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 9th
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 10th from 5 – 7 p.m. with the first day of school
Tuesday, August 15th.
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.
