Highlights of the November 25 Lincoln Board of Education regular meeting

November 25, 2025

The Lincoln Board of Education held its regular meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 25, at 6:00 p.m. at the Lincoln Public Schools Steve Joel District Leadership Center, 5905 O Street. You can watch the full video of the regular meeting here.

Special reports, presentations and celebrations of success

Chris Turley - Lincoln High School

The National Council for Geographic Education honored Lincoln High School social studies teacher Chris Turley with the K-12 Distinguished Teaching Award. Turley joined Lincoln High School’s social studies department in 2014 and currently teaches Advanced Placement Human Geography and Government and Politics courses.  

He collaborated with other teachers on several leadership teams to revise and update the school district’s geography curriculum and create new curriculum materials such as inquiry lessons, stimulus-based multiple-choice questions, and free-response questions.  

Turley has also served as a mentor teacher for many incoming LPS geography educators. 

LPS K-12 Social Studies Curriculum Specialist Jaci Kellison states:

"Chris is an exceptional social studies teacher because he has an incredible work ethic, is thoughtful, and contributes positively to a team. He also cares deeply about his students, which is evident the minute you step into his classroom. He holds students to high expectations and provides them with the support they need to be successful. Chris truly believes that every student is capable of performing at a high level, and students feel that belief he has in them.” 

You can watch a highlight of the presentation for Turley here. 

Brenna Hansen - Lincoln High School

Lincoln High School social studies teacher Brenna Hansen began teaching at Schoo Middle School in 2020. In 2021, she joined the Lincoln High School social studies department.

Hansen was recently given the Bertolas, Gildersleeve, Stoddard and Stone Award by the Geographic Educators of Nebraska. The award established to honor the founding members of GEON recognizes those individuals who continue to advance the growth of geography in the state.

LPS K-12 Social Studies Curriculum Specialist Jaci Kellison states:

"Brenna is part of a graduate program at Wesleyan that focuses on increasing rigor and opportunities for students in all social studies courses. In addition, she is a leader in writing Geography inquiry lessons and district common assessments. Brenna mentors new teachers, leads professional learning, and creates highly sought-after Geography materials." 

You can watch a highlight of the presentation for Hansen here. 

Annual SRO Program report

LPS Associate Superintendent for Civic Engagement Brad Jacobsen presented a highlight of the SRO report that was shared earlier in November with the Safe and Successful Kids Interlocal (SSKI) Board. 

The SSKI Board includes members from both the Lincoln Board of Education and the City of Lincoln and share the goal of promoting school safety.

This is the sixth year of gathering data based on the goals and expectations established by the 2018 Memorandum of Understanding, and has six goals:

  • Create a common understanding that school administrators and teachers are ultimately responsible for school discipline and culture, and SROs should not be involved in the enforcement of school rules.
  • Minimize student discipline issues so they do not become school-based referrals to the juvenile justice system.
  • Promote effectiveness and accountability.
  • Provide training as available to SROs and appropriate LPS staff on effective strategies to work with students that align with program goals.
  • Employ best practices so that all students are treated impartially and without bias by SROs and LPS staff in alignment with applicable City and LPS equity policies.
  • Utilize best practices for training and oversight with the goal of reducing disproportionality.

The Full SRO Program Report includes nearly 124 pages of data, analysis and recommendations. Key takeaways from the report include:

