The Lincoln Board of Education and Educational Service Unit (ESU) 18 held a work session and regular meetings on Tuesday, July 28 at the Lincoln Public Schools Steve Joel District Leadership Center, 5905 O Street.
Lincoln Board of Education work session
The work session started at 4:30 and provided an update from staff on the Proposed 2026-2027 Budget. You can watch the full video of the work session here.
Associate Superintendent for Business Affairs Liz Standish briefly reviewed information that was presented in June that included a flat tax levy, keeping it at $1.02 per $100 in property valuation.
While building the budget, staff have projected an estimated 4.75% increase in the total value of all real property, but the numbers will not be finalized and certified by the county until August 20 as valuation protests occur from June 1 - August 10. It is not unusual for the estimate to be different from what is certified by the county on August 20.
Of the $585,899,361 in the Proposed 2026-2027 revenue budget, LPS will receive 44.20% in property tax revenue and 32.42% in State Equalization Aid and Property Tax Credit funds. Shifting away from the majority of school funding being reliant on property taxes.
LPS is preliminarily proposing a 4.96% increase in the expenditure budget to $586,449,705. Approximately $18.5 million of the $27.7 million – or 67% – will go towards salary and benefit increases already approved through the staff negotiation process earlier in the year. Staff salaries and benefits make up approximately 88.64% of the total 2026-2027 proposed budget. Each month, LPS pays approximately 6,500 employees a total of $30 million – money that pumps back into the Lincoln economy through the purchase of goods, services and property taxes.
Other highlights of the 2026-2027 proposed expenditure budget aligned with the strategic plan include:
Student Wellbeing and Outcomes
Approximately $1.5 million for counselors and behavior framework coaches to sustain student support previously provided by federal grants.
Nearly $1.1 million to increase staffing to meet student needs across the district, including fully staffing Standing Bear High School now in its fourth year.
Adding approximately $1.75 million for Special Education teachers and support and replacing federal IDEA funds that were reduced.
Increasing the Early Childhood budget by $199,725 for additional staffing and supplies.
Staff Wellbeing and Outcomes
LPS employee groups negotiated agreements recently approved by the Board include certificated staff salary increase at 4.34%, technicians salary increase at 4.21%, administrators salary increase at 4.26%, custodial salary increase at 3.93%, a 3.90% increase in salary for nutrition service workers, a 3.89% increase in salary for paraeducators, a 4.34% salary increase for maintenance employees and a 4.25% salary increase for office professionals. The Board will soon consider a transportation contract with proposed salary increases as well.
Family and Community Engagement
Approximately $83,440 increase for a new unified communications platform for mass communication and website management.
District Systems and Operations
Increasing school security by updating 31 school buildings to create visitor vestibules for vetting guests instead of the school office.
Required fixed cost increases of approximately $1.5 million will address insurance premiums, and added staffing costs because of new state laws around background checks.
Approximately $750,000 to update and implement an Enterprise Resource Planning platform.
Lincoln Board of Education regular meeting
The Board of Education regular meeting started at 6:00 p.m. with the ESU 18 meeting following immediately after. You can watch the full video of both regular meetings here.
Special reports, presentations and celebrations of success
LPS Athletics and Activities update
LPS Director of Athletics and Activities JJ Toczek provided a review of activities and athletics during the 2025-2026 school year. He was assisted by Secondary English Language Arts Curriculum Specialist Sara Danielson, K-12 LPS Music Supervisor Amy Holloman and Career and Technical Education Curriculum Specialist Jason Thomsen.
The core purpose of the LPS Athletics and Activities program is to offer students education-based opportunities to extend the learning experiences outside the classroom. These experiences aid in the overall growth of student-participants by promoting academic achievement, skill development, life skills, citizenship and competitive success.
Highlights of the presentation include:
Overall participation was up in NSAA and LPS athletics and activities with 8,055 students. This is a 16% increase from the 2022-2023 school year.
LPS middle school participation has increased by 25% over the past five years.
At least 109 students participated in at least one debate tournament.
There were 222 students participate in One-Act plays.
Approximately 207 students participated in a speech meet.
There were 615 students who participated in Career and Technical student organizations.
Approximately 8,279 students participated in music.
You can watch a highlight of the Athletics and Activities presentation here.
First reading
Newly annexed property to the City of Lincoln
The Board of Education assigns school attendance areas to property newly annexed to the City of Lincoln. This action establishes school attendance areas prior to the sale of residential lots, allowing purchasers to know what schools their children will attend.
