Lincoln Public Schools: Highlights of 7/30 Lincoln Board of Education meeting

Lincoln Public Schools:

Highlights of 7/30 Lincoln Board of Education meeting

The Lincoln Board of Education met for a regular meeting on Tuesday, July 30, at Lincoln Public Schools District Office, 5905 O St.  The Board will hold its next regular meeting on Tuesday, August 13. 

Superintendent priorities approved for 2019-20

The Lincoln Board of Education Tuesday voted final approval to affirm the two guiding priorities for the 2019-20 school year:  

• To accommodate growth and ensure that existing facilities are efficient and well-maintained, by Dec. 31, 2019:

• Review the Superintendent’s Facility Advisory Committee recommendations; Update the 10-Year Facility and Infrastructure Plan; and Determine the next steps for addressing facility and infrastructure needs, including high school capacity.
• To support academic success and improve equitable outcomes for ALL students, by April 15, 2020, in partnership with students, staff, and the community: Create a common definition of equity; and Develop a framework for monitoring and continuously improving equity in Lincoln Public Schools. 

Superintendent Update

LPS staff provided an update for what is called CORE, the school district’s new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system powered by Infor. CORE connects and organizes our essential functions across the school district – including human resources, payroll, time and attendance, ordering, accounting and many others, so that everyone is working with the same data and processes. CORE brings a modern interface and improved efficiencies to support our district – and will go live on Sept. 3.

Turf improvements approved for Den Hartog Field

The Board Tuesday approved a final bid for the installation of synthetic turf field improvements at Den Hartog Field – services that will include site demolition, grading, installation of aggregate base course, installation of storm sewer piping, synthetic turf and other minor improvements. The recommended award would go to the lowest responsible bidder meeting specifications: Nemaha Landscape Construction, Inc. (Lincoln, Nebraska) – with a bid of $947,500. The money will come from the LPS Interscholastic Athletic Fund and the LPS Depreciation Fund, as well as donations from interested outside organizations. 

Contract ok’d for transportation services

The Board gave the nod to a $500,00 contract with First Student, Inc. to provide transportation services and workers for transportation services – that deals with the ongoing shortage of bus drivers.

The contract provides for up to 15 drivers based on the rates below:

• First Student-owned and operated school buses $284.82 (per route)
• District-owned and First Student-operated school buses $236.46 (per route)
• Additional/excess/shuttle driver hourly rate $44.07
• Hourly charter transportation $44.07
• Other hourly charges $33.05

Land acquisition approved

The Board voted for land acquisition of about 19 acres – at a cost of $1.16 million – for land located northwest of Van Dorn Street and South 98^th Street.  The site would work for a possible elementary school site sometime in the future – but will not likely be included in the plans for a potential bond issue in 2020.  

Policy changes approved

The Board approved a small policy change directed at enrolling students who are from military families, a new policy directed at providing access to military recruiters (which LPS already does in practice), and a small policy change in the LPS Safe Pupil Transportation Plan.

Staff celebration

The Lincoln Board of Education recognized Belmont Elementary School, which was honored by the American Psychological Association and its Board of Educational Affairs (BEA) with the 2019 BEA Golden Psi Award. Belmont Principal Kim Rosenthal accepted the recognition.

Student celebration

For the past several years, students who attend Title middle schools – and are selected by their principals and counselors – have the opportunity to earn credit for two high school classes during the summer prior to their 9th grade year.  Generally, the first three weeks of class are at their middle school – and the second three weeks, at the high school they are attending. This summer LPS completed the second year of a similar program at The Career Academy – encouraging students to consider TCA as an option later in their high school journey. Presenters for this student celebration were: Linda Hix, director of Federal Programs; Josh Jones, TCA coordinator; Julie Lokie, TCA teacher; and two students, Tiegan Gunning, who went to Irving Middle School and will attend Lincoln High School (and the International Baccalaureate Program), and Naomi Molina, who attended Lefler Middle School and will attend Lincoln Southeast High School.

To view the entire Board meeting;
Go to: Youtube.com/user/lpsorg

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