  • The 15 SROs received a total of 803 training hours in 2024-2025 and included topics such as youth mental health, unbiased policing, response to active shooter, de-escalation, emergency protective custody, behavioral health threat assessment, legal updates and first aid and tactical medical intervention.
  • In 2024-2025, SROs received twelve commendations for a variety of events.
  • There were four complaints against SROs in 2024-2025. Three were exonerated and one resulted in a warning.
  • Calls for service occur when an individual believes that a crime has been committed and contacts police through any of the communication channels. Historically, teachers and/or staff initiated the highest percentage of calls. As part of training, the trend changed in 2023-2024 when administrators initiated the highest percentage, and that trend continued in 2024-2025. This is the desired outcome.
  • Calls for service at all LPS schools decreased 19% from the four-year average and 17% from 2023-2024.
  • Calls for service have decreased in middle and high schools for three consecutive years.
  • A juvenile referral is when there is probable cause that a juvenile is responsible for a criminal act. In 2024-2025, referrals were down 62% from the four-year average.
  • In 2024-2025, three students were lodged at the Youth Services Center as a result of one call for service.
  • As part of the 2024-2025 district perception survey, 10,278 students responded to the question “Overall, my school is safer because the SRO is in our building”, with 94% indicating they agreed or strongly agreed.
  • In-school suspension data in 2024-2025 are similar to rates from the 2023-2024 school year. The data continues to show evidence of disproportionality for students who identify as male, Black, Hispanic, two or more races, and those in the Special Education program, English Language program and Free/Reduced Meal 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.
  • 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.
  • Both LPS and LPD will continue with implementation of restorative justice programs, and LPS will continue utilizing the Prevention Accountability and Restorative (PAR) Behavior Framework, now in its first full year of implementation.
  • LPS and LPD should review the capacity of the Threat Assessment Team within LPS to determine whether or not there are additional needs related to the increase in threat assessment cases being reported.  

You can view the entire SRO presentation to the Safe and Successful Kids Interlocal Board here.

First reading

Policy updates: 8330 and 8420

The Board periodically reviews and revises policies to align with current practices or meet requirements set forth by local, state or federal laws and regulations.

The revisions proposed for 8330 will match current practice with regards to Board membership.

Updates to Policy 8420 align the policy with state statute.

The Board will vote on the proposed updates at the next meeting.

USDA Urban and Community Forestry Program Grant

The Nebraska Statewide Arboretum is seeking grant applications to improve Nebraska’s community forestry infrastructure through tree care, removal, planting and forestry workforce development.

LPS staff would like to apply for the grant in the amount of $284,250. If awarded, the grant would allow LPS to remove approximately 75 ash trees and other at-risk trees, followed by planting 125 trees throughout the district at approximately 37 eligible school campuses.

The Board will consider the application and vote at the next meeting.

Second reading

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 Highland View to Kooser Elementary School, Schoo Middle School and North Star High School.

The Board voted to approve the assignments.

Informational items and reports

Government Relations and Community Engagement Committee

Committee Chair Piyush Srivastav provided an update from the committee meeting last Friday.  During the meeting there was an update from Associate Superintendent for Business Affairs Liz Standish about her work on the Governor’s school finance committee as they review state funding for schools. A report from the committee will be shared on December 1. 

Community Learning Centers Directory Nola Derby-Bennett also presented highlights to the committee about programing. LPS CLC programs currently support 13,000 students across 31 sites. 

Superintendent update

Superintendent John Skretta kicked off his remarks by congratulating the LPS counselors who were nominated or honored with awards at the School Counseling Academy last week. LPS had six of the 12 finalists, with Ann Soptanski from Clinton winning the elementary honor, Kate Pittack from Scott winning the middle school honor, and LPS School Counseling Supervisor Lori Hemmett being named Administrator of the Year.  

Skretta also highlighted the statewide leadership and presence by LPS staff and Board at the state education conference. Presentation topics by the LPS team included The Career Academy, breaking down barriers to honors courses and our grow your own partnerships. We also had two of our scholars serve on the student voices panel.

Skretta wrapped his report by mentioning the release of Accountability for a Quality Education System Today and Tomorrow (AQuESTT) data tomorrow.

Public comment

There was one individual that addressed the Board during the public comment period. You can watch public comment as part of the full meeting video.

Glimpses of LPS

We open every Board meeting with a video that highlights LPS. Tuesday’s Glimpses featured a Math Escape Room lesson at Irving Middle School. You can watch Glimpses on YouTube.

Published: November 25, 2025, Updated: November 25, 2025