Highlights of the Feb. 25 Lincoln Board of Education and ESU 18 regular meetings
February 25, 2025
The Lincoln Board of Education and Educational Service Unit (ESU) 18 met for regular meetings on Tuesday, Feb. 25, at the Lincoln Public Schools Steve Joel District Leadership Center, 5905 O Street. You can watch the full video of both meetings here.
Lincoln Board of Education Regular Meeting
Special reports, presentations and celebrations of success
Mattie Trejo-Amen - Humann Elementary School Counselor
The Nebraska School Counselor Association recently named Humann Elementary School counselor Mattie Trejo-Amen the 2025 Nebraska Elementary School Counselor of the Year. The award recognizes school counselors who demonstrate excellence in their profession.
In Trejo-Amen’s role, she teaches citizenship and prosocial lessons in every classroom at Humann, grades kindergarten through fifth grade. These activities and lessons focus on being safe, respectful, and kind. Trejo-Amen also supports all students in helping them develop social-emotional skills like how to build relationships and problem-solving.
Prior to becoming a school counselor, Trejo-Amen was an elementary school teacher.
You can watch a highlight of the presentation here.
Nicki Hanseling - Mickle Middle School Counselor
The Nebraska School Counselor Association recently named Mickle Middle School counselor Nicki Hanseling the 2025 Nebraska School Counselor of the Year. The award recognizes school counselors who demonstrate excellence in their profession.
Nicki begins each morning at Mickle with supervisory duties overseeing students in the hallways, and she speaks with teachers and administrators in team meetings throughout the day. She also visits with students in her office about a range of issues such as academic requirements, safety concerns, and social-emotional issues. Nicki’s primary mission is to help students achieve success throughout their time at Lincoln Public Schools.
You can watch a highlight of the presentation here.
Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools update
The executive board for the Foundation for LPS recently named Natalia Wiita as the President. Wiita is a seasoned executive and dedicated community advocate with 25 years of experience in Lincoln. Foundation Board Chair James Walbridge introduced Wiita during the Foundation update.
Witta spoke about her connection to Lincoln Public Schools, and provided an update on recent Foundation activities. So far, they have fulfilled 1,300 fund requests to include paying negative meal balances, providing funding for competitions and providing recognitions.
You can watch a highlight of the presentation here.
First reading
Policy update - Policy 3510 and 3520
Periodically, new circumstances require the school district to make a number of updates to align existing policy. The Board Finance Committee recommended changes to Board policy 3510 and 3520 to align with Nebraska Public Funds Deposit Security Act and other laws.
All LPS deposits are required to be secured. The proposed change in policies will make it the responsibility of the district’s depository institutions to furnish securities and collateralization of such deposits and investments only with obligations or instruments as provided.
The policy revisions have been reviewed by the district’s bond attorney, general legal counsel and financial advisor. Due to timelines, the Board waived second reading and voted to approve the policy changes.
East High School pool unit replacement project
LPS Operations is working to replace the systems at each high school’s pool. Staff recommended the lowest bid from BIC Constructions LLC to replace East High School’s system for $1,559,000.
Due to timelines and only one meeting in March, the Board waived second reading and voted to approve the bid.
Purchasing USDA commodity mozzarella cheese
Bids were requested from interested vendors to process and deliver diverted USDA foods mozzarella cheese for use by LPS Nutrition Services for all school locations. The contract prices are for the period of July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026, with two optional one-year renewal periods.
Staff recommend the lowest annual bid of $627,602 for approximately 75,000 pounds of mozzarella cheese from Nardone Brothers Baking Company, LLC.
The Board will hold a second reading and vote on the bid at the next meeting.
Nebraska Department of Education Revision Action grant proposal
The Nebraska Department of Education created the reVISION Action grant in 2020 to improve, modernize and expand Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs - aligning them with Nebraska’s economic priorities and workforce demands. The competitive grant program provides Perkins funds for eligible secondary and postsecondary recipients to help implement the reVISION action steps developed and identified throughout local and regional CTE assessments.
The Career Academy would like to apply for the $100,000 competitive grant to purchase one Anatomage Table to use in the Health Sciences pathway. An Anatomage Table offers life-size digital representation of the human body, allowing the visualization, manipulation and virtual dissection of complex anatomical structures, using detailed three-dimensional models. A similar device was purchased for the Bryan College of Health Sciences (BCHS) Focus Program at Northwest High School.
Because of the deadlines of the grant application, the Board waived second reading and voted to approve the grant application.
Second reading
Revised student calendar for 2025-2026 school year
Each year a joint LPS and Lincoln Education Association committee composed of a Board member, parents, teachers and administrators recommends a student calendar to the Board for consideration. The Board adopted calendar variables to guide the Calendar Committee’s work in meeting the goal of creating a school calendar that demonstrates the district’s commitment to learning.
Occasionally, new information is presented that requires a previously adopted calendar to be adjusted. When this happens, district staff recommend changes that align with the board-adopted calendar variables and comply with the negotiated agreement.
A recommendation to change the start of school for 2025-2026 school year came from the calendar committee after gathering feedback from various staff members. The proposed alteration shifts the calendar to include students’ first day of school being Tuesday, Aug. 12. To make up the day, Friday, Oct. 10, will become a student school day (shortening the quarter break by one day).
