Exeter-Milligan School Board Meets Discusses Volleyball Home

Exeter-Milligan School Board President Sharon Kuska opened a policy hearing  on student fees just prior to Tuesday evenings Exeter-Milligan School board meeting.

 

Superintendent Paul Sheffield gave a brief presentation on the student fee policy explaining, “Exeter-Milligan does not charge any student fees. Students are only charged for book orders, student projects, and t-shirts.  If a student cannot afford a project we have small projects that they can do at no cost. There is no fee to participate in any activity.”

After a call for public comment to a silent crowd Kuska closed the hearing on student fees and opened the hearing on parental involvement.  

Sheffield again outlined the changes in the policy, “We are making a few changes on the policy based on what our lawyers have recommended.”

Sheffield went on to explain that the majority of the changes include adding the phrase "parent or guardian." 

Information on the National Assessment of Educational Progress was included in Policy 5017. This test is randomly administered and parents are notified if child is chosen but individual results are not received.

With no comments offered from the audience, Kuska closed the hearing and then called to order the regular monthly meeting. She thanked the visitors for coming and welcomed their input and concerns.  

The board dove into the consensus agenda starting with the Treasurer’s report.  The board approved both the treasurer’s report and the June minutes along with the work session minutes.

The curricular report was the next topic and the board heard the results of a survey they had recently taken which was evaluated by HUMANeX. 

Two representatives from HUMANeX , Nick Hovermale and KatieDiediker gave a presentation on the results and commended the board on their results.  This summer HUMANeX invited Exeter-Milligan faculty and staff members to Kalamazoo, Mich. to present at their conference.

Hovermale explained that they try to “look at the school board as a team.. Relationships are the key to making most decisions.  Your relationship items are all high in general."

After the brief presentation the board approached the old business items starting with a project update on the locker room renovations.  Sheffield shared the update information along with some photos of the changes especially in the shower areas.

The one update that will affect students is on the girls side of the locker rooms.  The high school and junior high girls will switch sides because the new high school side has an additional shower stall.

Kuska asked about the budget status on the renovation and Sheffield assured the board the budget is “right on.”

Other summer work Sheffield reported was a redo on the flooring in Milligan in the fourth grade classroom along with the flooring in front of the bathrooms in Milligan. In Exeter, the gym floor is done and reopened. 

Kuska gave a brief recap of the boards’ recent work session.  “We discussed efficient class scheduling at the high school. .  expanding curriculum , specifically ag based.”

The next piece of old business was establishing the home site for volleyball games which was tabled from the June meetings. Board member Tim Pribyl asked President Kuska her thoughts on the issue since she was on the school board when the schools consolidated.

Kuska replied, “I would like to see us make Milligan gym our home by doing some practices down there in the afternoon.  We could run the girls down a couple days a week and start working with that gym.  This is my initial reaction until we have to co-op which we don’t see coming for a while.”

 

“I was distressed to hear we try not to get home meets.  We need to promote ourselves as well as our facility. It’s a gym where we have raised some championship teams.”

Board member  Adam Erdkamp commented, “I can see with the investments we have made here it would be something to consider to bring it here.”

Board member Kendra Jansky commented that “having a triangular in Milligan is tight.”

There was a motion by Board member Tim Pribyl  to keep volleyball in Milligan and then there was discussion on the proper wording of the motion..  The board did pass a motion to keep the volleyball matches in Milligan.

The Board congratulated Exeter-Milligan 9^th grader Caitlin Murphy who recently competed at the National FCCLA convention in Nashville, Tenn  FCCLA advisor Mary Lou Vossler reported that Murphy scored 98.66 out of 100 and was the top scorer in the state of Nebraska in her category of life events.  Vossler praised Murphy’s “self-motivation.  She was pretty calm and practiced her heart out. There were 90 star projects competitors from the state of Nebraska and over 7000 at the conference.”

The board briefly reviewed the policy updates and approved them unanimously as a group of policies. 

The board moved on to new business which included approving the changes made in the student and staff handbooks.  

Also approved by the board were the guidelines used for the free and reduced lunch.  Sheffield reminded the board, “Since we technically do not participate in the federal free/reduced lunch.  We still utilize the federal guidelines as the Exeter-Milligan guidelines.” 

The board discussed the August meeting which will include budget planning.  Sheffield expected to have the budget materials ready before the meeting.

The board noted that the school open house will be held on August 10^th from  5 – 7 p.m. with the first day of school Tuesday, August 15^th.

Sheffeld noted that the village has let the paving project out for bids. “We will be doing some paving to piggyback that, we will do some more angled parking (on the East side of the new addition).  My concern is the time of year they will do the paving especially with the high school boys going to the football field.”

President Kuska entertained a motion to excuse board member Kendra Oldehoeft.

The Board set the next regular meeting for Monday, August 8 at Milligan at 8 p.m. Board member Oldehoeft arrived as the board adjourned.