The East Butler Public School Board met in regular session on Wednesday, January 10, 2024.

January 10, 2024 Agenda

Every January the school board elects officers, selects bank depositories, newspaper of record, time and place for the regular meeting, and selects committee assignments. During election years, newly elected board members take the oath of office and are officially sworn in as members of the East Butler Public School Board of Education.

2024 Board Officers

President - Megan Kozisek

Vice - President - Kim TePoel

Secretary - Sarah Strizek

Tyler Fortik, of CTF Service, was available at the school board meeting to provide the school board with a comprehensive review of the school districts fleet of vehicles. Currently the school owns a fleet of:

11 School Buses (6 route buses) (4 Spare buses) (1 bus, ready to sell)

4 Special Education Vehicles (Used for transporting SPED students)

2 Maintenance/Custodial/Kitchen (Used to transport food to Dwight & maintenance and custodial needs)

2 White Activity Vans

2 Black SUV Activity Vehicles

2 Car/Cross Over (Used between the Brainard & Dwight buildings)

Superintendent Eldridge provided the board with a summer projects update. Projects that are moving forward for this summer are: 5th & 6th-grade classroom - Brainard renovation, MPR Floor Refinishing, and Brainard Roof Replacement (1935 Addition). A majority of these are part of the district's five-year facility plan. You can reference that plan in the link below:

East Butler Facility Plan

Superintendent Eldridge, shared with the board two proposals for the purchase of a new school bus. This bus would be purchased to replace bus 2014 A, which has currently experienced many mechanical issues. The board has discussed at length the options presented over the past several school board meetings.

The school board moved to approve the purchase of a new gasoline powered bus for a total cost of $116,805.00

MOTION PASSED: 5-0

The East Butler School District will undertake a summer renovation project in the Brainard building. This project will be similar to the classroom project for the 4th grade room in Brainard.

Room #103 (5th Grade Room)

• Ceiling Tile/Grid -$5,290.00
• Carpet - $4,215.00
• Cabinets - $25,750.00
• Electrical - $4,327.83

Total Room - $39,582.83

Room #104 (6th Grade Room)

• Ceiling Tile/Grid - $5,360.00
• Carpet - $4,577.00
• Cabinets - $26,975.00
• Electrical - $4,327.83

Total - $41,239.83

Total Both Rooms - $80,822.66

MOTION PASSED: 5-0

The school board discussed the current certificate of deposit (CD) that is at the Bank of Prague. The current amount of this CD is $413,000. It was discussed whether the school district should reinvest it into another CD at Bank of Prague or invest it into a CD at Bank of the Valley. The interest rates that were considered were the following:

Bank of Prague - 5.25%

Bank of the Valley - 5.65%

The school board moved to invest the CD at the higher interest rate at Bank of the Valley

MOTION PASSED: 3-2

Annually the East Butler Public School Board enters into negotiations with the East Butler Education Association (Teacher's Union). Negotiations must begin and be completed by February 8th. Both the school board and the teacher's have select committees that work throughout this time period.

The school board moved to accept the following items in the negotiations, thus completing the negotiations process for the 2024-2025 school year.

Base pay:

• current is $39,011; 2024-2025 base pay will be $39,701 (increase of $690).
• Adjust Skills Sponsor from splitting 2 positions sharing 4% to 2 positions each at 4%.
• Adding to the extra-duty pay schedule a JH Assistant coach. Adding a specific line for this.
• JH Assistant Coach
• Years 1-3 (4.0%)
• Years 4-6 (4.5%)
• Years 7-9 (5.0%)
• Years 10+ (6.0%)
• 3 Personal Days and 10 sick days with the ability to carry over 10 sick days per year and be paid $100 dollars for one unused personal day.
• After 5 years of service, an additional personal day will be given for a total of 4, and after 10 years another additional personal day will be given for a total of 5 personal days. (with a cap of 5 total)
• Unused portion of sick days shall accumulate from year to year up to 45 days with no carry over of unused personal days.

MOTION PASSED: 5-0

EAST BUTLER PUBLIC SCHOOLS BOARD OF EDUCATION

to host Community Engagement Meetings

The East Butler Public Schools Board of Education has scheduled three community meetings for January 31st, 2024, February 5th, 2024, and February 21, 2024. The public session will take place at the following locations:

• January 31, 2024 - Brainard School - 7:00 PM

• February 5, 2024 - Prague Parish Hall - 7:00 PM

• February 21, 2024 - Dwight Elementary School - 7:00 PM

This community discussion is part of a larger Strategic Planning process and will give the Board of Education and district administration the opportunity to listen to community stakeholders. The results will help formulate a vision of the future and identify goals and strategies necessary to move the district forward to meet the challenges of the 21st century. We will be discussing the strengths, accomplishments, and challenges of our school district, the vision, and expectations for our schools and the goals and objectives necessary to design our future by discussing the following questions:

• Identify the challenges that currently impact or may impact the district and community in the future.

• What more can the district do to attract students/families to the area to grow enrollment?

• Identify what you believe are the most important areas the district might focus on to improve and expand learning facilities and grounds. (Functionality of learning space, safety and security, Building access and parking, capacity to support student enrollment, building maintenance, extracurricular facilities and grounds, Other)

• If you could implement one change to benefit student success what would it be?

• How can the Board/District improve communication to inform patrons of the district's needs and priorities?

Specific community members have been invited by the district for two reasons: to ensure that a broad cross-section of interests, backgrounds and perspectives are included and to ensure that board members are able to hear from all participants in a purposeful and efficient manner. We are inviting staff members, parents, students, community leaders and other interested members of the public to work together with us – so that we may effectively plan for the future of our district and students. Any patron wishing to attend the session to be considered part of the process is encouraged to do so. Representatives of the Nebraska Association of School Boards will facilitate the community engagement process.