Highlights of the November 26, 2024 Lincoln Board of Education regular meeting

November 26, 2024

The Lincoln Board of Education met for its regular meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 26, at 6:00 p.m. at the Lincoln Public Schools Steve Joel District Leadership Center, 5905 O Street. 

Special reports, presentations and celebrations of success

Mindy Burbach - 2025 Nebraska School Communicator of the Year

The Nebraska School Public Relations Association named Mindy Burbach the 2025 Nebraska School Communicator of the Year at their annual conference. The recognition showcases the leadership and contributions of active, front-line communicators working full-time in school districts and education services agencies. 

Burbach has worked at LPS in the communications department since 2015. She started as a communications specialist, worked her way to communications coordinator in 2017, and was promoted to communications director right before the global pandemic in 2020.

Annual SRO program report

Associate Superintendent of Civic Engagement John Skretta provided a highlight of the full annual SRO presentation given to the Safe and Successful Kids (SSK) Interlocal Board on Nov. 7. 

LPS and the City of Lincoln share the goal of promoting school safety which is an essential element of a positive and safe school climate. Building that environment includes building positive relationships with students and families, providing proactive instruction for positive behaviors, offering a wide-range of student supports, focusing on de-escalating conflicts and negative behaviors, engaging and assigning developmentally appropriate and fair processes and consequences and utilizing those consequences and supports to address the root causes of misbehavior.

Key takeaways from the report include:

• In 2023-2024, SROs received on average approximately 52 hours of training that included a variety of topics related to mental health, ethics, diversity and crisis intervention, among others.
• In 2023-2024, 185 juvenile referrals were issued during calls for service at LPS secondary schools, down 54 percent compared to the four-year average of 402. A juvenile referral is when there is probable cause that a juvenile is responsible for a criminal act and they are referred to the county attorney. Only one student was lodged at the Youth Services Center in 2023-2024 after a call for service.
• Historically teachers and staff initiated the highest percentage of calls, but that changed in 2023-2024 as administrators initiated the highest percentage of calls with 30 percent. This is the intended outcome as school administrators serve as the most skilled individuals to determine which issues should be referred to law enforcement. 
• In 2023-2024, administrators were notified during 85 percent of all calls for service resulting in a referral. There were 28 calls for service resulting in a referral where it is unknown if an administrator was notified. Because of the ongoing collaboration between administrators and SROs, we want to ensure that administrators are aware of all calls for service resulting in a referral.
• In the annual perception survey, students who indicated that they were aware of their SRO reported that they feel safer with the SRO on campus. Overall, 87% of students reported feeling at least somewhat safer with an SRO on campus. This response ranged from 79-90% across demographic groups.
• Overall, out-of-school suspension statistics in 2023-2024 were similar to previous years. The data continues to show evidence of disproportionality for students who identify as male, Black, Hispanic or two or more races, and those participating in Special Education services and the free/reduced lunch program. 

Staff made the following recommendations supported by feedback from stakeholders, the data collected and best practices:

• LPS and LPD should continue professional development to reinforce the separation of law enforcement and student discipline. 
• LPD should also continue seeking to accurately record when administrators are involved in the referral to law enforcement. Both LPS and LPD will analyze those situations where an administrator is not notified to better understand why it did not occur. 
• Both LPS and LPD will continue with implementation of restorative justice programs with LPS continuing with the implementation of the Prevention Accountability and Restorative (PAR) Behavior Framework.
• LPS will continue to work for higher response rates year over year on the perception survey to ensure that data accrued is authentically reflective of the diversity of students, families and staff. 
• LPS and LPD will continue to review the calls for service, referrals and school discipline data in an effort to provide professional development opportunities that may decrease disparities.
• LPS and LPD will continue to build, deploy and enhance the capacity and expertise of the Threat Assessment Team.

The full SSK SRO presentation and report can be found here.

Second reading

Newly annexed property - school attendance areas

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 proposal assigns the newly annexed area of South 56th Street and Cavvy Road to Humann Elementary School, Moore Middle School, and Standing Bear High School.

The Board voted to approve the assignments.

Evaluation of the superintendent of schools

The Board of Education evaluates the superintendent of schools regularly. A mid-year updated evaluation of LPS Superintendent Paul Gausman has been completed and will be placed in his personnel file after approval.

The Board voted to approve the superintendent’s updated evaluation.

Fruits, vegetables, potatoes

Bids were requested from interested vendors to provide frozen and canned fruit, vegetable and potato products for use by LPS Nutrition Services for all locations. The contract prices are for the period of Dec. 1, 2024, through Nov. 30, 2025. 

It was recommended the award be made to the vendors who meet the specification for an estimated annual expenditure of $1,274,490.

The Board voted to approve the bids.

Lincoln Southwest, Lincoln High, Lincoln Northwest choice filing deadline January 31, 2025

Each year staff monitors enrollment trends and available capacity in schools to determine the impact on educational programs and the availability for students to transfer to a school outside their assignment area.

LPS continues to allow incoming ninth grade students to choose what high school they would like to enroll in, and must turn in their High School Choice Form by January 31, 2025. 

Enrollments at Lincoln High, Southwest and Northwest continue to exceed building capacity. The 2024-2025 enrollment numbers at Lincoln Southwest and Lincoln High currently exceed 2,000. The enrollment numbers at Lincoln Northwest currently exceed 1,000. Because of this, staff have determined and recommended that any additional transfer requests made after the Jan. 31, 2025 deadline not be accepted. This continues to follow current high school enrollment procedures, and confirms past years’ practice.

The Board voted to uphold the policy.

Informational items and reports

Finance committee - annual financial audit

The Finance Committee report included the results of the LPS and ESU 18 audit for the 2023-2024 school year. Board policy, state and federal laws and regulations require an annual financial audit of both LPS and ESU 18 by an outside independent Certified Public Accounting firm. This year’s independent audit was conducted by BerganKDV.

Highlights of the report for both LPS and ESU 18 include:

• Similar to past years, both organizations received an unmodified opinion, meaning the reports comply with the accounting standards.
• On financial compliance reporting, there were no significant deficiencies, material weaknesses over internal controls, and no non-compliance to report. The district was in compliance with the budget that was approved.

Superintendent update

LPS Superintendent Paul Gausman gave an update to the Board on the recent examples of exemplary community partnerships aimed at preparing students to be career ready.

The first was of Schoo Middle School students traveling to Black Hills Energy to learn about different career paths and opportunities. Gausman also highlighted culinary students from Northwest and Southwest high schools and their experience on the University of Nebraska - Lincoln’s Innovation Campus learning about the hospitality, restaurant and tourism management industries. Finally, he spoke of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Career Fair where 200 students from all eight high schools learned about career opportunities.

Gausman concluded his report by thanking administrators and staff for their work.

“This time of year always allows us an opportunity to reflect on the blessings we have,” added Gausman.“I am impressed by the work being done by this school district, our staff, and the continued collaboration and partnership with our families and the community to support our students.”

Public comment

There were no individuals that addressed the Board during public comment.

Glimpses of LPS

We open every Board meeting with a video that highlights LPS. Tuesday’s Glimpses featured students at Clinton Elementary participating in their own Greek-age Olympics. 

---