Highlights of the August 11 Lincoln Board of Education regular meeting

The Lincoln Board of Education held its regular meeting on Tuesday, August 11, at 6:00 p.m. at the Lincoln Public Schools Steve Joel District Leadership Center, 5905 O Street. You can watch the full regular meeting video on YouTube.

First reading

Proposed agreements with Transportation Employees Association for the 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 contract years

LPS recognizes the Transportation Employees Association as the exclusive bargaining agents to negotiate salary, fringe benefits, and working conditions for the members of their employee group. Representatives from the group met with the LPS chief negotiator and propose the following two-year negotiated agreement:

The total package for 2026-2027 is 4.43%, which includes a 3.37% salary increase and an increase to the years of service stipend.
The total package for 2027-2028 is 4.52%, which includes a 3.33% salary increase and an increase to the years of service stipend.

The agreement also includes increases in FICA and retirement costs and an estimated 7.44% increase in health insurance premiums. The District will cover 80% of the out-of-pocket health insurance increase for the 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 years. The full negotiated agreements can be found online.

Due to the start of the school year, the Board waived second reading and voted to approve the negotiated agreement.

Interlocal Cooperation Act Agreement for School Resource Officers and Threat Assessment Officer

Every year, LPS reviews an agreement with the City of Lincoln to fund school resource officers and a threat assessment officer as part of the Safe and Successful Kids Interlocal Agreement. The 14 SROs are assigned to LPS middle and high schools, and the threat assessment officer is assigned to the school district. This year, the City of Lincoln proposes adding two more School Resource Officers to ensure coverage of a trained SRO during absences and to provide flexibility allowing for support outside of the regular scheduled hours.

The SROs help with the education of students, assist staff and facilitate communication between LPS and Lincoln Police Department. SROs take appropriate law enforcement action when situations arise requiring the exercise of police authority.

Each year in November, the Safe and Successful Kids Interlocal Board reviews and presents data and feedback collected by both LPS and the Lincoln Police Department. You can find the presentation from last November on our website.

The Board will hold a second reading and vote on the agreement at the next meeting.

Second 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 held a second reading and voted to approve the assignments.

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.

Board member Bob Rauner moved to table a vote on the proposal until September 22.

“This gives us time to clarify questions that were raised at the last meeting, to verify implications for our wellness incentive program through the Educators Health Alliance, and to make sure everyone is operating off of the same information,” added Rauner.

The Board voted 6-1 to postpone the vote until the September 22 regular 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 held a second reading and voted to approve the annual goals.

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 held a second reading and voted to approve the application.

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 held a second reading and voted to approve the agreement.

Informational items and reports

The Career Academy

Board member representative Annie Mumgaard provided an update on the last joint meeting for The Career Academy.

The main action item at the joint meeting was to authorize and approve the property and liability insurance package for 2026-2027. Since 2013, LPS Risk Management, in consultation with SCC staff, has arranged for TCA’s insurance coverage.

Applications for the 2026-2027 school year are up with 869 students applying to TCA. The highest pathway enrollments are Health Sciences with 268, Welding with 78, and Education with 57.

Mumgaard also shared the results of state and national competitions. The networking and programming students won the state championship in the Gold Division of the Cyber Patriot competition. In addition, out of the seven TCA students that competed nationally at SkillsUSA, two finished in the top 10. There were 13 TCA students that competed at national Educators Rising with one finishing in the top 10.

Superintendent update

LPS Superintendent John Skretta opened his remarks sharing his excitement for the start of the school year. Wednesday will be the first day for Kindergarten, sixth and ninth grade students. Thursday will be when all other grade levels begin. PreKindergarten students will begin on August 18.

Skretta added that the preparation for a successful school year is many months in the making.

“There is so much important work that happens behind the scenes to ensure we are optimally prepared! From building-level school improvement workshops in June to reading workshops on science-based, classroom-tested strategies to ensure reading success, to professional learning on engagement to ensure 100 percent active participation… the list goes on,” said Skretta.

Skretta also thanked the building custodians and LPS Operations teams for their work over the summer to ensure school buildings are ready for the new school year.

The superintendent will begin tomorrow morning at the Transportation headquarters bright and early as bus drivers and transportation paras pick up students on their routes for the official start of the school year.