The area of Redtail Heights was recently annexed into the City of Lincoln. The proposal assigns the newly annexed area to Kloefkorn Elementary School, Moore Middle School and Standing Bear High School
The Board will hold a second reading and vote on the proposed assignments at the next meeting.
2026-27 Lincoln Public Schools Base Growth Percentage Increase
State statute says that year-over-year growth of a public school district’s property tax request authority is generally limited to a base growth percentage cap. This upcoming budget year, due to negotiated agreements that address the need to continue recruiting and retain high-quality staff while competing with peer districts, the need was higher. These variables drove the growth, requiring the Board to consider adopting an increase to the base growth percentage to the property tax request authority.
The Board is planning to only use what is needed, and there will be a majority of the base growth that will be unused and untaxed. The community can learn more about the proposed budget on the LPS website.
The Board will hold a second reading and vote on the proposal at the August 25 meeting.
Consultant agreement with Gallagher Benefit Services
The Board Ad Hoc Health Insurance Committee has been reviewing current employee wellness and health insurance programs, and through that review have been working with independent consultant Gallagher Benefit Services about the possibility of developing an additional alternative health plan for the non-teaching staff of LPS.
Gallagher Benefit Services has agreed to prepare and conduct a request for proposals for an additional alternative health plan for LPS non-teaching staff. For this scope of services and deliverables under the agreement, Gallagher’s proposed compensation at an hourly rate of $400 per hour up to a maximum of $50,000. The agreement can be canceled at any time. The hourly rate will be billed for the actual time worked up to the point of completion, limited by the maximum amount or cancellation.
LPS Director of Employee Relations, Benefits and Personnel Blake Simpson shared that the purpose of this consulting agreement is to gather information that will assist the district in decision-making regarding the feasibility of an alternative health insurance plan for classified, non-teaching personnel.
“The provisions of the plan must be equal to or better than the benefits and coverage provisions of EHA,” added Simpson.
Simpson also shared this would be an option for non-certificated employees in addition to EHA, not to replace EHA for the eligible groups, if LPS is able to secure an alternative offering.
“It is important to note we are not committing to a plan by working with this advisor. We are just seeking more information,” said Simpson.
The Board will hold a second reading and vote on the proposal at the next meeting.
2026-27 Board of Education and superintendent annual goals and priorities
Annually, the Board evaluates the superintendent and develops annual priorities for the superintendent for the coming school year. The 2026-2027 Board of Education and superintendent annual goals are rooted in the 2024-2029 LPS Strategic Plan and the priorities are presented below:
Student Wellbeing and Outcomes: By November 2026, provide the Board of Education with a report and presentation on district achievement trends disaggregated by student groups. The report will identify strengths, areas of need, interventions, and progress toward the seven measurable objectives established in the LPS Strategic Plan under Student Wellbeing and Outcomes. Recommendations for communicating this information to the public will also be provided.
Staff Wellbeing and Outcomes: By April 2027, develop and present to the Board of Education an update of actions implemented and progress made to expand the number of Early Childhood classrooms by two sections.
Family and Community Engagement: By March 2027, create a system to share community-based engagement opportunities fostering outreach with intention, identifying an additional twelve community events expanding Board member presence and opportunities for LPS staff to strengthen family and community engagement.
District Systems and Operations: By April 2027, develop and present a comprehensive report that reconciles and redefines the tenets of the CLASS (Connected Learning for the Achievement of Students and Staff) plan in the context of emerging educational technology topics (AI, screen time, etc.), instructional best practices, pedagogical research, and teacher expertise.
The Board will hold a second reading and vote on the proposed annual goals at the next meeting.
McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance grant
The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act is the primary piece of federal legislation dealing with the education of homeless children. This program addresses the problems that homeless children face in enrolling, attending and succeeding in school. Under this program, state and local educational agencies ensure that homeless children have equal access to the same free, appropriate public education - including a public preschool education - as other children. States and school districts are required to review and undertake steps to revise laws, regulations, practices or policies that may act as a barrier to the enrollment, attendance or success in school.
The LPS homeless outreach coordinator position works with families experiencing homelessness to arrange transportation services for children to attend school. They also work with families to provide other supports that create a more stable environment for children experiencing homelessness. During the 2025-2026 school year, LPS served 757 students through our McKinney-Vento program.
LPS will use funds received through the McKinney-Vento Act to continue to support the salary of the homeless outreach coordinator and to pay transportation costs for homeless children to attend school.
The Board discussed the submission of the McKinney-Vento Grant application for approximately $64,000, with the final allocation to be determined by the State of Nebraska after submission and dependent upon grants awarded to other applicants. This grant requires a 100 percent match from Title I funds allocated to LPS. Title I funds have been used in past years to cover the required match.
