Highlights of the December 9 Lincoln Board of Education regular meeting

December 9, 2025

The Lincoln Board of Education held its regular meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 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

Board and superintendent annual goals and priorities update: Academic measures

LPS Associate Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Sarah Salem provided an update on the Board and superintendent annual goal and priority surrounding academic measures. 

“We will see a lot of data presented before us tonight. Every chart, every piece of data is a student. There is a teacher behind them, there is a story behind each piece of data,” said Salem.

Salem provided a brief overview of the Accountability for a Quality Education System Today and Tomorrow (AQuESTT) information. She also reviewed district and school use of data including Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) and MAP Growth. 

Included in the report was the persistence of college freshmen who graduated from LPS. The national average of college students returning to their second year of college - or persistence rate - is 77%. For the last five years, LPS graduates who return for their second year of college continues to be over the national average with the Class of 2022 at 90%.

LPS continues to offer choice for high school students, including options in Focus Programs. There are over 700 students in LPS Focus Programs this year, with an additional 750 students taking courses at The Career Academy. This is the first year for a unified application for the Focus Programs with the priority deadline of January 5. So far, 844 students have applied for a Focus Program. 

You can watch a highlight of the presentation about Academic Measures here. More information about Nebraska Department of Education and Lincoln Public Schools academic accountability data can be found on the LPS website.

First reading

Board policy updates: 4650 - travel reimbursement

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 revision adds required federal language in reimbursement for federally funded travel. The update matches current practice at LPS.

The Board will hold a second reading and vote on the updates at the next meeting.  

Evaluation of the superintendent

Nebraska Law requires that new superintendents be evaluated twice in their first year.  As such, a mid-year evaluation of LPS Superintendent  John Skretta has been completed and will be recommended for approval at the next meeting to be placed in his personnel file.

CLASS annual Chromebook purchase 

The CLASS technology plan provides budget resources in the 2025-2026 fiscal year to continue the practice of assigning a Chromebook to approximately 3,150 sixth-grade students and approximately 3,300 ninth-grade students for the 2026-2027 school year. Making a purchase at this time is necessary to ensure delivery with enough time to prepare the Chromebooks prior to the start of the 2026-27 school year.

Due to purchasing timelines, the Board waived second reading and voted to approve the lowest bid for $2,077,536 from GovConnection, Inc. to purchase 3,150 Acer model C725 standard Chromebooks and 3,300 Acer model R725T touch Chromebooks.

Wheelchair school buses

Staff recommended the purchase of five wheelchair school buses with three-point safety belts to replace current buses.
Due to purchasing timelines, the Board waived second reading and voted to approve the lowest bid by Truck Center Companies in Lincoln for $785,250.

Second 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 voted to approve the updates.

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 voted to approve the grant application.

Informational items and reports

Financial Committee

The Finance Committee report included the results of the LPS and ESU 18 audit for the 2024-2025 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.

You can watch a highlight of the presentation here.

The Career Academy

Board member Annie Mumgaard gave an update from the joint Board meeting. She reported that Spring enrollment is at 672 which is the highest since Spring 2021. There was also a presentation at the meeting of a new Early Childhood pathway that prepares students for employment with an adjusted curriculum through competency-based skills training.

Superintendent update

Superintendent John Skretta kicked off his remarks by reaffirming what Mumgaard and Salem presented earlier in regards to TCA and Focus Programs. He encouraged everyone to check out the information nights and focus program events to learn more about the student opportunities in high school. More information can be found on the LPS website. 

Skretta also spoke about the partnership with Junior Achievement in assisting LPS in preparing students for careers and civic engagement. 

Public comment

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

Glimpses of LPS

We open every Board meeting with a video that highlights LPS. Tuesday’s Glimpses featured Unified Theater performance at North Star High School. 

---