Highlights of 10/23 Lincoln Board of Education Meeting

 

Highlights of 10/23 Lincoln Board of Education Meeting

 

The Lincoln Board of Education held a regular meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 23, at Lincoln Public Schools District Office, 5905 O St.  The Board will hold its next regular meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 13.

Property purchases and land exchanges

The Lincoln Board of Education Tuesday considered two proposals that involve property in Lincoln that could serve as potential future elementary school sites for Lincoln Public Schools.  The Board will take a final vote on these proposals at the Nov. 13 meeting. 

“We are positioning ourselves for the future,” said Scott Wieskamp, director of Operations at LPS, noting more property contracts will be coming before the Board in the coming months.   

Land purchase:  The Board considered the purchase of real estate, potentially suitable as an elementary site, generally located south of Rokeby Road between 70th and 84th streets.  The land is currently owned by Rokeby Holdings, Ltd.   The purchase calls for payment of $1.5 million – plus additional development costs.

Land exchange: In order to better utilize and develop the Wilderness Hills Area, the Board considered exchanging portions of LPS property with property owned by Lincoln Federal Bancorp Inc. – through what is called a Land Exchange Agreement.  The exchange would leave LPS with a 17.7-acre land parcel in Wilderness Hills – a potential elementary school site – located between 27th and 40th streets, and Yankee Hill and Rokeby Road.

ConnectNow: Let’s Talk

Several years ago LPS contracted with K12 Insight to add an online, customer service solution called ConnectNow – a system marketed as Let’s Talk. The ConnectNow experience is not a call center, or a phone interceptor but one more way to contact the school district for answers online. Goals included: Creating a welcome open door (24/7), creating a wisdom warehouse, and providing an advance warning system. 

A summary of highlights:

  • Numbers of questions have increased over the years.
  • The system allows LPS to send an online survey to people, after their questions are answered, and 90 percent of those who filled out a survey gave their experience a score of 7-10.
  • ConnectNow creates a wisdom warehouse with a collection of past questions, answers and customer conversations.
  • The frequency of contact of individuals: 86 percent of those who use ConnectNow only use it once.

Policy change proposals

Revisions were proposed for the following LPS policies and will be up for a final vote on Nov. 13:

  • Performance appraisal of superintendent: Proposed revision would remove some language about superintendent appraisals that is repetitive in LPS policies.
  • Line of responsibilityProposed revisions provide a second option for the superintendent to consider when appointing staff to run the district in his/her absence – using some discretion rather than just relying on rank order among associate superintendents to serve in the role. 

  • Administration:  Proposed revisions would correct a grammatical error. 

Student Celebration:

Lights On Afterschool is celebrated each October across the nation, dedicated to ensuring that all children have access to quality, affordable afterschool programs.   The October Student Celebration featured a group of stakeholders from our LPS Community Learning Centers, speaking about the importance of quality afterschool programs and their involvement in the local CLC Lights On Afterschool event (set for 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25, at the Belmont Recreation Center).

Speakers were:

  • Nola Derby-Bennett, director of LPS Community Learning Centers.
  • Keziah McIntosh, fifth grade, Campbell Elementary School
  • Carley Parrott, sixth grade, Goodrich Middle School
  • Abe Tsheila, former CLC student, now works for Boys and Girls Club
  • Tami Lewis-Ahrendt, leader for the Calvert Parent and Community Cafe

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


Published: October 23, 2018, Updated: October 23, 2018