The Board will hold a second reading and vote on the application at the next meeting.
Nebraska Arts Council School Bus for the Arts grant
The Nebraska Arts Council’s School Bus for the Arts Program provides grants for PK-12 students to underwrite the cost of field trips and admission fees to attend professional arts events such as concerts, dance or theater performances and cultural exhibits at museums or other venues and follow up workshop fees if applicable.
The LPS Curriculum team has worked with Federal Programs to prepare an application for an $8,000 grant that will help offset the cost of bus transportation and admission fees for fourth-grade students in Title I schools to attend the annual Young People’s Concert at the Lied Center for Performing Arts.
The Young People’s Concert is an annual event for fourth-grade students who get to experience this engaging and interactive musical performance hosted by the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra.
Because the grant is based on first-come first-served, the Board waived second reading and voted to approve the grant proposal.
Barbara Bush Family Literacy Innovation grant
Former First Lady Barbara Bush chose literacy as her cause as she believed that a parent is a child’s first and best teacher. The Barbara Bush Fund for Family Literacy recently announced Family Literacy Innovation Grants and invited LPS along with 19 other organizations across the United States to apply for a 15-month project that will expand innovation in the four-component family literacy model and contribute to the national field by documenting and sharing their learning on effective practices.
The current LPS Family Literacy program has been in place for many years and uses the four-component family literacy model that this grant is intended to support. If awarded, the funds would support LPS working with local community partners to develop specialized family engagement programming that would help families learn more about the history and services available to families within the Lincoln community.
Due to the grant deadline, the Board waived second reading and voted to approve the grant proposal.
Agreement for mental health services: remote school psychologists
Last year LPS utilized the services of remote school psychologists to help reduce the impact of having unfilled vacancies in the district and to help reduce the workload of current school psychologists as part of our effort to retain them.
LPS school psychologists reported feeling like their workload was more manageable this past year, and LPS has been able to hire 7.5 FTE to help fill vacancies for the 2026-2027 school year. This has allowed LPS to reduce the number of remote school psychologists needed from nine down to six.
Schools and staff reportedly enjoyed the remote psychologists who were helping them, however, the absence of a physical presence in the school limited the remote psychologist's ability to help school staff to the same degree that an in-person psychologist could.
After reviewing building feedback on the use of remote psychologists, and because LPS has been able to reduce the unfilled vacancies, LPS is shifting the approach toward the role the remote psychologists will play for the 2026-2027 school year. Going forward, remote psychologists will be partnered with an in-person LPS psychologist so every school has an in-person psychologist to support their Special Education team.
Due to the timeline, the Board waived second reading and voted to approve the contracts with New Direction Solutions LLC for $850,000.
Agreement for mental health services
LPS has been contracting with community agencies to support mental health for several years. Over the course of the 2025-2026 school year, these agencies provided approximately 700 hours of therapy services each week.
These services give families local and quick access to a licensed therapist through their community school.
The Board will hold a second reading and vote on the agreement at the next meeting.
Nebraska Department of Water, Energy and Environment grant
The Nebraska Department of Water, Energy, and Environment has invited applications for the 2027 Waste Reduction and Recycling Incentive, Litter Reduction and Recycling, and Scrap Tire programs. The purpose of these grant-funded programs is to support activities that reduce litter and waste and promote recycling in Nebraska.
If awarded, the Lincoln Public Schools Sustainability Department would use grant funds for supplies, equipment and personnel costs required to maintain and enhance sustainability waste management practices across LPS. This includes all districtwide efforts to reduce waste and recycle or compost as much material as possible. New or additional activities that would be funded through this grant include school and community outreach such as presenting to kindergarten classes during the Garbology unit in Science, standardizing waste bins in schools to save time and the cost of plastic bags for custodial staff and collection boxes for hard-to-recycle plastic writing utensils.
Due to the grant deadline, the Board waived second reading and voted to approve the grant proposal.
CLC agreements
LPS is entering into the 27th year of partnering with community organizations to offer Community Learning Centers. There are currently 31 schools that offer CLC programming at various sites.
It is recommended the Board approves continuing the agreements between LPS and the following entities to provide CLC programming: Family Service, YMCA of Lincoln, Lincoln Parks and Recreation, Cedars Youth Services, Boys and Girls Club, Malone Community Center, Northeast Family Center, Lincoln Housing Authority and Willard Community Center.
Due to school year timelines, the Board waived second reading and voted to approve the agreements.
