewed for the next 10 years. Cyndi Conroy’s questions presented during the Public Forum were answered and discussion followed as to the best solution for the students at Pender.
Motion was made by Wichman, seconded by Felber that Pender participate as a D-1 football team as qualified by NSAA for the next 2-year cycle beginning with the 2008-09 school year. President Felber stated the motion and the result of roll call vote being: Ayes—Maise, Wichman, Karlen, Felber; Nays—Peters, McQuistan; motion carried.
Chairperson Karlen moved that the committee recommendation for the second and final reading regarding of Policy 2220A be approved. President Felber stated the motion and the result of roll call vote being all ayes, motion carried.
Chairperson Karlen moved that the committee recommendation for the second and final reading of Article 3 – Business Operations – Series 3000 be approved. President Felber stated the motion and the result of roll call vote being all ayes, motion carried.
Chairperson Karlen moved that the committee recommendation for the second and final reading of Series 6600 – Special Education be approved as written. President Felber stated the motion and the result of roll call vote being all ayes, motion carried.
Board members reviewed and amended Article 5 – Students – Policy 5418 through the balance of Article 5. Part of the discussion on these policies included fundraising and trips and would allow for consideration of trip requests and fundraising.
Chairperson Karlen moved that the committee recommendation for the first reading of the balance of Article 5 – Students be approved as amended. President Felber stated the motion and the result of roll call vote being all ayes, motion carried.
Motion made by Peters, seconded by McQuistan to approve the request made by CoraLynn Malmberg to form a Space Camp Club and fundraising plan within the parameters of board policy. President Felber stated the motion and the result of roll call vote being all ayes, motion carried.
Motion was made by Felber, seconded by McQuistan to move into executive session at 10:55 p.m. to follow up on and discuss the superintendent’s previous evaluation. President Felber stated the motion and the result of roll call vote being all ayes, motion carried.
Motion was made by McQuistan, seconded by Maise to reconvene in open session at 11:30 p.m. President Felber stated the motion and the result of roll call vote being all ayes, motion carried.
No action was taken as a result of executive session.
President Felber asked if anyone would like to address the board regarding agenda items discussed by board members. No one took advantage of the opportunity.
Board members Jean Karlen, JJ Maise and Matt Peters volunteered to attend a 2007 NASB Area Membership Meeting in Fremont on October 3rd. In addition, Connie Felber and Dan Wichman volunteered to attend the NASB State Education Conference in Omaha on November 14-16, 2007. President Felber reminded board members that the next regular board meeting will be held on Monday, October 8, 2007 at 7:00 p.m.
Moved by Maise, seconded by Peters to adjourn. President Felber stated the motion and the result of the vote being all ayes the meeting was adjourned at 11:30 p.m. by acclamation.
Matt Peters, Secretary Barb Preston, Recording Secretary
AFLAC September Payroll 36.27
Alltel Cell Phones 171.50
Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. September Payroll 900.00
Kathy Anderson Mileage 34.92
Apothecary Shop Epi Pens 205.80
A T & T Long Distance 122.19
Blue Cross Blue Shield of NE September Payroll 32,865.66
Carolina Biological Supply Co Sec Science Supplies 82.31
Data Management, Inc. Visitor Badges 155.80
Department Of Revenue September Payroll 5,579.93
Dolezal Motor Co. Inspection/Repair 2,020.71
Jason Dolliver Mileage 268.69
Echo Group, Inc. Starters/Bulbs 1,209.97
Educational Service Unit #1 Handbooks 1,026.14
Farm Plan Cap Screws 12.50
First National Bank Staff Inservice/Meals 768.46
Graham Tire Norfolk Van 4 Tires 116.40
Harris GF Checks 136.95
Susan Holstedt Admin Fees 221.40
Kelly Supply Company Motor Bracket 222.95
LaRue Coffee 96.00
LCA Conference STARS Conf Reg 500.00
Linweld Rental 59.75
Lorensen Lumber F-ball Field/Maintenance 385.56
Madison National Life Ins Co September Payroll 563.59
Madison National Life September Payroll 460.66
Mass Mutual - Panorama September Payroll 1,956.17
Midwest Office Automations Waste Toner Cartridge 130.90
MPRRC Registration 390.00
Nebraska Department of Education SPED Regional Regs 50.00
Dept of Labor Boiler Inspection 216.00
Nebraska School Retirement September Payroll 20,264.60
Nebraska State Education Asso September Payroll 1,098.59
Tami Nelson Reimbursement 21.52
Northeast NE School Supt Asso Registration/Dues 07-08 28.50
Nebraska School Bus Inc Bus Route 9,652.20
AmSan Custodial Supplies 818.50
Northeast Community College School Crisis Team Training 880.00
Tim Olin Mileage 174.60
Oppenheimer Funds September Payroll 358.04
Pender Ace Hardware Custodial Supplies 104.44
Pender General Fund September Payroll 42.50
Pender Lunch Fund Inservice Meals 498.00
Pender Municipal Utilities Utilities 2,922.26
Pender State Bank September Payroll 37,421.25
P/T Comm Ed Foundation September Payroll 961.06
Pender Times Wrld Cafe/Proc/Not/Fl Page/Pho 1,129.96
Perma Bound Library Books 197.69
Perry Guthery Haase & Gessford Legal Services 990.00
Plumbing & Heating Whsl Inc Ignitors 136.71
Qwest Phone 395.95
RefurbUPS.com, Inc. Back-up Equipment 220.00
S&H Tax Service September Payroll 6,364.63
Joe Sherwood Mileage 18.43
Smith's Farm Service Inc Van/Mower Gas/Discounts 144.00
Thurston County Treasurer Thurston County Flag 60.00
Maynard Wells Uniforms 130.25
Wenke Manufacturing Gates for Gym 568.25
Western Office Products Fax Toner 179.90
Zimco Supply Co. F-ball Field Insect Treatment 233.60