In addition to the date change, the elementary school first day schedule will mirror middle and high school schedules. Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025 will be the first day of school for students in kindergarten, sixth and ninth grades. All other students will start on Wednesday, Aug. 13, joining students in kindergarten, sixth and ninth grades.
The Board voted to approve the 2025-2026 student calendar revision. The student calendar has been updated on the LPS website and can be found here.
Proposed student calendar for 2026-2027 school year
The Board also reviewed the recommendation from the Calendar Committee for the student calendar for the 2026-2027 school year. The committee began work on this calendar in October 2024.
- Important dates on the 2026-2027 school year calendar include:
- First day of school on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026
- End of quarter break for students to be Oct. 15-19, 2026
- Semester break for students to be Dec. 23, 2026 - Jan. 4, 2027
- Third quarter break on March 8-12, 2027
- Last day of school for students on May 20, 2027
The Board voted to approve the 2026-2027 student calendar revision. The student calendar has been updated on the LPS website and can be found here.
Policy update - 4880
Periodically, new circumstances or changes in legislation or regulation from the state or federal government require the school district to make a number of updates to align existing policy. All proposed changes have been recommended and reviewed by legal counsel.
Policy 4880 has been updated to provide greater specificity and clarification regarding the District’s anti-harassment and anti-retaliation policies. This change is necessary to ensure Policy 4880 aligns with the law by including anti-retaliation language.
You can review the changes here. The Board held a second reading and voted to approve the revisions.
Negotiated agreement with the Lincoln Education Association
The Lincoln Education Association (LEA) and LPS have reached a tentative contract agreement for the 2025-26 school year.
The agreement represents an intentional combination of the valuable contributions our teachers make for Lincoln Public Schools and revitalizing district practices to support student learning along with teacher retention and recruitment.
Approved by a vote of LEA members on Jan. 31, the tentative agreement provides a total compensation package increase of 3.80 percent for the 2025-26 school year, with the base salary increasing from $48,556 to $49,556. In addition, the 5.49 percent increase in health insurance costs from the provider will be split between the school district covering 80 percent and educators 20 percent of the out of pocket increase. This is only the second increase in out of pocket costs for employees in the past 17 years.
Other proposed contract changes for educators includes:
- Rewarding those with at least 22 years of service with two additional days of annual leave, and the ability to sell back annual leave hours over 1,000 accrued.
- Replacing the $1,500 advance for new hires to a 13-month pay plan so first-year LPS educators can get their first paycheck in August instead of September.
- Forming a joint committee to study the feasibility of an elementary optional period for supervision duties.
Board President Bob Rauner abstained from voting because of a concern there may be a conflict of interest. The Board voted six members for, one member abstaining to approve the negotiated agreement.
Informational items and reports
Wellness, Multicultural and American Civics Committee
Board Committee Chair Annie Mumgaard provided an update from the committee that met before the Board meeting. Tonight, the committee discussed social studies and civic curriculum. Mumgaard also shared that high schools will be conducting voter registration drives this spring for those seniors who are eligible to register to vote.
Board President update
Rauner provided information gathered from various recent association meetings and conferences surrounding Board work.
One highlight from these meetings was conversation about public comment and communication between constituents and Board members.
Superintendent Update
Interim Superintendent John Skretta gave an update to the Board. Skretta had the opportunity to join Chief Executive Officer DeMoine Adams with the Nebraska TeamMates Mentoring Program on 93.7 FM The Ticket to talk about the importance of mentors.
Skretta has also visited several schools seeing teaching and learning occurring in classrooms every day.
Today, Skretta attended the Cause Collective meeting - a community organization that works with non-profit organizations and connects community supports to LPS students and families.
Public comment
There were four individuals that addressed the Board during the two public comment periods. You can watch the public comment as part of the full meeting video here.
Glimpses of LPS
We open every Board meeting with a video that highlights LPS. Tuesday’s Glimpses featured Interim Superintendent John Skretta as he worked with Mickle Middle School students on a solar car ahead of the annual LPS Science and Engineering Fair. You can watch the Glimpses here.
ESU 18 Regular Meeting
The board of ESU 18 held its regular meeting immediately following the Lincoln Board of Education meeting. You can view both meetings here.
First reading
Policy update - Policy 3510 and 3520
Periodically, new circumstances require the ESU to make a number of updates to align existing policy. Recommended changes to Board policy 3510 and 3520 align with Nebraska Public Funds Deposit Security Act and other laws.
All deposits are required to be secured. The proposed change in policies will make it the responsibility of the ESU’s depository institutions to furnish securities and collateralization of such deposits and investments only with obligations or instruments as provided.
The policy revisions have been reviewed by the district’s bond attorney, general legal counsel and financial advisor. Due to timelines, the Board waived second reading and voted to approve the policy changes.
Policy update - Policy 3610, 3615, 8410, 8420
Periodically, new circumstances require the ESU to make a number of updates to align existing policy to address recent changes in legislation or federal law. All proposed changes have been recommended and reviewed by legal.
Minor edits were made to corresponding LPS Board of Education Policies to address state legislation or federal law. Edits are recommended to corresponding ESU policies to align with LPS Board of Education policies.
The Board waived second reading and voted to approve the changes.
Published: February 25, 2025, Updated: February 25, 2025