Second reading
2026-27 Transportation Plan
Last meeting, LPS Transportation Director Phil Skorupa gave an overview of the previous school year and transportation plans for the upcoming year to the Board.
The mission of LPS Transportation is to provide safe and timely student transportation to and from assigned schools and activities according to district policies. During the 2025-2026 school year there were 4,749 LPS students who used LPS Transportation each day, up 383 students from the year prior. Approximately 1.88 million route miles were logged during the school year, with 190,122 miles for activities and athletics.
There are currently 128 routes planned for the 2026-2027 school year. The Transportation department is working to build up to 150 routes as staffing and equipment allows. Because LPS needed to consolidate routes in the past due to staffing shortages, some student ride times exceed an hour and may be closer to 90 minutes. Every effort is being made to reduce student ride times. To aid in this, some of the bus routes will move to corner bus stops instead of door-to-door stops. Information will be shared with families prior to the school year starting.
Board policy 3710 states that LPS Transportation will transport only those students who qualify under provisions of state law, including:
Elementary and Middle School students residing more than four miles from the school in the attendance area within which they reside.
Special Education students whose Individual Education Plan (IEP) require transportation as essential to learning.
Students who have been moved for the benefit of the district to relieve overcrowding, due to major facility renovations, or for efficiency in use of buildings and/or staff.
In addition, the Board, at its discretion, may approve other transportation areas based upon unique circumstances and for the purpose of equalizing school enrollments and facilitating programs.
A partnership between LPS and EverDriven allows the school district to meet the requirements to serve students who qualify under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. EverDriven provides passenger vehicles and drivers to transport students from where they are staying to their home attendance school. Last year there were 422 students served through this program. The service costs approximately $65 per trip.
The Board held a second reading and voted to approve the plan.
Planning Region Team Grant Proposal
The Planning Region Team (PRT) is an organized group of parents, advocates and representatives from community agencies, organizations, daycares and childcare providers and LPS who assist with the planning and implementation of the Early Intervention Act within LPS.
Staff propose submitting a grant application to the Nebraska Department of Education for $65,750 to support the work of the PRT in implementing the Early Intervention Act.
The Board held a second reading and voted to approve the grant proposal.
Policy revisions: 6222, 8130 and 5000 series
The Board periodically reviews and revises policies to align with current practices or meet requirements set forth by local, state or federal laws and regulations.
Recent legislative changes require Policy 6222 to be updated. Under the new state law, any Lincoln Public Schools high school student who was or is under the jurisdiction of a juvenile court or placed in an out-of-home care during their high school experience can graduate from LPS as long as they meet the state minimum graduation requirements.
Several revisions to the 5000 policy series are also the result of changes to state law during the last legislative session. The changes are to policies addressing enrollment, short and long-term suspension and communication, expulsion and communication, and when students cannot be removed from school enrollment if the parents are under investigation for abuse.
The Board is also considering adjustments to Policy 8130 that outlines Board committee structures to better align the work of staff and Board.
The Board held a second reading and voted to approve the policy revisions.
Informational items and reports
Superintendent update
LPS Superintendent John Skretta opened his remarks thanking the Board for their collaborative work on identifying and developing the Board goals for the 2026-2027 school year.
He also shared an update about the Leadership Day held at Northwest High School on Monday, July 20. On Wednesday, LPS will welcome 264 new educators to Lincoln Public Schools for a week of professional development and preparation for the beginning of the school year. All educators will report on Wednesday, August 5. Skretta said the staff will be ready to welcome back students on August 12 and 13.
Public comment
There were three individuals that addressed the Board during the public comment periods. You can watch public comments as part of the full Board meeting.
Glimpses of LPS
We open every Board meeting with a video that highlights LPS. Tuesday’s Glimpses highlighted the importance of students being involved in athletics and activities. You can watch Glimpses on the LPS YouTube Channel.
Educational Service Unit (ESU) 18 regular meeting
Second Reading
Policy updates: 3610
Just as the Lincoln Board of Education adjusted their purchasing policy, the ESU board adjusted their purchasing Policy 3610 to ensure alignment with the updated state law.
The Board held a second reading and voted to approve the revisions.
Interlocal agreement with Lancaster County for services at the Pathfinder program
Each year, the ESU 18 Board approves an interlocal agreement with Lancaster County to offer services at the Lancaster County Youth Services Center. The Pathfinder Program provides educational services and classes to youth detained at the center.
The County agrees to reimburse ESU 18 for all expenses incurred in providing such services pursuant to the agreement, however, that the amount of such reimbursements shall not exceed $1,047,310.
The Board held a second reading and voted to approve the agreement.