SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT February 8, 2016

MISSION STATEMENT The mission of the Pender Public School District is to provide quality educational opportunities in a safe, positive learning environment that motivates and challenges all students to become productive and responsible citizens.

WORKSHOPS/MEETINGS  Past Events  January 13 – Board of Education Retreat  January 15 – Meeting with Dave Bloomfield  January 20 – reVISION Meeting in Oakland  January 26 – SLT Meeting  February 1 – NRCSA Legislative Committee Meeting  February 4 – Facilities / Transportation Committee Meeting  February 4 – Staff Calendar Committee Meeting  February 8 – Pender Community Development Meeting  February 8 – Facilities / Transportation Committee Meeting  Future Events  February 9 – Parent-Teacher Conferences  February 10 – Community Center Meeting  February 15 – Career Education Teacher Shortage Meeting  February 18 – NASA Region III Meeting  February 29 – Start of Spring Sports

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE  Governor’s Tax Relief Bills  LB The bill is intended to slow down the increase in statewide ag land valuation and to slow the growth of property taxes levied by the political subdivisions  LB Would provide "controlled growth" for education entities with the intent to "more closely align with the financial circumstances of the state's taxpayers by reducing the growth in property tax burdens and enhancing local accountability.”  It is a short session so, most likely, only priority bills will have the chance to pass  Interesting bills  LB 868 – Requires students to pass the same test an immigrant would take to obtain citizenship in order to graduate  LB 717 – 5 year average for property taxes rather than 3  LB 883 – Foundation aid  LB 1013 – Increase cigarette tax from $0.64 to $2.14 per pack

SNOW DAYS  The equivalent of 4.25 school days have been cancelled so far in the school year  3 days have been cancelled due to inclement weather  5 days have started late due to inclement weather (each 10 am start reduces the day from 1.0 to 0.75)  Teachers will make up 1 day by working the EHC Quiz Bowl on March 21  More days MAY be added to the calendar for students and/or staff  May 25, 26, and 27 are listed as snow make up days on the calendar

BUS SERVICE  Busses should be serviced about every 8,000 to 9,000 miles  Route busses are serviced during the holiday break and over the summer based on this mileage  Activity bus will be serviced at least once and most likely twice  Transmission filter and transmission fluid was changed on Bus 12 based on its mileage (54,000 – its computer tripped the change filter message)  Busses 15 and 16 will require the same service at about the same mileage

FILING DEADLINE  Incumbent – February 16  Matt Heineman, Jean Karlen, and Jason Roth are up for re-election  Non-Incumbent – March 1  None have filed to date

NEW COMPUTERS FOR BOARD MEMBERS  The District is running low on white MacBook laptops  Jason plans to have several repaired  The computers issued to Board members would be very good computers to issue to junior high school students  It is time to purchase new computers for Board members  By purchasing new computers for Board members, we will save money because it gives us 6 more computers for student use  Thoughts and opinions

NRCSA SPRING CONFERENCE  NRCSA Spring Conference is March 17 and 18 in Kearney  Call for Proposals  Engaging and Communicating with Board Members  Engaging and Communicating with Superintendents  Most likely would be joint or group presentations  Superintendent and Board members from 1 district  A panel of a few Superintendents  A panel of a few Board members  Is anyone interested?

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT  The December 4 in-service was dedicated to goal setting for school improvement purposes  After data analysis and a planned process, the following goals were developed  Improve the writing skills of all district students  Improve the technology skills of all district students  Improve the Pendragon PRIDE skills of all district students  Administration and the SLT will finalize the goals asap  Next step … develop an action plan (March 18 in-service)

EHC HONOR BAND – MADISON – TODAY  Rylee Lehmkuhl  Sarah Krueger  Carley Hoffmeister  Kaylin Sandall  McKenna Juhlin  Kelcie Bartlett  Sadie Lamplot  Hayley Schmidt  Alyson Schilling  Lexi Schmedding  Kennedy Morgan  Cierra Kirkland  Karlee Johnson  Leland Bowder  Bryson Bovee  Josh Springer  James Bensen  Vanessa VonSeggern

RENTAL HOUSE  611 Whitney Street  Jamie Harlan plans to rent our house starting February 19  Initial lease will end May 31, 2016  Lease will be on the March agenda for Board approval  Unrented from January 1, 2016 through February 18, 2016