Lincoln Public Schools: Highlights of 9/10 Lincoln Board of Education meeting

The Lincoln Board of Education met for a work session and a regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 10, at Lincoln Public Schools District Office, 5905 O St.  The Board will hold its next regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 24. 

WORK SESSION

Lincoln Public Schools staff Tuesday began to review the recommendations presented to the Lincoln Board of Education from the Superintendent Facility Advisory Committee - the beginning of a process that will determine whether the Board will go to the community with a bond issue in 2020.

Staff reviewed possible timelines for passing a bond resolution and how that could impact the cost of construction. Staff noted two major options for a bond issue referendum, though there could be more:

  • A mail-in vote in February 2020
  • A regular ballot election in May 2020

The past two LPS bond elections were held in February, which allowed LPS to begin building earlier - saving them one entire construction season. If the next election would be delayed until May 2020, that timing could push construction back one full year - at an increased cost of approximately three million dollars.

Comments from the presentation:

  • Liz Standish, associate superintendent of Business Affairs: “We are very excited to be at this part of the process in our work of updating our 10-year Facility and Infrastructure plan. We are going to walk through a great deal of information.”
  • Scott Wieskamp, director of Operations: “You have been known - our district has been known - for good planning for a lot of years. ..You have not made that decision about a bond election, how much or what would be on it. But we’ve planned for that potential to happen and it’s because of a process that has worked well on your behalf in the past.”
  • Lanny Boswell, president, Board of Education: “This is a marathon, not a sprint. We have several months to go through what I think are two key questions: The first one is how big will this proposed bond issue be? And the second one is what projects will be in it?" 

There will be a series of Board work sessions in the coming months to continue this discussion.  The next work session will be held Sept. 18, 5:00 p.m. at LPS District Office.

REGULAR MEETING

Official property tax request proposed
The Lincoln Board of Education Tuesday considered one of the last, necessary steps in officially finalizing the 2019-20 budget – with a proposal to adopt the official property tax request to fund the budget.

This step – adopting a property tax request – provides that the 2019-20 LPS budget may be funded as approved.  This is a routine step in the budget process. 

The Board will take a final vote on the tax request at the Sept. 24 meeting.

Light replacements approved
The Board approved purchase and replacement of 159 insulated translucent skylights in 14 schools – as a result from storm damage.  The selected vendor was SGH Redglazing Holdings Inc. from Omaha.


Policy decisions considered
The Board considered two proposed changes in LPS policy:

  • A change in policy related to student directory information.
  • Re-adoption of parental involvement and engagement policy.

 The Board will take a final vote on these changes at the Sept. 24 meeting.

 Staff celebration

The Board recognized Stephanie Howell, a psychology and government teacher at The Career Academy, as the recipient of the 2019 Christa McAuliffe Prize for Courage and Excellence in Education – presented by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s College of Education and Human Sciences.

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


Published: September 10, 2019, Updated: September 10, 2019